IEC 61158-1 specifies the generic concept of fieldbuses. It also presents an overview and guidance for the IEC 61158 series by:
- explaining the structure and content of the IEC 61158 series;
- relating the structure of the IEC 61158 series to the ISO/IEC 7498-1 OSI Basic Reference Model;
- showing the logical structure of the IEC 61784 series;
- showing how to use parts of the IEC 61158 series in combination with the IEC 61784 series;
- providing explanations of some aspects of the IEC 61158 series that are common to the type specific parts of the IEC 61158-5 including the application layer service description concepts and the generic fieldbus data types.