The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products, and currently represents nearly 400 companies. TIA's Standards and Technology Department operates twelve engineering committees, which develop guidelines for private radio equipment, cellular towers, data terminals, satellites, telephone terminal equipment, accessibility, VoIP devices, structured cabling, data centers, mobile device communications, multimedia multicast, vehicular telematics, healthcare ICT, machine-to-machine communications, and smart utility networks.
Overall, more than 500 active participants, communications equipment manufacturers, service providers, government agencies, academic institutions, and end-users are engaged in TIA’s standards setting process. To ensure that these standards become incorporated globally, TIA is also engaged in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
TIA Standards
The Telecommunication Industry Assocs most widely adopted standards include:
- TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers
- TIA-568-C (telecommunications cabling standards, used by nearly all voice, video and data networks).
- TIA-569-B Commercial Building Standards for Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces
- TIA-607-B (Commercial grounding - earthing - standards)
- TIA-598-C (Fiber optic color-coding)
- TIA-222-G Structural Standard for Antenna Supporting Structures and Antennas
- TIA-602-A Data Transmission Systems and Equipment, which standardized the common basic Hayes command set
- TIA-102 - Land Mobile Communications for Public Safety (APCO/P25)
Engineering Committees
- TR-8 Mobile and Personal Private Radio Standards - develops public safety and radio equipment standards
- TR-14 Point-to-Point Communications Systems - develops cellular tower structure standards
- TR-30 Multi-Media Access, Protocols and Interfaces - develops terminal equipment standards
- TR-34 Satellite Equipment & Systems - develops satellite equipment standards for DVB-S and Quality of service (QoS) over IP protocols
- TR-41 User Premises Telecommunications Requirements - develops analog telephone, digital telephone, and VoIP standards
- TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems - develops structured cabling(fiber optic, copper) and data center standards
- TR-45 Mobile and Personal Communications Systems Standards - develops CDMA and WiMax air interface and cellular standards
- TR-47 Terrestrial Mobile Multimedia Multicast' - develops multimedia multicast standards based on the DVB-H protocol and Forward Link Only technology
- TR-48 Vehicular Telematics - develops telematics data transmission standards for vehicle manufacturers and fleet management
- TR-49 Healthcare ICT - develops healthcare standards related to telecommunications networks
- TR-50 M2M-Smart Device Communications - develops machine-to-machine standards for enabling IP-enabled communication between devices and servers
- TR-51 Smart Utility Networks - develops utility mesh network standards for enabling communication between metering device nodes and utility company systems.
Participating in TIA Standards Development
TIA encourages engineers who represent the manufacturers and/or users of network equipment technology products and services (from both the public and private sectors), to become engaged in TIA's engineering committees, by voting and submitting technical contributions for inclusion in future standards.
Collaborative Activities
TIA is a participating standards organization of the ITU-T Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) initiative. The GSC has created a Machine-to-Machine Standardization Task Force (MSTF) to foster industry collaboration on standards across different vertical markets, such as finance, e-health, connected vehicles, and utilities.
TIA 2012: Inside the Network
The TIA 2012 is Conference & Exhibition, scheduled for June 5–7 at the Gaylord Hotel in Dallas, Texas. Focused on innovation and thought leadership, TIA 2012 is the annual gathering of the community of technology suppliers that form the foundation of the global communications experience. TIA 2012 is the only annual community gathering of all who create, distribute and use network technologies: network engineers and designers, product managers and C-level executives.
TIA NOW
TIA Now is a digital media outlet of TIA that informs about ICT trends, event and latest updates. They interview top level executives and thought leaders that shape the development of the information and communication industry ICT. It delivers a perspective on policy, industry news, new technologies and evolving business strategies designed to inform and educate an audience of ICT decision-makers.
Legislation
TIA supported the E-LABEL Act (H.R. 5161; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow manufacturers of electronic devices with a screen to display information required by the agency digitally on the screen rather than on a label affixed to the device. Grant Seiffert argued that "by granting device manufacturers the ability to use e-labels, the legislation eases the technical and logistical burdens on manufactures and improves consumer access to important device information."