14
Consortiums and Communities
Industrial consortia exist for several reasons and are essential for the promotion, governance, and construction of standards. The IoT industry is similar to other technologies and has its fair share of proprietary and open standards. This chapter covers the various consortia across PANs, protocols, WANs, and fog and edge computing, as well as various umbrella consortia. A detailed and categorical description of each alliance will be detailed to help you decide which, if any, organization(s) is worth the time and investment to associate with. It should be noted that an organization doesn't need any involvement with an industrial alliance; many great products and businesses have been built without reliance on a consortium. However, some organizations will require corporate membership for logo usage or even the ability to productize certain standards.
A growing market segment like IoT will spawn alliances early on in its hype cycle as a number of players vie for a stake in setting standards. This is a natural phenomenon during the rapid growth phase of any business. Oftentimes, alliances form when one similar standard competes with another, and organizations will align themselves across competitive lines. Other times, standards are defined for the industry through nonprofit and academic venues. If for no other reason, the list of consortia in this chapter should help steer architects to the resources and technical collateral needed for their designs.
This chapter will provide context, history, and membership information for various organizations and consortia in the IoT space, including communications, cloud, and fog standard bodies.
PAN consortia
PANs (both IP and non-IP based) have several consortia and governance committees. Many are formed by founding partners and require membership or affiliation for usage rights.
Bluetooth
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 1998
- Corporate membership: 20,000
- Website link: www.bluetooth.org
The Bluetooth SIG was formed in 1998 by five member companies: Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba. By the end of 1998, they had 400 members in the organization. The charter of the organization is to advance the standards, forums, markets, and understanding of Bluetooth technologies. The organization oversees the development, as well as the licensing and trademarks, of Bluetooth. Organizationally, the SIG is divided into smaller focused groups: study groups for research, expert groups that span multiple Bluetooth domains, working groups that are dedicated to the development of new standards, and committees that focus on licensing and marketing. Membership is divided into Associate members, who can join working groups, obtain early and advanced specifications, gain marketing materials, attend PlugFest, and receive qualification listings; and Adopter membership, which is the only free membership level. Adopters cannot join a working group.
Thread Group
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2014
- Corporate membership: 182
- Website link: www.threadgroup.org
The Thread Group was originally formed by Alphabet (Google holding company), Samsung, ARM, Qualcomm, NXP, and six others. Thread is a PAN protocol based on 6LoWPAN, which is based on 802.15.4. The working group licenses Thread using the public domain BSD license model. The intent of the group was to directly counter the Zigbee protocol, especially around the use of PAN mesh networks. There are three levels of corporate membership.
The bottom tier is the Academictier, and Affiliate level entitles an organization to logo usage, press interviews, and access to deliverables. The Implementer tier gains access to royalty-free IP and test products, but doesn't allow for logo certification. The mid-tier Contributor level allows access to working groups and committees and allows logo certification. The top-tier Sponsor level provides a board seat and oversees the organization's budget.
Zigbee Alliance
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2002
- Corporate membership: 446
- Website link: www.zigbee.org
The Zigbee Alliance was formed around the Zigbee protocol first conceived in 1998 to address the gap in self-organizing and secure mesh networks. Zigbee sits on the 802.15.4 base layers like Thread but is not IP-based. The software stack has remained GPL-based after several requests to provide more flexibility in licensing. There are three levels of membership. Adopters gain early access to specification, attend conferences, and can use the Zigbee logo. Participant members can propose and work in various technical committees, as well as vote on specifications. Finally, Promoter members receive board seats and are the sole body to ratify specifications.
Miscellaneous
Various connectivity organizations of interest include:
- DASH7 Alliance: The governing body of the DASH 7 protocol (www.dash7-alliance.org)
- ModBus: An industry consortium governing the Modbus protocol for industrial use cases (www.modbus.org)
- BACnet: The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning sponsored organization for BACnet industrial communication and standards (www.bacnet.org)
- Z-Wave Alliance: An industry and governing body for Z-Wave-specific technology (z-wavealliance.org)
Protocol consortia
These organizations maintain higher layer protocols and abstractions such as MQTT. While many protocols are open source, such as MQTT, membership allows for voting rights and participation in new standards.
