The first meeting of ITU’s Global Standards Initiative on the Internet of Things (IoT-GSI) will take place 9-13 May in Geneva. IoT is the realization of the idea that anything can be connected at anytime from any place. The concept of connecting any kind of object to the Internet may be one of the biggest standardization challenges yet.

ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and its membership are at the forefront of standards development in the field. The presentation here highlights some of the work so far.

With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, many products will take on smart capabilities. They may take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Embedding intelligence in to our environment in this way will stimulate the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities.

The success of the Internet of Things depends on the existence and smooth and interoperability of global standards.

IoT-GSI will provide a single location for information on and development of IoT standards. This new Global Standards Initiative will give greater impetus and coordination to existing work and provide a common working platform by collocating meetings of IoT-related groups to develop the standards necessary for global IoT deployment. Taking into account the work done in other standards development bodies will also be crucial. Indeed this has already been a strong focus of work to date and ITU is actively seeking the participation of these entities in order to work towards a truly global solution.

The following list of topics includes some of the work items to be addressed:

–  Concept, vision and use cases of the Internet of Things
–  Architectural framework of the Internet of Things
–  Identification architecture for the Internet of Things
–  Requirements for IoT identifier
–  IoT Identifier format
–  Identifier resolutions for the Internet of Things
–  Directory service framework for the Internet of Things
–  Middleware architecture for the Internet of Things
–  Security issues for the Internet of Things
–  Privacy protection for the Internet of Things
–  Application interfaces among IoT service entities
–  Management for the things and communication networks for the Internet of Things
–  Location management for the Internet of Things
–  Identity management for the Internet of Things
–  Interoperability standards to incorporate various standards
–  Conformance test standards for IoT protocols

For additional information see www.itu.int/itu-t/gsi/iot or contact tsbiotgsi@itu.int.