Nasscom and global Internet body join hands for global research in IoT

Under the current agreement, both the bodies will first focus on updating IoT devices using DNS even in a situation where the manufacturer or supplier has closed down the business

Global internet body Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Indian IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said on Tuesday that they were working together on developing standards that will feed into the global consultation for managing  Internet-of-Things devices. 

ICANN, which is often called the phone book of the internet, matches domain names with appropriate IP address numbers. Its partnership with Nasscom, which was announced last year and has so far focused on building standards for IoT, will also collaborate on other research. 

Under the current agreement, both the bodies will first focus on updating IoT devices using domain name system (DNS) even in a situation where the manufacturer or supplier has closed down the business.

"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

The project team comprises ICANN's technical experts, Nasscom's Centre of Excellene-IoT team, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, and participants from India’s Education and Research Network (ERNET).

"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," said David Conrad, Chief Technology Officer, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

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

India, with a base of 560 million Internet users and still growing, also leads the world in the adoption of a new set of Internet addresses, called IPv6  (Internet Protocol version 6). Most upcoming IoT devices are expected to have addresses belonging to IPv6. 

"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," said Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary, ministry of electronics and information technology.

The project aims to explore the industrial and large-scale deployment issues associated IPv6-only devices. It is being carried out with a series of simulations and experiments to explore automated updates of different kinds of IoT- enabled devices.