At AWE2019, the Smart Home Appliance Cloud to Cloud Interconnection (CIC) Project Exhibition Zone is once again unveiled inside hall W3 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, where visitors immerse into a sophisticated and smart life of interconnectivity, and experience the convenience and comfort.

Inside the exhibition zone, the CIC Project Group of China Household Electrical Appliances Association (hereinafter referred to as CHEAA) set up three scenarios that include a smart living room, a smart kitchen and a smart bedroom to simulate the life of a real household and truly demonstrate the interconnected intelligent life. The 22 connected smart home appliances and intelligent hardware are provided by 11 member enterprises of the CIC Project Group, including Haier, Midea, BSH, MELING, Hisense, Xlink, Konka, TCL, Skyworth, Tuya and Galanz. The appliances include television, refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner, electric water heater, kitchen hood, induction cooktop, built-in oven, coffee maker, robotic vacuum cleaner, air purifier, projector with motion sensor, smart speaker, smart light, smart lock, aroma diffuser and smart curtain, almost covering every main product category of today's intelligent household market.

Behind this future smart life show is the concerted effort and continuous breakthroughs of the CIC Project Group since its inception half a decade ago.

Looking to realize cloud-to-cloud interconnectivity, the CIC Project Group started to establish a smart home appliance CIC standard system starting from 2016, and finished the formulation and publication of Cloud to Cloud Interconnection for Smart Household Appliances, a public standard protocol numbered T/CHEEA 0001-2017, at the end of 2017, laying a firm foundation upon which the cloud-to-cloud interconnectivity technical roadmap may be established. At AWE2018, the CIC Project Group premiered cross-scenario interconnection on site and unveiled the standard SDK and the CIC logo. Thereafter, the CIC Project Group officially initiated projects for standards in information security and user experience.

At AWE2019, the CIC Project Group again demonstrated scenario-based interconnection of smart home appliances. With an extra scenario added to the previous two, this year's exhibition incorporates the latest outcomes in CIC information security.

With an increasing number of home appliances connected to the internet and internet-of-things (IoT), smart cloud platforms of many home appliance manufacturers are switching from private and exclusive use to an open shared model. Consequently information security has been magnified and a consensus on information security requirement is mandatory. As such, CHEAA commenced the amendment of the T/CHEEA 0001-2017 Cloud to Cloud Interconnection for Smart Household Appliances with a focus on security issues in June 2018 and started to formulate information security standards for cloud-to-cloud interconnectivity.

After nearly one year of hard work, Cloud to Cloud Interconnection for Smart Household Appliances Part II: Information Security Requirements has been finished. This is an integral component of the CIC standards framework aimed at helping enterprises reach unanimity in information security specifications, protect the rights of both parties, and mitigate security risks associated with sharing. The information security standards have erected a solid "firewall" for cloud to cloud interconnection, providing an effective assurance to the establishment and application of cooperation projects in the future.