The CEA-852 standard specifies a communications method that allows networked data acquisition and control devices to communicate with each other over the internet. The purpose of such devices are widely varying and include functions such as appliance monitoring, meter reading, and HVAC and lighting control to name a few. CEA-852 does not replace existing device communications protocols, but instead allows those protocols to use the internet as a communications medium. CEA-852 currently supports the existing device protocols CEA-600 (CEBus) and CEA-709 (LonTalk®) and was designed to allow the support of others.

Unless otherwise indicated, the designator 852 refers to the latest revision of CEA-852, which at the time of this writing was CEA-852-B.