By Mark Trayer, OCF Chairman

In the second half of the 20^th Century, Korean leadership placed research, development and innovation at the heart of Korean society. This approach was founded on a ‘top-down’ innovation system that fosters “close collaboration between government, industry, and the academic community in the process of nation building”.

Jump forward and Korea sits second only to Germany in Bloomberg’s 2020 Innovation Index, having topped the list for half a decade. It is no surprise, then, that Korea is leading the charge to tackle the security and interoperability challenges surrounding smart homes and buildings.

Establishing a Smart Home Platform

In October 2020 the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) – a semi-government-owned corporation responsible for the development of land in cities, and the maintenance and management of land and housing – set out an ambitious plan. In just one year, it aimed to build a smart home platform using the OCF Secure IP Device Framework as its foundation. The platform aimed to enable residents to get the most out of their apartment and building complex.

An IoT smart hub in each home (collecting and analyzing IoT big data) will feature built-in fine dust and CO₂ sensors, and will be able to control 15 different types of device via an OCF-compliant Smart Home app. This will all be possible, no matter which telecommunication company, home appliances or products the consumers choose. 5,000 homes have already been identified as part of the pilot program with more than 228,000 targeted by 2024.

All of this work comes down to the significant security, privacy and interoperability challenges in IoT. This is limiting consumers’ options and hindering market expansion. As governments work to connect infrastructure, proprietary IoT solutions can’t meet their requirements. This national roll-out of our Secure IP Device Framework answers these challenges while improving tenants’ living experience through automation, optimized air quality, energy efficiency and more. This is true leadership from TTA and LH, and a model that can be replicated elsewhere.

Testing, testing…

A huge amount of work and collaboration has gone into making this a reality over the last year. The latest phase of this project, which took place in September, saw the Korea Information and Communication Technology Association (TTA) host a test event featuring device makers COMMAX, KT, LG Electronics, and SKT.

Testing and certification are an essential part of the process to ensure that the devices and IoT cloud services that will be deployed in the smart homes and buildings are compliant to the OCF Secure IP Device Framework, will interoperate securely with one another, and perform as expected once deployed. Technical experts were also on hand to overcome any challenges observed during the testing.

Building a smarter future

As this project nears mass deployment, TTA’s Chairman emphasized the fundamental role that collaboration with OCF has played in realizing LH’s vision:

“OCF technology is the only way to move from the competition driven by a few dominant entities to a standards-based open competition system. If the feasibility of OCF technology is validated in the LH project, we expect that other construction companies will follow and adopt the technology, and will reshape the landscape.” – Mr Choi Young-hae, TTA Chairman

Testing and certification is a final, fundamental step on the road to mass deployment. And not just for Korea. It’s true that the leadership demonstrated by LH and TTA is setting the agenda for how the Korean people will live and interact with their surroundings for years to come. But they are also defining a blueprint for other countries. A blueprint for securely digitizing our homes and buildings, enriching our living experiences and realizing energy efficiency goals at a time when the world is coming together to address climate change head on.

Learn more about how the OCF Secure IP Device Framework can enable secure end-to end IP communication securely and swiftly. For more information on the work of OCF in Korea, visit the Korea Forum webpage.