ICANN partners NASSCOM to develop tech, standards for IoT devices

Global internet body ICANN and Indian IT industry body Nasscom Tuesday announced collaboration to develop identifier technology that can be used for managing devices and infrastructure using internet.

Under the collaboration, both the bodies will first focus on updating Internet of Things (IoT) devices using domain name system (DNS) even in situation when the manufacturer or supplier has closed down the business.

"This collaboration provides a structure for us to jointly identify research projects, particularly in new technologies related to the internet's system of unique identifiers," Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Chief Technology Officer David Conrad said.

"The teams began research on the DNS and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) last year," Conrad said.

He said that first research project focuses on testing the use of the DNS to update IoT firmware and studying how the proposed technology could scale outside a lab environment.

"We want to leverage capability and scale of this country to benefit internet across the world," Conrad said.

The research will look at directing people looking to update their IoT to other manufacturers or vendor in case the original vendor has closed down his business.

"Proliferation of IoT will happen when it will start helping people in their economic activity. IoT is going to be very exciting journey for everyone. IoT goes hand in hand with 5G. They are made for each other. We are entirely now on IPv6," IT secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney said.

The project team under the collaboration includes ICANN technical experts, NASSCOM's Centre of Excellence-IOT team, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad team and participants from India's Education and Research Network (ERNET).

"Future of the digital era has to be about partnerships. We have to significantly increase research and development capacity. The way we innovate has not only to solve India's problem but also of the world," Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said.