About uCIFI®
The uCIFI® Alliance
The uCIFI® Alliance is an open, non-profit organization that was established in 2019. Its members share the same vision and closely collaborate on smart city projects to offer Cities and Utilities open and interoperable solutions. Cities like Brussels (Sibelga) in Belgium and Gijon in Spain have already included uCIFI® in their tender specifications.
MISSION
To enable devices interoperability by creating open standards.
VISION
To become the standard adopted by every smart city aiming at sustainable investment and open-source technology. To be the reference ecosystem for all companies having interoperability as a strategic mission.
VALUE
We believe in openness, shared growth and technology inclusivity.
Membership
Our members are companies, cities and utilities across the globe which develop, deploy and/or use connected solutions to address various smart city use cases from remote meter reading, to environmental sensors. The uCIFI® Alliance membership is divided into promoter, contributor, adopter and supporter levels.
uCIFI® ALLIANCE FAQ
What is the uCIFI® Mission?
The uCIFI® Alliance is an open, non-profit organization established in 2019. It aims to provide open and interoperable solutions for smart cities and utilities by standardizing data models and communication protocols.
uCIFI®’s initial mission focused on creating a data model to represent objects and use cases for Smart Cities in an open format, enabling true interoperability between devices and applications. This model for Smart Cities is comparable to how URLs, HTML, stateless protocols, and metadata shape the web. The goal of the Alliance to develop and publish an open unified data model leveraging existing standards (LwM2M and Device Management Smart Objects by OMA SpecWorks) is materially complete.
What is the OMA SpecWorks (OMA)?
OMA SpecWorks brings together leading industry players to create multi-vendor interoperability for Internet of Things (IoT) devices through the development and promotion of voluntary, consensus-based technical standards and specifications. As a non-profit entity with deep roots in mobile and IoT innovation, OMA SpecWorks has been instrumental in the development of key protocols, most notably LightweightM2M (LwM2M). This protocol has become a cornerstone for IoT device management, enabling efficient and secure communication between devices across diverse wireless networks.
By merging with the IPSO Alliance in 2018, OMA SpecWorks further strengthened its mission to develop comprehensive technical documents—ranging from specifications to smart objects and white papers—supporting the ongoing evolution of the connected world and ensuring that protocols like LwM2M continue to lead the way in IoT device management.
What is the reason behind the decision to move towards OMA?
With the rapid evolution of IoT network technologies, uCIFI® has chosen to stay network-agnostic, allowing the industry to determine the best-suited technologies for different applications, like how the web developed independently of specific protocols. It is in the best interest of the members to consolidate the current and future technical evolution with the protocol and object model standards work. Hence, the collaboration will accelerate standardization of our unified data model for Smart City, energy, and water utility companies. This partnership enhances openness and interoperability between IoT devices and systems, reducing the complexity and cost of integrating different vendor systems.
What will happen to the uCIFI® Datamodel?
The uCIFI® data model and Smart City device profiles will continue life in a new working group within OMA SpecWorks that will provide a technical home for them to be protected, nurtured and evolve. The uCIFI® vision of a certification program to provide a robust Smart City ecosystem can be fulfilled in OMA SpecWorks.
