ETSI Standardizes M2M Communications
By Joachim Koss, Vice-Chairman of ETSI TC M2M
ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, was founded in 1988 as an independent not for profit organization setting globally-applicable standards in all areas of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as telecommunications, radio communications, broadcasting, and related fields.
There are currently 36 technical committees within ETSI working in the following areas:
- Wireless Access Networks (Wireless Access Systems and their regulatory environment)
- Future of Wired Networks (Access, control and services in next generation wired networks)
- @Home (Connecting devices for the home, Small-Office/Home-Office - SOHO, and Small & Medium Enterprise - SME environments)
- Transportation (Systems for people on the move)
- Content Delivery / Broadcasting (Building a community across different business areas)
- Living with Things (Integration of various "things" to create new network services)
- People & Social Responsibility (Technologies that improve people's lives and environment)
- Security (Standards for reliable communications)
- Public Safety (Communications systems for professional users)
- Efficient Interoperability (Enabling interoperability in a multi-vendor, multi-network, multi-service environment)
ETSI is a standardization body, which is officially recognized by the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) at governmental levels. It has today almost 720 member companies and organizations from 62 countries including manufacturers, operators, administrative entities, universities, public research bodies, small, medium, and micro enterprises.
Technical Committee M2M (Machine-to-Machine Communications)
ETSI has recognized that the human centric market continues getting more and more saturated, with the business segment of connecting machines to machines growing and being pushed by an increasing number of stakeholders. Numerous new and attractive business opportunities are being created and will inundate us over the coming years with billions of connected objects and associated services.
One of the latest examples of an m2m application is based on the European Smart Metering Mandate M/441. Millions of communicating meters for electricity, gas, water, and heat will be installed in Europe in the coming years with the respective Smart Grid applications soon to follow. In response to this increasing significance, m2m was declared as one of ETSI's strategic topics in 2008. In June 2008, ETSI hosted a successful workshop followed by a report on m2m standardization outlining the strong need for an end-to-end view focused on interoperability and inter working of m2m equipment based on already existing standards. At the end of 2008 the ETSI Board founded the Technical Committee M2M (TC M2M), which has since held eight plenary meetings. This committee includes European, American, and Asian experts from telecommunication network operators, equipment vendors, administrative entities, research bodies, and of course m2m specialist companies. The diagram shows the current composition of the Committee.
The TC M2M considers as machine-to-machine communications any automated data exchange between machines including virtual machines such as software applications without - or with limited - human intervention.
Vision and Mission
The Technical Committee's overall objective is creating open standards for m2m communications to foster the creation of a future network of objects and services so that already existing and rapidly growing m2m businesses based on vertical applications using a multitude of technical solutions and disperse standards can be turned to interoperable m2m services and networked businesses. The diagram shows the approach how to invert the pipes. Vertical proprietary applications shall be substituted by a horizontal architecture, wherein applications share common infrastructure, environments, and network elements. An m2m system described by clearly structured and specified network transitions, software/hardware interfaces, protocols, etc. shall ensure the interoperability of all system elements. The Technical Committee's work is based on the general guideline of utilizing existing standardized systems and elements. It evaluates them according to m2m requirements filling any gaps as necessary by either enhancing existing standards or by producing supplemental ones.
m2m System Architecture - High Level Approach
The m2m system currently being specified in TS 102690 (m2m Functional Architecture) consists of three main domains:
- m2m Device, Network, and Application Domain.
- m2m Devices operating stand-alone or organized in an m2m Area Network are connected to the network domain by an m2m Gateway, which provides the transition to different types of Telecommunication Networks (wired and wireless).
- Service capabilities form the interface between the Telecommunications Networks and the m2m Applications.
The key elements of the m2m architecture are described below:
• m2m Device
A device capable of replying to requests for data contained within those devices or capable of transmitting data contained within those devices autonomously.
• m2m Area Network
A network providing connectivity between m2m Devices and m2m Gateways. Examples of m2m Area Networks include: Personal Area Network technologies such as IEEE 802.15, SRD, UWB, ZigBee, Bluetooth; and local networks such as PLC, M-BUS, and Wireless M-BUS.
• m2m Gateway
The use of m2m capabilities to ensure that m2m Devices interwork and interconnect to the communications networks.
• m2m Communications Networks
These are the communications networks between m2m Gateways and m2m Applications (servers). They can be further broken down into Access, Transport and Core Networks. Examples include (but are not limited to): xDSL, PLC, satellite, LTE, GERAN, UTRAN, eUTRAN, W-LAN, and WiMAX.
• m2m Application (Server)
This is the middleware layer where data goes through the various application services and is used by the specific businessprocessing engines. The schedule for the first m2m Release consists of three stages:
- January 2010: Requirements are fixed
- July 2010: m2m Functional Architecture
- December 2010: Last level of detail provided by protocols
Conclusion
Standardization is a key enabler for developing the m2m market quickly and for achieving sustainability. To achieve this market growth, the current vertical m2m approach needs to be replaced by a horizontal one with a common m2m system architecture which shares m2m system elements. From the perspective of its functions and potential uses, m2m is causing an entire "Internet of Things", or Internet of intelligent objects and services, to emerge in the very near future.
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