Providing a common language to enable faster Industrial IoT (iIoT) development and a blueprint for standards development, the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has introduced an Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA).
Talking at the Industrial Internet Berlin Forum today, the organisation said the document offers a common language for the elements of Industrial Internet systems and the relationships between them.
To leverage the quickness of delivery of implementations, the new architecture gives developers decision power on which elements they need for their systems. The IIC said the IIRA will help place existing and emerging standards into a common structure.
Stephen Mellor, CTO at IIC, said: "As a global, non-standard-setting organisation, we see this as another step towards achieving global standards through collaboration."
Dr. Shi-Wan Lin, co-chair of the IIC Technology Working Group said: "For the IoT to reach the predicted install base of 50 billion things by 2020, developers need to be able to connect and scale systems quickly.
"The IIRA has broad applicability across industrial and other IoT systems to drive that scalability and interoperability within the industry."
Bradford Miller, Senior Scientist at GE and co-chair of the IIC Technology Working Group said: "The IIRA is an important first step towards establishing new IoT capabilities in the industrial space, enabling developers to operate faster.
"With the IIRA, we are creating new ways to organise industrial applications that move towards a usage-driven, rather than a design-driven approach. We believe collaboration is essential to achieving Industrial Internet success, and organisations like the IIC help drive best practice sharing through global partnerships with industry leaders."
The paper was produced by the consortium and its members, with contributions from companies including AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, Intel, SAP and Wind River.
