ISO/IEC 30169:2022

Internet of Things (IoT) — IoT applications for electronic label system (ELS)

This document specifies the system framework, IoT application model and overall technical requirements for ELS. This document applies to the design and development of the IoT applications for ELS. The IoT applications for ELS specified in this document are mainly applicable to the retail industry, and can also provide reference for the design and development of the IoT applications for ELS in other industries.

Titre manque

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 30-May-2022
• ICS: 33.020 - Telecommunications in general
• Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 - Internet of things and digital twin
• Drafting Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 - Internet of things and digital twin
• Current Stage: 6060 - International Standard published
• Start Date: 31-May-2022
• Due Date: 25-Nov-2023
• Completion Date: 31-May-2022

Standards Content (Sample)

ISO/IEC 30169
Edition 1.0 2022-05
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD

Internet of things (IoT) –
IoT applications for electronic label system (ELS)


ISO/IEC 30169:2022-05(en)

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ISO/IEC 30169


Edition 1.0 2022-05




INTERNATIONAL



STANDARD



















Internet of things (IoT) –

IoT applications for electronic label system (ELS)


























INTERNATIONAL

ELECTROTECHNICAL

COMMISSION






ICS 33.020 ISBN 978-2-8322-1700-9




  Warning! Make sure that you obtained this publication from an authorized distributor.

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– 2 – ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Abbreviated terms . 7
5 Motivation . 7
5.1 Background. 7
5.2 Purpose and significance . 8
6 System framework and IoT application model . 8
6.1 General . 8
6.2 System framework . 8
6.3 IoT application model . 9
6.3.1 General . 9
6.3.2 User . 9
6.3.3 ELS backend system . 10
6.3.4 Database . 11
6.3.5 IoT gateway . 11
6.3.6 ELs . 12
6.3.7 Perception objects . 12
7 General technical requirements . 12
7.1 General . 12
7.2 Function requirements . 12
7.2.1 ELS backend system . 12
7.2.2 Database . 14
7.2.3 IoT gateway . 14
7.2.4 ELs . 14
7.3 Interface requirements . 15
7.3.1 ELS backend system . 15
7.3.2 Database . 15
7.3.3 IoT gateway . 16
7.3.4 ELs . 16
7.3.5 System scalability . 16
7.4 Performance requirements . 16
7.4.1 ELS backend system . 16
7.4.2 Database . 16
7.4.3 IoT gateway . 17
7.4.4 ELs . 17
Annex A (normative) Reference testing requirements . 19
A.1 General . 19
A.2 Mechanical testing of display devices . 19
A.3 System performance testing . 19
Annex B (informative) Application scenarios, and use cases of ELS. 20
B.1 Application scenarios . 20
B.1.1 Consumer-oriented representation of merchandise information . 20
B.1.2 Staff-oriented representation of merchandise management information . 20

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ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022 – 3 –
B.1.3 P2P delivery and self pick-up oriented merchandise collection. 21
B.2 Use cases . 21
B.2.1 Grocery store . 21
B.2.2 Cosmetics shop . 21
B.2.3 Fashion shop . 21
B.2.4 Industry factory . 22
Bibliography . 23

Figure 1 – System framework of the IoT applications for ELS . 8
Figure 2 – IoT application model of the IoT applications for ELS . 9

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INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) –
IoT APPLICATIONS FOR ELECTRONIC LABEL SYSTEM (ELS)



FOREWORD
1) ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission)
form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC
participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the
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2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC and ISO on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an
international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation
from all interested IEC and ISO National bodies.
3) IEC and ISO documents have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC and
ISO National bodies in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of
IEC and ISO documents is accurate, IEC and ISO cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used
or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC and ISO National bodies undertake to apply IEC and
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this document. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this document.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this ISO/IEC document may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC and ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 30169 has been prepared by subcommittee 41: Internet of Things and Digital Twin, of
ISO/IEC joint technical committee 1: Information technology. It is an International Standard.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
JTC1-SC41/277/FDIS JTC1-SC41/287/RVD

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs
and www.iso.org/directives.

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ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022 – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
The development of information technology has brought a lot of changes in daily life, especially
with the invention and emergence of IoT technology. IoT technology makes things connected
with each other, in order to enhance the efficiency, provide effective monitoring and reduce the
cost for all the regular management, maintenance, and other business events for those things.
Because of the information explosion era, there is rapid replacement of information, along with
the rich variety of the information and the extremely short life cycle of the information. It is very
difficult for traditional labels (the paper labels) to adapt to such a quick pace of information
updates. Affected by the IoT technology, traditional labels began the process of becoming
digitalized and interconnected.
However, the process of promotion and distribution of the electronic label system (ELS) is much
faster than the formation of the worldwide marketing regulation system for such a newly
emerging IoT application. To help the marketing maintain the operation under a healthy,
sustainable, and controllable condition, it is urgent to develop the ELS focused standard(s) to
accelerate standardization for the ELS design and distribution. At the same time, the ELS
focused standard(s) will actually support the relevant global marketing regulation.
This document is in response to the demand described above. To achieve this goal, the first
step is to provide a general design guide, and the overall technical requirements. This document
briefly defines the system framework and IoT application model for ELS, which will firstly specify
the components of ELS, duties of each component, regulations for business access logic and
data flow between adjacent components. Then, the overall requirements in terms of system
functions, system interfaces and system performances are specified in this document to simplify
and unify the design of ELS. In conclusion, the purpose of this document is to help ensure the
quality of service (QoS) and design conformance of ELS in the retail industry.
In order to avoid some unnecessary confusion regarding this document and to distinguish this
document from other publications, the core concepts of this document are focused only on the
overview and general requirements (discussed above) of the ELS itself.
For example, typical things out of the scope of this document include, but are not limited to,
a) electronic product labelling,
b) RFID-specified applications, and
c) health informatics.

