Page 30 - Unleashing the potenti al of the Internet of Things

1 Unleashing the potential of the Internet of Things

Appendix I

IoT ecosystem and business models

(This appendix does not form an integral part of this Recommendation.)

I.1 Business roles

The IoT ecosystem is composed of a variety of business players. Each business player plays at least
one business role, but more roles are possible. The identified IoT business roles are shown in
Figure I.1.

Application customer

Platform provider Application provider

Network provider

Device provider

Figure I.1 – IoT ecosystem
NOTE – The identified business roles and their relationships as described in the IoT ecosystem do not
represent all possible relevant roles and relationships which can be found across IoT business deployments.
I.1.1 Device provider

The device provider is responsible for devices providing raw data and/or content to the network
provider and application provider according to the service logic.

I.1.2 Network provider

The network provider plays a central role in the IoT ecosystem. In particular, the network provider
performs the following main functions:

– access and integration of resources provided by other providers;
– support and control of the IoT capabilities infrastructure;
– offering of IoT capabilities, including network capabilities and resource exposure to other
providers.

I.1.3 Platform provider
The platform provider provides integration capabilities and open interfaces. Different platforms can
provide different capabilities to application providers. Platform capabilities include typical
integration capabilities, as well as data storage, data processing or device management. Support for
different types of IoT applications is also possible.

16 Rec. ITU-T Y.4000/Y.2060 (06/2012)