BERLIN, Germany – The Open Connectivity Foundation, a global organization on Internet of Things standards, announced Thursday at IFA 2018 in Berlin that the body and leading home appliance makers agreed to raise interoperability within the Internet of Things ecosystem.

A ceremony to mark the agreement was held in Berlin one day ahead of the opening of IFA 2018, attended by C-level executives from Electrolux, Haier, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

OFC is a 400-member organization that seeks to create global standards for security and integration of IoT devices made by different companies. 

The four companies will start providing interoperable OCF-certified products and solutions next year, in order to close the IoT compatibility gap among a range of IoT service and solution providers, chipmakers and device manufacturers from diverse markets including consumer electronics, health care, home automation, industrial and wearables, and resolve the practical pain points experienced within the ecosystem.

Based on the OCF Public Key Infrastructure, those devices will be protected by enhanced security solutions including mutual certification between a device and another and encryption. They will be registered with the OCF cloud and controlled from the cloud.

Around 550 million IoT devices by the four manufacturers are expected to be connected this year, according to a report by IDC Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker.

“The support we have seen from Electrolux, Haier, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics underscores the importance of OCF’s vision for broad interoperability in a quickly expanding ecosystem of IoT services, devices and solutions,” said Matthew Perry, chairman of OCF. “We’re excited to see that these companies are working to realize the full potential of IoT, delivering an IoT standard that the industry has long been asking for.”

“Samsung sees the OCF is the key to integrate current fragmented market and make various systems from multi-vendors interoperable.” said Lee Hyo-gun, executive vice president and head of engineering at Samsung Electronics. “We are happy to collaborate with other OCF members as well as our partners to provide seamless and intelligent IoT experiences to consumers through the OCF.”

Park Il-pyung, chief technology officer of LG Electronics, said, “We’re pleased to use OCF as a common industry standard of IoT for helping customers realize the benefits of a seamless and intelligent connected life.”

By Song Su-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent (song@heraldcorp.com)