SIST-TS CEN/TS 15844-5:2013

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST-TS CEN/TS 15844-5:2013
01-maj-2013
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6SHFLILNDFLMDVWDWXVQHþUWQHNRGH]DQDYDGQDSLVPD
Postal services - ID-tagging of letter mail items - Part 5: 4-state encoding specification for
small letters
Postalische Dienstleistungen - ID-Kennzeichnung von Briefsendungen - Teil 5:
Spezifikation der 4-State-Codierung für Standardbriefe
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TS 15844-5:2010
ICS:
03.240 Poštne storitve Postal services
35.040 Nabori znakov in kodiranje Character sets and
informacij information coding
SIST-TS CEN/TS 15844-5:2013 en
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST-TS CEN/TS 15844-5:2013

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SIST-TS CEN/TS 15844-5:2013


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
CEN/TS 15844-5

SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE

TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
December 2010
ICS 03.240
English Version
Postal services - ID-tagging of letter mail items - Part 5: 4-state
encoding specification for small letters
Traitement automatisé des envois postaux - Postalische Dienstleistungen - ID-Kennzeichnung von
Chronomarquage des envois postaux - Partie 5: Briefsendungen - Teil 5: Spezifikation der 4-State-
Spécification de codage en code 4 états pour les lettres Codierung für Standardbriefe
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 15844-5:2010: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

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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 .5
6 Value range limitations .6
7 Encoding specification .6
8 Printing of the bar code .7
8.1 General .7
8.2 Optical characteristics of the ink .7
8.3 Bar code placement .8
8.3.1 Printing directly on domestic items .8
8.3.2 Printing directly on cross-border items . 10
8.3.3 Placement on labels . 11
9 Reading and interpretation of Postal-4i ID-tags . 11
10 Conversion to the message and binary representations . 11
Annex A (informative) Postal-4i ID-tag generator . 12
Annex B (informative) Examples . 14
Bibliography . 15

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Foreword
This document (CEN/TS 15844-5:2010) 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 15844-5, is the CEN equivalent of UPU standard S18e-5. 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".
This document forms Part 5 of a multi-part CEN/TS 15844, Postal services — ID-tagging of letter-mail items. It
should be read in conjunction with the main body of the specification, CEN/TS 15844-1. It also relies heavily
on Part 4 of the specification, CEN/TS 15844-4.
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).
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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 4-state bar code printed on the front side of small letters. For
consistency with Part -4 of the specification, on which it depends, it is arranged under six main headings:
Clause No. Description of content
5 Usage limitations: defines limitations on the use of the Postal-4i 4-state encoding of ID-tags
specified in this document;
6 Value range limitations: defines limitations on the values of data elements used in ID-tags which
are to be represented on small letters in the form of a Postal-4i bar code;
7 Encoding specification: specifies the construction of a 4-state 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 Postal-4i ID-tags: specifies the validation and error correction
requirements associated with the reading of ID-tags represented using Postal-4i symbology;
10 Conversion to the message and binary representations: describes the correspondence between
4-state bar coded representation and the binary and message interchange representations
defined in CEN/TS 15844-1.
These are complemented by two informative annexes, the first providing references to an example
implementation of the Postal-4i ID-tag generation algorithm and the second providing a number of example
ID-tags, generated using this implementation.
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1 Scope
This part of the Technical Specification defines the representation of ID-tags as a Postal-4i symbology 4-state
bar code printed on the front side of small letters.
Postal-4i symbology 4-state encoding is the only encoding specification supported by this Technical
3)
Specification for the printing of ID-tags on the front of items.
NOTE Representation in the form of fluorescent BNB bar codes printed on the reverse side of small letters (not flats)
is covered in CEN/TS 15844-2 and CEN/TS 15844-3.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
CEN/TS 15844-1:2010, Postal services — ID-tagging of letter mail items — Part 1: ID-tag structure, message
and binary
UPU S48, Postal-4i: 4-state symbology and its use for the encoding of data on postal items
3 Terms and definitions
A number of common terms used in this document are defined in the UPU Standards glossary, in documents
referred to in normative references and in the bibliography. Definition of frequently used or particularly
important terms as well as other terms introduced in this document are given below.
See CEN/TS 15844-1:2010.
4 Symbols and abbreviations
See CEN/TS 15844-1:2010.
5 Usage limitations
The 4-state bar coded representation of ID-tags defined in this part of the specification is intended for use on
the front side of small letters in area F1. Printing of ID-tags in this area is allowed only on domestic items and
on items addressed to countries in which the delivery post has confirmed willingness to accept items with a
4-state ID-tag in that area.
NOTE 1 Many posts use area F1 for the encoding of routing data, used to support automated sorting of both domestic
and incoming cross-border items. The printing of an ID-tag in area F1 on cross-border items to countries which require F1
to be kept clear for this purpose could cause serious disruption to such countries' automated processing systems and
could result in misprocessing or substantial delay to the items concerned. It would also be in breach of the UPU letter post
regulations. This Technical Specification therefore requires that postal administrations making use of area F1 for ID-tag
encoding should take care to avoid such use of area F1 on items addressed to other countries that have not declared their
willingness to accept items with an ID-tag in area F1 as standard items.

