Emergence of M2M Communications Standards

(Feb 21 2012) 3G , 4G , LTE , M2M , Mobile Broadband , Mobile Internet

1. Industry standards promote cross-industry adoption, lower costs and higher revenues

   The growth of the M2M market depends on the development of specialized solutions for each industry application cluster such as automotive, transportation, security, utilities/energy, public safety and healthcare. These solutions frequently require custom hardware or software, which typically results in longer time to market, higher development costs and higher operational and support costs. Little progress has been made to date in achieving interoperability across industry sectors for M2M applications.

   Several of the leading global standards development organizations have recently come together and announced plans to form a global initiative for M2M standardization, with an initial focus on the "service layer" and the development of common specifications, use cases and architecture principles across multiple M2M applications.

   This initiative will help drive multiple industries toward the goals of lowering operating and capital expenses, shortening time to market, creating mass-market economies of scale, simplifying the development of applications, leveraging the worldwide network for enhanced potential of services, expanding and accelerating global business opportunities, and avoiding standards overlap. In addition, the initiative will focus on cooperative efforts with other standards organizations representing multiple aspects of M2M applications, including:

   • The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the 
     Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the U.S.
   • The Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) and the 
     Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan
   • The China Communications Standards Association (CCSA)
   • The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
   • The Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea

   The TIA recently announced TIA 4940-005 – the first of a planned series of standards that address the M2M space. The widespread adoption of the TIA standards can facilitate the adoption of "common modules" (building blocks) that can help drive volume up and cost down for M2M modules.

   Wireless security is another integral part of planned series of M2M communications standards. The TIA reference architecture supports a variety of M2M security models on an IP-enabled network that will benefit from the planned series of standards. The development of standards and a reference architecture for these industry applications has the potential to streamline this process and accelerate the growth of the global M2M market.

   Pyramid Research recently issued its forecast for the North American Wireless M2M market, with total M2M subscriptions projected to increase from 24.6 million in 2010 to 63.7 million in 2016. North America is the most mature and the largest M2M market in terms of volume, accounting for a third of all subscriptions worldwide.  North American M2M airtime revenues are expected to increase from $808 million to $2.01 billion, representing a CAGR of 16.4%. The adoption of M2M standards should help to accelerate this revenue growth. 

   This revenue forecast excludes service management opportunities, which some operators are addressing to generate additional revenues on top of the connectivity airtime between the device and the application. With the emergence of M2M standards on the horizon operators and service providers will need to review and perhaps update their current enterprise-facing business models and alliances.  Along with an increased adoption of M2M solutions will come opportunities associated with integration and support services, hosted applications and the challenges associated with high volume and global deployments.  The emerging Wireless M2M market, applications in key verticals and associated standards development will be major topics in the
   4G World 2012 agenda.  

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