Overview
ISO/IEC 21558-3:2022 - "Telecommunications and information exchange between systems - Future network architecture - Part 3: Networking of everything (FN‑NoE)" defines an architectural model and functional procedures for integrating diverse networking technologies to deliver thing‑user centric communication services. The standard describes how smart devices (things) become socialized “thing‑users,” form social networks, discover collaborators, and exchange context, capabilities, motivations and experiences to enable advanced Internet of Things (IoT) services.
Key points:
- Defines the FN‑NoE concept (Future Network for Networking of Everything).
- Specifies architecture components: access/core networks, thing social networks, and proximity defined networks (PDNs).
- Provides a functional procedure for advanced NoE services (e.g., discovery, subscription/publishing, proximal path establishment).
Key Topics
- Thing‑user social networking: Data models and semantic descriptions for sharing identity, capabilities, context, motivations, mission and experiences among devices.
- Thing‑user centric communication: Mechanisms for conveying intended meanings and finding collaborators who understand a thing‑user’s goals.
- Architecture & reference model: Topologies, reference layers and the FN‑NoE model that coexist with conventional networks (FN‑NoE as “connected islands”).
- Functional procedures: Organizing/maintaining social communities, sharing experiences, subscription/publishing at cluster/community tiers, and establishing/maintaining proximal communication paths.
- Identifiers and profiles: Use of identifiers (IDs, URIs) and profiles to describe device capabilities, security and mission statements.
- Interoperability considerations: Semantic language, ontologies and continuous profile updates to enable machine‑understandable social information.
Applications
ISO/IEC 21558-3 is applicable to real‑world deployments that require coordinated, autonomous interactions among heterogeneous devices:
- Smart cities (sensor/actuator collaboration, contextual services)
- Industrial IoT and collaborative robotics (task coordination and experience sharing)
- Vehicular and proximity services (ad hoc PDNs, edge collaboration)
- Consumer IoT ecosystems and context‑aware services (smart homes, wearables)
- Research and proof‑of‑concept Future Network projects (RINA integration)
Who should use this standard
- Network architects and system designers planning FN or IoT platforms
- IoT platform and middleware developers implementing discovery, profiling and social networking capabilities
- Telecom operators and service providers exploring FN‑NoE deployments
- Standards bodies, integrators and researchers working on semantics, ontologies and proximity networking
Related Standards
- ISO/IEC TR 29181‑9:2017 (Networking of everything) - normative reference and problem statement
- ISO/IEC 21559‑3 - companion document for control protocols and mechanisms
- Annex B of ISO/IEC 21558‑3 describes FN‑NoE concepts applied over RINA (Recursive InterNetwork Architecture)
Keywords: ISO/IEC 21558-3, FN‑NoE, Networking of Everything, thing‑user, IoT, thing‑user social network, proximity defined networks, future network architecture.