Standardization activities

The project is actively contributing to standardization activities of ITU-T and ETSI.

ITU-T

The project is proposing enhancements and additions to Study Group 13 on Future Networks and Focus Group on Data Processing Management (DPM).

Concerning SG13 on Future Networks, we have the following:

  • Proposal to update clauses 7 and 8 of the draft Recommendation Y.ICN-FnChain, SG13-C-0519, (July 23, 2018 – ITU-T SG13). Specifically, we have clarified the concept of producer initiated function chaining and proposed a pub/sub application of the producer initiated function chaining. Moreover, we formulated a proposal for contents of messages for function chaining.
  • Proposal to fill the missing text in clauses 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 and improve clause 7 of the draft Recommendation Y.ICN-FnChain, 16885-C84 (181022), (October 30, 2018 – ITU-T SG13). Specifically we defined relations and interactions among the functional components of service function chaining.
  • Clarification of Y.FnChain to finalize the document for consent, SG13-C0559, (March 11, 2019 – ITU-T SG13). We proposed clarification and missing definitions to finalize the draft Recommendation Y.ICN-FnChain.
  • Additional use cases to complete Y.ICN-FnChain for consent, 17289-C156 (190617), (June 24, 2019 – ITU-T SG13). We have added use cases to help understanding the sensor-initiated communication model where the service function chaining is applied.

The last contribution above finalized the draft standard and the following standard is approved by ITU-T SG13.

  • Recommendation ITU-T Y.3073 (2019), Framework of service function chaining in information centric networking.

In June 2019, we proposed to initiate a new work item “Framework on Inter-Networking of heterogeneous application domain connected objects through information-centric networking in IMT-2020” in ITU-T SG13. This work item was discussed as a draft Recommendation ITU-T Y.ICN-interworking. To contribute to the above draft Recommendation, we contributed the following five contributions.

  • Proposal of initial text for Clause 8 of Y.ICN-interworking, SG13-C676-R1, (October 21, 2019 – ITU-T SG13). We defined functional components in information-centric-networking-based interworking systems. We also proposed a message format and the communication sequence.
  • Proposal to separate descriptions for control messages from data messages in clause 8 in draft Recommendation Y.ICN-interworking, 17741-C177 (200302), (March 9, 2020 – ITU-T SG13). We proposed to separate description on control plane and data plane.
  • Proposal to include messages originating from and terminating in the ICN-based common name domain in draft recommendation Y.ICN-interworking, SG13-C884, (July 23, 2020 – ITU-T SG13). We proposed to add the description of the messages initiated from or terminated in the ICN-based common naming domain.
  • Contribution for an additional local directory service setup approach and optional global name registration in Y.ICN-interworking, 18419-C53-R2 (201207), (December 14,2020 – ITU-T SG13). We proposed addition of local directory service setup initiated from the ICN-based common naming domain.
  • Proposal for consent of Y.ICN-interworking after editorial updates, 19143-C1 (210705), (July 6, 2021 – ITU-T SG13). We proposed the final update, which is mostly editorial, of the Draft Recommendation Y.ICN-interworking before consent

The contribution above finalized the draft standard, and the following standard is approved by ITU-T SG13 in September 2021.

  • Recommendation ITU-T Y.3077 (2021), F Framework for interworking of heterogeneous application domain connected objects through information-centric networking in IMT-2020.

Concerning FG on DPM, we have the following activities:

  • Proposals of new IoT use cases and requirements for smart city, FG-DPM-I-214, (January 2019 – ITU-T FG-DPM). Specifically, we conveyed a set of use cases which are being developed in Fed4IoT to be included in the use case output document of FG-DPM.
  • Proposed text to incorporate new use cases in D1.1, FG-DPM-I-247, (April 2019 – ITU-T FG-DPM). This contribution made the description proposed in DPM-I-214 aligned with other use case descriptions.
  • Proposals of general requirements in D1.1, FG-DPM-I-248, (April 2019 – ITU-T FG-DPM). We proposed general requirements extracted from the use cases.

The above contributions to ITU-T FG-DPM are made into specifications defined in the following Technical Specification:

  • ITU-T Technical Specification, Technical Specification D1.1: Use case analysis and requirements for Data Processing and Management to support IoT and Smart Cities and Communities, 19 July 2019.