Open Connectivity Foundation and Allseen Alliance
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2015
- Corporate membership: 300
- Website link: www.openconnectivity.org
The Open Connectivity Foundation was originally called the Open Interconnect Foundation but changed its name in 2016 to the Open Connectivity Foundation after the separation of Samsung from the working group and the addition of new members. For several years it was a separate entity from the Allseen Alliance, but in 2016 the organizations merged. Their combined charter is to build interoperability platforms for consumers, businesses, and industries through standards, frameworks, and a certification program under the name Open Connectivity Foundation. It spans multiple segments: automotive, consumer electronics, enterprise, healthcare, home automation, industrial, and wearables. Their frameworks are most famous for the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) specification and now the IoTivity and AllJoyn connectivity framework. They use the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) licensing model, which is meant to be functionally equivalent to BSD. There are five levels of membership with varying degrees on yearly dues. The Basic membership is free to all and grants access to test tools and read-only rights to specifications. There is a Nonprofit Educational Gold level that grants such organizations access to working groups and certification. Above that are the Gold, Platinum, and Diamond levels, each with varying degrees of access from working group participation to board membership.
OASIS
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 1993
- Corporate membership: 300
- Website link: www.oasis-open.org
OASIS is the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is a large nonprofit organization and was formed in 1993. It has been a major contributor to dozens of industry standard languages and protocols and defines the MQTT and AMQP protocols widely used in the IoT community. Their technologies touch on IoT, cloud computing, energy sectors, and emergency management to name a few. OASIS supports three types of membership. The Contributor level provides unlimited committee participation. The Sponsor level adds visibility and marketing benefits such as Interop demonstration and logo usage. Finally, the Foundational Sponsor level has the highest visibility, with perks such as OASIS presentations within a company and scholarship awards. Industry leaders representing open standards typically join at a foundational sponsor level. Company yearly dues are a function of the type of membership and the number of employees.
Object Management Group
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 1989
- Corporate membership: 250
- Website link: www.omg.org
The Object Management Group (OMG) is a nonprofit organization originally formed in partnership with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun, Apple, American Airlines, and Data General to focus on heterogeneous object standards in computing. They are best known for setting the UML standard and CORBA, and recently in the IoT arena, the OMG consortium took over managing the Industrial Internet Consortium. They are involved in a number of aspects in industrial IoT, as well as software-defined networking (SDN). Focused IoT areas include distributed data services to ensure network interoperability as well as threat management in IoT. The group maintains a governance model with three segments: an architectural board, a platform technology committee, and a domain technology committee. There are six varying levels of membership. An Influencing membership allows companies the ability to participate and not vote in task forces (TFs) and is appropriate if your company is not entirely based on or adopting OMG specifications. Influencing members may not participate in platform or domain committees. The next three levels are called Submitting memberships and are intended to allow companies to participate with peer groups to help guide the industry. Platform and Domain tiers are intended for companies that will contribute to the standards for platforms or domains and join the respective TFs. They may also nominate candidates to sit on the architectural board (AB).
The Contributing membership allows access to all committees, board seats, and so on. The top level is a Board of Directors membership tier, which is the overall governing board of the entire organization. There are many other membership classes for government bodies, analysts, academics, and retailers, and there is even a trial membership.
The following figure illustrates the organizations structure of OMG:
Figure 1: OMG membership levels. Influencing members may participate and vote below the dotted line in TFs. Submitting members may participate and vote above the dotted line in various committees.
OMA Specworks
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2008
- Corporate membership: 60
- Website link: www.omaspecworks.org
The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and the IPSO Alliance (IPSO) conjoined their organizations in 2018 to form a joint venture called OMA Specworks. OMA has existed since 2002 as an organization to assist developers in transforming ideas into an industry specification. IPSO Alliance is not a standards organization but an alliance that promotes IP enablement for smart objects and leads the industry on using IP to resolve interoperability issues.
The group exists to complement the IETF through various working groups chartered with semantics (meta-information standards across objects), IoT protocols and the analysis of varying standards, and security and privacy. The new OMA Specworks manages LightWEightM2M (LwM2M) as a device management protocol for sensor networks and M2M solutions.
There are four levels of membership: Supporter, which is designated for an organization wishing to contribute to specifications but has no voting rights; the Associate level, which grants the company half votes to specification drafts and the ability to fill a vice-president seat in a working group; the Full membership, which adds the ability to cast one full vote and be eligible for working group chair seats and board positions; and finally the Sponsor level, which automatically places the member on the board.
Miscellaneous
Various other organizations focusing on IoT protocols and security include:
- Online Trust Alliance (OTA): A global nonprofit developing best practices for IoT security (https://otalliance.org)
- oneM2M: Common service layer, protocols, and architecture for connected things (http://www.onem2m.org)
WAN consortia
These organizations cover the various long-range (LPWAN) communication and protocols. Some require membership for usage rights, while others are open protocols.
