i3 - May/June 2016 - 28

devices, controlled by its smartphones. It has
acquired a couple dozen startups and launched
products, including energy and health monitors
and security devices.
And Chinese Internet search engine giant Baidu,
resembling Google in its initiatives, is taking a
different approach. It is testing smart eyewear and
autonomous cars.
While such technology fragmentation seems
un-Chinese, analysts see it as a way to develop
IoT standards that could go global, according to
Matthew Fulco in his report Poised for Takeoff:
China's Internet of Things.
The evolving IoT platform situation in China
encapsulates the broader issue of global standards.
In February, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft,
Qualcomm, Samsung, GE Digital, Electrolux ARRIS and CableLabs unveiled
The Open Connectivity Foundation
(OCF) to create standards and "IoT solutions and devices that work seamlessly
together." OFC replaces the Open Interconnect Consortium, formed in 2014. It
brings together strange bedfellows that
had previously pushed their own rival
alliances for various IoT initiatives.
"Fragmentation is the enemy of IoT,"
says Michael Wallace, president of
Qualcomm Connected Experiences
Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc.
The new OFC is intended to fulfill the
IoT promise that "anyone from a large
technology company to a maker in their
garage can adopt the open standards of
OCF to innovate and compete, helping ensure secure interoperability for
consumers, business and industry."
Separately, the GSM Alliance, which
manages some wireless technology, has
launched "IoT Security Guidelines," to
offer IoT ecosystems advice for attacking common cybersecurity threats
as well as data privacy issues associated with IoT services. The project
is backed by AT&T, Verizon, China
Telecom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange
and Telefónica plus vendors such as
Ericsson, Gemalto and Telit.
"As billions of devices become connected in the Internet of Things...the
possibility of potential vulnerabilities
increases," says Alex Sinclair, CTO at
GSMA. "These can be overcome if the
end-to-end security of an IoT service is
carefully [designed] and an appropriate
28

MAY/JUNE 2016

mitigating technology is deployed."
Mozilla has also plunged into the "personal Web of things," with an emphasis on smart TV and its speech project Vaani, seen as a move toward artificial
intelligence. And Microsoft continues to develop its Azure IoT Hub, a cloud
service to connect and manage sensors and other smart devices.
CALL SECURITY
These projects and dreams for standards are tempered slightly by the
inevitable dilemma about how to handle safety, privacy and security
involving IoT. In its survey IoT Trends, Challenges and Experiences in
February, James Brehm & Associates found that almost two-thirds of
business executives worldwide said that security was a top barrier to
IoT growth. Interoperability was the next hurdle, cited by 51 percent
of respondents.
"The growth of connected devices and the IoT prompts serious consideration of data privacy and security," says Brad Russell, a big
data research analyst at Parks
Associates, which has also
been monitoring IoT development. His study found that
about 40 percent of consumers
fret about privacy and security
for IoT applications such as
door locks, openers, computers

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i3 - May/June 2016

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