At last year’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) West I attended an M2M workshop and heard an interesting presentation from Numerex’s CTO, Dr Jeffrey Smith. He outlined the standardization work that ETSI (News - Alert) has been conducting in the last two years and predicted the emergence of important standards in Q1 2011. That prediction was correct, no surprises there, and I wrote about it: see “M2M in the Cloud: a logical development” and “M2M Moving forward via ETSI standards.”

I was aware that 3GPP was holding an open workshop in Sophia Antipolis, France – a beautiful, up-market location – titled “M2M, from Standards to Implementation”, but last week I got a short paper from Numerex (News - Alert) which indicated that a lot more standardization work needs to be done, and is being done.  

M2M communications is one of the two most powerful trends in the telecommunications and IT industries. The other is cloud computing. However, systems today look different in the U.S. vs. Europe, vs. China, vs. India and while many organizations around the world are working on M2M standardization in their own backyard, that only increases the possibility of redundant or conflicting standards. Without global standards the full potential of M2M deployments, involving networked security cameras and sensors, connected home appliances and HVAC equipment, ITS infrastructure for traffic and parking management, sophisticated smart grids and more will not be realized.

Creating standards that match the market

Apart from the need to nail down global standards, a massive effort is needed to ensure that the needs of the many vertical markets are addressed. More on this in a moment meanwhile get ready for some acronyms. 

The Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) M2M Standardization Task Force (MSTF) gathered for a two-day meeting in May, during TIA 2011. The primary objective was the exchange of information and ideas between traditional and non-traditional standards developing groups. The GSC MSTF is, to all intents and purposes, an information exchange designed to bridge the actual work of Standards Developing Organizations and the M2M industry’s needs.

After this meeting several critical and urgent issues emerged and it became clear that there is a need for a forum, with enough clout, where ideas on M2M and M2M standards can be exchanged. In addition, there was agreement on the need to consider the work being done in vertical markets where substantial standardization work is also being accomplished. This topic will be on the agenda at a September follow up meeting in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which will be open to the public.

The theme of this meeting is “M2M standards as growth enablers” and the goal is to present to a broad audience the pervasiveness and diversity of M2M technologies, underline the critical role of standards in market growth and encourage comments and ideas about the direction of standardization. Afterwards there will be an activity map that makes recommendations on current and future M2M standardization undertakings in close liaison with the ITU. 

Vertical markets

Speakers at the GSC MSTF meeting in September will include representatives from various markets and related standards organizations. Topics will include:

• Healthcare: Telehealth, telemedicine and remote patient monitoring in general are the talk of governments, healthcare providers and consumers alike.
• Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain: All kinds of vehicles are becoming more intelligent thanks to pervasive computer chips and other sensing devices.
• Residential and Commercial Security/Home Automation: Various groups and forums are working around the globe on standards that relate to secured access, surveillance, and alert remote monitoring. 
• Payments: M2M technologies provide flexibility and immediacy to the financial ecosystem. Smart vending machines are being deployed that can adjust the offer of the machine to the needs of the consumers. Security is a critical dimension of the M2M payments infrastructure.
• Manufacturing: Today, most industrial processes are automated and M2M technologies are increasingly contributing to efficient production environments. M2M helps monitor and control the collection and exchange of data between sensors and controllers during the manufacturing process in all kinds of markets.
• Energy: The production, transport and consumption of energy are a domain in which M2M has long been involved. Distribution systems that run over long distances require robust remote monitoring solutions. Also, M2M technologies are playing a decisive role in the development of the Smart Grid.

Conclusions

It isn’t a question of “if”. The industry needs to work together to make M2M worldwide standards a reality. It’s something that definitely needs to happen: the lack of standards will dramatically slow down the industry’s progress. Standards allow economies of scale and without them the industry cannot grow, evolve and succeed. 

Dr. Smith is inviting interested parties to register for the free conference in September: http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/mstf/upcoming.cfm. Additional information can be obtained from Alain Louchez, GSC MSTF coordinator, at alouchez-gscmstf@numerex.com.

Want to learn more about M2M technologies? Then be sure to check out the M2M Evolution conference, collocated with TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The M2M Evolution Conference is for those industry professionals interested in capitalizing on a rapidly growing segment of the telecom industry. The M2M Evolution Conference embraces the any-to-any strategy of the Internet today. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media, it showcases the solutions, and examines the data strategies and technological requirements that enterprises and carriers need to capitalize on a market segment that is estimated to grow to $300 Billion in the year ahead. To register, click here.