The global standards initiative oneM2M published a new set of specifications, Release 2, for M2M and the Internet of Things (IoT) last week, with a nod toward some other entities in the crowded IoT ecosystem.
Based on contributions from more than 200 member companies, Release 2 builds on oneM2M’s initial set of official specifications, which enable basic connectivity between applications and devices. The new specifications open up the IoT ecosystem to enable inter-working among systems using AllSeen Alliance’s AllJoyn, Open Connectivity Foundation’s OIC and the Open Mobile Alliance’s Lightweight M2M (LWM2M). As a result, the number of devices that can seamlessly connect with one other in the IoT ecosystem is getting a lot bigger.
“The standards ... mark a major milestone for the Internet of Things, by providing the unique value proposition of a single interworking platform for all enabled devices,” said Omar Elloumi, chair of the oneM2M Technical Plenary, who is also part of Nokia’s CTO group. “As IoT devices continue to saturate society, standardization is key to achieving universally accepted specifications and protocols for true interoperability between IoT devices and applications.”
Elloumi told FierceWirelessTech that while oneM2M doesn’t have open source per se, it does recognize that it is an important aspect of IoT to, for example, expedite time to market. Its members, such as Cisco, are driving open source initiatives in their various camps.
In a nutshell, the oneM2M Common Service Layer is a software layer that sits between M2M applications and communication hardware/software that provides data transport. It normally rides on top of IP and provides functions that M2M applications across different industry segments commonly need. OneM2M’s 200+ members include AT&T, Qualcomm, KDDI, Deutsche Telekom, ATIS and ETSI.
The critical area of security was also addressed throughout the 17 specifications of Release 2, in part by enabling end-to-end secure information exchange between any devices or servers.
oneM2M’s Release 2 comes at the same time as IoT announcements from farm equipment manufacturer John Deere and Certuss Dampfautomaten, a German maker of steam generators used for anything from cooking sausages to sterilizing medical instruments. Their recent announcements discuss the enablement of home and industrial domain deployment – another key feature of Release 2 that allows information from various industries’ applications to exchange data, according to oneM2M.
Of course, the work doesn’t end with Release 2. oneM2M is already working on Release 3. “The oneM2M global alliance is dedicated to providing the necessary interoperability to give technology suppliers and their customers secure connectivity as we embrace the next great technological revolution of the modern era,” Elloumi said.
For more:
- see the press release
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