Guidance to help organizations drive better business outcomes using data from resource-constrained edge devices 

Source: The Industry IoT Consortium

The Industry IoT Consortium® (IIC™) is devoted to driving the development of the industrial internet by building an ecosystem for open collaboration. It delivers transformative business value to industry, organizations, and society by accelerating the adoption of a trustworthy internet of things. 

Recently, IIC announced updates to its Industrial IoT Internet Connectivity Framework (IICF), a foundation document that guides the building of an Industrial IoT (IIoT) connectivity architecture. The latest version of the IICF expands the connectivity guidance to include lightweight, resource-constrained machine-to-machine (M2M) devices often found at the edge of networks. The IICF defines an IIoT communications stack and a connectivity assessment template. It applies the assessment template to evaluate IIoT connectivity standards and provides guidance on selecting the right connectivity standard based on system requirements. The IICF connectivity reference architecture enables data sharing and interoperability across a diverse range of IIoT systems.

Dr. Rajive Joshi, lead author, co-chair of the IIC Connectivity Task Group, and Principal Solutions Architect at Real-Time Innovations (RTI), points out that IICF laid the foundation for ubiquitous data sharing across the rich but often confusing landscape of IIoT applications five years ago and the updates and new assessments “cater to the communication requirements of resource-constrained devices.”

‘‘Sharing data is essential for organizations to create new value streams and unleash the potential of a global IIoT marketplace,” said Stephen Mellor, CTO, IIC. “The latest version of the IICF helps organizations use IoT connected M2M devices to drive better business outcomes.”

The IICF is a fact-based, consensus-developed document that provides a stable long-term foundation for IIoT interoperability. It offers helpful, practical, tangible guidance for requirements assessment, technology evaluation, and selection.

For more information and a complete list of contributing authors, please download the IICF from the IIC website.