CEN/TS 15844-2:2010

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-maj-2013
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Postal services - ID-tagging of letter mail items - Part 2: BNB-78 Encoding Specification
Postalische Dienstleistungen – ID-Kennzeichnung von Briefsendungen – Teil 2:
Festlegung der BNB-78-Codierung
Traitement automatisé des envois postaux - Chronomarquage des envois postaux -
Partie 2: Spécification de codage en BNB (Bar No Bar)- 78 caractères
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TS 15844-2:2010
ICS:
03.240 Poštne storitve Postal services
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
CEN/TS 15844-2
SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
December 2010
ICS 03.240
English Version
Postal services - ID-tagging of letter mail items - Part 2: BNB-78
Encoding Specification
Traitement automatisé des envois postaux - Postalische Dienstleistungen - ID-Kennzeichnung von
Chronomarquage des envois postaux - Partie 2: Briefsendungen - Teil 2: Festlegung der BNB-78-Codierung
Spécification de codage en BNB (Bar No Bar)- 78
caractères
This Technical Specification (CEN/TS) was approved by CEN on 1 December 2008 for provisional application.

The period of validity of this CEN/TS is limited initially to three years. After two years the members of CEN will be requested to submit their
comments, particularly on the question whether the CEN/TS can be converted into a European Standard.

CEN members are required to announce the existence of this CEN/TS in the same way as for an EN and to make the CEN/TS available
promptly at national level in an appropriate form. It is permissible to keep conflicting national standards in force (in parallel to the CEN/TS)
until the final decision about the possible conversion of the CEN/TS into an EN is reached.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

Management Centre: Avenue Marnix 17, B-1000 Brussels
© 2010 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TS 15844-2:2010: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
Foreword .3
Introduction .4
1 Scope .5
2 Normative references .5
3 Terms and definitions .5
4 Symbols and abbreviations .5
5 Usage limitations – Requirement for a special issuer code .6
6 Value range limitations .6
7 Encoding specification .7
7.1 Data to be encoded .7
7.2 Data field encoding table .9
7.3 Calculation of the error detection and correction bits. 10
7.4 ECC field encoding table . 11
7.5 Construction of the bar code to be printed on the item . 12
8 Printing of the bar code . 13
8.1 Optical characteristics of the ink . 13
8.2 Bar code characteristics . 14
9 Reading and interpretation of BNB-78 bar codes . 16
9.1 Discrimination from other bar codes . 16
9.2 Fully read bar codes . 16
9.3 Partially read bar codes . 16
9.4 Checking data field values . 16
9.5 Manual interpretation of bar codes . 17
10 Conversion to the message and binary representations . 17
Annex A (informative) Error detection and correction algorithms . 19
A.1 Introduction . 19
A.2 Calculation of error control groups . 19
A.3 Checking the read value for errors . 19
A.4 Correcting an erroneous bar code . 20
A.5 Pre-processing . 21
Annex B (informative) S18 ID-tag 78-position BNB bar code template . 23
Bibliography . 25

Foreword
This document (CEN/TS 15844-2:2010) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 331 “Postal
services”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights.
CEN [and/or CENELEC] shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
NOTE This document has been prepared by experts coming from CEN/TC 331 and UPU, under the framework of the
Memorandum of Understanding between the UPU and CEN.
1)
This document (CEN/TS 15844-2), is the CEN equivalent of UPU standard S18b-7. It may be amended only after
prior consultation, between CEN/TC 331 and the UPU Standards Board, in accordance with the Memorandum of
Understanding between CEN and the UPU.
2)
The UPU’s contribution to the document was made, by the UPU Standards Board and its sub-groups, in
accordance with the rules given in Part V of the "General information on UPU standards".
According to the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following
countries are bound to announce this Technical Specification: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

