FIWARE Foundation, IUDX Program Collaborate on Open Source to Provide a Standard Smart City Platform for Indian Cities

FIWARE Foundation, a non-profit organization that encourages the adoption of open standards — implemented using Open Source technologies — for the development of smart solutions on a global basis, announces today a joint collaboration with the India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) Program toward building an Open Source platform that facilitates secure, authenticated and managed exchange of data amongst various data sources and consumers.

The IUDX platform is capable of harvesting data from many sub-systems enabling application developers to build new applications and services to help citizens. With the IUDX platform, citizens will benefit from the availability of more innovative and cost-effective applications and services. The cities themselves will also benefit from reduced development cost and faster development time frames enabled by a standard platform, together with the ability to choose vendors freely and thereby, avoid vendor lock-in. IUDX is being used by Indian cities to harness the full potential of the enormous data being generated across the country.

The power of collaboration

This partnership will pave the way for the development of a sustainable ecosystem around Open Source, standards-based, innovation-driven technologies to be used in India and globally. Following the collaboration, both organizations will jointly work on the following areas:

●       Joint adoption and contribution to standards: FIWARE and the IUDX Program will collaborate on joint adoption and contribution to standards. IUDX Program will adopt ETSI’s NGSI-LD Application Programming Interfaces (API) specifications for its resource server, which is the same standard adopted by the FIWARE Context Broker. The FIWARE Context Broker enables organisations — from public administrations to private companies — to collect, manage and share context of information. It is a dynamic system able to inform in real-time time what is currently happening in a given city, from traffic status to air quality data. The Context Broker technology was developed as the core component of the FIWARE platform.

This will allow FIWARE and the IUDX Program to benefit from a broad worldwide developer community as well as the large number of FIWARE compatible projects. FIWARE and the IUDX Program will collaborate on future contributions and enhancements to the NGSI-LD specifications. They will also collaborate on data models suitable for use in smart city applications. This work will be done in conjunction with the ongoing joint activity between TM Forum — an alliance of 850+ global companies working together to break down technology and cultural barriers between digital service providers, technology suppliers, consultancies and systems integrators — and FIWARE.

●       Creation of global application developer community: FIWARE and the IUDX Program will collaborate on the creation of a common global application developer community for smart city applications. The intent is that an application written for either FIWARE or IUDX runs on either platform with minimal modification. Applications developed on the IUDX 2.0 Platform — the deployment/ready to use version of the platform — will be compatible with FIWARE’s APIs and Generic Enablers, allowing such applications to be adapted and used by the FIWARE ecosystem on a global basis.

●       Use of common components and shared Open Source code: FIWARE and the IUDX Program will collaborate on the use of common components and shared Open Source code. As a first step, after the adoption of NGSI-LD APIs, the IUDX resource server will be listed on the FIWARE Catalogue as one of its Context Brokers. FIWARE will also adapt and integrate the IUDX Security Framework and offer it as one of its Generic Enablers. These steps will widen the choices for FIWARE’s partners and its growing community. The joint goal is to create a common Open Source repository for all smart city platform components and generic enablers, allowing cities around the world to build their own data sharing platforms using components best suited for their environments.

Common standards for APIs and data models are at the heart of platforms and digital infrastructures, enabling interoperability and portability of solutions. In order to successfully make it into the market today, new smart services and solutions must be able to securely communicate with other services and devices, traversing a multitude of infrastructures and systems. This way, solution providers benefit from knowing that their solutions can be connected with other applications or pieces of software — already developed and widely available — or that they can replicate them for multiple customers with rather low adaptation costs.

“The IUDX Program commitment to the development of Open Source technologies strongly complements FIWARE’s vision of building the foundation for a digital single market for smart solutions and further strengthens FIWARE’s recognised role as a driver of relevant standards and Open Source models. FIWARE is pleased to work with a partner that is central to India’s ambitious Smart City vision, with the initial target of impacting 100 Smart Cities. FIWARE has successfully integrated AI, Big Data, IoT, blockchain and robotic technologies into its technical roadmap, bringing support to the development of smart solutions that are radically improving the daily operations of multiple sectors. The collaboration with IUDX will further enrich and develop this vision”, said Ulrich Ahle, CEO, FIWARE Foundation.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Inder Gopal, CEO, IUDX Program, said, “IUDX and FIWARE share a similar technical vision and a common approach to collaborative Open Source development. By setting up this close collaboration, we can speed up the adoption of shared standards and the creation of a global ecosystem of application developers, which Smart City deployments around the world can benefit from. IUDX and FIWARE teams will share code and concepts, undertake joint developments and speed up significantly their respective development efforts.”

This collaborative approach between IUDX and FIWARE is the result of a joint taskforce, supported by FIWARE Platinum members Trigyn Technologies and NEC as well as the IUDX Program’s Application Partners. This collaboration, together with the alignment of standards, will help the IUDX Program and FIWARE Foundation to broaden their offerings globally.

About FIWARE Foundation

Together with its members and partners, FIWARE Foundation drives the definition — and the Open Source implementation — of key open standards that enable the development of portable and interoperable smart solutions in a faster, easier and affordable way, avoiding vendor lock-in scenarios, whilst also nurturing FIWARE as a sustainable and innovation-driven business ecosystem. The Foundation achieves that through the support of a fast-growing global community that shares a common vision and combines their efforts toward making FIWARE the Open Source technology of choice for industries, governments, universities and associations to reach their full potential and scale up their activities, thereby, entering new markets and growing their businesses. Founded in 2016, the foundation has Atos, Engineering, NEC, Red Hat, Telefónica and Trigyn Technologies among its Platinum members. For further information, visit fiware.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Youtube.

About the IUDX Program

The IUDX Program supports India’s Smart Cities Mission within the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and facilitates the use of data to achieve the full potential of technology and innovation within Indian cities. It is set up as a multidisciplinary program within the Society for Innovation and Development in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The IUDX program addresses technical and non-technical issues related to the use of data to create public good. The Open Source platform developed by the program enables higher operational efficiency in city administration by facilitating the data exchange between various civic bodies, municipal departments, application developers and relevant data consumers. It has also received valuable financial support from Omidyar Network India.