IPSO September Newsletter

So far 2012 has been a busy year for the IPSO Alliance. We surpassed 65 member companies, held our first member meeting and interoperability event (Interop) in Europe, expanded our liaisons with other IoT and M2M related organizations, published the IPSO Application Framework document, held an Interop and open house in conjunction with IETF 84 and had IPSO speakers present at a number of different global events.

I would like to thank all our members who are helping make the IoT a reality. We continue to count on you to help spread the word of IPSO and of the benefits of IP to the sensor and control network communities.

During 2012 we have held two Interop events and will be holding a third in Atlanta, GA in November. The success of these events is due to the work of both our Smart Energy and Interop committees. We are looking to expand our testing and participation with the goal of showing that the technology is ready. In order to have a common "language" with which to communicate during these Interops, the Alliance has developed an application-agnostic data framework that can be used in a "RESTful" environment (like the World Wide Web). We will continue to expand this document and its functionality and look to our members to help with continued expansion.

I am looking forward to our next member meeting in Orlando, FL on October 9 and 10 and the opportunity to build upon our successful meeting in Paris, France last spring. Our member meetings have become an excellent opportunity to network with other companies pursuing similar goals and a perfect time to learn more about the work of the Alliance and help plan our goals and actions for the coming 6 months.

I hope to see you all in Orlando,

Geoff Mulligan
Chairman

Moving Towards Horizontal Systems

By Fabien Castanier and Antonio Vilei

Despite the initial skepticism of many researchers about the suitability of the Internet architecture for sensor networks, today the general trend is to move away from proprietary or closed-standard solutions to embrace the Internet Protocol. Furthermore, in order to reduce costs and time to market, there is also a need to transition from vertical solutions, in which sensors are used only within the scope of a specific application, to horizontal systems. Horizontal systems enable the use of multiple devices by an application, and the use of the same device by multiple applications. A smart gateway is a key system component to enable this long-term transformation because it allows the connection among various link layer technologies (e.g. 802.15.4, BT, PLC, etc...), and because it enables integration with a Service-Oriented Architecture. We will provide examples of solutions that fulfill this vision and are applicable, among others, to smart energy and healthcare areas.

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October Member Meeting

Please remember to register for the October Member Meeting soon!

Registration for the meeting is essential in order for us to place our catering and dinner orders. Your meeting registration includes lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday, along with the Tuesday evening Social Dinner at the Harvest Bistro. This year NIVIS will be sponsoring a portion of the social dinner. Thank you NIVIS! Please contact Jessica if you would like to bring a guest to dinner.

More Interop Events Coming Soon

After the extremely successful Interoperability Event and IPSO Application Framework Demonstration in August, the Interop and Smart Energy committees have joined forces again to further extend the functionality of the Application Framework and enhance the demonstration to include embedded device security.

The two groups are in the process of defining the specific goals and functionality that will be brought together in Atlanta in early November. In addition to using the IPSO Application Framework (now available on the IPSO Website) to show how IP, COAP and HTTP can be used to build a real world Smart Energy application that includes smart meters, street lights, and cloud services, the groups are working on the semantics to bring security into the system. They are also planning to test IP over 802.15.4g and, thereby, will show one of the major benefits of using IP in these M2M applications - network media independence. Over the past 6 Interoperability Events that IPSO has hosted, vendors have shown devices using 802.15.4, WiFi, ethernet and PLC all passing sensor and control information. The Alliance is excited to take these next steps to demonstrate that the tools and protocols are ready and available to build the Internet of Things.