ARM: standards are needed for the 'internet of things'

The increase in the number of internet-connected devices is creating a wealth of possibilities for the future of technology, particularly in the context of the internet of things — also known as machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

However, standards need to be firmly established before new services can truly flourish, according to Simon Segars, vice president of the ARM physical IP division.

"The biggest limitation is around standardisation of how these technologies are going to work together. All the building blocks are there, and it's about putting them together. So, you need low power, small, low cost micro-controllers," Segars told ZDNet UK at CES 2012. "We can do that, and it will get better over time," he added.

Segars said that the challenge now is one of how each piece of technology is used, rather than needing advances in the technology itself.

"There's an implementation challenge, all the technologies are different and how you mix-and-match those are hard problems that we're trying to solve," Segars said. "We're looking at evolving those technologies, but really it's all there today and people have got to start putting them together and working out those higher level services that are going to run on top of them."

Smart meters, for example, already combine a range of technologies that need to be able to communicate with each other, Segars said.

"It has a controller in it, it has a communication link — how are all these things going to communicate [with other technologies], there are standards needed behind that," Segars added. "What's the security behind that? How's all that going to work?"