Open Connectivity Foundation announces standard for smarthome devices

The Open Connectivity Foundation announces the OCF Universal Cloud Interface. It is an api with which smart home products from Samsung and LG, among others, have to work together.

Several manufacturers of smart home products will use the OCF Universal Cloud Interface to make servers and devices interoperable with those of other manufacturers. At CES, the organization will demonstrate how smart home products from BSC Computer, Commax, Haier, LG, Resideo, Samsung and Sure Universal work together. Unnamed products from these manufacturers would receive an OCF 2.1 certificate this year, as a sign of their interoperability.

The Open Connectivity Foundation is committed to connecting the various smart home platforms with open standards, a specification for bridging and a program for certification. There is also an open source project for internet-of-things protocols: IoTivity.

The Open Connectivity Foundation was founded in 2016 and its members include Samsung, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm. It is one of several alliances that focus on better connecting smart home platforms.

Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance announced last month that they were collaborating on an open standard for compatible smart home connectivity under the name Connected Home over IP. Samsung is a member of the Zigbee Alliance, just like Signify, IKEA and NXP, for example. Probably in response, the Z-Wave Alliance announced that the competing Z-Wave specification will be available open source in mid-2020.