The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) has announced the Industry Affiliate Network (IAN), an initiative designed to assist multistakeholder industry organizations in accelerating development and adoption of global standards.

Through IAN, industry alliances, associations, consortia and other industry organizations leverage the IEEE brand, policy and global distribution to increase their visibility and value to expanded markets.

IAN is built upon the IEEE consensus process to achieve open and accepted standards.

Multistakeholder industry organizations can use IAN to quickly evolve their existing market-relevant specifications into IEEE standards; leverage IEEE SA’s proven capabilities for global distribution, publishing, marketing and branding, and advance their global go-to-market strategies.

IAN also provides industry organizations a path to promote these standards through IEEE events, such as conferences, workshops and webinars.

“IAN has been specifically designed to enable industry organizations to come together quickly, address shared challenges and rapidly advance global standards and technology innovation,” said Dr. W. Charlton Adams Jr., past president of the IEEE SA. “IAN increases the value of the programs that these organizations are pursuing. The program is another way that IEEE SA is meeting the needs of the international community to enable global and contextual innovation. We look forward to our continued engagement with industry organizations around the world.”

The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, is participating in IAN. MIPI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IEEE to facilitate adoption of the MIPI A-PHY specification as an IEEE standard.

MIPI A-PHY v1.0 is an asymmetric serializer-deserializer (SerDes) interface for automotive applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving systems (ADS) and other surround-sensor applications, including cameras and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) displays.

“With in-vehicle connectivity rapidly growing more complex, the automotive industry is seeking streamlined and simplified integration, flexibility and high performance at reduced cost. Development of MIPI A-PHY was predicated on those needs,” said Joel Huloux, chairman of MIPI Alliance. “The IAN program provides an opportunity to offer the A-PHY SerDes specification to a broader ecosystem beyond the MIPI membership. That, in turn, translates into even greater interoperability, product choice and economies of scale for automotive OEMs and their suppliers.”

Other organizations—such as Accellera Systems Initiative and TRON Forum—similarly have expanded their reach through work with IEEE SA. Industry organizations engage in IAN through the IEEE SA corporate program.