Roland Hechwartner summarizes the latest developments from oneM2M’s recent Technical Plenary #53 in this interview. In addition to representing Deutsche Telekom (DT), Roland is the Chair for oneM2M’s Technical Plenary (TP) and responsible for the coordination of the overall management of the technical work within the TP and its Working Groups.
TP#53 continued the recent pattern of one-line events which took place over the 2-week period from February 7 to 18. The longer event window permits shorter working sessions that suit the time constraints on members participating from different geographies and time zones.
Q: What were the main objectives for this TP?
RH: The main objectives for this TP were to progress Release 4 and reach a point where all Release 4 specifications are ready for ratification. Ratification is the decision taken by the TP that all documents comprised in a Release are in a stable and editorially clean version. This then allows for their publication at a regional level by oneM2M’s organizational partners.
A second objective was to decide on the Release 5 freeze of the requirements phase. What that means is no new requirements will be accepted for Release 5 beyond that date.
Q: We usually talk about activities in each of oneM2M’s three main work areas. Would you begin by telling us about the Requirements and Domain Modelling (RDM) group?
RH: Being the first stage in the standardization sequence, the RDM group focuses on the future roadmap. Its current emphasis is on Release 5. There was satisfactory progress on the Technical Report TR-0068, which deals with AI enablement to oneM2M. TP participants also agreed to add new use cases to the Technical Report TR-0001 Use Case Collection.
The work on AI enablement to oneM2M analyzed existing AI/ML technologies that can be resourced into oneM2M architecture. It is also investigating potential AI/ML service use cases that use data collected in the oneM2M system. The study on existing AI/ML technologies and use cases are further analyzed in this technical report to understand what features are supported and unsupported by the oneM2M system. Based on the result of this technical report, it will identify potential requirements and key features to enable AI/ML in the oneM2M system. What we could see, also in this meeting, is, that oneM2M does not re-invent things but rather refer to existing work. An example is the contribution which introduces a summary of the use case analysis from ETSI STF 601. This is a specialist task force (STF) that investigated the cross-domain usability of IoT devices for humans and machines. Their findings may be directly relevant to the effort of this oneM2M work item. The information is derived from the ETSI Specification TS 103 778: SmartM2M - Use cases for cross-domain usability of IoT devices which is currently being finalized for publication.
At the RDM meeting it was decided to keep Release 5 open for new use cases and requirements for at least one more TP meeting. This will allow new members to propose and incorporate their ideas. As a result, the milestone plan for Release 5 was adjusted to the current development and looks as follows:
R5 Stage 1 Freeze at TP#54 – Q2 2022
R5 Stage 2 Freeze at TP#56 – Q3 2023
R5 Stage 3 Freeze at TP#58 – Q1 2024
Let me take a moment to comment on the status of oneM2M Release 4. A few change requests remain open and will be dealt with before TP54. The ratification of Release 4 specifications will be prepared once all the baseline materials are available.
Q: The next group to discuss is System Design and Security (SDS). What were their main accomplishments?
RH: The System Design and Security (SDS) working group completed the protocol related work for nearly all Release 4 features. However, there is a need for one more interim SDS meeting to resolve all technical issues. Various maintenance work related changes and corrections are needed before Release 4 is complete and a final review of TS-0004 “Service Layer Core Protocol Specification” against TS-0001 “Functional Architecture” specification is required to check that there are no further missing pieces.
The SDS WG even progressed work related to Release 5. There were developments to the work item, WI-101, on Advanced Semantic Discovery (ASD). There were also discussions on other areas such as the Communication Management and Delivery Handling function and Management Objects.
Considering the existence of several Release versions, including the Release 5 additions, and the parallel development of specifications, the group discussed whether to stop maintenance activities of oneM2M Release 2. This would minimize the overall maintenance effort. The final proposal from the SDS WG, which was agreed upon by the TP, was to hold back on creating Release 5 document baselines until TP 54, the next meeting. That allows the Release 2 maintenance effort to remain open for one more meeting cycle.
Q: And lastly, what developments took place in the Testing & Developers Ecosystem (TDE) working group?
RH: The Testing & Developers Ecosystem (TDE) working group progressed the test specifications TS-0018 Test Suite Structure & Test Purposes, both for Release 4 as well as for the Release 3 version.
The TDE WG announced the creation of the oneM2M WiKi which is dedicated for developers. It contains information that complements the oneM2M webpage (http://www.oneM2M.org) with information on open-source projects, teaching material and developer material. The WiKi is well worth a visit.
The group also informed the TP about the plans to hold an Interoperability Event, if possible as an in-person session, during 2022. Stay tuned to get all the information as soon as possible.
Q: How are activities progressing with the sustainability initiative that oneM2M launched last year?
RH: Dale Seed, the convenor of oneM2M’s Sustainability Sub-Committee (SSC) gave a presentation to update the TP on recent achievements and plans. One activity that is progressing involves publishing a sustainability case study of the oneM2M standard itself. The goal is to increase awareness of the standard’s current set of features that can enable more sustainable IoT deployments. We believe that a wider discussion around this topic will also identify enhancements and improvements to the oneM2M standard with sustainability minded features.
A second area that the initiative is addressing deals with sustainability case studies of real-world IoT deployments. The aim here is to evaluate both oneM2M and non-oneM2M based IoT deployments to identify sustainability strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it is planned to share case study findings with the oneM2M TP as well as externally via white papers, webinars, articles and speaking engagement opportunities.
Q: What plans are in place for the next TP?
RH: The next meeting, TP54 will be organized as hybrid meeting hosted by ETSI at the ETSI facilities. The hybrid meeting allows remote participation, and I am looking forward meeting many new members.
