Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are evolving so fast that the coming wave of new M2M deployments will affect every business vertical, from consumer devices and wearables, automotive and public transportation to safety and healthcare, payments and shopping, and industrial applications for smart homes and buildings. As the footprint of IoT expands, remote control of those field devices is continuously growing in scale, visibility and importance.
The rise of lightweight M2M (LwM2M)
Lightweight M2M (LwM2M) is a device management protocol designed to control and service IoT things. Designed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and operating over the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), it is a standardised way to handle device management, service enablement and monitoring. It is well suited for a variety of IoT applications, from smart home devices to industrial automation systems.
LwM2M has the ability to perform remote management of devices, whether this is carrying out firmware upgrades and diagnoses or performing simple configuration adjustments over the network. It can use a variety of network transport protocols, from UDP or SMS to TCP, and is interoperable with all kinds of existing networks. As far as security is concerned, it makes use of the datagram transport layer security (DTLS) protocol to ensure the authenticity and confidentiality of data between different devices. The document using LwM2M has a standardised object model so it can be used for talking between different manufacturers’ devices, building a much more scalable IoT infrastructure.
Device management in M2M
Effective device-management is important in for the efficient, secure and scalable operation of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). With the increase in the number of devices to be managed, device-management activities have become more complex so they can address the exponentially-growing number of device-to-device, device-to-network and device-to-application interactions. These activities include the provisioning of devices to the network including their configuration, monitoring, diagnostics, firmware-updating, security management and so on. By effectively managing devices for optimum operations, device and system downtime are reduced, and the overall reliability of systems is enhanced.
Device management standards – like lightweight M2M (LwM2M), standardised by the OneM2M industry group – have emerged to tackle the resource constraints that characterise IoT devices. The LwM2M protocol ensures that device management systems scale across diverse device types and manufacturers. Remote device management capabilities implemented through these frameworks support mission-critical functionalities such as over-the-air updates, instant, out-of-band monitoring and secure communication, which are needed to maintain the health and function of scaled IoT deployments and to ensure their integrity and resilience in the face of the constant underlying technological innovation. Ultimately, for scalable and robust IoT, it is crucial that device management be remote, enabling efficiency in operations and reducing maintenance costs, while also ensuring problem reporting and rapid response to avoid IoT services downtime when new challenges emerge.
Key characteristics of LwM2M
- Extensible data model: It offers an extensible data model capable of being customised to any type of M2M service
- Low-cost, performance-constrained devices: LwM2M optimises this for very low-cost, performance-constrained devices, minimising data transmission
- Internet-style protocol: Using the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) as its foundation, LwM2M is engineered for wireless interoperability with constrained devices and constrained networks
- Universal network compatibility: It is adaptable across various network types
Interoperability and security
Interoperability and security are two key elements that determine the efficiency and robustness in IoT and M2M communication. Interoperability is the ability of disparate devices and systems equipped with different manufacturers, operating systems or language to communicate with one another. Without interoperability, many different IoT applications would not be possible today. Interoperability is critical because it makes it possible for a wealth of different devices to work together into a single coherent network of objects that can communicate with each other.
Promoting interoperability is one of the goals of initiatives such as OneM2M . Through the widespread use of interoperable standards such as LwM2M using a common language to interact over the Internet, devices produced by different manufacturers can work together without custom coding required during manufacture for each device. This allows interoperable M2M applications to innovate and be scaled to millions of things or more.
Security is another layer of the cake that makes sure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the information carried between IoT devices are guaranteed. M2M communications involves a very large number of interconnected devices with a huge number of entry points. This means that cybersecurity protocols need to be extremely strong to safeguard against potential cyberattacks. To this end, standards such as LwM2M, include security algorithms such as datagram transport layer security (DTLS) to encrypt the transmitted data and to authenticate between executing nodes, thereby avoiding anyone outside the network to tamper with the flow of control and data.
With rigorous security protocols put in place, risks such as data breaches and unauthorised actions – such as in healthcare, industrial automation and smart cities – can be mitigated against to ensure overall resilience. Beyond saving money, security is crucial to creating a reliable M2M ecosystem to protect the privacy and integrity of the exchanged information. Creating trust for the users and other stakeholders of IoT technologies is also of paramount importance for the widespread adoption and growth of IoT.
Embracing open source
The evolution of LwM2M is driven by a vibrant open-source community, they provide a development platform such as the OMA LwM2M Developer ToolKit that is available to companies to adopt LwM2M for their products and services. Open-source projects accelerate innovation and motivate developers to build and manage M2M solutions more efficiently.
LwM2M provides a scalable, efficient and interoperable platform, forming a solid foundation for a thriving market of new services and billions of connected devices. Stay tuned for upcoming developments in LwM2M and its significant impact on the IoT landscape.
Article by Magda Dąbrowska, editor at WeKnow Media
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