This standard series, 61162-400 and upwards, specifies a communication protocol for use in integrated ship systems. It also specifies an interface description language for use together with the protocol, a set of rules for the use of this language and a set of standard interfaces describes in the language.
This part of the standard specifies a minimum set of tests to be done, test results to be achieved and documents that shall be available for all implementations of general protocol software and applications that are compliant with the IEC 61162-4 standard. Although this set of standard documents is collectively referred to as IEC 61162-4, the actual part numbers are in the 400-series (se 1.4 of IEC 61162-400).