The advancement of IoT has been swift in the recent years. With new developments in smartphone technology, IoT has gained more ground as it has become easier and more convenient to connect the devices. But still, a common standard for IoT has been missing because of so many players in the market. To reach its full potential, IoT will require a common standard.

Although, many attempts of achieving a common standard for IoT platforms have been made, we are yet to see a wider IoT framework that will enable interconnection. There have mainly been two approaches to form a single standard, AllSeen and OIC. AllSeen focuses on device to device and starts at home extending forward. OIC (Open Interconnect Consortium), on the other hand, was born out of business applicability of IoT extending into customer.

The problem

The greatest bump in the road to interconnected IoT is consortia, foundations and the fact that the stand alone standards are multiplying. These consortia seem to be paradoxically competing to be the most open and interoperable.

A common communications standard is needed by IoT framework so that the information generated by devices can be shared and spread to create new and useful cross-functionality. Both OIC and AllSeen want there to be a single standard, but do not agree with one another.

A single standard solution

A single standard will enable all devices from different IoT platforms to communicate with each other. It will also allow cloud services, including proprietary data cloud services, to communicate with one another more securely and privately. A single standard, perhaps, should be open source so it does not have to rely upon a single vendor to be implemented. However, IoT standard requires a lot of technology, from wireless communications, to data security, to intercommunications with other devices.

According to Craig Lee, director of operations at AT&T Foundry, “In the IoT standards space, we can consider four layers where standards are being worked upon. The first is the application layer, looking at protocols for developing IoT applications. These are being developed in standards bodies such as IETF, OASIS, OMA, and W3C. The second is the service layer developing frameworks for enabling IoT services. These frameworks are being developed by oneM2M, OIC, and AllSeen. The next layer is the network, which is looking at optimizations that support IoT. Finally, there are the access technologies looking to optimize the application and framework layers for use with IoT services and access network specific optimizations. These access optimizations are being developed by 3GPP, IEEE 802.11 and 802.15, Bluetooth SIG, Weightless SIG, and others.”

It is likely that one of these standards would finally be adopted. But there is a bit of foundation fatigue present. It can be frustrating to have several competing IoT standards with the same aims. It will be interesting to see how and when and if a common standard emerges, and whether IoT will be the frontrunner in all businesses.