Internet of Things (IoT) standards body, the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) , has announced one of the first OCF Universal Cloud Interface (UCI) platforms has been certified as part of its Cloud-to-Cloud (C2C) certification program. The OCF UCI C2C certification program, announced in July 2020, represents the first initiative of its kind in the IoT industry.
Haier Group, a provider of IoT ecosystem solutions, certified its Haier Cloud one month after OCF launched the UCI certification program. Additional information on the certified Haier Cloud can be found on the OCF certified product registry.
“Cloud-to-Cloud connectivity is key to achieving interoperability within the IoT. The launch of the OCF UCI reduces the complexity of implementing C2C, which greatly accelerates its overall adoption,” says Guohuo Chen, general manager, Qingdao Haier Technology Co., Ltd. “The Haier IoT Ecosystem has provided exceptional multi-scenario and customised smart home services for end users. The Haier Cloud receiving OCF UCI certification will further enhance the end user experience.”
The OCF UCI is an Application Programming Interface (API) that helps the IoT industry avoid implementing and maintaining numerous, simultaneously run, proprietary or custom programming interfaces. The OCF UCI is built using secure, industry standardised underlying technologies.
With the UCI publicly available, OCF is further simplifying C2C connectivity. Cloud solutions that implement the OCF UCI can communicate with each other instantly, meeting a variety of business requirements and saving on costly custom API investments.
To ensure compliance and interoperability of UCI-Certified Cloud platforms, OCF expanded its existing Device-to-Device (D2D) Certification Program to include UCI-Certified Clouds. The OCF certification programs provide robust, real world testing to help ensure that IoT products work securely together.
plgd reference implementation now available
Until today, there has not been a complete IoT protocol standard built on top of IP. A complete protocol standard supports all communication possibilities between the device and cloud, which is required not only by end-users, but by various industries as well. To address this, OCF has also developed the open source reference implementation of UCI – plgd (pronounced plugged) which is also available via the OCF GitHub.
plgd is a cloud native reference implementation backed by an ISO ratified IoT standard allowing communication on the proximity network without connectivity to the internet, remote access to devices in public or closed network or controlled exchange of the data between multiple IoT Cloud providers. It also features an immutable audit trail, secure device provisioning using manufacturer certificates and end-to-end security using TLS 1.2 all without any vendor lock in and with full deployment freedom.
plgd provides a complete set of tools and services to manage devices at scale. Allowing for the processing of real-time device data and interconnection of devices and applications based on an interoperable standard. The time to interconnect, monitor and manage devices in a cloud native way is here, and finally standardised.
“With the OCF UCI, its expanding certification program and the new plgd reference implementation, the possibilities of how IoT platforms can be deployed are unlimited,” says John Park, executive director, OCF. “IoT platform vendor lock-in is now a thing of the past. The OCF UCI, together with plgd cloud reference implementation, provides an end-to-end solution fulfilling cross-platform and cross-domain secure IoT connectivity.”
The OCF Specification Release 2.2.0, including the OCF UCI, is available for public download on the OCF Specification Page. For more information on the OCF UCI, download the OCF Universal Cloud Interface White Paper. The plgd open source implementation of the OCF UCI is available on the OCF GitHub. OCF members interested in certifying their UCI implementation, can visit here.
The Open Connectivity Foundation is a standards organisation that develops application-layer IoT protocols, based on the universally supported Internet Protocol (IP), using strong open standards. IoTivity is the open source reference implementation of the OCF specification. The OCF Core Framework describes device discovery, onboarding, security (and optionally, data models), for device-to-device, device-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud connectivity.
The OCF Core Framework can be used to carry the data models of other application-layer protocols. OCF is published as an ISO/IEC JTC1 specification, and there is a comprehensive certification program in place.
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