NIST takes lead on smart city framework
Connecting state and local government leaders
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is putting together an international working group to bring standards and interoperability into smart city architecture.
Cities that want to get “smart” can’t start from scratch. Because they must integrate new and often proprietary solutions into legacy systems, cites may be reluctant to make decisions on fundamental technologies in a market that’s just getting off the ground.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology hopes to change that.
Working with a group of international partners, NIST is looking relieve some of that uncertainty by creating a framework of common architectural features that will support smart city applications.
Based on lessons learned by pioneering smart city implementations, the group plans to develop an Internet of Things-enabled Smart City Framework – one that would allow continuous integration and improvement by adding functions rather than wholesale replacement or retrofitting.
To build the streamlined architecture, the group will study the “pivotal points of interoperability” (PPIs), or the interfaces for cyber-physical systems, by analyzing the
current architectures and standards that support modular integration. The work also includes best practices of seamless integrations and working PPIs into existing infrastructures.
The working group plans to deliver a technical white paper that will provide a common, voluntary, consensus of language/taxonomy and common architectural principles that will support interoperable and portable smart applications.
Besides international partners, NIST anticipates working with a diverse public group of city leaders and innovation officers, industrial and commercial groups developing smart city platforms and IoT specifications, state and federal government, industry experts, technical stakeholders and researchers.
Free, virtual meetings will be held regularly in a vendor-neutral forum, and deliverables will be available online. A draft result of the working group papers is planned to be available by fall of 2016, with a final draft in spring of 2017.
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