TABLE OF CONTENTS The extensive collection of text, tables, and figures that comprise the ANSI-41 standard can be imposing at first. Without a clear understanding of its organization, it is difficult to make effective use of the standard. Our goal in this chapter is to facilitate understanding of the ANSI-41 specification structure, including how it differs from past revisions of its predecessor IS-41.
As the complexity of telecommunications systems has increased, so, too, have the demands on the organizations of people creating standards for these systems. Tools including analysis techniques, specification processes, and even highly specialized languages have been created to assist in the task. While some of these tools have proved their value over time, most are in a constant state of refinement as standards committee members try to find an optimum mix of clarity, brevity, and sufficiency.
Indeed, the act of writing a good standard involves a reasonable measure of art in addition to technical expertise. Since they are produced in standards committees, most standards are also laden with compromises, some for the better, others for the worse.
ANSI-41 has grown up in this environment and has managed to remain, for the most part, structurally consistent over the course of its revisions. Its structure has been largely influenced by two factors: the three-stage specification process and the three major functional areas addressed in the standard: intersystem handoff; automatic roaming; and operations, administration, and maintenance (OA&M). We discuss these influences as an introduction to how the ANSI-41 revisions are organized.