3) References to "this Technical Specification" should be interpreted as references to CEN/TS 15844 as a whole, not
only to Part 5.
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The specification may be applied to the printing of ID-tags in other areas on the front of items. It shall not be
used in area R1 on the reverse side.
NOTE 2 Usage in other areas on the front is permitted, but could result in interference with, or by, codes placed by
other systems and is not recommended.
NOTE 3 Usage on the reverse side, and particularly usage in area R1, could seriously disturb the operation of older
systems which are designed to work only with BNB encodings of ID-tags and is not permitted.
6 Value range limitations
The value range limitations defined in CEN/TS 15844-4 apply also to this part of the Technical Specification.
7 Encoding specification
The bar code shall be generated in compliance with UPU standard S48, using the following parameters:
a) format code (f) value: equal to bits 0-3 of the binary ID-tag value, as defined in CEN/TS 15844-1;
NOTE 1 This assists in distinguishing Postal-4i ID-tags from other bar codes which use Postal-4i symbology. See
S48 for a definition of the symbology parameters f, l, r, c and n.
b) left synchronisation code (l) value: 010110 (22 decimal);
c) right synchronisation code (r) value: 100110 (38 decimal);
NOTE 2 This also assists in distinguishing Postal-4i ID-tags from other bar codes which use Postal-4i symbology.
d) number of variable data codewords (c) value: 13;
e) bar code length (n):
1) on domestic items: 57 or 75, with 75 being recommended unless the bar code is to be printed in area
F1 and it is desired to leave space for the possible printing of a routing code in the same area;
NOTE 3 Either value can be used on domestic items, though only the short (57 bar) version leaves room for a
routing code to be printed in the same area. The use of the 57 bar format is not recommended for use in areas
other than F1 because its error correction capability is not considered sufficient to support an adequate read
rate in positions which could include printing or writing in other inks.
2) on cross-border items, where the bar code is to be printed in area F1, either 57 or 75 as required by
the delivery post concerned;
NOTE 4 On cross-border items it is permitted to print an ID-tag in area F1 only on items addressed to countries
in which the delivery post has confirmed willingness to accept this. The bar code length used is required to
correspond with the expressed preference of the delivery post concerned: those wishing to leave room for the
possible printing of a routing code will require use of the 57 bar format; those not making use of area F1 for
routing purposes might choose for either format.
3) on cross-border items, where the bar code is to be printed in a location other than F1: 75;
NOTE 5 Though the 75 bar format provides more error protection, the 57 bar format normally results in an adequate
read rate in area F1 (where other printing is unlikely). The 57 bar format is not recommended for use in other areas
because its error correction capability is not considered sufficient to support an adequate read rate in positions which
could include printing or writing in other inks.
NOTE 6 Note that the data string, format code, left and right synchronisation codes and error correction data
together add up to 150 bits or 25 6-bit codewords, but that, in the 57 bar version, only 19 codewords are actually
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printed. If the bar code is a Postal-4i bar code constructed in accordance with this Technical Specification, the left
synchronisation code, which is printed in the third codeword position, will be 010110 (22 decimal) and the right
synchronisation code, printed in the third codeword position from the end, will be 100110 (38 decimal). The values of
six codewords are recovered, during the reading process, using the error recovery capabilities of the Reed-Solomon
decoding algorithm.
f) nominal height of a full bar (h): between 4,0 mm and 5,8 mm;
g) nominal pitch (p): between 1,1 mm and 1,2 mm;
h) a 62-bit input data string consisting of bits 4-53 of the binary ID-tag value, as defined in CEN/TS 15844-1,
followed by the tracking indicator value, represented as two bits using the convention: T = 00; F = 01;
D = 10; N = 11, in turn followed by the last ten bits (bits 54-63) of the binary ID-tag value.
th
EXAMPLE The ID-tag with message representation J18CUSA8E6N062315014880T is the 14 880 one issued by
USPS (issuer USA) machine number 8E6 (2 278 decimal) with normal priority (N) on 23 June (0623) between 15:00 and
15:10 (150). Tracking is requested (T). This ID-tag has binary representation (separation points introduced every four bits
to improve legibility): 0010.0010.0000.0111.0001.1000.1110.0110.0001.1100.1010.1110.1011.1010.0010.0000. The 62-
bit value used in bar code generation is derived by dropping the first four bits and inserting the tracking code value 00 ten
bits from the end:
0010.0000.0111.0001.1000.1110.0110.0001.1100.1010.1110.1011.1
...