ITU announced the formation ITU-T Study Group 20 to address the standardization of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, with an initial focus on IoT applications in smart cities.
The new group will be responsible for standards to enable the development of IoT technologies, including machine-to-machine communications and sensor networks. The group will develop standards that leverage IoT technologies to address urban-development challenges.
A part of this study will be the standardization of architectures for IoT and mechanisms for the interoperability of IoT applications and datasets employed by various vertically oriented industry sectors.
The deployment of IoT technologies is expected to connect an estimated 50 billion devices to the network by year 2020.
“Building smart sustainable cities will require efficient collaboration between the public and private sectors,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.
In May, Dubai became the first city to assess the efficiency and sustainability of its operations using the key performance indicators developed by the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC).
“Networks of IoT technologies will improve our understanding of how cities function, introducing many opportunities for efficiency gains,” said Nasser Almarzouqi of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates, Chairman of the new Study Group.
Singapore has offered to host the inaugural meeting of the IoT Study Group.
