Bellevue, Washington, USA – A new global organisation, oneM2M, has been formed to create technical specifications to ensure that machine-to-machine (M2M) communications can effectively operate to agreed standards on a worldwide scale.
Seven of the world’s leading information and communications technology (ICT) Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) have launched a new global organisation to ensure the most efficient deployment of M2M communications systems. The new organisation, called oneM2M, will develop specifications to ensure the global functionality of M2M — allowing a range of industries to effectively take advantage of the benefits of this emerging technology.
At a meeting in Bellevue, Washington, major ICT SDOs — the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) and the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan; the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the USA; the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA); the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI); and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea – formally launched oneM2M. The members of the organisation are devoted to developing technical specifications and reports to ensure M2M devices can successfully communicate on a global scale.
The number of worldwide M2M connections is growing rapidly, with some forecasts predicting the total will be as high as 50 billion by 2020. These connections will reside within virtually every major market category, and oneM2M will play a vital role to ensure that these industries – from healthcare to transportation and energy to agriculture – can benefit fully from the economic growth and innovation opportunities that M2M communications presents. Already, communications service providers are positioning their networks to take advantage of the growing demand for M2M services. The specifications developed by oneM2M will provide a common platform to be used by communications service providers to support applications and services as diverse as the smart grid, the connected car, eHealth and telemedicine, enterprise supply chain, home automation and energy management, and public safety.
The initial goal of oneM2M will be to confront the critical need for a common M2M Service Layer, which can be readily embedded within various hardware and software, and relied upon to connect the myriad of devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide. With an access-independent view of end-to-end services, oneM2M will also develop globally agreed M2M end-to-end specifications using common use cases and architecture principles across multiple M2M applications.
Ultimately, the work of oneM2M will drive multiple industries towards the goals of lowering operating and capital expenses, shortening time-to-market, creating mass market economies of scale, simplifying the development of applications, expanding and accelerating global business opportunities, and avoiding standardisation overlap.
Commenting on the launch of oneM2M, Kathryn Weldon, principal analyst for Enterprise Mobility at Current Analysis said, “oneM2M aims to leverage overlapping work in progress within multiple standards bodies. The combined efforts should reduce cost and provide better time-to-market for M2M apps and devices, and should help reduce geographical disparities and vertical silos holding back globalisation and growth. The anticipated growth of M2M may never be realised without this kind of co-operation.”
But Weldon also voiced some concerns about the project: “Seven separate groups will take a lot of organisation and co-operation to corral and the plan to combine M2M standards body work has already been pre-announced twice, suggesting co-ordination difficulties,” she said. “Application platforms have already filled some of the gaps regarding lack of device/vertical communication, and the plan to agree on standards needs buy-in from a diverse and complex ecosystem.”
oneM2M is open to participation from other interested organisations and parties, as well as co-operative efforts with other organisations. For further information please consult www.onem2m.org or contact:
ARIB: Kohei Satoh (satoh@arib.or.jp), Takatsugu Kito (t-kito@arib.or.jp)
ATIS: Susan Miller (smiller@atis.org), Steve Barclay (sbarclay@atis.org)
CCSA: Zemin Yang (yangzemin@ccsa.org.cn), Thomas Li (thomas.lili@huawei.com)
ETSI: Adrian Scrase (adrian.scrase@etsi.org), Gerry Mc Auley (Gerry.mcauley@etsi.org)
TIA: Cheryl Blum (cblum@tiaonline.org), Herb Congdon (hcongdon@tiaonline.org)
TTA: Kyu Jin Wee (tta_m2mhod@tta.or.kr), Yong Chang (yongchang@samsung.com)
TTC: Yukio Yamanaka (yama@ttc.or.jp), Tatsuo Takahashi (takahashi@ttc.or.jp).
