A Practical Guide to Using the Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework
this layer can share information, but
interpretation of that information is
completely up to the applications. This enables
basic communications, but makes it difficult to
interoperate between devices and software
that is not designed together.
others. Semantic interoperability is beyond
the scope of the IICF and this paper.
The Core Connectivity Standard
Architecture
The IIoT space is far too big to expect a single
connectivity standard to span everything.
Thus, to build an Internet, we will eventually
need to connect subsystems based on
different standards.
The next layer, called the framework layer,
adds structure to the data exchange. This
allows components to understand how to
process the messages, also called “syntactic”
interoperability. Participants above this level
can use different programming languages,
operating
systems,
and
processor
architectures transparently. The framework
layer also enables configurable quality-of-
services (QoS) like reliability, durability,
filtering and more. QoS enables control over
data delivery, including selecting information
and endpoint delivery conditions. Together,
these functions enable a “data model” for the
system. The data model is the basis for diverse
components to work together. Sophisticated
implementations can even match some
differences in data model, thus allowing a
large distributed system to grow incrementally
from parts that are not all developed or
deployed
together.
Thus,
syntactic
interoperability is critical functionality for an
industrial Internet.
The IICF does this with the concept of a
“Core Connectivity Standard” (CCS). The CCS
design eliminates the “N-squared” problem
by choosing a few standards that together
span the space and separately provide key
functionality. The design simply defines the
few standard bridges (called “core
gateways”) between core standards. Other
connectivity technologies can then interface
to the system through any one CCS. This
enables practical end-to-end data exchange,
as shown in the Core Connectivity
Architecture figure.
This design enables a scalable, deeply
connected future Industrial Internet of
Things. Of course, it does introduce the
question of what qualifies a standard to be a
core standard. The IIC reasonably requires
that a connectivity core standard shall:
Once participants can exchange known
structures, they must also know how to
interpret the information, aka “semantic
interoperability”. This is the responsibility of
the distributed data interoperability and
management layer. In the current state-of-
the-art, semantic definition is only practical
within an industry. There are many standards
that operate at this level, including the ICE
(Integrated Clinical Environment) in the
medical industry, OpenFMB (Open Field
Message Bus) in the power industry, and
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Provide syntactic interoperability,
Be an open standard with strong
independent, international governance
and with support for certifying or
validating or testing interoperability of
implementations,
Be horizontal and neutral in its
applicability across industries,
Be stable and deployed across multiple
vertical industries,