The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE SA) is an operating unit within
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
that develops global
standards in a broad range of industries, including:
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
and
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...
,
artificial intelligence systems,
internet of things,
consumer technology and
consumer electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...
,
biomedical and
health care,
learning technology,
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
and
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...
,
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
,
automotive,
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
,
home automation,
nanotechnology,
information assurance Information assurance (IA) is the practice of assuring information and managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information. Information assurance includes protection of the integrity, availability, authenticity, ...
,
emerging technologies, and many more.
IEEE SA has developed standards for over a century, through a program that offers balance, openness,
fair procedure
Fair procedure is a common law doctrine that arises from a line of groundbreaking decisions of the Supreme Court of California dating back to the 1880s. Certain types of private actors (especially professional associations, unions, hospitals, and ...
s, and
consensus. Technical experts from all over the world participate in the development of
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
standards.
IEEE SA provides a neutral platform that unites communities for standards development and technological innovation and is independent of any government oversight. IEEE SA develops standards that are consensus-based and has two types of standards development participation models. These are individual and entity.
IEEE SA is not a body formally authorized by any government, but rather a community.
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
,
IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
and
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
are recognized international standards organizations. ISO members are national standards bodies such as American
ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
, German
DIN or Japanese
JISC
Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector.
History
T ...
. IEC members are so called National Committees, some of which are hosted by national standards bodies. These are not identical to ISO members. Both IEC and ISO develop International Standards that are consensus-based and follow the "one country one vote principle", representing broad industry needs. Their standards cannot be sponsored by individual companies or organizations.
The 2021-2022 IEEE SA President is Jim Matthews. Jim has been active in IEEE for over 28 years. He belongs to the IEEE SA,
IEEE Communications Society
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
,
IEEE Photonics Society
The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum ele ...
,
IEEE Power & Energy Society
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...
, and the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society. Jim has also been a member of the ANSI Board since 2001, IEC Vice-President and SMB Chair, and was an ITU-T Rapporteur for over 10 years. Previous Presidents of the IEEE SA include Robert S. Fish (2019-2020), F. Don Wright (2017-2018), Bruce Kraemer (2015-2016, and Karen Bartleson (2013-2014).
The 2021 Chair of IEEE SA Standards Board (SASB) is Gary Hoffman. Previous SASB chairs include J.P Faure and John Kulick.
In March 2020, IEEE Standards Association Open - SA Open, (for open source software) announced Silone Bonewald as its new Executive Director.
Membership
IEEE SA has two membership options that enable enhanced participation in IEEE SA activities, standards development, and governance. These are:
# Corporate Membership accommodates the needs of organizations of any size, enabling multi-stakeholder participation on corporate or “entity” standards development projects.
# Individual Membership is designed for independent professionals and others interested in participation in individual standards development projects.
At IEEE SA, participation is open to everyone. However, IEEE SA Individual or Corporate Members benefit from enhanced participation privileges.
IEEE SA Members enjoy added benefits, including but not limited to the ability to hold working group positions, vote on standards, assume leadership positions in standards working groups and activities, and participate in elections for IEEE SA governing bodies.
The IEEE has various related programs in addition to standards development, including Industry Connections, Registries, Conformity Assessment, Alliance Management Services, and IEEE SA Open (for open source).
Standards
The standardization process
Each year, the IEEE SA conducts over 200 standards ballots, a process by which proposed standards are voted upon for technical reliability and soundness. In 2020, IEEE had over 1,200 active standards, with over 650 standards under development.
One of the more notable are the
IEEE 802
IEEE 802 is a family of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards for local area networks (LAN), personal area network (PAN), and metropolitan area networks (MAN). The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee (LMSC) mainta ...
LAN/
MAN
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...
group of standards, with the widely used computer networking standards for both wired (
ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...
, aka IEEE 802.3) and wireless (
IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer commun ...
and
IEEE 802.16) networks,
IEEE 1547
IEEE 1547 (''Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems'') is a standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers meant to provide a set of criteria and requirements for the interconnection of dis ...
Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems, and
ISO/IEEE 11073 Standards for Health Informatics.
