Standardised Common Service Layer in IoT Applications

Need for Standardization

It has now been understood quite clearly that for a sustainable ITS ecosystem, which would thrive on interoperable devices and applications, it is mandatory to have a standardised horizontal framework based on a common service layer. This standardised framework would enable

a) data sharing amongst divergent applications
b) prevent deployment of unauthorised, unsolicited devices by ensuring that every device is a registered authenticated and authorised device
c) Ensure security and privacy of data The management interfaces and dashboards would then provide seamless integration of divergent applications. Standardisation would also enable the application developers create innovative applications in a much shorter time frame and due to standardised interfaces, the integration of divergent applications would not be a challenge.

For any standard to be widely acceptable and sustainable, it is important that it should not block innovations. As there have been innovations happening on a daily basis in the device and sensor side, new business level technologies & standards are emerging, and new communication technologies & new security practices are being developed. Any standard which does not have the scope to accommodate these technologies and standards would soon become obsolete. So we need a standard which is agnostic to all devices/sensors, their associated PAN protocols, the WAN technologies, Operating Systems, Databases or even the business applications.

What is one M2M?

oneM2M is a global partnership among the leading Standard Development Organisations that creates requirements, architecture, API specifications, security solutions and interoperability for Machineto- Machine and IoT technologies. oneM2M specifications provide a framework to support a wide range of applications and services such as smart cities, smart grid, connected car, home automation, public safety, and health. . oneM2M was formed in July 2012 and consists of eight of the world’s preeminent standards development organizations (SDOs), notably: ARIB (Japan), ATIS (United States), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), TIA (USA), TTA (Korea) and TTC (Japan) and our own TSDSI, Telecom Standards Development Society of India, which is under government of India is a public-private partnership body which is SDO of India. Along with them there are 200+ participant organisations, large ones like CISCO, Intel, Huawei, Ericsson, Interdigital, C-DOT is also one of them.

oneM2M standard employs a simple horizontal, platform architecture that fits within a three layer model comprising applications, services and networks. In the first of these layers, Application Entities (AEs) reside within individual device and sensor applications. They provide a standardized interface to manage and interact with applications. Common Services Entities (CSEs) play a similar role in the services layer which resides between the applications layer and the in the network layer. The network layer ensures that devices and sensors and applications are able to function in a network-agnostic manner.

The requirements for the standards come from different verticals like healthcare, transportation, enterprise, energy, residential, public services industry. The requirements thus captured then becomes the basis on which technical reports and technical specifications are written. So, no vertical is left untouched when requirement gathering is concerned.

oneM2M is also associated with other Standard bodies like ITU, IEEE, W3C etc. for wider acceptance and interworking. ITU by the way is in a very advanced stage of adoption of oneM2M standards. oneM2M also works closely with 3GPP etc. for closer interworking of oneM2M with other significant technologies. There are both opensource and commercial implementations. C-DOT, the R&D unit of department of Telecom has also been contributing significantly to oneM2M specifications. C-DOT has created the oneM2M standards compliant Common Service Layer Platform, called CCSP which is the only indigenously developed IoT/M2M Platform. However, there are a number of commercial as well as open-source platforms based on oneM2M standard from many international organisations from across the globe. One such platform is from HPE which has been deployed in Bhopal Smart City.

This oneM2M compliant system from HP is the mainstay for this Bhopal Smart City which also includes ITS Applications.

Common Service Functions

The common service layer is realised using twelve common service functions and are the core of this horizontal common service layer. These twelve common service functions can be accessed either by the applications interfacing the devices or actuators in the field domain or by the applications in the cloud. While on one side you have all these devices communicating with the common service layer and on the other side there are the head-end applications(monitoring or analytical applications) which are the recipient of the data generated by these sensors and issuing commands to the actuators (wherever applicable) through this common service layer.