GSMA debuts IoT Big Data Directory to boost adoption globally across verticals

The GSMA launched Wednesday its ‘IoT Big Data API Directory’ that will make harmonized data sets from multiple sources worldwide available to developers and third parties, enabling them to create new Internet of Things (IoT) services.

The directory, which is the first of its kind, is designed to encourage a common approach to data sharing that will help the IoT to realise its full potential and encourage the development of new projects across transport, the environment and smart cities. Global mobile operators China Mobile, China Unicom, KT Corporation, Orange and Telefónica have already implemented solutions enabling them to share harmonized IoT data.

The IoT Big Data API Directory provides details of IoT and context data sets covering machines, devices, automotive, roads, environment, smart home and agriculture. All of the data sets are harmonized and can be viewed on github. A common approach to data sharing lowers costs and creates opportunities for IoT developers, data brokers and data providers.

The GSMA also released a document called the ‘IoT Big Data Framework’ to define how mobile operators can approach the delivery of IoT big data services. It is designed to enable industry participants to work together collaboratively to deliver big data services and support an ecosystem of third-party application developers. Mobile operators are seen as key participants in the delivery of an IoT big data ecosystem, although much of the IoT data that is collected will come from a range of data provider partners.

The document provides a framework for the delivery of IoT big data services that recognizes the different approaches towards the services that are offered and the technology choices that are made. The proposed architecture offers a degree of flexibility which allows IoT big data services to be offered in multiple ways.

“The IoT generates a huge amount of data that is currently retained in vertical silos. However, in order for the IoT to reach its full potential this data needs to be released and made available to developers and third parties,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “A common, collaborative and interoperable approach to big data will remove the commercial and technical barriers to capitalizing on the IoT opportunity and usher in a new era of IoT solutions that will help the market to scale. We encourage mobile operators to collaborate with the wider industry to benefit from the big data opportunity.”

“China mobile OneNET is an open IoT horizontal platform which contains the DMP (Device Management Platform) and AEP (Application Enablement Platform) functions. It has already served more than 30,000 developers and supported 8,000,000 connected devices in 11,000 IoT applications to date. The GSMA IoT Big Data Ecosystem project is working with the data community of different industries so that services like an urban air environmental monitoring solution can be realized based on the OneNET platform and IoT BDE framework,” said by Qiao Hui, the vice-general manager of China Mobile IoT Company. “The project brings the benefits of IoT solution delivery together and helps our partners to grasp the new business opportunities in the IoT industry together.”

“A huge amount of IoT related data is being generated by operators and their partners with the fast growth of IoT services. In order to fully exploit the potential value of that data, it is necessary to build up an IoT big data ecosystem based on the collaboration among various IoT data providers, big data infrastructure providers, data analytic service providers and data product consumers,” said Chihang Chen, General Manager of Technology Department, China Unicom. “The GSMA’s IoT Big Data initiative provides an open, harmonized and interoperable approach for operators to build such an ecosystem. China Unicom will take this opportunity to collaborate with various players and develop the IoT big data service based on our rich operation experiences on both the big data service and the IoT service.”

“Creating heterogeneous data formats in the IoT world to share anonymized data is both achievable and necessary, and our work with FIWARE supports a more efficient management of municipal services and brings open standards to transform cities into engines of growth,” said Thierry Nagellen, Program Manager Big Data, Orange Labs. “This GSMA initiative offers a unique opportunity to propose a common model that can be regularly improved. The interoperability provided by this coordinated approach democratizes IoT data consumption through any type of networks and will encourage the creation of new services.”

“IoT services such as energy, security, agriculture, automobiles, home and logistics are expanding to various industrial sectors and the demand on industry is increasing. These services are evolving toward creating new value by combining fast data generated by IoT devices, various Internet data and public data. The harmonized data model and standard data API derived through the GSMA’s IoT Big Data Project are expected to play a key role in enabling a more efficient service development in response to these market needs,” said Dr. Kyung-Pyo Hong, SVP, R&D Institute, KT.


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