Axiata, Vodafone and IoT Forum collaborate with TM Forum to speed commercial IoT deployments

London, UK — October 22, 2019 — TM Forum, the industry association driving digital transformation through collaboration, today announced the release of an IoT Device Management API Component Suite which provides a blueprint for end-to-end IoT device management. The new suite builds upon TM Forum’s Open APIs which are available for industry use. Developed in collaboration with Axiata, Vodafone and the IoT Forum, the suite helps service providers manage IoT devices throughout their lifecycle while speeding prototyping and commercial deployments so that service providers can rapidly expand their IoT offerings into vertical markets.

In addition to including established TM Forum Open APIs, such as alarm management, resource management and activation APIs, the IoT Device Management API Component Suite also includes an IoT Data Access Endpoint API developed by TM Forum’s Chief API and Ecosystem Architect Pierre Gauthier. This API allows for IoT data access using different types of protocols (MQTT IoT, CoAP, etc.). It encapsulates the protocols and allows devices to be easily integrated into solutions that support a host of IoT initiatives, including smart cities, smart factories and other vertical markets.

“In the 5G future, industry verticals will be served by ecosystems of partners that will provide a highly flexible, scalable set of digital capabilities,” said Anthony Rodrigo, Group Chief Information Officer, Axiata Group Berhad. “The Open API-based IoT Device Management API Component Suite is a key step in building the ecosystem and an example of how collaboration and standardization can solve some of the communications industry’s biggest challenges. We were keen to be a contributor from the early stage of the API component suite development as it is perfectly aligned to Axiata’s IoT platform and developer engagement strategy.”

“The ability to manage scalable IoT services requires an ecosystem design architecture underpinned by standard APIs to enable interoperability,” said Gauthier. “We solved this problem by developing an IoT Device Management API Component Suite that can manage devices through their lifecycle and support data from many different protocols. Not only does this help service providers manage their devices more efficiently, it also helps them to quickly build their enterprise and industrial vertical business units.” (Read more in a Q&A with Gauthier here.)

TM Forum & IoT Forum

The IoT Forum supported the development of the component suite by hosting a spec jam, contributing resources to the IoT specifications and committing to future collaborations by implementing the IoT Device Component suite inside their lab. When combined with the IoT Device Management API Component Suite, IoT Forum’s IoT gateway will provide a series of IoT infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities that can enable rapid prototyping and experimentation of IoT scenarios. In addition, TM Forum and IoT Forum will submit the new IoT Device Management API Component Suite to the International Telecommunications Union standards body for adoption.

“The IoT Forum considers enabling global interoperability in the IoT domain to be of the upmost importance. TM Forum’s IoT Device Management API Component Suite is a strong contribution to this objective and should ease the scaling of IoT adoption and deployment,” said Dr. Sébastien Ziegler, President, IoT Forum.

“Today’s IoT device ecosystem is burdened by bespoke integration and multiple protocols,” said Joann O’Brien, Vice President, Ecosystem and Labs, TM Forum. “This challenge has to date been unsolved, and it is hindering the large-scale commercial application of IoT. By joining forces with Axiata, Vodafone and IoT Forum, we developed an Open API-based solution suite that helps to address this challenge and speeds the delivery of IoT services.”