Standardization - the longest adventure of the Internet of things
In early June, there was news that in our country a standard was developed in the terminology of the Internet of things. Rostelecom in this project cooperates with Rosstandart and is responsible for the content part. In this post we want to tell why standardization is needed and how it goes - both in IT and IoT.
For terminology to start appearing in any industry, there is no need for a standard in general. Everyone needs to describe what is going on, and everyone is looking for the right words for it. Many of them are borrowed from the English language, sometimes even without translation - where-where, and everyone knows about it at Habré.
But if the terminology is introduced like this, according to the situation, discrepancies are inevitable. Differences lead to disagreements, disagreements inhibit the development of the industry. Take a simple example: the word "platform." Even if you restrict the Internet of things, a few interpretations can be found easily. The search for a common language inhibits any interaction.
An example from our practice. For about six months we signed a usual memorandum of cooperation with one of the regulators, because lawyers on both sides could not find in the legal acts a reliable definition of “industrial Internet of things”, “maintenance of equipment as they are” and other concepts that we used in the memorandum . Similar interruptions arise with each client with whom we begin to develop new directions. Words familiar - and in the legal documents do not appear.
Formulations that are not generally accepted — that is, not written in GOST — in principle, cannot be entered into commercial contracts. Most of the Internet of things is the industrial Internet of things, where large companies work, which are very sensitive to any documents.
Common terminology is also needed for international interaction. This is one of the ways to simplify communication between customers and manufacturers from different countries. In essence, by creating a standard, we create a language for international communication within a separate branch of science and technology.
To solve all these problems allows the introduction of standards of terminology.
There are several options for standardization. The most common is the harmonization of international standard. We used it for the terminology of the Internet of things.
International standards in IT are created by a joint committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC / IEC). For the most part, the committee consists of representatives of state standardization agencies and major world vendors (Huawei, IBM, Dell, Oracle, and others). And the standard in the field of the Internet of things they have not yet published - this is a long process, which on average takes about three years. We, together with the technical committee of Rosstandart, created the Russian version based on the draft international standard.
IEC structure. Details on the commission website
What is included in the harmonization? First of all, this is a translation. Everything went smoothly with him, it was difficult only to look for analogues of English-language security terms: there are many formulations that can be easily explained in three sentences, but it is difficult to find one broad definition. After the translation is an adaptation. Here, too, has its difficulties. In Russia, operators collecting data from household meters should submit them to the GIS utilities (Geographic Information System of Housing and Communal Services). Although there is no single system in the international standard, in the Russian version of the standard it is necessary to describe the entire process of remote collection of evidence - and to justify its necessity.
The biggest difficulty in standardization is the time it takes.
First, a harmonized standard should receive the status of GOST. The application is made in Rosstandart. The technical committee of Rosstandard distributes the document for public comment. During the discussion, the document is likely to be further adapted to national circumstances; perhaps even new concepts will appear. Then the regulations of examinations and discussions come into play. The standard is considered in the relevant and related technical committees, whose areas are directly or indirectly affected in the standard. According to the results of these processes, Rosstandart approves the document and enters it into the GOST register.
And finally, at this stage the document is published for all comers. Unlike international standards, which are available in electronic form only for money, the Russian version can be obtained free of charge. Subsequently, the standard is still ground at the level of the largest market players, fixed in internal regulations, and included in tenders.
Due to the fact that work on the international and Russian versions of the documents is being conducted in parallel, the technological development of IoT in our country for this reason will not lag behind. The Russian part of the IoT standard will become an element of the international (ISO / IEC DIS 20924 Information technology - Internet of Things - Definition and Vocabulary). This is the first such case in the field of high technology.
The industry of the Internet of things is not reduced to one standard. Standards are being prepared for the reference architecture of the Internet of Things (GOST R "Information Technologies. Internet of Things. Reference Architecture of the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things"), according to the narrowband spectrum interaction protocol (GOST R "Information Technologies. The Internet of Things. Exchange Protocol for the Internet things in narrowband spectrum (NB-FI)). Like the standard in terminology, they are included in the national standardization program for 2018, and in 2019 we can expect the completion of work on them. We cannot guarantee any specific dates - the final agreement remains with Rosstandart.
