Requirements on the IoT communication platform and its standardization

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a topic of worldwide interest and is widely discussed. In Japan, the IoT Acceleration Consortium was established in June 2015 as an industry-university-government collaboration. To deploy various IoT services, it is important that the IoT platform provides information processing and communication network technologies. This study focuses on communication network technologies in the IoT platform. In IoT, a large number of data packets are transferred across communication networks. Therefore, some functions from conventional Internet technologies, such as access protocols and traffic control mechanisms, need to be enhanced for IoT. This study clarifies the network architecture, including wide area networks and area networks/proximity networks, for IoT. Then, it specifies the requirements of these networks and proposes technologies that can meet these requirements. The study also summarizes international standardization trends for networks in IoT and suggests future possibilities.