Limitations of the IEEE pulse standards and suggested improvements

IEEE Std 194 assumes that the polarity of a pulse being measured is known to the user who wishes to extract its parameters. It is pointed out that this is often not the case when the only information about the signal in question is contained in a waveform record. The author proposes an unambiguous depiction of the record as a train of transitions allowing the extraction of 'pulselike' parameters. The transitions are identified as to their slope polarities, that is 'rising' and 'falling'. It is noted that many of these terms have already been established for years and need to be formally made part of IEEE Std 194.<>