IoT and the Application Layer Standards

In IoT everybody is discussing Z-Wave versus ZigBee versus 6LoWPAN versus... many other transport protocols. The discussion is not relevant. It leads us nowhere, especially with protocols like the 6LoWPAN, which by the way is the likely winner that will change nothing.

Why? Because even if every grain of sand on the Planet is connected (thanks to 6LoWPAN) and has an IPv6 address, it will still be disconnected.

Why? Because even if it can speak and listen when connected, it will not know the communications language.

Things have been different in the Internet of Humans (the one we use a lot today). The Internet, as we know it, has been a transport protocol. The content has been human - readable and present in languages humans can understand.

In the Internet of Things, we have no language. Connected things can transmit and receive signals but with very few exceptions they do not understand each other. Because there is no language, or unified application - level protocol.

So far the application protocol has usually been tied to a transport protocol. Z-Wave defines device type classes over Z-Wave transport. ZigBee has its own so called command clusters. Bluetooth has profiles. But even if there is a transport layer translator able to receive Z-Wave packets and able to transmit ZigBee packets, the translator also has to understand both Z-Wave classes and ZigBee clusters and be able to translate between the two application - level languages. And on 6LoWPAN we do not have any application level language defined at all.

Fortunately this is changing. Example: the IEEE 11073 standard matched with the -20601 application profile / exchange protocol define a medical / health device. It is transport - agnostic, works on ZigBee, Bluetooth and USB connections. This is the fundamental difference. With the application profile defined, any application interested in interacting with a personal health device can access it, regardless if it is connected to USB, or visible via wireless Bluetooth or ZigBee.

We need more like the IEEE 11073. More simple ones. A light source. A light controller. A heat / cool source. A temperature sensor. A presence sensor. And so on... Once defined and standardized, any application can start using them, regardless if they are Z-Wave or ZigBee or whatever. Without the ratified application protocol standards, the Internet of Things will continue to be rather disconnected, like an archipelago of islands, without a communication service among them.