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Berlin 2017: Proceedings - Open Platform 3.0 Forum

Open Platform 3.0™ Forum Members' Meeting

Objective of Meeting

The purpose of the meeting was to advance the work of the Open Platform 3.0 Forum, particularly on the topics of semantic models for the Internet of Things and executable standards. The meeting also discussed security for the Internet of Things and updates to The Open Group Internet of Things standards.

Summary

The discussion of security for the Internet of Things (IoT) identified management of device Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) keys as a crucial topic for future work. It also concluded that how access to data is controlled by a platform should be governed by policy, so that different policies can be applied in different countries, and so that policies can change over time to address cultural and regulatory changes.

The discussion of semantic models for the IoT explored the use of the Open Data Element Framework (O-DEF) for semantic tagging in a specific use-case where Open Data Format (O-DF) data structures are used for IoT data. It concluded that:

  • When raw sensor data is given O-DEF tags, the object class should be the object class of the sensor, not of whatever is being sensed by the sensor
  • When raw sensor data with O-DEF tags is encoded in O-DF, the object class of an O-DF infoitem need not be given explicitly, because it is the object class of the enclosing sensor object
  • There should be traceability of generation of insights from raw data in a data lake, so that exceptional situations can be investigated

The discussion on executable standards explored possibilities for the development of executable standards to support The Open Group IoT paper standards, and make them easy to use. It considered an initial prototype executable standard using Node-RED, and discussed how this might be further developed to demonstrate use of O-DF and O-DEF. The Open Messaging Interface (O-MI) reference implementation is available to download from GitHub and has been deployed for public use in read-only mode on the cloud. This could form part of the executable standards base for The Open Group IoT standards. The Open Group Governing Board is discussing how The Open Group should address executable standards, and the Forum will follow its direction.

The main changes proposed for new versions of O-MI and O-DF relate to the addition of a function invocation capability. This would provide the marketplace definition format for the EU Horizon 2020 bIoTope project, in which The Open Group is a partner. An example function might be: "Find the nearest electrical vehicle charging station". It is largely implemented, and is being used by the bIoTope team.

Outputs

The meeting was productive, with good progress made on semantics for the Internet of Things and executable standards. This is captured in the detailed minutes, available to members.

Next Steps

Work on security for the Internet of Things will proceed and will involve The Open Group Security Forum, and possibly other Open Group Forums, as well as the Open Platform 3.0 Forum.

Work on Semantic Models for the Internet of Things will continue in the Semantic Interoperability and Internet of Things Work Groups of the Open Platform 3.0 Forum. The good practice that is being identified will be documented.

Work on the development of executable standards to support Open Platform 3.0 paper standards will continue, with the initial focus on executable standards to support O-MI, O-DF, and O-DEF.

Once the proposed new functionality for O-MI and O-DF has been tested, the updates to the standards will be drafted ready for review. It is hoped that this review could take place in the summer of this year.

The next face-to-face Open Platform 3.0 members' meeting will take place at the forthcoming Open Group event in Ottawa, in the week of July 17. It will focus on executable standards and on data lakes. There will be regular Forum web meetings in the interim.

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