OTT and Standards
British Standards Institution GEL 86/3
In 2005 Richard Ednay,
Technical Director of OTT, was co-opted onto the British Standards
Institution GEL 86/3 subcommittee that deals with Fibre Optic
Systems and Active Devices. Through his work on the standards
related to PMD (Polarisation Mode Dispersion) testing of installed
fibre links he was put forward as the UK’s Principal Expert to
represent the UK on the IEC (International Electrotechnical
Commission) SC86C Working Group 1 on Fibre Optics Communications
Systems and sub-systems.
Richard attended the IEC
General Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2005. At this
meeting he managed to ensure that the forthcoming Technical Report
on PMD measurements provides a fair and less vendor biased picture
than was in the earlier drafts. This benefits the users of test
equipment as well as all the vendors of test equipment that Richard
had discussed the standard with.
IEC SC86C Fibre Optic Systems and ISO/IEC JTC1 SC25 Working Group 3
Interconnection Of Information Technology Equipment: customer
premises cabling
During the IEC General
Meeting in Cape Town, Richard also got involved with discussions on
test issues involved with multimode fibre – currently a ‘hot topic’
in the standards world. Due to Richard’s broad base of expertise in
fibre optics that embraces multimode and singlemode, datacoms and
telecoms; he was appointed to act as liaison between the two
standards groups IEC SC86C that deals with Fibre Optic Systems and
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC25 Working Group 3 that deals with Interconnection of
Information Technology Equipment – customer premises cabling. This
latter working group is the one responsible for the well known
ISO/IEC11801 Generic Cabling standard. They are also working on
standards for cabling in Data Centres and there is a special task
group for Industrial Premises cabling.
This International liaison
position also involves liaison at a UK level, so Richard is now also
on BSI TCT7/-/1 on Generic Cabling.
OTT
Joins ITU-T
OTT has extended
its standards activities by joining ITU-T as an Associate Member.
The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is the world’s
authority on all aspects of telecommunication systems
standardisation and its recommendations ensure that the world’s
communications systems can all interoperate. With all the exciting
developments going on in telecoms including the roll-out of Next
Generation Networks and Fibre-to-the-home in many territories, it is
essential that the basics of testing fibre optic infrastructure are
carried out properly. OTT’s specialist expertise in fibre
characterisation is therefore invaluable to help ensure that the ITU
Recommendations for testing installed cabling are fully up-to-date,
accurate and fair. Our experience of training CFCEs from a dozen
different countries gives us an excellent international perspective,
and our good relationships with all test equipment manufacturers
means that we can provide valuable vendor-neutral technical
expertise. Being involved directly also means that we can keep you,
our customers, informed of developments in a timely and accurate
manner. |
