The US Telecommunications Association (TIA) is hosting the first Global Standards Collaboration Machine to Machine Standardization Task Force (MSTF) meeting in Dallas on May 18th, 2011.  The MSTF was created in Beijing, China in September 2010.  

The purpose of the MSTF is to provide a forum where work on M2M/Internet of Things standardization can be discussed in order to foster harmonization and avoid duplication of effort.  The M2M Standardization Task Force is for individuals who can represent their organizations (SDOs, IEEE, etc.) in various capacities.  It’s not open to the general public.

However, the organization states that “it would be of great interest to benefit from the views of IEEE or other related groups.  TIA is in the process of finalizing the agenda and is looking for knowledgable speaker s(15 mn) to share a standards committee/ task force/ working group/ study group position on M2M/IoT standardization.”

The MSTF meeting will take place, during TIA 2011, which is a telecommunications-focused summit and exhibition show (http://www.tia2011.org/), at the Gaylord Texan hotel, 1501 Gaylord Trail, Grapevine, Texas 76051 Tel: +1.817.778.2000.

Alain Louchez of Numerex ([email protected]) is the coordinator of the MSTF meeting.  Please contact him for additional information.

The key deliverables of the MSTF are: 

-To facilitate global coordination and harmonization.
-To openly share relevant M2M material through liaisons, meeting invitations, etc.
-To outline the worldwide M2M activity map and make recommendations on current and future activities
-To encourage broad participation in the MSTF by GSC members and beyond
-MSTF will report to GSC -16 (to be held  in Halifax, Canada at the end of October 2011) on its activities and recommendations.

Jeff Smith, Chair of TIA TR-50 Smart Device Communications Committee, was appointed Convenor of the MSTF.  Cheryl Blum is TIA Vice President for Technology and Business Development and in charge of standards at TIA (an update on TIA’s work on standards can be found. at:  http://www.tianow.org/videos/innovating-standards-feb-11-2011/1479/

While the MSTF is only open to standards professionals, the TIA 2011 Conference is open to the public at large.

Comment:  The entity that “reigns sovereign” over the IEEE standards committees (including 802)  is the IEEE-Standards Association. To the best of my knowledge, IEEE does not have a standards committee on M2M communications or devices with embedded communications capability..  Rather, existing IEEE standards committees (e.g. within IEEE 802;16) may have a M2M study group or task group.  For example,

IEEE 802.16’s Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Task Group

http://wirelessman.org/m2m/index.html

IEEE Communications magazine April 2011 issue will have a special section on Recent Progress in M2M Communications
http://dl.comsoc.org/ci1/info/cfp/cfpcommag0411.htm

Note:  This call for participation has been sent to the IEEE 802 EC reflector – the email list for communicating with the 802 Executive Committee (made up of the 802 officers and working group chairs)/