Every connectivity standards body worth the name is looking for ways to extend its platform to tap into the hoped-for goldrush of the internet of things (IoT). The 3GPP’s LTE ‘Release 0’, Bluetooth Low Energy, WiFi’s 802.11ah extension and others are vying for attention, and now comes the turn of the Universal Plug and Play Forum (UPnP).
The organization will release a new set of specifications later this year, to extend its reach into the IoT, as well as cloud services. Its grand aim is to provide a standard way to discover and access all kinds of devices on any network, potentially riding on top of other technologies and unifying the many proprietary islands inherited from M2M systems.
This sounds uncannily similar to the objectives of the AllSeen Alliance, whose technology is AllJoyn from Qualcomm ‘ and could set up yet another Intel/Qualcomm tussle for power, given the former’s heavy support for UPnP. Both systems (and UPnP-based DLNA) enable peer-to-peer discovery for nearby devices, setting up functional networking services automatically and with no access point required. Initially they focused on ‘large’ devices like PCs and handsets, and increasingly looking towards all kinds of embedded gadgets.
AllJoyn is newer and has more high level capability built-in, as well as being, according to its supporting alliance, better equipped for multi-device connectivity and meshing. But there are clear agendas in common, and if UPnP is successful, it would greatly expand its reach beyond the IP local area network, where it currently lives.
The new specs would create bridges to wide area networks and to non-IP devices, using a ‘sensor bridge’, a small device which is used to store and translate data from various IoT gadgets and protocols. It could act as the go-between for many non-IP M2M systems such as Z-Wave, Ant and early-phase ZigBee, as well as the IP standards. The bridge functions could also be integrated into smartphones or other controller devices, linking the simple M2M sensors directly into WiFi and UPnP worlds.
The specs and open source software are in a 60-day review period, and should be released on a royalty-free basis before the end of the year.
Talking at the IoT Developers’ Conference in Silicon Valley last week, Alan Messer, a VP of UPnP who works for Samsung, told delegates: “Today there’s not a good standard for accessing devices across any network, but UPnP is working on it. The main problems we see are lots of proprietary protocols that don’t help anyone in developing ecosystems.’
UPnP devices will also be connected to wide area networks and the cloud using the other element of the new specs, UPnP+ Cloud Architecture. This will enable home devices located in different countries to work together via a cloud service. The platform is based on XMPP, the basis of many instant messaging services. However, this aspect shows that, despite Messer’s fine words, UPnP is not entirely catholic in its choice of standards. It will not support, for now at least, other important IoT messaging protocols, notably the IBN-backed MQTT, which has been adopted by Xively and for the General Electric-sponsored Industrial Internet Initiative. “The MQTT protocol hasn’t been proven at such large scale as XMPP,” Messer said.
Other enhancements in UPnP+ include support for IPv6, capabilities for discovering cloud services and new grouping/pairing features. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), whose standard is based on UPnP, is expected to adopt the new specs, giving them the necessary market punch.