Nuts and Volts - June 2014

developers who want some design guidelines and to manufacturers who would like some specifications to build and test to. While no formal standards exist, there are multiple efforts underway.

For example, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is developing some M2M standards but these will not be available for a while. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is working on its TR- 50 standard that could be completed by the end of the year.

Another effort is the work of AllJoyn Alliance that is using the previous work of Qualcomm to create some standards based on the Linux OS. The Internet Engineering Task Force (ITEF) 6Lo WPAN is also in the running as a standard. IBM, Intel, and Cisco have done some standards work, as well. Finally, a new organization called the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is beginning standards work.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER

It is interesting to see the immense interest in M2M and Io T. However, some are unsure of the security and safety of the data being communicated. This problem could limit Io T adoption in some critical applications. While most wireless technologies incorporate heavy duty encryption, other forms of security like authentication or the use of VPNs may be necessary for some applications. Each system will require its own solution.

Another issue is the potential for massive electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems. Just imagine all the noise and interference of billions of low power radios all working at the same time. We are not at the point where this is an immediate issue, but it is one to contemplate.