Machine-to-machine (M2M) services are now present in almost every area of social and economic activity. From personal fitness to city-wide environmental monitoring, data is being collected, processed and summarized to support smart services. With this explosion comes important challenges such as ensuring the reliability, maintainability, scaling and security of these innovations. To provide a platform to address these areas, the oneM2M global partnership has developed a technical standard defining a common M2M Service Layer that can be readily embedded within various hardware and software, and relied upon to connect the myriad of devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide. The oneM2M standard is now being applied to Smart City projects and also gaining interest in several other fields.
ATIS is a founding partner of oneM2M and, as such, is supporting creation of an environment and ecosystem that encourages the successful commercial adoption of this standard. ATIS member companies recognized that the availability of open source implementations is one factor that can help drive adoption. A member-driven focus group in ATIS identified that no open source lightweight client platform existed to help bring the power of oneM2M to smaller scale applications. Applications that require lightweight client hardware include areas where meeting aggressive targets for device cost and power consumption (e.g. to enhance battery life) are critical. The ATIS group recognized that a portable, lightweight oneM2M client platform would help bring oneM2M benefits to clients such as smart meters, wearable devices and low-cost environmental monitors which previously had been generally considered as lacking the resources needed to support oneM2M natively.
In October 2017, ATIS launched the Open Source IoT (IS-IoT) platform which provides native support for oneM2M signaling on lightweight devices. By incorporating OS-IoT in their code, client developers gain access to a resource-oriented view of oneM2M services that gives them the ability to take advantage of oneM2M service capabilities and to integrate their client with oneM2M infrastructure. The heart of the OS-IoT deliverable is a client library with minimal architectural dependencies – permitting targeting of different CPUs and operating systems. This is augmented by several example applications including a oneM2M command line application. ATIS also provides test cases and extensive documentation of the library at os-iot.org.
By making it easier to support oneM2M in simple devices, OS-IoT is ideal for use by smaller-scale embedded application developers who want to take their apps global with ease. The software reduces time-to-market and barriers to entry to growing IoT markets including Smart Cities, Smart Home, Smart Transport and more. By using the OS-IoT library application, instead of having to deal with networks and protocols, application developers are freed to focus on the unique, value-added aspects of their applications — and create the innovations that are revolutionizing how the IoT delivers value to both organizations and consumers.
There are many other ways that the oneM2M standard delivers value to the IoT hardware and application developer communities. oneM2M masks technology complexity in different layers of the application stack, above the client. It also simplifies the mixing and matching of different technology building blocks and protocols. ATIS is excited to make the OS-IoT software available to help developers use the M2M standard to make their apps more effective and secure.
