Delegate named for communication standard group

Bill Conley was named by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) as a delegate for oneM2M, which is a group dedicated to ensuring global functionality for machine-to-machine (M2M) systems.

By Control Engineering January 22, 2013

Bill Conley, a cellular device product manager for B&B Electronics, was tapped by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) to participate as a TIA delegate on the newly formed oneM2M. oneM2M was launched in July 2012 by seven of the world’s leading information and communications technology (ICT) Standards Development Organizations (SDOs). oneM2M plans to develop the technical specifications that enable machine-to-machine (M2M) devices to communicate worldwide.

Conley’s TIA 2012 presentation on the need to simplify the cellular network certification process prompted TIA to broaden its focus to include issues such as certification and deployment, as well as prompted his delegate nomination. Conley demonstrated the complexities and inconsistencies that device makers and developers encounter while certifying M2M devices, and that users encounter while attaching and using M2M devices on various carrier networks. He then proposed a common cellular network provisioning and connectivity framework, including a central, industry-supported M2M certification center that would encourage more collaboration between developers and carriers. 

According to Cheryl Blum, TIA vice president, Conley’s ideas to eliminate certification complexity struck a nerve with the audience that spilled into the hallways after his TIA presentation. “Conley’s wireless expertise and his intuition of how carriers and manufacturers can work together will help oneM2M achieve global standards,” said Blum. “We are reaching out to bring expertise from many M2M-related market segments to the oneM2M development table, and B&B can help us in vertical markets such as telematics, intelligent transportation, and industrial automation.”

Conley’s extensive wireless background will help the alliance identify standards-based hardware, software and protocols, as well as develop test specifications that could be used in certification, that will ensure devices are interoperable. “Being part of a group that gets to influence the development of M2M products so they can work for everyone is great,” said Conley. “oneM2M has already brought many forward-thinking global standards bodies to the table, which will discourage proprietary approaches and fragmented standards from forming.”

Conley started his career in 1987 as an embedded design engineer, specializing in the digital, microcontroller, and microprocessor arenas. He has designed SCADA and telemetry solutions for remote monitoring and control for 25 years, earning several awards including the "Best of Wireless Telemetry" (2002 Sensors Expo). He holds 3 patents in the industrial wireless field.

The technical specifications under development by oneM2M will address the need for a common M2M Service Layer that can be embedded within various hardware and software, and relied upon to connect the myriad of devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide. 


The ICT SDOs that launched oneM2M include: Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) and the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan; the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the USA; the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA); the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI); and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea. More recently, the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) joined.

oneM2M

www.onem2m.org 

Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)

www.tia.org