The IEEE standards development process can be broken down into six basic steps:
#Initiating the Project: An IEEE SA Standards Board approved standards committee must oversee a standard project. The Standards Committee provides oversight for the standard from inception to completion. The standards committees are supported by the technical societies within IEEE. To gain authorization for the standard a Project Authorization Request (PAR) is submitted to the IEEE SA Standards Board. The New Standards Committee (NesCom) of the IEEE SA Standards Board reviews the PAR and makes a recommendation to the Standards Board about whether to approve the PAR.
#Mobilizing the Working Group: After the PAR is approved, a working group of individuals affected by, or interested in, the standard is organized to develop the standard. IEEE SA rules ensure that all Working Group meetings are open and that anyone has the right to attend and contribute to the meetings.
#Drafting the Standard: The Working Group prepares a draft of the proposed standard. Generally, the draft follows the IEEE Standards Style Manual that sets guidelines for the clauses and format of the standards document.
#Balloting the Standard: Once a draft of the standard is finalized in the Working Group, the draft is submitted for Balloting approval. The IEEE Standards Department sends an invitation-to-ballot to any individual who has expressed an interest in the subject matter of the standard. Anyone who responds positively to the invitation-to-ballot becomes a member of the balloting group, as long as the individual is an IEEE Standards Association member or has paid a balloting fee. The IEEE requires that a proposed draft of the standard receive a response rate of 75% (i.e., at least 75% of potential ballots are returned) and that, of the responding ballots, at least 75% approve the proposed draft of the standard. If the standard is not approved, the process returns to the drafting of the standard step in order to modify the standard document to gain approval of the balloting group.
#Gaining Final Approval: After getting 75% approval, the draft standard, along with the balloting comments, are submitted to the IEEE SA Standards Board Review Committee (RevCom). The RevCom reviews the proposed draft of the standard against the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws and the stipulations set forth in the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual. The RevCom then makes a recommendation about whether to approve the submitted draft of the standard document. Each member of the IEEE SA Standards Board places a final vote on the submitted standard document. It takes a majority vote of the Standards Board to gain final approval of the standard.
#Maintaining the Standard: A standard has a validity period of ten years from the date of IEEE SA Standards Board approval. Amendments that offer minor revisions or extensions to the standard, and corrigenda that makes corrections to the standard can be developed and balloted, but the creation of amendments and corrigenda does not affect the ten-year validity rule. At the end of this period, one of two things has to happen: revision or withdrawal. If no action is taken, the standard will be moved to inactive-reserved status. Sometimes a standard may need a technical or editorial correction to be made. As part of the standards development process, IEEE can accommodate this by issuing a corrigenda or errata Sheet.
IEEE SA supports the development, production, and distribution of standards by:
* Reaching across borders and disciplines to inspire participation in standards development
* Upholding a framework for the development and maintenance of open, market-driven standards that are voluntarily adopted, based on merit
* Igniting collaboration and building consensus by adhering to fair and equitable practices, proven policies and procedures
* Addressing both established and emerging technologies for maximum human and market benefit
* Supporting standards implementation by providing supplemental resources, products, and services that support development teams
* Providing rigorous oversight to ensure that no single party unfairly influences the standards development process
* Encouraging global adoption through the promotion and international distribution of standards and standards-related resources
The patent policy
Because the IEEE's standards often incorporate technologies that are covered by one or more patent claims, the IEEE SA has developed and added to its governing bylaws a patent policy to ensure both that the implementers using the standard-essential patented technology in their standard-compliant products have access to that technology and that the patent holders that voluntarily contribute those technologies to the standard receive adequate compensation for the implementers' use. An important part of the IEEE patent policy is the FRAND commitment, which is a voluntary contractual commitment signifying that a patent holder with patented technology that has been adopted into one of the IEEE's standards will accept as adequate compensation a
fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory royalty for third-party use of that technology. Most standard-setting organizations have developed similar patent policies with similar commitments.
In 2014, the IEEE SA became the center of a large academic debate among economic and legal scholars when it appointed an ad hoc committee to recommend and subsequently draft amendments to the IEEE patent policy, to which the IEEE Board of Governors gave final approval in February 2015 and which went into effect in March 2015. The IEEE said that the reason for the amendments was to increase the clarity of the patent policy and the obligations that the patent policy's FRAND commitment imposes on patent holders seeking to enforce their standard-essential patents. One particularly controversial amendment was a provision that prohibited patent holders from seeking injunctions and exclusion orders (from the ITC) against infringers of standard-essential patents.
