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OCF invites you to the “Smart Homes and the New Normal” webinar event on October 21 at 8:00AM PT.  The webinar will cover smart home market insights in a COVID-19 world and how the OCF Core Framework and IoTivity open source solution provide the necessary security and interoperability capabilities for today’s smart home implementations.

According to Statista, consumer electronics will account for 63% of all installed IoT units in 2020. As millions of people are now confined to their living spaces, the use of smart home devices and appliances has dramatically increased, with individuals engaging in remote learning, work and digital entertainment. Security remains a top concern, as a UK University of Warwick study found that consumers are not convinced they can trust the privacy and security of these technologies. To alleviate these concerns, businesses and policy makers must show proof of cybersecurity measures to increase customer trust. In addition, with the expansion of work-from-home environments, businesses are now at risk with vulnerable employee devices in which little effort has been made to protect them at both the hardware and software level.

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By Ondrej Tomcik, Kistler Group

As OCF’s Chair of Cloud Technology, I am passionate about solving the critical issues that the IoT cloud-to-cloud communications face today, as well as addressing the absence of IoT interoperability. Today, cloud communications suffer from vendor lock-in and customers have trouble plugging non-interoperable IoT devices into different IoT platforms. It is nearly impossible to develop an IoT application that is cross-platform, and/or cross-domain. These issues are important to solve, as they ultimately prevent the emergence of IoT technology at scale.

OCF sees the massive potential for the IoT but recognizes that the market is fragmented. Discussions and collaboration among OCF members allow for a better understanding of how various IoT manufacturers and vendors operate. These discussions help guide OCF strategies, which are developed to mend the fragmented market and create a fully interoperable IoT. McKinsey Global Institute’s Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype report points out the substantial connection between interoperability and the IoT’s predicted economic value. Particularly, the authors state that 40% of the market potential can be obtained with interoperability among IoT systems. Even though the value of interoperability is clear, it remains on a side-track, with more focus on proprietary vendor lock-in solutions. The IoT industry must shift its focus and realize the value of interconnecting devices and resulting economic gain. When assessing value, it is the number of connections that devices create, rather than the number of devices themselves.

Officially launched in July 2020, the OCF Universal Cloud Interface (UCI) standardizes connectivity between different manufacturer’s cloud servers and between devices and the cloud. To promote the OCF UCI and the ability to enable interoperability among cloud vendors, Kistler Group participated in the Bosch Connected World Hackathon (BCX2020) in February 2020. There, we were able to speak to different companies about OCF’s work and discuss the struggles that developers face. We found that most developers struggled with different data models, as well as obtaining and understanding the data. Making two different IoT solutions interoperable is not an easy thing to do. It’s not only about bridging the protocols, but also about the interoperability of the data model. Luckily, with OCF technology, even if the device comes from a different IoT Solution, we can map it to the standardized model that OCF defines.

At the BCX2020 event, we demonstrated how two IoT cloud offerings (Microsoft IoT Hub and Bosch IoT Things) can be interoperable on the cloud-to-cloud level. The Kistler team was able to successfully present Account Linking using OAuth2.0 as it is specified in the OCF UCI specification: After logging into the Bosch IoT Things, the user was able to use his Bosch IoT Dashboard to the Account Linking process with the Microsoft IoT Hub. Once there was successful authentication and consent approval, Bosch IoT was then allowed to communicate on behalf of the Microsoft IoT Hub user with his/her devices. As a concrete example of this communications, the user had a device with a light connected to Bosch IoT Things and a switch connected to the Microsoft IoT Hub. Both devices were visible in the Bosch IoT Things dashboard and the user was able to control the light through the interoperable cloud interface.

Following the success of this OCF C2C demonstration, Kistler Group continues to be an active OCF contributor and developer of the plgd cloud technology. I encourage developers to read the OCF Cloud specification and give it a try. It is both easy to implement and use. This technology will help ensure that you can communicate between your system with member IoT Devices over their cloud. In addition to OCF UCI, we have launched plgd, an open source OCF cloud reference implementation. This open source solution provides a complete set of tools and services so you can manage your devices at scale in a cloud native way. It is secure from the start, with end-to-end security built in. Developers can access the plgd open source solution on Github to begin taking advantage of OCF UCI today.

For more details on OCF UCI technology, read our previous OCF blog, which describes today’s cloud landscape and how OCF UCI solves the roadblocks to cloud Interoperability, security and partnerships.

 

As the smart buildings market evolves and adapts to the ‘new normal’, facility managers and service providers are turning to IoT solutions to seamlessly improve occupant wellness, security, and safety while at the same time reducing operational costs.

To expand on this topic, OCF is excited to host “The Future of Smart Commercial Buildings” webinar set to take place on September 22 at 8am PST. This webinar will feature leading experts from ABI Research, Cascoda and MBS GmbH as they provide a snapshot of the commercial buildings market and the future of smart building technologies.

In the smart building market, bus protocols for building automation have undergone few changes over the years. For example, BACnet, one of the youngest bus protocols, was created and established as building automation standard over 20 years ago. As the smart building market continues to evolve and technological conditions change, it is important that new technologies enter the market to support changing building management needs.

New technologies such as OCF and Thread can play a decisive role in the future of connected buildings, as they can seamlessly integrate into existing control systems. This shows how it is possible for wireless technologies to couple data from the both the classic bus protocols and new approaches for an effective, modern building management system.

Webinar attendees will be provided with the history of bus protocols and integration with new building automation technologies along with a demonstration of the coupling of OCF and Thread technologies with BACnet data models. Additionally, attendees will gain insights into the current commercial building automation ecosystem and use cases driving the adoption of smart building technologies.

OCF invites facility management consultants, technology product managers, communication service providers, IoT solution providers and more to register for the webinar today.

Building a secure IoT device requires well-defined codes, specifications based on rigorous testing and thorough certification. OCF’s world-class security is confirmed by measuring it against several IoT security baselines developed by government and industry organizations. IoT engineers and members of the OCF Security Oversight Work Group have collaborated on the OCF specification, certification program and open source implementation, following key guidelines and mandates set forth by the industry.

The OCF Security Oversight Work Group has mapped the OCF specification to five influential IoT baselines:

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First introduced in January 2020, OCF is proud to announce the official completion of the OCF Universal Cloud Interface (UCI), now included in the recently published OCF 2.2.0 specification release. The OCF UCI will simplify collaboration between IoT device manufacturers by providing a programming interface for standardizing connectivity between different manufacturers’ cloud servers, as well as devices and the cloud. Using the OCF UCI, manufacturers can produce secure, interoperable IoT devices with confidence in their seamless operation.

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