Smart Device Specifications in the Works, TIA Says
A new committee of the Telecommunications Industry Association is working on standards that will allow smart devices to interoperate with one another, with networks and with monitoring systems, Cheryl Blum, TIA’s vice president for standards and technology, told us.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The Smart Device Communications Engineering Committee is looking at devices and applications across industries including manufacturing, health, construction and home automation, transportation, entertainment, semiconductors, communications and energy distribution, Blum said. Allowing communications across vertical markets is the key to avoiding chaos and excessive costs as companies extend mobile IP networks to a host of devices well beyond the handset, she said. Initial standards could be completed in 2010, depending on the complexity of projects, she said.
The committee expects to hold its kickoff meeting in early January to identify protocols for use across several types of smart technology, Blum said. The committee will work to include some existing specifications to create a flexible, adaptable standard that will survive well into the future, she said, citing the newly established smart grid interoperability standards by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The specification includes about 80 initial standards for making many interconnected systems and devices in the smart grid work together to create a secure, efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly national electric grid. Smart-device communications standards must accommodate equipment-fault and preventive- maintenance events, energy and network metrics, equipment data, remote diagnostics and configuration management, TIA said.
Ensuring interoperability across technology platforms is a high priority, Blum said. The committee will look at performance, capacity, network management, cost- effectiveness, security and reliability as well as identifying new usage models, she said. The breadth of the work and balancing industries’ needs will be the main challenges, Blum said. But participants will come from multiple industries, organizations and institutions to aid understanding of the requirements, security concerns, and networks and systems architectures in various settings, she said. TIA will work closely with the NTIA on applications used in areas like health care, Blum said. Companies supporting the standard include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Intel, ILS Technology, LGE, Motorola, Nokia Siemens Networks, Qualcomm, Telcordia Technologies, Tyco Electronics, Verari Systems and Ygomi, TIA said.