Weightless SIG
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2012
- Corporate membership: Unknown
- Website link: www.weightless.org
The nonprofit Weightless SIG was formed to sponsor and support the various Weightless LPWAN protocols. There are three standards supported by the SIG: Weightless-N for low-cost and long battery life, Weightless-P for two-way communication with a full set of features, and Weightless-W, which includes an extensive set of features and capabilities.
The intention is to set a standard for use cases such as smart meters, vehicle tracking, and even rural broadband. Weightless focuses predominantly on usage in medical and industrial environments. While the standard is open, there is a required qualification process. Members are entitled to use Weightless IP on a royalty-free basis and have access to the certification program. Membership is fairly simple at one level: Developer.
LoRa Alliance
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2014
- Corporate membership: 419 (44 additional institutional members)
- Website link: www.lora-alliance.org
The LoRa Alliance is a nonprofit consortium that sponsors the LoRaWAN LPWAN technology. LoRaWAN is a protocol layer architecture for long-range communication in the sub-Gigahertz spectrum. LoRaWAN typically caters to M2M and smart city deployments. There are four paid levels of corporate membership, including the Adopter level, which grants the holder rights to certified products, access to final deliverables, and invitations to certain meetings. The next level is the Institutional membership, which grants the holder the right to participate in working groups and gain access to early drafts. Next is the Contributor level, which adds the right to vote within working groups. Finally, there is the Sponsor level, which entitles the company to request a board seat, oversee operational data, and chair a working group.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 1986
- Corporate membership: 1200 (general attendee counts within IETF meetings)
- Website link: www.ietf.org
Originally established with 21 US researchers, the IETF has grown significantly over the years and is best known as the body controlling industry standards such as TCP/IP and various RFC documents. They now cover broad areas that span into the IoT segment, such as LPWAN protocols, 6lo, and IPVS over 802.15.4. Within the IETF exists the Internet Engineering Steering Group, which governs the standardization process.
It is structurally divided into seven areas, such as routing area or transport area. Each area may also host dozens of different working groups. (There are over 140 working groups.) Joining the IETF is straightforward and can be done by simply subscribing to and participating in a working group email list, understanding the charter and standards, and actively engaging with the broader group. The standards process is rigorous as this group defines the foundation of Internet communication.
Wi-Fi Alliance
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 1999
- Corporate membership: 700
- Website link: www.wi-fi.org
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a nonprofit standard body that was constructed to address the gaps of wireless interoperability in the mid-90s. With the advent of 802.11b, an industry-wide consortium was formed to build an effective governance body. The alliance controls the Wi-Fi certification process and the associated logo and trademark for devices that meet their standard. There are 19 working areas and focus groups, such as 802.11ax, security, and IoT.
There are two levels of membership: an Implementer membership allows the holder to leverage previously certified Wi-Fi products for their end solution, and the Contributor membership allows an organization to participate in certification programs and new technology definitions.
Fog and edge consortia
Fog and edge computing are becoming a growing need, and a bifurcated set of industry standards are being adopted. Industrial organization and industry standards are needed to help resolve growing interoperability problems with fog computing. This section highlights some of the organizations building standards and frameworks for industry interoperability.
OpenFog
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2015
- Corporate membership: 55
- Website link: www.openfogconsortium.org
OpenFog joined under the umbrella of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) in 2019. IIC information is listed in the next section.
Eclipse Foundation and EdgeX Foundry
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: Eclipse: 2001; EdgeX: 2017
- Corporate membership: Eclipse: 275; EdgeX: 50
- Website links: www.eclipse.org and www.edgexfoundry.org
The Eclipse Foundation was created in 2001 by IBM. It is most noted for the Eclipse Project used by millions of developers daily. The nonprofit organization controls over 350 open source projects from various development environments to software frameworks.
The EdgeX Foundry is chartered with delivering an edge platform designed to resolve hardware and operating system interoperability for the IoT ecosphere through open source software. Microservices include significant middleware for rules engines, alerting, logging, registration, and device connects. The project is hosted by the Linux Foundation and is licensed under the Apache model. Dell is a principal seed for the initial code design, which is a series of microservices designed to be hardware agnostic. There are two levels of membership: a General Member level and Premier members. A General member may participate in elected board seats, use logo materials, and participate in hosted events. The Premier membership adds the ability to work on committee budgets, change marketing strategies through voting seats, access to operational staff and leadership, change organization policies, and a voting seat on Technical Advisory Councils (TACs).
Umbrella organizations
The following organizations govern or steer a myriad of different technical and functional aspects of IoT (as well as other segments). They represent aspects of protocols, testing, operability, technology, communication, and theory.
