Chapter 13. Consortiums and Communities

Industrial consortia exist for several reasons and are essential for the promotion, governance, and construction of standards. The IoT industry is similar to other technologies and has its fair share of proprietary and open standards. This section covers the various consortia across Personal Area Networks (PAN), protocols, WAN, fog and edge computing, and various umbrella consortia. A detailed and categorical description of each alliance will be detailed to help the IoT architect decide which, if any, organization is worth the time and investment to associate with. It should be noted that an organization doesn’t need any involvement with an industrial alliance; many great products and businesses have been built without reliance on a consortium. However, some organizations will require corporate membership for logo usage or even the ability to productize certain standards.

A growing market segment like the IoT will spawn alliances early on in its hype...