The Antitrust Division stated its support for the 2015 patent policy revisions in a business review letter that it issued in January 2015, upon request from the IEEE SA. In the letter, the Antitrust Division said that the provisions would unambiguously produce net benefits for consumers with insignificant anticompetitive implications. At least one commentator has criticized the Antitrust Division's legal and economic analysis put forth in its business review letter of the revisions, claiming that the Antitrust Division exaggerated the patent policy's procompetitive benefits and wrongly dismissed as unlikely some of its potential anticompetitive costs.
The IEEE Get Program
The ''IEEE Get Program'' makes some standards publicly available for download: ''This program grants public access to view and download current individual standards at zero charges.'' On July 11, 2017, the ''IEEE Get Program'' moved to the
IEEE Xplore
IEEE Xplore digital library is a research database for discovery and access to journal articles, conference proceedings, technical standards, and related materials on computer science, electrical engineering and electronics, and allied fields. It ...
digital library website and standards eligible for the program past that date will only be made available there. On September 1, 2017, the original website was decommissioned and remains, without further updates, to redirect visitors.
Boards and committees
A member-elected IEEE SA Board of Governors (BOG) directs the activities of the IEEE SA to establish and maintain policy, provide financial oversight and conduct standards-related activities within IEEE technological fields. It also establishes and oversees boards and committees to carry out the work of the IEEE SA. These boards and committees include:
* The IEEE SA Standards Board, which initiates standards projects and reviews standards in development to ensure consensus, due process, openness, and balance
* The Awards & Recognition Committee, which is responsible for the administration of award programs administered by the IEEE SA
* The Corporate Advisory Group, which serves as an advisory body to IEEE SA Corporate Members and to the IEEE SA BOG to ensure a broad spectrum of industry interests and global perspectives are active
* The Registration Authority Committee, which oversees the activities of the
IEEE Registration Authority
* The Strategic Planning Coordination Committee, which is responsible for defining IEEE SA positioning and the creation, execution and adjustment of the IEEE SA strategic plan
The IEEE SA BOG has eight Strategic Management and Delivery Committees
to address strategic focus areas that are necessary and critical for the IEEE SA to achieve long-term organizational objectives. These are:
* Financial Sustainability: Strives to ensure IEEE SA long-term financial sustainability, financial transparency, and appropriate management of the financial portfolio. It creates tools to aid the business and investment plans for IEEE SA projects.
* Industry Engagement and Sector Strategies: Manages a strategic industry engagement framework that aims to bring companies and industry consortia into the IEEE SA ecosystem.
* Market Incubation and Business Acceleration: Cultivates the growth of a single or of a few strategically important businesses through focused dedication of resources.
* Marketing Strategies, Technology Policy, Government Engagement, and Regional Marketing Campaigns and Activities: Supports IEEE SA business growth via promotion of brand awareness, provision of all aspects of marketing support, and engagement in public policy initiatives that enhance the reputation of the IEEE SA.
* Platform Infrastructure Optimization: Assists in the provision of software infrastructure tools and platforms that enable customers, volunteers, and IEEE staff to effectively and efficiently leverage the IEEE SA ecosystem to achieve their goals.
* Product and Service Innovation: Helps to create, grow, and manage IEEE SA’s product and services portfolio, with an emphasis on products and services that complement IEEE SA’s core consensus businesses.
* Standards and Standards Innovations: Works to ensure that the standardization environment of the IEEE SA continues to meet the needs of its membership and offers a vibrant home for consensus standards development. In addition, this SMDC aids in the development of standardization processes and governance, including enhancing volunteer engagement and education.
* Technical Innovation and Engagement: Supports IEEE SA’s strategic interests through interaction and collaboration with other operational units within IEEE.
6
Notable IEEE Standards committees and formats
Awards
The IEEE SA recognizes outstanding standards development participation through variou
award categories
References
External links
IEEE Standards websiteBeyond Standardsby IEEE SA
Standards Universityby IEEE Standards Education Committee (IEEE-SEC) a joint committee of IEEE SA and IEEE-EAB
{{Authority control
IEEE standards
Standards organizations in the United States
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers