Background and Scope
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers was formed in 1963 when the American Institute of Electrical Engineers merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers, as a support to the growing number of professionals in electrical and radio/electronic engineering. The IEEE (pronounced "Eye-triple-E") covers a wide scope of activities including academic journals, conferences and education programmes, as well as developing and publishing standards. As the size and importance of the industry grew, the IEEE transitioned from a US organisation to a global organisation and its scope includes but is very much broader than telecoms.
Organisation and Working Methods
All standardisation within IEEE starts with a Project Authorisation Request (PAR) which is approved by the IEEE Standards Association (SA) Standards Board and will either be assigned to an existing working group or a new working group formed as appropriate. The document to be worked on is assigned an editor.
The working method can appear more formal than some standards bodies. Working group membership status is more formalised, and maintained by active attendance, through the writing process, and by participation in the very regular ‘balloting’ processes. Ballots may contain objections but should be well documented and constructive so amendments can be made to remove the objection. The process also requires a minimum participation in the ballot.
Documentation
IEEE standards tend to be detailed,precise and long, with new features typically added into existing specifications. Ethernet (IEEE802.3) for example, is one single 7,000 page document and still holds the specification of the original coax Ethernet interfaces.
Accessing documentation
The IEEE is a publishing house and documentation typically needs to be paid for. However, all active IEEE802 documents are available for free six months after publication. Some working group documents are publicly available, depending on the working group. (IEEE1588 is not included in this scheme).