- High demand from the Industries & consumer sector
- 7 bn connection by 2020 with $15 bn
- Lacks standard operability norms
The development and adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in India is rapidly growing, generating high demand from industrial and consumer sectors. NASSCOM predicts that there will be 2.7 billion connected devices by 2020, leading to an economic impact of up to $15 billion. It is estimated that connected devices will touch five billion by 2022, where the connected devices will be playing a key role in industrial digitization and digital transformation.
Despite its significance in aiding the next wave of digitization, the IoT market lacks standard operability norms. In order to address this challenge, the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) India Forum was launched in Bangalore on 10th May 2019. More than 35 members from leading IT and digital transformation experts like Intel India, L&T Technology Services, Samsung R&D India Bengaluru and the NASSCOM Center of Excellence for IoT participated. OCF forum is committed to working with technology and user enterprises, start-ups and government to promote IoT standards in India.
The prime objective of the OCF is to help enterprises and start-ups in IoT achieve interoperability based on standard protocols, and through an open ecosystem. This can be achieved by establishing a common discovery and addressing scheme, common data modeling scheme and by establishing end-to-end security, protection, and privacy of data. To maintaining these standards, the OCF ensures access and operability across multiple operating systems, manufacturers, services providers and vertical markets.
Dr. Aloknath De, Samsung, emphasized on protocol-independent and transport agnostic devices which can be scaled to connect to a cloud. Additionally, there should be certifiable implementations for a seamless experience in device connectivity and security.
One of the foremost efforts of the OCF is to bring about interoperability known as IoTvity. It is an open source software project enabling seamless device-to-device connectivity where billions of wired and wireless IoT devices can securely connect to each other and to the internet. The OCF has developed specifications, interoperability guidelines, and a certification program for these devices.
The flexible API framework can be used by developers with ease and is available in several programming languages and for different operating systems.
With four major aspects in place – Discovery, Data Transmission, Data Management, and Device Management – IoTvity operates as middleware across operating systems and connectivity platforms.
Mr. Divyanshu Verma, Intel India, talked about the significance of digital transformation leaders promoting standardization of technologies like IoT at a global level. Intel is heavily engaged with the OCF, and the rationale to promote standards extends to India as well. Intel India is engaging actively with the OCF India Forum to promulgate standards of IoT functionality. Intel revealed that it is engaged in a Proof of Concept project with the OCF standards, and is hopeful that this will open doors for more such projects and initiatives in India.
Sharing his insight, Mr. Sudhanshu Mittal, NASSCOM, stated that the OCF India Forum will strive to bring the users, especially enterprise users onboard, as their involvement is critical to encourage SME players to be primary adopters.
Currently, the OCF India team is exploring different areas that would make the entry barrier to adoption very low and enable the large SME ecosystem in India to adopt and certify their products & solutions without significant cost.
OCF’s standards are viewed as a tremendous value-add, while implementation is still lacking. Industry partnerships with member companies is critical in ensuring the OCF adopters receive reliable tools to release their products in the market. GRL is a global leader in engineering services and test solutions for high-speed connectivity that are required develop and support IoTvity. The organization leverages its expertise in IOT test automation solutions to provide OCF adopters with robust and reliable tools to help them release their products to market with confidence.
Currently, OCF-certified devices are being used by companies like Samsung, Legrand, LG, and Haier to name a few. Some of its major ongoing projects are in sectors like automotive, healthcare and smart homes. Specifically, the BLE Bridging Project, CoAP Native Cloud Project, U+ Bridging Project, WiFi Easy Setup Project and Ziabee/Z-Wave Bridging Project are being implemented by OCF.
With the range of expertise across sectors and the goal to bring about the standardization of IoT devices, the future of the industry is set to move to the next level of proficiency.
Link to the article: https://community.nasscom.in/communities/iot-ai/ocf-india-chapter-indias-iot-market-is-ready-for-standardization-norms.html