What Is The IEEE?

Date First Published: 19th May 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Internet Organisations

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 6/10

CONTENTS

IEEE Standards

Learn more about what Cat 3 is in this article.

IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and it is a non-profit organisation with offices in New York that was founded on 1st January 1963 with the integration of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. The IEEE is pronounced ‘I triple E’.

The role of the IEEE is to develop and advance new electronic products, services, global technologies, telecommunications, protocols and computer engineering. It is known as the ‘world’s largest organisation of technical professionals’ as of 2018, due to over 423,000 members in over 160 countries. The organisation consists of scientists, engineers, and students.

IEEE Standards

The IEEE is known for its development and maintenance of standards. The developed standards have a unique number that identifies them. For example, IEEE 802.11 is the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technical standard that is used to allow devices to connect to the internet without the use of wires. Other standards include:

IEEE 754 - Also known as Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE 754 is a standard used for floating-point arithmetic. It defines arithmetic formats, interchange formats, rounding rules, operations, and exception handling.
IEEE 1284 - Often referred to as Parallel Port, IEEE 1284 is a standard that specifies parallel communications between devices.
IEEE 1394 - Often referred to as Firewire, IEEE 1394 is a standard used for high-speed communications and real-time data transfer at regular intervals.
IEEE 802.15 - Specifies WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) standards.
IEEE 802.16 - Often referred to as WiMax, IEEE 802.16 is a standard used for wireless broadband access.
IEEE 802.17 - Often referred to as Resilient Packet Ring, IEEE 802.17 is a standard that is used for the transmission of data over optical fibre ring networks.
IEEE 802.20 - Often referred to as Mobile Broadband Wireless Access, IEEE 802.20 was a standard for mobile broadband networks. This standard is no longer in development.

History

The IEEE comes from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), which was founded in 1884. The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was founded in 1912. The AIEE and IRE merged together to create the IEEE on 1st January 1963. At that time period, there were 150,000 members in the merged group. Between 1972 and 1985, the Australian Section of the IEEE existed. Afterwards, it split into state-based sections.