PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) today announced 28 companies and laboratories that participate in the IEEE P1904.1TM Working Group have achieved an important milestone in the development of the IEEE P1904.1 Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (SIEPON) standard. This draft standard is largely complete from a technical perspective and has entered the IEEE P1904.1 Working Group letter ballot phase. The IEEE P1904.1 Working Group began its work in January 2010 and reached this important milestone after 20 months of rigorous review and revision. Pending formal approval, this document will be published as an IEEE Standard. It will provide open, international, system-level specifications that enable multi-vendor, "plug-and-play" interoperability in EPON systems. The IEEE P1904.1 SIEPON draft standard covers both 1G-EPON and 10G-EPON and describes the transport, service, and control planes.