Korea to Lead International Standards for Marine and Underwater Internet of Things

May 24?June 4 Joint Technical Committee (JCT1) on IoT and Digital Twin of ISO and IEC
New Working Group on Marine and Underwater IoT Led by Korea, Professor Park Suhyun of Kookmin University Appointed Chair

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] South Korea will lead the establishment of international standards in the field of marine and underwater Internet of Things (IoT).

The National Radio Research Agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 6th that the Joint Technical Committee (JCT1), operated by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO·IEC) for international standardization in information technology, held an international standardization meeting from the 24th of last month to the 4th of this month. At the Internet of Things and Digital Twin subcommittee (SC 41), a working group for marine and underwater IoT was newly established under South Korea's leadership, and Professor Park Soo-hyun (photo) of Kookmin University was appointed as the chair of the working group.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT explained that this has created an opportunity for South Korea to lead global standardization of marine and underwater IoT. Since 2006, South Korea has been working on standardization in the marine and underwater IoT field centered around Kookmin University, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Gangneung-Wonju National University, and Hoseo University. In 2018, it completed the development of four international standards for the first time in the world, and in 2020, two more international standards were developed, demonstrating significant efforts.

This field is still unexplored, and advanced countries such as the United States and Europe are gradually accelerating technology development in areas such as marine resource development, fish farming, underwater tourism, underwater robots, and environmental monitoring. According to a 2017 report by HTF Market Intelligence Consulting, the underwater wireless communication market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 18.5% from 2016 to 2022.

The National Radio Research Agency stated, “International standardization of core technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data is a global concern, and proactive discovery and standardization of ICT convergence technologies are more important than ever.” It added, “We will continue to strive to lead international standards in key fields.”