Standardization of broadband networks in ETSI-NA5

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is the European standardization body for telecommunications. The internal organization of ETSI is based on technical committees (TCs) which are subdivided in to sub-technical committees of the TC Network Aspects (NA) and is in charge of the standardization of broadband networks. The studies in this area started in CEPT in 1984 in a special study group called Groupe Special des Communications a Large Bande and were transferred to ETSI at the beginning of 1988. More than 150 experts are today participating in the meetings of NA5 and are contributing to the work programme dealing with the standardization of broadband-ISDN (B-ISDN) and metropolitan area networks (MANs)