The IoT-Ready Alliance Enables Future-Proof Buildings with its First Interface Specification

James McHale, Managing Director, Memoori

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One year after its establishment, the IoT-Ready Alliance has released its first specification – The IoT-Ready Interface Specification V1.0. The landmark specification defines a socket that allows any type of Internet of Things (IoT) sensor or control module to connect seamlessly to a luminaire or other building system. While it may sound simple, this marks an early step towards the ubiquitous future of the IoT in our buildings.

“The Interface Specification is a very important first step by the IoT-Ready Alliance to make the installation of IoT technology in luminaires easy today, and in the future,” said Joe Costello CEO of IoT solutions company Enlighted, who are soon to release their 5th generation and first IoT-Ready compliant sensor. “We are also committed to ensuring all future sensors meet IoT-Ready standards. We look forward to collaborating with the member companies to develop new technologies to speed the adoption of LED lighting and enable smarter buildings,” he added.

Developed under a royalty-free license, the IoT-Ready Standard specifies all interface elements, including mechanical, electrical and software. It also works with any network protocol including Thread, BLE, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, IP/Ethernet, etc. It provides a complete family of interoperable solutions to Smart Building IoT interface problems and allows in-field retrofit, replacements and upgrades without disassembly.

Take lighting, as the key example, to aid in the transition to an IoT dominated future the alliance has made the standard backward compatible with legacy lighting controls, and it can be implemented with traditional lighting controls until IoT is needed. It, therefore, provides a low-cost option to future-proof luminaires or other system components in buildings. The IoT-Ready Standard is also suitable for a range of applications, from simple, low-cost lighting control to high-end IoT sensing.

Importantly, the standard is network-protocol independent, which enables IoT-Ready-compliant products to utilise any networking protocol, either wired or wireless and is suitable for all LED lighting and building control networks. To support the release and the one year anniversary of the Alliance’s formation, organizations within the consortium are announcing their latest product releases as IoT-Ready compliant.
 
“The Alliance has come a long way, and in just one year, we have not only developed the IoT-Ready Interface Specification, but Tridonic is introducing the first IoT-Ready LED driver based on the Specification and available for purchase today,” said Karl Jónsson, Chief Commercial Officer, Tridonic Inc. “Our goal is to bring real differentiating value to the industry. We can accomplish this through our collaborations with the IoT-Ready members. We look forward to creating additional products based on the IoT-Ready Specification for the U.S. marketplace.”

IoT-Ready Alliance is a consortium of lighting, building management, and Internet of Things (IoT) companies and organizations that are creating a common standard for IoT-enabled lighting fixtures. Partners include ARM, Lutron, ERP Power, Shenzhen Click Technology, and HP’s Aruba, among others. They hope the standard will ensure all new LED lighting fixtures can be shipped with a standard socket to easily add intelligent IoT sensors to the fixture after the fixture has been installed.

“We’re very pleased that our collaborative environment and focus on results has enabled us to converge on a robust Specification so quickly. The Specification achieves our design goals of broad industry support, extensibility, low-cost, and simplicity of implementation,” says Evan Petridis, Chair of the IoT-Ready Alliance Technical Committee.

“In working with a range of companies from the lighting, lighting-control and IoT industries, I’ve seen what we can accomplish when we focus on results instead of defending industry turf,” he adds. “Now that our first Specification is published and products are on the market, we look forward to working together with other technical standards bodies in the lighting, building management, and IoT spaces to ensure a single set of coherent standards worldwide.”