Industrial Internet Consortium
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2014
- Corporate membership: 258
- Website link: www.iiconsortium.org
A nonprofit that was started in 2014 by AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel, the consortium exists to bring together industry partners to assist in the adoption and development of the industrial IoT. The group is not a standards body but instead drives reference architectures and testbeds for manufacturing, health, transportation, smart cities, and the energy sector. There are currently 19 working groups that span areas such as connectivity, safety, energy, smart factories, and healthcare.
In 2019, the original OpenFog organization merged with the IIC. It performs the same function it did before the merger. OpenFog manages the standards and architecture of the OpenFog Architecture. They address challenges in edge and fog computing through open technologies with a mission to create a framework for secure and efficient processing and interoperability between cloud, endpoints, and services.
The group has six levels of membership including Government and Nonprofit/Academia levels. The corporate memberships scale in influence and cost based on the company's annual sales. Those levels include Founding, Contributing, Large Industry, and Small Industry. The testbed definitions are broad and well defined and include specific industrial use cases such as airline baggage handling tests. As mentioned previously, the OMG group manages the operations of the group, but the IIC is itself its own organization.
IEEE IoT
The details of the organization are as follows:
- Founded: 2014
- Corporate membership: N/A
- Website link: iot.ieee.org
While not a consortium, the IEEE IoT is a special interest group under the IEEE umbrella. It is a multidisciplinary organization comprised of academic institutions, government bodies, and industry and engineering professionals to drive IoT development. The IEEE IoT influences or hosts specific standards in the IoT world, such as 802.15 protocols and 802.11 Wi-Fi standards. The group offers free webinars, classes, and online material to help grow the knowledge base of the industry. World class conferences, workshops, and influential summits are managed by the IEEE IoT group, as well as one of the most active research journals: the IEEE Internet of Things Journal.
Miscellaneous
Various umbrella organizations of interest include:
- Genivi: Open software group for in-vehicle infotainment and connected cars (www.genivi.org)
- HomeKit: Apple consumer and mobile home automation standards (https://developer.apple.com/homekit/)
- Open Automotive Alliance: Auto and technology group aimed at using Android in vehicles (https://www.openautoalliance.net/#about)
- Wireless Life Sciences Alliance: Connected and wireless healthcare initiative and industry (http://wirelesslifesciences.org/)
US government IoT and security entities
The following are government and federal organizations you should be familiar with, especially in the area of IoT security:
- National Institute of Standards and Technology: Defines national standards on security, encryption, and networking (https://www.nist.gov)
- National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (Department of Homeland Security): Chartered with strengthening cybersecurity and global communication infrastructure (https://www.dhs.gov/national-security-telecommunications-advisory-committee)
- National Telecommunications and Information Administration: Part of the US Department of Commerce that controls US radio spectrum allocation, domain naming, and security (https://www.ntia.doc.gov/home)
- US-CERT: Computer Emergency Response Team that identifies and responds to national high-impact computer security emergencies (https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity)
Industrial and Commercial IoT and Edge
It is also worth noting some of the top companies building systems and services for IoT and edge computing. This is based on recent headlines, employees, revenues, product offerings, market capitalization, product offerings, product reliability, and standards participation. The following sections include devices and services that I have successfully used and deployed in commercial projects.
While hobbyist technologies such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi devices certainly have their place in IoT and edge computing, they are traditionally used in proof-of-concept or academic exercises. This book caters more to commercial and industrial mass scale IoT and edge computing solutions that require hardened field devices and scalable technologies for worldwide mass production and deployment.
Commercial and industrial sensor and MEMS manufacturers and vendors
This table serves to highlight the leading sensor manufacturers and companies.
Silicon, microprocessor, and component manufacturers
This table serves to highlight the leading companies in IoT and edge computing hardware and component manufacturers.
PAN communication companies
This table serves to highlight the leading companies in PAN and wireless connectivity manufacturers and providers.
WAN technology companies
This table serves to highlight the leading companies in IoT and edge WAN connectivity, networking, routing, and communications.
Edge computing and solutions companies
This table serves to highlight edge computing hardware as well as IoT solution providers worldwide.
Operating system, middleware, and software companies
This table serves to highlight the operating systems, middleware, software solutions, and services companies.
Cloud providers
This table serves to highlight leading cloud edge and IoT service and solution providers.
Summary
Consortia and industry organizations provide significant benefits for the community in forms of standardization, technical roadmaps, and interoperability. Becoming a member allows an organization unfettered access to specifications and documentation. In many cases, membership and affiliation are necessary for usage rights. Strategically, member bodies also provide competitive strength in numbers, as various protocols and standards compete with one another in the IoT space.