The lack of IoT interoperability means that data can’t be effectively exchanged across disparate, sometimes overlapping devices and systems
The lack of interoperability is one of the topical challenges in the IoT industry. According to ISO/IEC interoperability is “the capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units”.
Different studies highlight the following levels of interoperability:
- device
- network
- syntactic
- semantic
- cross-platform
- cross-domain
Some companies are trying to solve this problem by joining together in alliances. For example, the alliance Wi-SUN has more than 300 members, 46 countries and 100+ million devices worldwide. The mission of organization is to support industry-agreed standards, specifications, and programs, deliver great product connectivity, provide a forum for global collaboration to achieve interoperability.
The problem is also considered at conferences and scientific research. One of the topics that were addressed at the SEMANTiCS Conference 2021 concerns the development of semantic technologies. According to researcher Laura Daniele, the Internet of Things industry considers semantic technologies as promising for providing interoperability. The idea of semantic technologies is to provide a way to link and harmonize concepts in the data structures of messages exchanged by numerous existing platforms, regardless of their specifics at the underlying technical level.
Moreover, the challenge is being solved at the level of countries and regions. The program “Interconnect” offers interoperable solutions connecting smart homes, buildings and grids. The program involves 50 European companies from 11 countries, and it was approved by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020.
Thus, interoperability is a challenge that is important for the IoT industry. Our company also strives to create and provide a solution to eliminate this problem.
