PICMG, the consortium driving open standards for modular and scalable computing, and DMTF, an industry standards organisation, have announced that their submission of the PICMG IoT.x firmware specification has been accepted and incorporated into the latest Work in Progress phase of the Redfish standard.
The integration of these extensions into Redfish is set to simplify the development of plug-and-play Industry 4.0 systems, enabling the connection of interoperable data models on IoT.x-enabled endpoints with software-defined converged infrastructure via the Redfish API.
Redfish is an industry-standard commonly employed for data collection and device management in equipment such as data centre fans and coolant pumps. Since 2018, PICMG and DMTF have collaborated to expand Redfish’s capabilities to cover automation and factory equipment, allowing for the remote management and control of robotic motion platforms, contextual sensing systems, and other advanced control endpoints.
The outcome of this collaboration is the creation of PICMG IoT.1 and IoT.2, which introduce extensions to DMTF’s Redfish standard and are now featured in the latest publication.
“DMTF specifies protocols, data formats, and models for interoperable management on control plane infrastructure including Edge systems,” said Jeff Hilland, President, DMTF. “Since a lot of what we do is applicable to edge hardware, it makes sense to work with PICMG as part of our alliance partner program.”
The PICMG IoT.1 firmware specification provides a standard data model for sensor manufacturers and system integrators, while PICMG IoT.2 addresses the data model and network architecture requirements for integrating larger sensor/effector networks.
Together, these specifications accelerate the development and deployment of smart sensors in Industry 4.0 applications. The Redfish extensions embed these capabilities within a broader system of systems context, while maintaining full compatibility with the PICMG IoT.x specifications.
PICMG is also exploring extensions to the Redfish job model to facilitate Cloud-based scheduling and orchestration of factory equipment. This advancement will enable industrial operators to utilise powerful cloud platforms such as AWS to manage tasks from the factory floor’s control endpoints.
“Imagine a modular factory where every component is interconnected and fully plug-and-play, not just at the sensor and effector level, but across the entire assembly line,” said Doug Sandy, CTO of PICMG. “A factory where every piece of equipment has its own associated Redfish service, workloads, and processing could happen wherever they need to, while operators could manage and monitor everything through a top-down hierarchy of building, floor, and line controllers.”
“That’s what PICMG and DMTF ultimately want to support. And with our current work on Redfish, we’ve taken a big step in the right direction,” he added.
PICMG’s IP submission has recently entered DMTF’s Work in Progress phase, with a full release expected in 2025. During this phase, the development community will have the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the new content of the specification, allowing for refinements before the next Redfish release.
Additionally, PICMG and DMTF have a team working on an example implementation of the interoperable data environment, which will be made available as an open-source server on the PICMG GitHub repository. New features are being added to the server each month, with the aim of it becoming fully functional in time for the next Redfish specification release.
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