The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is expected to complete its work on a broad reference architecture for the Internet of Things (IoT) early next year, according to EE Times. The group is also ramping up three test beds and will start identifying gaps where new standards might be needed.
The IIC, led by AT&T (NYSE:T), Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel, has about 115 members and wants to make it easier to build commercial IoT systems. It's also trying to drive development of supporting standards and an industry ecosystem.
The IIC hopes to finish a first draft of its reference architecture by the end of January and have it ratified by March, EE Times reports. It will define functional areas and the technologies and standards for them, from sensors to data analytics and business applications.
The framework includes versions for vertical markets including aerospace, healthcare, manufacturing, smart cities and transportation. A breakout section on security also is in the works, the article states. A standard vocabulary for industrial IoT terms, currently in a six-page draft, is being worked on as well.
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is engaged in a similar effort focused on so-called "cyber-physical" systems. Stephen Mellor, chief technology officer of the IIC, characterized it as a subset of the IIC's work, which spans more market sectors and higher-level software and business categories, according to EE Times.
General Eletric is one of the biggest players in the industrial IoT space It monitors and analyzes 50 million data elements from 10 million sensors on $1 trillion of managed assets daily. It is making its Predix software platform available to any company in 2015, allowing them to create and deploy their own customized industry apps to better manage assets.
Last year, GE struck a deal with AT&T to allow GE's machines to connect to AT&T's wireless and cloud networks. That deal was part of a larger effort by GE to connect more of its machines to the Internet and make them more efficient.
For more:
- see this EE Times article
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