The CCITT studies packet switching as part of public data network development

Abstract

One main body within the UN affiliated International Telecommunications Organisation is the "Comite consultatif international télégraphique et téléphonique" or the CCITT to the whole of the telecommunications world. This grand committee meet in plenary about every four years to adopt recommendations in the areas of tariffs, operations and technical principles, to ensure and improve international telecommunications services between the many networks of all the countries in the world. The committee also decides the questions to be considered in the following study period. The recommendations of the CCITT has very strong standing internationally, and to a large extent they are being used also as guidelines for national network development. In the field of data transmission the well established cooperation with bodies representing computer users and manufacturers has made it possible to develop widely recognized interface specifications between telecommunications/computing equipment and functions. Between the plenary meetings of the CCITT the detailed work is being carried out in a number of Study Groups. There is one special group for data transmission techniques over the existing telegraph and telephone networks "SG Special A" (they make all the modem specifications), and one younger one for new digital data transmission networks, the "SG VII". Members of these study groupes are the telecommunications administrations and operating companies ("carriers"), manufacturers of equipment and cooperating international organisations. These groups meet once or twice a year.