1)
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is the specialized institution of the United Nations that regulates the universal postal service. The postal
services of its 189 member countries form the largest physical distribution network in the world. Some 5 million postal employees working in
over 660 000 post offices all over the world handle an annual total of 425 billion letters-post items in the domestic service and almost 6,7 billion
in the international service. Some 4,5 billion parcels are sent by post annually. Keeping pace with the changing communications market, posts
are increasingly using new communication and information technologies to move beyond what is traditionally regarded as their core postal

business. They are meeting higher customer expectations with an expanded range of products and value-added services.
2)
The UPU's Standards Board develops and maintains a growing number of standards to improve the exchange of postal-related information
between posts, and promotes the compatibility of UPU and international postal initiatives. It works closely with posts, customers, suppliers and
other partners, including various international organizations. The Standards Board ensures that coherent standards are developed in areas such
as electronic data interchange (EDI), mail encoding, postal forms and meters. UPU standards are published in accordance with the rules given

in Part VII of the General information on UPU standards, which may be freely downloaded from the UPU world-wide web site (www.upu.int).

Introduction
A general introduction to all parts of the specification is provided in CEN/TS 15844-1. This part deals only with the
encoding of ID-tags in the form of a 78-position bar-no-bar code, BNB-78, printed on the reverse side of items, in
area R1, using fluorescent ink. It is arranged under six main headings:
Clause No. Description of content
5 Usage limitations – requirement for a special issuer code: explains the requirement for issuers wishing
to use the BNB-78 ID-tag representation to obtain a special issuer code for this purpose;
6 Value range limitations: defines limitations on the values of data elements used in ID-tags which are to
be represented on items in the form of a BNB-78 bar code;
7 Encoding specification: specifies the construction of a 78-position bar-no-bar code from ID-tag data
elements;
8 Printing of the bar code: to allow the association of computer data with a physical item, the ID-tag is
printed on the item itself. This clause defines required ink and printing parameters;
9 Reading and interpretation of BNB-78 bar codes: specifies the validation and error correction
requirements associated with the reading of ID-tags represented using BNB-78 bar codes;
10 Conversion to the message and binary representations: describes the correspondence between
BNB-78 representation and the binary and message interchange representations defined in
CEN/TS 15844-1.
The above definition is supported by two informative annexes:
 Error detection and correction algorithms: provides example implementations of the error detection and
correction algorithms used in encoding and reading the BNB-78 representation of the ID-tag. Other
implementations are possible and, depending on the environment, might well be more efficient. The examples
nevertheless serve as a possible baseline, and can be used for verifying the correctness of a different
implementation.
 S18 ID-tag 78-position BNB bar code template: provides a template which can be used for manual decoding of
the data elements in printed BNB-78 representations of an ID-tag. Such manual decoding should be used with
caution since, unless the complete bar code is read and processed through the appropriate error
detection/correction algorithm, there is no certainty that the value obtained has been read correctly.
1 Scope
This part of the Technical Specification defines the representation of ID-tags as a 78-position bar-no-bar code
(BNB-78) printed in fluorescent ink in area R1 on the reverse side of items.
3)
BNB-78 encoding is one of two encoding specifications supported by this Technical Specification for the
printing of ID-tags in area R1, the other being BNB-62, which is specified in CEN/TS 15844-3.
NOTE 1 Representation in the form of a 4-state code printed on the front of the item is covered in CEN/TS 15844-4 for
flats and CEN/TS 15844-5 for small letters.
BNB-78 encoding supersedes the earlier specified BNB-62 encoding and shall be applied in all cases in which
ID-tags are placed in area R1 on the reverse side of letter mail items of size up to and including C5, by issuers
other than those explicitly authorised to continue use of BNB-62 encoding, namely An Post (Ireland), Canada
Post and United States Postal Service.
NOTE 2 ID-tags encoded in area R1 are required by article RL 123 of the UPU Letter Post Regulations [1] to be
compliant with UPU standard S18 – and by this with the related CEN/TS 15844. This supports only two encodings in area
R1, namely BNB-78 as defined herein and BNB-62 as defined in CEN/TS 15844-3. The latter is authorised for continued
use only by the three issuers mentioned above. Where ID-tags are used, and are applied in area R1 on the reverse side of
letter mail items of size up to and including C5, the use of BNB-78 encoding is mandatory for all other issuers.
NOTE 3 BNB-78 encoding is not considered suitable for
...