mirror of
https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT.git
synced 2025-12-15 01:23:49 +01:00
61 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
61 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: Vision
|
|
description: From proprietary manufacturer silos to a truly open cyber-physical system
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
:::tip[RIOT Vision]
|
|
|
|
:::
|
|
|
|
We expect an evolution in the software platforms powering Internet of Things
|
|
devices that can be compared, to some extent, to the recent evolution of
|
|
software platforms powering smartphones.
|
|
|
|
In a few years time, software platforms powering smart handheld devices has
|
|
speed-evolved from a state where dozens of closed-source, slow progress,
|
|
proprietary solutions where used, to a state where a couple of major players
|
|
have imposed new de facto standards in terms of software platform openness,
|
|
interoperability, and automatic updating. On the bright side, this has led to
|
|
much quicker paced progress, and to the development of billions of new
|
|
applications built on top of these platforms, which interact in innovative ways
|
|
with one another and with the cloud. At this point, let's make two remarks about
|
|
the dark side of this evolution. First, while companies pushing iOS and Android
|
|
use such software platforms as more tools to achieve profit-oriented goals
|
|
(e.g., accumulating and monetizing personalized information), RIOT is developed
|
|
and maintained by a non-profit, open source community of developers organized
|
|
around principles that are mainly inspired by the Linux community or the IETF
|
|
community. Second, while the true level of openness of iOS or Android is debatable,
|
|
RIOT aims instead at a Linux-like openness.
|
|
|
|
That said, we expect a revolution in the software platforms powering Internet of
|
|
Things (IoT) devices, and we expect this revolution to be as game-changing as
|
|
the aforementioned evolution of the software platforms powering smart handheld
|
|
devices (retaining only its bright side, hopefully). It is yet unclear which IoT
|
|
software platforms will emerge as dominant -- RIOT is a contender. It is however
|
|
quite likely that new standards will be set in the near future, in terms of IoT
|
|
software platform openness, API, automated software updates and other
|
|
characteristics that are necessary to enable a modern, large scale, secure ecosystem.
|
|
Such an IoT software evolution will quite likely fuel a new world of distributed
|
|
applications developed by a large variety of actors, on top of the dominant open
|
|
software platform(s). These applications will leverage both spontaneous wireless
|
|
networks, the cloud and the denser, interconnected environment of heterogeneous
|
|
devices that we will find ourselves in.
|
|
|
|
Our vision is the emergence of an entirely new reality in which our interface to
|
|
the Internet will no longer be predominantly a screen, but rather the objects of
|
|
the cyber-physical system embodied by the Internet of Things itself. RIOT is an
|
|
open source operating system that aims to power IoT devices in this new reality.
|
|
RIOT aims to provide a powerful, but very low memory footprint software platform,
|
|
that enables any programmer to develop applications on typical IoT devices with
|
|
zero learning curve (assuming prior experience with POSIX and Linux for instance).
|
|
RIOT aims for shortened development life-cycles, using standard languages, and
|
|
well-known debugging tools. RIOT implements a micro-kernel architecture that provides
|
|
built-in robustness, real-time capabilities and energy efficiency -- future-proof
|
|
properties, required by many IoT applications to come.
|
|
|
|
In this context RIOT aims to power a modern, large scale, evolutive, and secure
|
|
cyber-physical ecosystem, comprising of heterogeneous IoT devices, distributed
|
|
processes and applications, that can seamlessly interconnect with one another
|
|
and with the cloud, leveraging standard network stacks (including IPv6
|
|
interoperability) available in RIOT.
|