Specialist Task Force 534:
SAREF extensions

Who we are:

What we do

The STF 534 has the goal to extend SAREF to new IoT domains taking into account:
  • Use cases and available existing data models for the Smart Cities domain, in close collaboration with AIOTI (especially WG08 on Smart Cities and WG03 on IoT Standardisation), the H2020 Large Scale Pilots, the H2020 Lighthouse projects on Smart Cities, the ETSI activities in the Smart Cities domain (such as ISG CIM) and oneM2M. Use cases and related semantic models are expected to be aligned with corresponding work in ISG CIM. 
   • Use cases and available existing data models for Smart Industry and Manufacturing domain, in close collaboration with AIOTI (especially WG11 on Smart MAnufacturing and WG03 on IoT Standardisation), the H2020 Large Scale Pilots, the ETSI activities in this domain and oneM2M. 
   • Use cases and available existing data models for the Smart AgriFood domain, in close collaboration with AEF, AIOTI (especially WG06 on Smart Farming and Food Security, and WG03 on IoT Standardisation), the H2020 Large Scale Pilots, the ETSI activities in this domain, and oneM2M.

To that end, the STF 534 will produce:
   • 3 Technical Reports, one for each domain (i.e., Smart Cities, Smart Industry and Manufacturing and Smart Agriculture and Food chain domains), with the scope to determine the requirements from the considered domains, collect use cases and identify available existing data models. 
   • 3 Technical Specifications, one for each domain, with the scope to specify an initial extension to SAREF for each of these domains based on the requirements expressed in the corresponding TR.

For more details, see our Terms of Reference

Why we do it

In 2013, the European Commission (DG CONNECT), motivated by an urgent need of the market to reduce the energy utilisation in households and office buildings, launched a study in collaboration with ETSI SmartM2M for “interoperability of smart appliances”. The development of a conceptual language (or so-called “reference ontology”) to be used by smart appliances, from lamps and consumer electronics to white goods like dishwashers, was targeted by the Commission and the industry as the main enabler for interoperability among the multiple devices from different manufacturers that co-exist in our homes, regardless of their underlying communication protocols. Without such a common language, the market would continue to be fragmented and powerless. 

The resulting Smart Appliances study (SMART 2013/0077) was carried out from January 2014 to April 2015 in close collaboration with the industry, ETSI and oneM2M, and resulted in the creation of the “Smart Appliances REFerence ontology (SAREF)” as an interoperability language that allows smart appliances to communicate their capabilities and needs (e.g., who they are, what model, from which maker, if they are already running or ready to run, how much they are consuming, when they will finish their current activity, and more) with any energy management system that can indicate them to start, stop, pause, decrease or increase their consumption, etc., according to user preferences, production forecasts (e.g., by solar panels available in the home), grid conditions and price incentives. The energy management system is a logical function that could physically be in the home or run remotely in the cloud. 

The outcome of the Smart Appliances study was transferred to ETSI to turn it into a Technical Specification by TC SmartM2M. In November 2015, the first SAREF specification was published as TS 103 264 V1.1.1 (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/blog/new-standard-smart-appliances-smart-home).
In 2016, ETSI TC SmartM2M requested a Specialist Task Force (STF) to provide input on the management of SAREF and create possible SAREF extensions in specific domains. The STF 513 was then established and developed the first 3 extensions for SAREF in the energy domain (SAREF4ENER), environment domain (SAREF4ENVI) and building domain (SAREF4BLDG). The STF 513 additionally developed a new version of SAREF, taking into account the feedback received from the industrial stakeholders since its first release in April 2015 (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/new-version-machine-2-machine-standard-smart-appliances-introduced-etsi) 

The result of the STF 513 was an updated SAREF specification, more modular and flexible, published in March 2017 (TS 103 264 V2.1.1), which also includes TS 103 410, parts 1 (SAREF4ENER), 2 (SAREF4ENVI), 3 (SAREF4BLDG), TS 103 267 (Smart Appliances Application of oneM2M Communication Framework) and the related testing suite in TS 103 268, parts 1 (Methodology), 2 (PICS), 3 (TSS&TP) and 4 (PIXIT).

Over time, the SAREF initiative has been welcomed by the Smart Appliance and IoT industry, which clearly indicated the intention to adopt SAREF and its related communication framework. As confirmed in the EC Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation 2017, SAREF is a main ontology standard in the IoT ecosystem, and sets a template and a base for the development of similar standards for the other verticals to unlock the full potential of the IoT.

Recently, a number of industrial sectors expressed interest to extend SAREF into their domains in order to fill the gaps of the semantics not yet covered by the SAREF extensions published in 2016. Therefore, in 2017, ETSI SmartM2M initiated the STF 534  for SAREF extensions to Smart Cities, Smart Industry and Manufacturing, Smart AgriFood, turning SAREF into the umbrella for a series of specifications that grows systematically in close interaction with industry and standardisation bodies for a better integration of semantic data from various vertical domains in the IoT. 

How we do it

The STF 534 work consists of three main tasks: