Discussion on interoperability issues of IoT devices

成都亿佰特

Discussion on interoperability issues of IoT devices [Copy link]

Typically, IoT systems or IoT sensor communication networks are designed using popular standard technologies such as Zigbee, Bluetooth, Z-wave, WiFi, etc., so that devices can communicate and collaborate with each other. One of the current challenges of IoT is adding new devices to the existing network because the existing network has different communication protocols with the new devices.

Therefore, interoperability of IoT devices becomes increasingly important for building scalable, adaptable, and seamless IoT device networks.

According to a McKinsey research report, interoperability between IoT systems is very important for obtaining maximum value. On average, 40% of the value requires collaboration between multiple IoT systems, and in some environments, nearly 60% of the potential value requires interoperability.

The IoT ecosystem requires interoperability to create seamless programmability or configurability of various products or devices or sensors to connect and work together. Regardless of manufacturer, model or industry, a unified universal standard is needed to make devices communicative, operable and programmable.

The interoperability of devices mainly includes the following aspects:

Technical interoperability : Hardware/software components, systems, and platforms that support common machine-to-machine communications. Primarily protocols and the infrastructure required for the protocols to operate.

Semantic interoperability : The ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged.

Syntactic interoperability : Information transmitted via communication protocols needs to have well-defined syntax and data formats (such as XML, JSON, etc.).

The current interoperability issues are multifaceted

▲Different types of connection protocols/devices

▲Multiple interoperability standards on the market, such as AllJoyn, OneM2M, OPC-UA, etc.

▲There are multiple organizations creating interoperable service platforms for the Internet of Things. In addition to abstracting low-level device protocols from end users, they also need to communicate with these interoperable IoT service platforms.

However, there are also many companies developing interoperability solutions by adopting standards and open source technologies with the goal of improving IoT standardization. A good gateway integration service platform (middleware) is a current/future requirement that converts various low-level data protocols into an interoperable IoT data protocol that is seamlessly used by the IoT platform layer and works in conjunction with other interoperability protocols. However, the existing interoperability platforms and standards are highly fragmented, which seems to be one of the reasons why products do not adopt interoperability service platforms and prefer to use low-level existing technologies in many cases.

When designing an IoT ecosystem, one needs to consider interoperability aspects while also defining the IoT architecture in order to scale the offering and connect more and different types of things/devices.

Interoperability is a clear challenge for the industry and needs to be thought of more proactively in order to provide unified, reliable, secure, scalable and adaptable solutions for IoT network devices/systems. Seamless IoT device interoperability is expected to accelerate and unlock huge opportunities in the IoT market, speed up industry innovation, and help developers and companies create solutions quickly.