Bill Conley, the cellular device product manager for B&B Electronic, is a recognized expert in wireless communications and a TIA delegate to oneM2M. oneM2M is a new organization of global standard bodies that is working to rally manufacturers, carriers and standards groups around common standards aimed at interoperability between M2M devices worldwide.
For the below Q&A we also invited Richard Brennan, oneM2M marketing chair, to contribute with official oneM2M responses to questions 1, 2a and 4.
1. OneM2M has a number of Associations and standards bodies involved. What is TIA's role in the oneM2M?
Richard Brennan, oneM2M Marketing Chair:
The TIA (Telecommunication Industry Association) is one of the seven founding member partners of oneM2M, along with ARIB (Japan), ATIS (US), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), TTA (South Korea), and TTC (Japan). The TIA holds leadership positions within the oneM2M Steering Committee, as Chair of the oneM2M Technical Plenary, and within Working Groups. There are currently over 250 member organizations in oneM2M, and B&B Electronics brings the TIA participation to 26 members.
2a. What are the rules of participation?
Richard Brennan, oneM2M Marketing Chair:
oneM2M is open to members of both the founding Partners, and to members of other Partner organizations who join oneM2M. All Partners agree to support a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime, which balance the rights of IPR owners with the ability of M2M implementers to access essential IPRs. oneM2M technical work is conducted in meetings open to participation by all members.
2b. Most of the associations represent carrier organizations, are you looking for participation from other M2M companies?
Bill Conley, B&B Electronics:
Absolutely! oneM2M welcomes device manufacturers, software companies and industry technology leaders – anyone who wants to have a voice in how devices will communicate with each other globally. Please join us!
The goal is to develop technical specs that will ensure M2M devices are interoperable, and adhere to the same standards worldwide.
oneM2M wants to bring global M2M market players to the collaboration table from vertical market segments such as telematics, intelligent transportation, healthcare, utilities and industrial automation. Many forward-thinking standards bodies and manufacturers have already joined the oneM2M development table.
3. Can you explain the concept of a service layer to the people who are not familiar with carrier standards?
Bill Conley, B&B Electronics:
Simply put, a service layer enables the transmission of data or information from the edge of the “Internet of Things” to its application, and a very important part of that service layer is remote mobile device management. At a high level, having a service layer implemented in M2M devices is what allows users to remotely manage them so they don’t have to send technicians into the field. This is particularly helpful in industrial environments, where devices are numerous and often deployed in remote or hazardous locations. The goal is to provide automated firmware to update devices remotely, in the background on this service layer, so it doesn’t interrupt any device functions for the user.
To date, the service layer and device management have been proprietary to each manufacturer’s devices, so they are not interoperable with other manufacturers’ devices. oneM2M is developing technical specifications to address the need for a common M2M service layer that can be embedded within hardware and software, to connect the myriad of devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide. ?In other words, the goal is to enable devices to speak the same language so they can talk to each other – or be interoperable.
To that end, TIA just released updates to its TR-50 M2M protocol standards series (TR-50 TIA 4940.020 and TR-50 TIA 4940.000), which are designed to make it easy for device and sensor manufacturers to implement connectivity to the devices they make. The TR-50 standard makes it easier for these companies to know how to interface to the service layer, without having to be experts in telecommunications.
4. What is the schedule for rolling out the standards work and when will it impact the deployments?
Richard Brennan, oneM2M Marketing Chair:
oneM2M technical work is already underway in the M2M Requirements and M2M communications Architecture areas, and starting in the areas of M2M Security and M2M Management and Abstraction Semantics. oneM2M protocol work will begin in mid-2013, and it is anticipated that the first oneM2M work release be may available prior to the end of 2013, but a final date will be determined as the work is progressed through this year.
5. Does the oneM2M standard impact 2G, 3G and 4G solutions?
Bill Conley, B&B Electronics:
To adopt or not to adopt the oneM2M standards will be a decision for every device manufacturer – it’s voluntary not mandatory. That said, oneM2M is pushing for common standards and interoperability across all wireless devices so we believe there will be many benefits to following the standards. TIA’s new TR-50 standard is intended to facilitate global M2M interoperability.
We believe that manufacturers who follow the oneM2M standards will enjoy the benefit of interoperability with all the many devices that will, while those who do not follow the standards will miss out on such device interoperability. For instance, those devices not speaking the TR-50 standard “language” won’t be interoperable with devices that do.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
