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oneM2M Release 2 to include 'important' semantic interoperability features

oneM2M, the global standards initiative for M2M communications and the IoT, will release its next set of official specifications in Release 2 this autumn and will include "important" semantic interoperability features – according to its Technical Plenary chair, Omar Elloumi.

A key focus area of Release 2 will be solutions for dynamic security and authorisation. This has been included to address such use cases as the burden of manual configuration of security credentials on devices when there's a need to quickly deploy them.

Elloumi commented: “There are important features we are adding to our catalogue, in particular the features put in to [provide] semantic interoperability, because IoT is not a simple system, IoT is about application and device proliferation. If you don’t build the semantic capabilities, it’s going to be very hard to integrate once a number of devices and applications go up.

“However, we think semantics provides a very elegant manner to solve this integration problem… But it’s also about improved security, so we recognise that there’s no single security mechanism fits-all for all IoT applications. You have to provide a standards-based tool-box where you can mix and match the security tool according to your use case needs. If you have too much security you may end up having a costly solution and so you have to find the right mix between security requirements and the technology you put in place.

The release announcement comes as analyst firm Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion IoT devices will be in use worldwide in 2016, with that figure set to reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

The second updated standard was reported in March this year to include enhanced security, features for home domain and industrial domain deployment and semantic interoperability. It will also feature interworking with popular IoT device ecosystems such as AllSeen Alliance, OCF and OMA LightWeightM2M. ETSI is a founding partner of oneM2M and has published the updated editions of oneM2M Release 1 global specifications as technical specifications.

Release 2 will introduce 14 additional specifications for the expansion of seamless IoT interconnectivity across multiple sectors, including automotive, healthcare, smart homes and smart cities, and builds upon the stability and reliability of the oneM2M standards previously introduced in Release 1.

Realease 1 covers requirements, architecture, application programming interface (API) specifications, security solutions and mapping to common industry protocols such as CoAP, MQTT and HTTP. The specification was recently updated in March this year, one year after initial publication, and incorporated improvements based on early implementation experience and feedback from oneM2M’s first Interop event held in 2015. The standard was updated to enable service providers to combine different IoT devices, technologies and applications and aims to enable IoT interworking and create a foundation platform to interconnect IoT devices and applications.

oneM2M has formed a multi-national coalition of IoT experts from more than 200 companies, with the primary goal of developing and promoting universal standards and specifications for seamless connectivity between IoT devices.

“Interoperability in the IoT is not just a matter of connecting devices but also understanding the data being collected and distributed and reusing it in a secure manner,” added Elloumi. “This is exactly what the addition of semantic interoperability in oneM2M’s second set of specifications addresses. With so many oneM2M member companies from across the world contributing to Release 2’s development, we are creating the potential for widespread adoption of these specifications.”

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