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2019 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

Figure 1 – Healthcare PoC at CES 2018 motivations, such reference implementations lowered the
boundaries of OCF specifications, and it was clear that
IoTivity led to better organizational innovation [3] because
the authors fully benefited from the existing code provided
by IoTivity and its contributors. The authors were able to
spend dramatically less resource compared to what the
authors might have spent when developing from scratch. The
authors found that it is especially useful in the healthcare
domain because developers can put more efforts on privacy,
security and other regulatory aspects, which is considered
much stricter than those in the smart home domain.

4.4 Distribute draft specification for IPR review The authors stress that reference implementations using open
source enhances standardization efficiency. There is a
When all three pillars, including the specification, the test considerable population of companies, start-ups and
cases for certification, and the open-source reference hobbyists who are low on resources but interested in
implementation, were considered stable enough by OCF developing applications and products based on the published
members, the draft specifications including the new standards. An open-source community discloses extensive
healthcare devices and data models were put through IPR opportunities for those who need help from external experts
review. In general, the OCF posts new draft specifications around the world. Requesting a public review by other
for 60-day member IPR review when the test cases and open- experts can decrease debugging time. Also, it accelerates
source code are also ready for distribution. The comments better exposure and deployment of emerging technology
are subsequently submitted to the OCF and are reviewed by standards. It must also be noted that free-riding [6] by other
the relevant members if deemed necessary. If any OCF stakeholders could discourage development. However, it is
members intend to exclude necessary claims from the OCF’s highly recommended to use appropriate open-source licenses
IPR policy, they must provide a complete, appropriate and to protect ownership and track history of code change [5].
timely written notice of such intent to the OCF, no later than
the IPR review deadline. Since sufficient discussion was 5.2 Acceleration in healthcare IoT
made during the specification development and data models,
the authors received no additional comments with regard to Developing reference implementation using IoTivity opened
the new healthcare devices and data models. the potential and accelerated the healthcare IoT best
practices of IoT application developers. Reference
4.5 Publish final specification implementation eventually allowed manufacturers of other
domains to connect healthcare devices to their devices.
After the IPR review, the OCF published the new healthcare When the authors developed their PoC, the IoTivity code
devices and data models as part of OCF 2.0.0 Specification was also used and developed by other OCF members who
in June 2018 [30]. Publication of new OCF specifications were smart home device vendors. Thanks to the same code
implies full support of certification and open-source base, which acted as the same foundational software
reference implementation. In addition to the first four architecture, the IoT devices from different domains were
published healthcare devices, the authors defined five able to be tested with less challenge.
additional healthcare devices, which in turn, were published
as part of OCF 2.0.4 Specification in July 2019. The active corporate participation and contribution to
IoTivity lured more member companies into joining IoTivity.
5. DISCUSSION While contributions were growing in volume [9], the OCF
was able to exhibit the devices of its members at CES 2018.
In this section, the authors discuss the benefits of taking The devices were developed with IoTivity. At CES 2018,
advantage of IoTivity and how it has led to the enhancement The authors presented their healthcare PoC, including blood
of standardization efficiency and acceleration in healthcare pressure monitors, body thermometers, body scales and other
IoT. healthcare devices. The devices were able to connect and
interoperate with other smart home devices. Figure 1
5.1 Enhancement of standardization efficiency displays a user's health information, which was measured
using healthcare devices developed by the authors, to another
The main benefits of using IoTivity as an enabler was to OCF member's refrigerator. The exhibition at CES 2018
improve the development efficiency of the reference provided the viewers with insight on how the future of
implementation of the OCF healthcare specification. healthcare IoT would look like upon its realization.
Typically, sharing the same open-source project allows
developers to share best practices among peers while using 6. CONCLUSION
the code. These peer IoTivity developers may contribute to
the IoTivity project hoping for better promotion [1], or In this paper, the authors discussed the standardization of
perhaps pursuing self-satisfaction [2]. Regardless of their healthcare IoT at the OCF while focusing on IoTivity as its

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