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INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) –
IoT APPLICATIONS FOR ELECTRONIC LABEL SYSTEM (ELS)



1 Scope
This document specifies the system framework, IoT application model and overall technical
requirements for electronic label system (ELS).
This document applies to the design and development of the IoT applications for ELS.
The IoT applications for ELS specified in this document are mainly applicable to the retail
industry, and can also provide reference for the design and development of the IoT applications
for ELS in other industries.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1
electronic label
EL
IoT device which attaches to a physical item having a display for the
information about the item and its perceived environment and also having information
transmission via an RF data link
Note 1 to entry: Examples of the information about the item and its perceived environment include, but are not
limited to, prices, stock status, promotional advertisement, barcode, two-dimensional code, temperature, humidity,
ambient light conditions.
3.2
electronic label system
ELS
system with a few to a large number of electronic labels designed for IoT
applications
3.3
ELS backend system
subsystem intended to realize the business service functions and the equipment control
functions of ELS
Note 1 to entry: The ELS backend system provides unified planning and management services for business
activities that utilize the ELS, and it also provides a centralized equipment monitoring service.

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ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022 – 7 –
3.4
IoT gateway
entity of an IoT system that connects one or more proximity networks and the IoT devices on
those networks to each other and to one or more access networks
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 20924:2021, 3.2.8]
4 Abbreviated terms
AES advanced encryption standard
GUI graphic user interface
IoT Internet of Things
LAN local area network
MRC machine-readable code
NFC near field communication
QoS quality of service
SSL secure socket layer
TLS transport layer security
5 Motivation
5.1 Background
In the retail industry, paper labels have a long history of being used to show consumers key
information about merchandise. Obviously, with paper labels, all the maintenance work
(including, but not limited to, information update, label inspection, label replacement) will be
done by humans. In addition, in traditional retail activities, there are many other tasks that need
to be done manually besides the maintenance of labels, including, but not limited to, inventory
inspection, replenishment of goods, payment and settlement. The drawbacks of using paper
labels include, but are not limited to, rising labour costs, inefficient business activities, error-
prone, service and management is not timely. Such drawbacks are attracting more and more
attention from the retail industry.
To address these issues, the retail industry needed to introduce an innovative business mode.
Therefore, the ELS was invented, which has been adopted by the retail industry since 1993.
According to relevant research, ELS has a global market size of over $15 billion and market
penetration of over 10 %; in other words, more than 100 retail chains in more than 55 countries
are covered (with more than 12 000 stores in total). Annex B gives some information about the
application scenarios and use cases of ELS.
At present, the display technology of electronic label in the global market is at a mature stage,
mainly using two display technologies: liquid crystal display (LCD) and electronic paper
(including monochrome display and multi-colour display). In terms of system related
technologies, ELS manufacturers are actively developing and distributing the system to promote
its popularity in the global market.
In recent years, with the rapid evolution and iteration of IoT technology, the application of IoT
has been gradually promoted and adopted in various industries. At the same time, this means
that the ELS also coincided with a good opportunity – its advantages include, but are not limited
to, convenient template design for display contents, fully automatic data update mode, the
highly effective operation management, lightweight devices, low power consumption, support
for the sensing and monitoring of target object. The application of ELS is being gradually
accepted by and popularized in other industries besides the retail industry (the core application
field), including, but not limited to, health services, public transportation, logistics, financial
transactions, advertising. In terms of the core application field, ELS has been globally and
widely used in places including, but not limited to, mainstream shopping malls, supermarkets.

