ABSTRACT
The development and implementation of standards is a requirement for the widespread growth and
adaptation of the Internet and all the protocols it uses. In the late 1970s, the International Standards
Organization (ISO) initiated efforts to develop a network communications standard based on open
systems architecture theories from which other networked systems could be designed. The move from
stand-alone mainframe systems to a networked infrastructure was underway and standards had to be
developed to allow systems from one company to effectively communicate with systems from another
company using intermediary networking devices developed by yet another company.