RTI Co-Authors First Connectivity Framework for the Industrial Internet

The Industrial Internet Consortium Details Use of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) Standard as a Core Connectivity Standard for the IIoT

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Feb. 28, 2017—Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity company, today announced the company’s leadership in the creation of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)'s Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework (IICF), released today. The IICF is a key milestone; it is the first time a major consortia analyzed the technical connectivity problem for the Industrial IoT. Dr. Rajive Joshi, Principal Solution Architect at RTI and Co-Chair of the IIC Connectivity Task Group, was the lead author and editor of the IICF. Joshi collaborated with other market leaders, such as Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson and ABB, as well as RTI colleagues, Dr. Stan Schneider, CEO; Dr. Gerardo Pardo, CTO; and Brett Murphy, Director of Business Development for IIoT.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a new and confusing, yet huge market opportunity. There are many technologies, both proprietary and standard, proposed for various use cases. Until the IICF, there were no guidelines for selecting the right fit. Worse, there was no architecture for combining technologies into a comprehensive design for a true Internet of Things. The confusion hindered the seamless data sharing required to enable a global IIoT marketplace.

With the guidance of the IICF, system developers now have a clear roadmap for navigating the IIoT connectivity landscape. The framework clarifies the connectivity stack, provides an assessment template for system architects evaluating connectivity technologies, defines a reference architecture for data sharing and establishes criteria for core connectivity standards. Perhaps more importantly, it also analyzes the capabilities of current standards, including the Data-Distribution Service™ (DDS™) standard, OPC UA, OneM2M, REST, MQTT, and more. The resulting analysis helps designers make an immediate, intelligent choice for their use case, as well as design a system for future integration with the larger IIoT.

The framework has two overarching goals. First, it brings clarity that will accelerate the development of new IIoT applications across industries. Second, it provides architecture to enable data sharing and interoperability between previously closed components and subsystems.

Both goals are met with the concept of a "core connectivity standard." This concept expedites adoption by outlining key connectivity criteria. For the first time, the IICF firmly defines the minimum expectation of a connectivity framework: It must provide syntactic interoperability—the unambiguous exchange of structured data—between IIoT components and subsystems. The IICF then catalogs the common IIoT standards that meet this basic requirement and guides system architects in determining a suitable core connectivity standard based on their system requirements.

"The release of the IICF is a critical milestone in the acceleration of the Industrial Internet. It took years of work involving many key contributors and full participation from champions of the various standards. The resulting clarity empowers system integrators and developers to evaluate IIoT protocols and communication patterns, and select the best-fit technology for their application," said Dr. Stan Schneider, CEO at RTI. "RTI has a long history in standards development, starting with the development of the DDS standard, and extending to 15 different consortia. Our proven connectivity technology powers many intelligent distributed systems, from self-driving cars (carbots) to medical devices. The IICF points to DDS as the right choice for software systems requiring performance, reliability, scalability, security and safety."

The IICF follows the launches of the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF), published in Sept. 2016, and the second version of the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA), published at the end of last month. The newly announced IICF is critical part of the IIoT and the most technical document released by the IIC thus far. Together, these documents provide a comprehensive architecture for the IIoT.

The Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework is now available for download on the IIC’s website: http://www.iiconsortium.org/.

About RTI

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company. The RTI Connext® databus is a software framework that shares information in real time, making applications work together as one, integrated system. It connects across field, fog and cloud. Its reliability, security, performance and scalability are proven in the most demanding industrial systems. Deployed systems include medical devices and imaging; wind, hydro and solar power; autonomous planes, trains and cars; traffic control; Oil and Gas; robotics, ships and defense.

RTI lives at the intersection of functional artificial intelligence and pervasive networking^SM.

RTI is the largest vendor of products based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.