ETSI ISG CIM group releases first specification for context exchange in smart cities
April 2018 by Emmanuelle Lamandé
The ETSI Industry Specification Group for
cross-cutting Context Information Management (ISG CIM) has just released its first
specification GS CIM 004.
This specification defines a simple way to send or request
data and its context such as the meaning, related information, source or licensing
of that data. Smart cities will be the first ones to benefit from this
specification. Group Specification CIM 004 defines a standard Application
Programming Interface (API) for Context Information Management enabling close to
real-time access to information coming from many different sources.
Indeed ETSI Group Specification CIM 004 addresses the strong synergies between seven
spheres of information currently interacting in a smart city, as shown by these
examples:
– open data: air quality, street maps
– proprietary data: car parking availability, advertising of events
– Internet of Things: building sensors, water management sensors
– mobile application inputs: citizen complaints, photos of accident sites
– source of the information: licensing of valuable data, labelling of
– privacy-protected data, information on measurement quality or period of validity
– usage information: for optimizing, for debugging, for relationships analysis
– artificial intelligence or machine analysis of that data to create performance
measures (KPIs), new recommendations and conclusions on which city managers can act
There are currently thousands of ways to exchange data between software platforms,
each with special benefits and usage. The new ETSI specification does not try to
replace them, but offers a "lingua franca" ; allowing the platforms to
cooperate. Simplicity, reliability and ease of implementation have been the focus of
the group, to help lower barriers to deployment.