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In terms of other application fields, the application of ELS in global markets shows a quick
growth trend. Therefore, ELS has great market potential, and ELS is the mainstream of future
development.
5.2 Purpose and significance
At present, ELS has rapidly and globally penetrated into our daily life. When an innovative
technology is rapidly promoted and deployed, the problems and potential risks are revealed
gradually. These problems and potential risks are mainly raised from the technical level and
business consistency level.
a) In terms of technology, the technologies to realize the ELS have diversified forms. The
problems caused by the lack of standardization and uniformity will mainly focus on the
following four points:
1) uncertainty of ELS system framework and IoT application model;
2) uncertainty of ELS functions;
3) uncertainty of the necessary interfaces;
4) uncertainty of ELS performance.
b) In terms of business consistency, when some businesses need to extend ELS in parallel to
integrate two or more ELSs (ELSs are from different manufacturers or different series) into
a larger ELS, a unified requirement for ELS design and distribution is the key.
In conclusion, normalization and standardization are the optimal solution to address the above
problems. Therefore, applications for ELS has been proposed as the subject of a future
International Standard. The follow-up development of this standard project will be researched
and reviewed closely related to the above issues, in order to make this International Standard
implementable. In addition, this solution will also contribute to the standardization of ELS
product acceptance and ensure the QoS for consumers.
6 System framework and IoT application model
6.1 General
Clause 6 specifies the system framework and IoT application model for ELS.
6.2 System framework

Figure 1 – System framework of the IoT applications for ELS
As shown in Figure 1, the system framework of the IoT applications for ELS shall be based on
a complete ELS. It shall be able to extend with a single ELS or multiple ELSs in parallel (via
third-party bridging service or services) according to the actual business requirements.

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ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022 – 9 –
Each complete ELS shall be composed of ELS backend system, database, IoT gateway and ELs.
a) The backend system shall include two functions: business service, equipment management
and control.
b) The data categories in the database shall include business data and equipment data.
6.3 IoT application model
6.3.1 General

Figure 2 – IoT application model of the IoT applications for ELS
As shown in Figure 2, the IoT application model of the IoT applications for ELS shall be able to
be divided into five levels. The order of authority from top to bottom is user, ELS backend
system and database, IoT gateway, ELs, perception objects.
The data flow direction and business access logic in Figure 2 have been marked with solid
arrows and dash arrows, respectively.
Access between all levels shall be performed downward/upward level-by-level; no cross-level
access(s) is allowed, except from the user to the ELs.
Subclauses 6.3.2 to 6.3.7 provide the description how each part relates to the domain-based
reference model in the IoT Reference Architecture.
6.3.2 User
This level relates to the user domain of the domain-based reference model, but more focuses
on human user.

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Specified in ELS, this level is the top of the IoT application model, which shall be able to provide
user entities (ELS owners, operation and maintenance personnel, and consumers) with access
interfaces of ELS, including, but not limited to, the direct access to the ELs via MRC scanning,
NFC. The access purpose shall include, but is not limited to, information query, payment, and
information within certain authority.
Consumers shall only be able to perform basic actions, including, but not limited to, public
information access, suggestions and advice feedback.
Operation and maintenance personnel shall only be able to perform regular maintenance for
the ELS backend system and database via the account with proper authorities. The
maintenance activities shall strictly follow the requirements of the ELS owners.
The ELS owners shall have the maximum access authorities and shall be able to monitor all of
the data in the ELS backend system and database, excluding payment information and
customer personal data.
The business access logic of this level to the ELS backend system, database, and ELs shall be
unidirectional. The data flow between this level and ELS backend system shall be bidirectional;
the data flow between this level and database shall be bidirectional; the direct data flow between
this level and ELs shall be prohibited. This level should be able to actively access the ELS
backend system, database, and ELs; such business access logics are irreversible.
6.3.3 ELS backend system
This level has a hybrid relation to the domains of the domain-based reference model, which
includes the operations and management domain, the application and service domain.
Specified in ELS, this level shall be able to support the IoT applications for ELS in terms of
business service, equipment management and control, and data exchange within the system.
The authority level of business service function in the ELS backend system shall be higher than
the authority level of equipment management and control function. The equipment management
and control function is controlled by the business service function.
NOTE 1 The authority levels of the business service function and equipment management and control function, and
the relationship between those two functions described here can confuse. The ELS can be thought of as a factory,
the business service function as a chief manager, and the equipment management and control function as an
executor. The chief manager will arrange necessary works for the executor according to the input business
instructions from users. Next, the chief manager will receive the execution results from the executor and then
feedback the desired results to the user. Both the business service function and the equipment management and
control function are function collections, they contain a variety of business purpose functions and equipment relevant
functions, respectively, according to different actual business demands.
For instance, the functions contained in the equipment management and control function are more fundamental than
the functions contained in the business service function. To realize a function in the business service function, it is
possible that the cooperation of multiple functions is needed in the equipment management and control function;
functions in the business service function can call functions in the equipment management and control function, but
the reverse call is not supported and is forbidden. In general, the data received by the equipment management and
control function are not raw data from users, but processed data from the business function service instead.
NOTE 2 The detailed classification of those functions is out of scope.
The business access logic between the business service function, the equipment management
and control function in the ELS backend system, and the business database in the database
shall be unidirectional for all. The corresponding data flows shall be bidirectional for all. The
business service function shall be able to actively access the equipment management and
control function, and the business database in the database. Such business access logic is
irreversible.

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ISO/IEC 30169:2022  ISO/IEC 2022 – 11 –
The business access logic between the device control function in the ELS backend system and
the device database in the database
...