This week, ITU announced the establishment of a new ITU-T Study Group to address the standardization requirements of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, with an initial focus on IoT applications in smart cities. The decision to create “ITU-T Study Group 20: IoT and its applications, including smart cities and communities” was made by the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) at its meeting at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, recently.
The group aims to develop standardization of end-to-end architectures for IoT and mechanisms for the interoperability of IoT applications and datasets employed by various vertically oriented industry sectors to address urban-development challenges.
According to ITU, in May, Dubai became the world’s first city to assess the efficiency and sustainability of its operations using the key performance indicators developed by the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC). The two-year pilot project will evaluate the feasibility of the indicators with the aim of contributing to their international standardization, added ITU.
Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General, ITU
Building smart sustainable cities will require efficient collaboration between the public and private sectors. This new ITU-T Study Group will bring together a diverse selection of stakeholders, placing ITU’s technical expertise at the service of other industry sectors as well as the national and metropolitan administrations responsible for urban development.
Nasser Almarzouqi, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, United Arab Emirates, Chairman of the New Study Group
Networks of IoT technologies will improve our understanding of how cities function, introducing many opportunities for efficiency gains. With participants representing the many stakeholders in the field of information and communication technologies, this Study Group will be influential in promoting the development of the highly efficient ‘systems of systems’ that will help bridge the digital divide and enable a more connected world.
