ISO/IEC 21823-1:2019

ISO/IEC 21823-1
Edition 1.0 2019-02
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Internet of things (IoT) – Interoperability for iot systems –
Part 1: Framework
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about
ISO/IEC copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address
below or your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished

Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.

need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service

Centre: sales@iec.ch.
ISO/IEC 21823-1
Edition 1.0 2019-02
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Internet of things (IoT) – Interoperability for iot systems –

Part 1: Framework
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.020 ISBN 978-2-8322-6567-3

– 2 – ISO/IEC 21823-1:2019 © ISO/IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Abbreviated terms . 8
5 Overview of Internet of Things interoperability . 8
5.1 Descriptions . 8
5.2 Considerations for Internet of Things interoperability . 8
5.3 Internet of Things interoperability facet model . 9
5.3.1 General . 9
5.3.2 Transport interoperability . 10
5.3.3 Syntactic interoperability . 10
5.3.4 Semantic interoperability . 11
5.3.5 Behavioural interoperability . 11
5.3.6 Policy interoperability . 11
5.3.7 Summary of Internet of Things interoperability facet model . 11
5.4 Issues affecting Internet of Things interoperability . 12
6 Consideration of the interoperability requirement for IoT characteristics . 13
6.1 General descriptions . 13
6.2 IoT system characteristics. 13
6.2.1 Network communication . 13
6.2.2 Self-description . 13
6.2.3 Other IoT system characteristics not considered in interoperability . 13
6.3 IoT component characteristics . 14
6.3.1 Discoverability . 14
6.3.2 Network connectivity . 14
6.3.3 Unique identification . 14
6.3.4 Other IoT component characteristics not considered in interoperability . 14
6.4 Legacy support . 14
6.5 Security . 14
6.5.1 Confidentiality . 14
6.5.2 Integrity . 14
6.5.3 Protection of personally identifiable information . 14
6.6 Heterogeneity . 14
6.7 Compliance . 14
6.8 Other IoT characteristics not considered in interoperability . 15
7 Framework for interoperable IoT systems based on IoT reference architecture . 15
7.1 Context for interoperability within and between IoT systems . 15
7.2 General description . 16
7.3 Interoperability of IoT entities . 17
Annex A (informative) Overall IoT infrastructure at high-level . 18
Bibliography . 20

Figure 1 – Facets of IoT interoperability . 10
Figure 2 – Entities and interactions in IoT systems . 15
Figure 3 – Concepts for interoperability of IoT entities . 16
Figure A.1 – Integration of an IoT system with others . 18
Figure A.2 – An overall IoT infrastructure . 19

Table 1 – Summary of different facets of IoT interoperability [1] . 12

– 4 – ISO/IEC 21823-1:2019 © ISO/IEC 2019
INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) –
INTEROPERABILITY FOR IoT SYSTEMS –

Part 1: Framework
FOREWORD
1) ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission)
form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC
participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the
respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees
collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in
liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have
established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC and ISO on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an
international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation
from all interested IEC National Committees and ISO member bodies.
3) IEC, ISO and ISO/IEC publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted
by IEC National Committees and ISO member bodies in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to
ensure that the technical content of IEC, ISO and ISO/IEC publications is accurate, IEC or ISO cannot be held
responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees and ISO member bodies undertake to
apply IEC, ISO and ISO/IEC publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and
regional publications. Any divergence between any ISO, IEC or ISO/IEC publication and the corresponding
national or regional publication should be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) ISO and IEC do not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. ISO or IEC are not responsible
for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or ISO or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts
and members of their technical committees and IEC National Committees or ISO member bodies for any
personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for
costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication of, use of, or reliance upon, this ISO/IEC
publication or any other IEC, ISO or ISO/IEC publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this ISO/IEC publication may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard ISO/IEC 21823-1 was prepared by subcommittee 41: Internet of Things
and related technologies, of ISO/IEC joint technical committee 1: Information technology.
The list of all currently available parts of the ISO/IEC 21823 series, under the general title
Information technology – Internet of Things (IoT) – Interoperability for IoT systems, can be
found on the IEC and ISO websites.
The text of this standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
JTC1-SC41/75/FDIS JTC1-SC41/87/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this standard can be found in the report on
voting indicated in the above table.
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.

IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a
colour printer.
INTRODUCTION
Internet of Things (IoT) systems involve communications between different entities. This
applies to connections between different IoT systems. It also applies to the many connections
that exist within IoT systems. The various entities and their connections are described in
ISO/IEC 30141.
The ISO/IEC 21823 series addresses issues that relate to interoperability of the
communications between IoT systems entities. ISO/IEC 21823-1 describes a general
framework for interoperability of IoT systems. This includes a facet model for interoperability
which includes five facets of interoperability (i.e. transport, syntactic, semantic, behavioural
and policy). This document addresses the framework to achieve interoperability for IoT; the
specific facets are addressed in other parts of ISO/IEC 21823.

– 6 – ISO/IEC 21823-1:2019 © ISO/IEC 2019
INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) –
INTEROPERABILITY FOR IoT SYSTEMS –

Part 1: Framework
1 Scope
This document provides an overview of interoperability as it applies to IoT systems and a
framework for interoperability for IoT systems. This document enables IoT systems to be built
in such a way that the entities of the IoT system are able to exchange information and
mutuall
...