ETSI

Fed4IoT, through several partners of the consortium, is part of the ETSI Industry Specification Group for cross-cutting Context Information Management (ETSI ISG CIM).

ETSI ISG CIM [visit page here] is a group of more than 30 different organizations that is publishing the NGSI-LD Specification, an open API and Datamodel for applications to publish, discover, update and access context information for smart cities and other areas, which evolves FIWARE’s NGSIv2.

Fed4IoT exploits NGSI-LD as a ”neutral format”, able to capture the structure and semantics of all other data formats used within project’s Root Data Domain.

In the following we list all major CIM Work Items and what active contribution we are bringing in or working on.

ETSI GS CIM-009 v1.2.2 – NGSI-LD API (published February 2020, [download here])

This is the NGSI-LD API specification work item. Overall, this API evolves the former OMA NGSI 9 and 10 interfaces, and FIWARE NGSIv2, to incorporate the latest advances from Linked Data. CNIT is now Rapporteur of this Work Item, and a new version v1.3.1 is going to be published in the second half of 2020. Several new features have been brought into this upcoming version:

  • Capability to list what entity types and attributes are currently available in the system
  • POST-based querying
  • Notifications via MQTT
  • Array-based representation of Multi-Attributes
  • Multi-tenancy support
  • Support of full GeoJSON results
  • Temporal aggregation functions
  • Allow for additional Headers (Authorization, Bearer) in notifications
  • More flexible query syntax

Moreover, Fed4IoT is active part in driving the process of publication, and in scheduling the new versions of the standard.

ETSI GS CIM-006 – Information Model (published July 2019, [download here])

This is the Information Model specification work item. It defines a cross-domain data model compatible with the NGSI-LD API. We contributed to the definition of the “system composition” concepts.

ETSI GR CIM-008 – NGSI-LD Primer v1.1.1 (published March 2020, [download here])

This is the NGSI-LD Primer report work item. It explains, through examples, the usage of NGSI-LD information model and API, essentially giving a more easily accessible introduction to NGSI-LD, for developers. NEC is Rapporteur for this Work Item, and we have extensively revised it. We are now working on adding more advanced functionality examples.

ETSI GR CIM-007 – Security and Privacy (still working draft)

This is the Security and Privacy report work item. It deals with security and privacy issues concerning the API, the platforms, and the context data items themselves. OdinS is Rapporteur for this Work Item. We are focusing on how to address security / privacy aspects when using NGSI-LD in different deployment settings. Furthermore we have introduced several new use cases and a use-case matrix to synthesise the relevant requirements.

New Work Items and Additional Activities

Further, a new Work Item named GR CIM-010 has been opened with the support, among others, of all Fed4IoT partners that participate ETSI CIM, i.e. CNIT, EGM, NEC, OdinS. This WI is devoted to NGSI-LD interworking, including with oneM2M, W3C WoT, and other systems. We will focus on the interworking with oneM2M, and CIM has already held a joint workshop with ETSI TC Smart M2M, showing a NGSI-LD Federation Demo based on Scorpio and fostering discussion about use of SAREF together with NGSI-LD.

Additionally, we have supported the creation of a TTF (Testing Task Force) on NGSI-LD testing in ETSI. The TTF reserves some funding for a group of experts to specify test cases and a testing environment for the API, because ETSI ISG CIM wants executable test cases to serve the open source ecosystem. The call for experts went through in March 2020, and activity of this TTF has officially started in May 2020. ISG CIM has structured the TTF activity into several Work Items, as follows:

  • NGSI-LD Testing Framework
  • NGSI-LD Test Suite Structure
  • NGSI-LD Test Purposes Specification
  • NGSI-LD Test Suite
  • NGSI-LD Testing Environment Validation

Also, a preliminary discussion was started about a novel CIM Work Item on Digital Twins, which Fed4IoT partners in ISG CIM fully support. EGM is going to be Rapporteur for this Work Item. The WI is officially registered as GR CIM-017, the ToC of is fully agreed, and Fed4IoT will contribute to this document during the second half of 2020.

Finally, a Whitepaper on best-practices for using NGSI-LD when modeling real-life data is under active development, and lessons learned in our project are transferred to it, wherever they are relevant to the goal of the whitepaper.