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IIC and IEEE join forces to develop IoT architecture
Published:  12 August, 2015

The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) have announced that they are collaborating to develop an architecture for an interoperable industrial Internet of Things (IoT).

Under the agreement, the IEEE’s P2413 working group on an architectural framework for the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide the IIC with draft specifications for a standard that it is developing, as well as analysing any gaps between this and current IoT standards.

For its part, the IIC will provide the IEEE working group with IoT requirements from an industrial point of view.

The new standard is envisaged as an architectural framework for the IoT that proposes common definitions and a reference model defining relationships among various vertical sectors – such as transport and healthcare – and common architecture elements.

“With IoT innovation already so rapidly paced around the world, cooperation and coordination among the leading global organisations is required to ensure that momentum is not stalled and progress toward a robust and interoperable IoT is achieved as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” says Oleg Logvinov, chair of the IEEE P2413 working group.

“The IEEE-SA began convening cross-discipline workshops and round-tables among global IoT leaders years ago, and those conversations have led to a number of important activities both across and beyond IEEE,” he adds. “The IEEE IoT Initiative and IEEE Internet Initiative are examples – as now is the IEEE P2413 working group’s collaboration with the IIC.”

Logvinov: collaboration is needed to ensure that IoT momentum is not stalled

The Industrial Internet Consortium is an open membership organisation formed last year by AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel to accelerate the development, adoption and widespread use of interconnected machines and devices, intelligent analytics and people at work. It now has 187 members. The IIC recently released an industrial Internet “reference architecture” which provides a common language for the elements of industrial Internet systems and the relationships between them.

“The IIC brings together the organisations and technologies necessary to accelerate growth of the industrial Internet by identifying, assembling and promoting best practices learned through the development of IIC testbeds, and our work with IEEE-SA in the IoT sector is aligned with those goals,” explains the IIC’s executive director, Dr Richard Soley.

“Harmonisation of architecture and standards in the Internet of Things is critical for growing the market,” he continues. “The IIC and IEEE-SA are two globally recognised leaders with synergistic activities across the full lifecycle of IoT implementation, and this liaison agreement stands to help ensure that industrial IoT requirements are met both in IEEE P2413 and other architectural-framework standards.”

The IEEE Standards Association develops standards through an open process that brings together industry and other interested parties. It has a portfolio of more than 1,100 active standards and is developing more than 500 others.