We will be happy to answer your questions about the standardization of IoT terminology in the comments.
And what do you mean by ...?
For terminology to start appearing in any industry, there is no need for a standard in general. Everyone needs to describe what is going on, and everyone is looking for the right words for it. Many of them are borrowed from the English language, sometimes even without translation - where-where, and everyone knows about it at Habré.
But if the terminology is introduced like this, according to the situation, discrepancies are inevitable. Differences lead to disagreements, disagreements inhibit the development of the industry. Take a simple example: the word "platform." Even if you restrict the Internet of things, a few interpretations can be found easily. The search for a common language inhibits any interaction.
An example from our practice. For about six months we signed a usual memorandum of cooperation with one of the regulators, because lawyers on both sides could not find in the legal acts a reliable definition of “industrial Internet of things”, “maintenance of equipment as they are” and other concepts that we used in the memorandum . Similar interruptions arise with each client with whom we begin to develop new directions. Words familiar - and in the legal documents do not appear.
Formulations that are not generally accepted — that is, not written in GOST — in principle, cannot be entered into commercial contracts. Most of the Internet of things is the industrial Internet of things, where large companies work, which are very sensitive to any documents.
Common terminology is also needed for international interaction. This is one of the ways to simplify communication between customers and manufacturers from different countries. In essence, by creating a standard, we create a language for international communication within a separate branch of science and technology.
To solve all these problems allows the introduction of standards of terminology.
How to standardize
There are several options for standardization. The most common is the harmonization of international standard. We used it for the terminology of the Internet of things.
International standards in IT are created by a joint committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC / IEC). For the most part, the committee consists of representatives of state standardization agencies and major world vendors (Huawei, IBM, Dell, Oracle, and others). And the standard in the field of the Internet of things they have not yet published - this is a long process, which on average takes about three years. We, together with the technical committee of Rosstandart, created the Russian version based on the draft international standard.
IEC structure. Details on the commission website
What is included in the harmonization? First of all, this is a translation. Everything went smoothly with him, it was difficult only to look for analogues of English-language security terms: there are many formulations that can be easily explained in three sentences, but it is difficult to find one broad definition. After the translation is an adaptation. Here, too, has its difficulties. In Russia, operators collecting data from household meters should submit them to the GIS utilities (Geographic Information System of Housing and Communal Services). Although there is no single system in the international standard, in the Russian version of the standard it is necessary to describe the entire process of remote collection of evidence - and to justify its necessity.
The plot for Kafka (no, not Apache)
The biggest difficulty in standardization is the time it takes.
First, a harmonized standard should receive the status of GOST. The application is made in Rosstandart. The technical committee of Rosstandard distributes the document for public comment. During the discussion, the document is likely to be further adapted to national circumstances; perhaps even new concepts will appear. Then the regulations of examinations and discussions come into play. The standard is considered in the relevant and related technical committees, whose areas are directly or indirectly affected in the standard. According to the results of these processes, Rosstandart approves the document and enters it into the GOST register.
And finally, at this stage the document is published for all comers. Unlike international standards, which are available in electronic form only for money, the Russian version can be obtained free of charge. Subsequently, the standard is still ground at the level of the largest market players, fixed in internal regulations, and included in tenders.
Due to the fact that work on the international and Russian versions of the documents is being conducted in parallel, the technological development of IoT in our country for this reason will not lag behind. The Russian part of the IoT standard will become an element of the international (ISO / IEC DIS 20924 Information technology - Internet of Things - Definition and Vocabulary). This is the first such case in the field of high technology.
What's next
The industry of the Internet of things is not reduced to one standard. Standards are being prepared for the reference architecture of the Internet of Things (GOST R "Information Technologies. Internet of Things. Reference Architecture of the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things"), according to the narrowband spectrum interaction protocol (GOST R "Information Technologies. The Internet of Things. Exchange Protocol for the Internet things in narrowband spectrum (NB-FI)). Like the standard in terminology, they are included in the national standardization program for 2018, and in 2019 we can expect the completion of work on them. We cannot guarantee any specific dates - the final agreement remains with Rosstandart.
We will be happy to answer your questions about the standardization of IoT terminology in the comments.