Maintaining a standard

Differing interpretations of written standards are often blamed for the appearance of noncompatible equipment. A simple-to-use software package should help suppliers in one field of electronics avoid this problem. The design of a second National Motorway Communications System (NMCSZ) included high-level data link control (HDLC) protocols for the control of motorway signals. These protocols seemed to be applicable to CCTV systems and, with small modifications, were published as the new control standard in 1986. To avoid regional deviations from the standard, it was becoming necessary to have a way of measuring compliance with key parts of the standard. It was decided that a PC-based test certification package could potentially solve many of the problems. The authors discuss the development of the program including the user interface and its testing