A foundational framework for technology development, standards make your life easier. From device to device, network to network, across borders, and around the world, almost all products, services, and technologies in use today are developed, connected, or enabled in some way by standards.

Simply put, standards are documents that establish an agreed way of doing something. From accepted best practices to technical specifications or requirements, standards—developed by volunteers—help ensure a common approach and repeatable outcome in design and development.

Standards define the design of products and how they interact with other technologies. For instance, in a communications network, standards specify how devices exchange data so that equipment from different manufacturers can operate together.

Standards also help organizations decide how to design and run processes. In fields like cybersecurity or supply chain management, they can set standards on how to handle risk, measure performance, and run operations.

Standards can help whole systems work together better. In frameworks like quality management systems, they give businesses a standardized way to create, implement, and evaluate processes across different functions that work together. This helps keep things consistent on a large scale.

Explore the Standards Process

Everyday technologies, as well as new and emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), are enabling and sometimes reimagining what we thought was possible. Behind these technologies is a multitude of IEEE Standards that foster connectivity, interoperability, and security.

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