More than 190 ITU-T member countries have approved OneM2M specifications as ITU standard, simplifying the IoT ecosystem lifecycle by reducing development, deployment and maintenance costs.

The ITU-T’s SG20 IoT and smart cities and communities (SC&C) approved OneM2M’s security specifications for IoT systems as part of the ITU-T Y.4500.3 series, making the entire suite of OneM2M specifications available for use nationally by ITU -T member states.

OneM2M is an open set of specifications that define a common set of horizontal IoT service functions, to enable secure data exchange and information interoperability across different vertical sectors, service providers and use cases. The standard APIs future proof the IoT ecosystem by reducing costs and enable interworking with existing IoT technologies. OneM2M standards provide an interoperability testing framework and support a global certification programme by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) for OneM2M based products.

With this latest milestone, the ITU-T has added IoT security capabilities to its recommendations of the M2M common service layer, built on middleware concepts, standardised by OneM2M. The approval happened over a multi-step process involving interactive discussions between ITU-T members and OneM2M experts.

“Security-related capabilities are an essential and complementary component in all IoT systems,” said Roland Hechwartner of Deutsche Telekom and the technical plenary chair of OneM2M. “OneM2M treats security as a common service function that can be applied in the same way across many applications in different verticals. It also emphasises the use of open standards so that service providers can control all entities and services in their deployments without relying on a single company or proprietary set of technologies.”

Since its inception in 1865, the ITU-T’s contribution-led, consensus-based approach to standards development allows countries and companies, no matter how large or small, to exercise equal rights in the development of ITU-T recommendations. Through its Study Group 20 (SG 20), ITU-T participants provide commonly agreed guidance for implementing the IoT and its applications, as well as smart cities and communities.

Rana Kamill of British Telecom, who is the ITU-T WP1/20 vice chair and has been leading OneM2M’s collaboration with the ITU-T, said: “The rapport between the ITU-T and OneM2M benefitted from international and OneM2M experts working in close collaboration to deliver common IoT standards and security that benefit the widest community.”

She said the OneM2M security document went through the ITU-T’s TAP typical approval process. This is the default method for international standards (recommendations) with regulatory or policy implications, for example numbering plans and tariffs. It has also been translated into the ITU’s six official languages of English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian.