ITU-T: Global Standards for the Internet of Things

The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.*

ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and its membership are at the forefront of standards development and coordination of the Internet of Things, with activities across all domains of the IoT.

With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will take on smart capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Such developments will make the merely static objects of today dynamic ones - embedding intelligence in our environment and stimulating the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities.

The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, hitherto unknown and unimagined.

The success of the Internet of Things depends strongly on the existence and smooth and effective operation of global standards.

Standards are ubiquitous, and hardly a day passes during which we do not encounter standards in one form or another. Users of standards are familiar with the benefits of standardization, but even more with the inconveniences brought about by a lack of standards.

* Mark D. Weiser (*1952, †1999), former chief scientist at the Xerox PARC, "father of ubiquitous computing", in a paper titled The Computer in the 21st Century (1991).