Mysuru:  World Telecommunication and Information Society Day-2019 was celebrated in the premises of the Institution of Engineers-India (IEI), Mysuru Local Centre, recently. The theme of the day was ‘Bridging the Standardisation Gap.’

Phani Kumar Golapalli, Sub Divisional Engineer, Regional Telecom Training Centre, BSNL, Mysuru, who was the guest speaker, said that the Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging area of the modern technology which has an impact over governance, education, business, manufacturing, entertainment, transportation, infrastructures, health care, and so on.

The success and widespread adoption of the IoT has increased many folds over the last few years. Essentially, IoT has brought vast industrial revolution and has helped automate many processes within organisations and homes. However, the rapid growth of IoT is also a cause for significant concern. Creating a generalised framework for the IoT with heterogeneous devices and technology support requires interoperability across products, applications, and services that preclude vendor lock-in.

The absence of effective regulation, standards and weak governance has led to a continual downward trend in the security of IoT networks and devices, as well as given rise to a broad range of privacy issues. Global standardisation of the IoT is the only solution to this. Though standardisation efforts in the IoT are not new with many national and international standard bodies working today, there are many open areas to debate and standardise — like reconciling country-specific efforts, empowering local solutions, etc.

This presentation brings a holistic view of the existing IoT standards, discusses their interlinking, and enumerates the pain points with possible solutions. There are several ongoing efforts in different Standard Development Organisations (SDOs) across the world to build standard platforms, protocols and technologies to ensure seamless operation of IoT devices. It also explains the need for country-specific standardisation with the example of an Indian Standard Development Organisation (SDO), vis-a-vis global initiatives, as a driver for societal uplifting and economic growth.