> The great thing about CTRs is that you can get your approval from pretty > well anywhere with the appropriate notified body.
When the notion of CTR21 was launched, I happened to be visiting Peter Krisor the chair of TRAC at that time, in Bonn. All the things people are saying about CTR21 he predicted at the time. The issue is that we must start making sharp distinctions between the uses of documents. CTR21 was a compromise towards the lowest common denominator from conception. It was the only way forward and therefore, in my opinion, the right thing to do, if a lousy specification. Technical Regulations are not specifications. Technical regulations mandate the minimum set of requirements that will prevent harm to the network. Anything you design to a technical regulation is a disaster in the making. There is nothing that says that a device build to a technical regulation ought to be able to perform the functions you bought it for. Standards get you much closer to a working proposition. Something build to a standard (with which compliance is not mandated by any level of government, by WTO definition) should give you a reasonable assurance that the thing will do what you buy it for, in any given area. However, a standard is a broad consensus documents that of needs will embrace any number of differing designs and opinions. It will not give you the best performance in the market segment you want to address. Standards should leave room for good and better products so that suppliers can build products of differing qualities and capabilities. A corporate specification will refine the requirements in the standard to the requirements of the corporation. The corporation may be in the business of building gold-plated BMWs or may be in the business of building el-cheapos. The corporate specification will reflect those business objectives. CTR21 was never developed for the purpose of serving as the design specification for a well working modem. Don't use it for that purpose. Take CTR21 as a basis and do your own research and development to come up with a product of the quality you think you want to market, in the market you want to address. Under the best of circumstances, you don't want any standards committee to design your products for you. (Believe me on that one, I've been there for years). Ciao, Vic
