[secdir] [new-work] Call For Papers: IoT Semantic Interoperability Workshop

[IAB Executive Administrative Manager <[e-mail]>]

This mailing list is normally used for announcing potential new
IETF work, but this posting relates to an IAB workshop. Given
that this workshop is on the topic of coordinating a particular
aspect of Internet of Things related work across different
standards organisations, we felt that using the new-work
list to let you know about this workshop was also useful.

-

IoT Semantic Interoperability Workshop

Background

With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), interoperability 
becomes more and more important. Standards-developing organizations have 
done a tremendous amount of work to standardize protocols to simplify 
implementation and to lower the cost of IoT products. As a result, new 
protocols were developed, existing protocols were combined in new ways, 
and lightweight profiles were defined.

At the application layer, interoperability is not yet mature; the work 
on data formats (in the form of data models and information models) has 
not seen the same level of consistency throughout various 
standardization groups. Examples of standardization efforts in this area 
include the work by IPSO on their Starter Pack, the Cluster Library 
developed by the Zigbee Alliance, the OMA LWM2M, or the UPnP Management 
and Control:1 specifications.

One common problem is the lack of an encoding-independent 
standardization of the information, the so-called information model. 
Another problem is the strong relationship with the underlying 
communication architecture, such as an RPC or a RESTful design. 
Furthermore, different groups develop similar concepts that only differ 
slightly, leading to interoperability problems. Finally, some groups 
favor different encodings for use with various application layer 
protocols.

This raises a number of questions:

- What is the state of the art in data and information models? What 
  should an information model look like?
- What is the role of formal languages, such as schema languages, in 
  describing information and data models?
- What is the role of metadata, which is attached to data to make it 
  self-describing?
- How can we achieve interoperability when different organizations, 
  companies and individuals develop extensions?
- What is the experience with interworking various data models developed 
  from different groups, or with data models that evolved over time?
- What functionality should online repositories for sharing schemas 
  have?
- How can existing data models be mapped against each other to offer 
  interworking?
- Is there room for harmonization, or are the use cases of different 
  groups and organizations so unique that there is no possibility for 
  cooperation?
- How can organizations better work together to increase awareness and 
  information sharing?

(A discussion about the difference between information and data models 
can be found in RFC 3444.)

Workshop Style

The workshop’s main focus will be on discussing the harmonization of 
information and data models for use with IoT deployments. In order to 
keep the group at a manageable size, prospective participants are 
required to submit a position paper as an expression of interest. We 
will invite the authors of accepted position papers to attend the 
workshop.

The workshop will be structured as a series of working sessions 
punctuated by invited speakers, who will present on-going 
standardization and research developments. The organizing committee may 
ask submitters of particularly salient papers to present their ideas and 
experiences at the workshop. We expect active participation of all 
guests.

Participation at the workshop is free of charge.

Important Dates

Position papers must be submitted by February 22nd, 2016 at the latest.

The program committee will review submitted position papers and send an 
invitation to the workshop to one of the paper authors. Invitations will 
be distributed by February 27th, 2016 at the latest.

This workshop will be a day and a half, and take place on the 17th and 
18th of March, 2016.

Position Paper Requirements

Interested parties must submit a brief document. We welcome papers that 
describe existing work, answers to the questions listed above, new 
questions, write-ups of deployment experience, lessons-learned from 
successful or failed attempts, and ideally a vision. Contributions are 
not required to be original in content.

We solicit brief write-ups of one to three pages, formatted as HTML, 
PDF, or plain text (for example as a submitted Internet Draft).  
Representatives of IoT Standards Development Organizations or Alliances, 
who have published relevant specifications, and representatives of 
vendors who have shipped commercial IoT products supporting multiple 
schemas, may minimally submit a pointer to existing documentation.

We will publish accepted position papers (as well as meeting minutes, 
slides, and a workshop report). Please send your position paper to 
[e-mail].

Venue

The planned location for the workshop is San Jose, California, US. We 
will provide the full details of the meeting venue to the invited 
workshop participants. The workshop includes coffee and tea during 
breaks.

IPR Policy

The workshop will have no expectation of IPR disclosure or licensing 
related to its submissions.

Privacy Notice

You provide your name and your email address for the registration to 
this workshop. We use this information for planning purposes (such as 
finding rooms and ordering refreshments). We will also use this 
information to contact you about the location of the meeting venue, or 
other urgent and relevant notifications. Before the meeting minutes are 
publicly distributed, you will also receive a copy for review. We will 
share your contact details with the other workshop participants.

Program Committee

This workshop is organized by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and 
the following persons:

- Jari Arkko, IETF Chair / Ericsson, Finland.
- Ralph Droms, IAB / Cisco, US.
- Jaime Jimenez, Ericsson, Finland.
- Michael Koster, SmartThings/Samsung, US.
- Dave Thaler, IAB / Microsoft, US.
- Hannes Tschofenig, ARM Ltd, Austria.

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