The document discusses the challenges and solutions related to software virtualization for IoT devices, emphasizing the need for portability, scalability, and efficient cloud integration. It introduces the MicroEJ operating system, which facilitates hardware independence and dynamic application management through a micro-virtualization layer. The findings suggest a shift towards data-centric business models in the IoT space, requiring robust software frameworks to support multiple connectivity standards and updates.

1. Software virtualization
lessons for extreme IoT
portability and scale
Vincent Perrier
Chief Product Officer, MicroEJ
vincent.perrier@microej.com

2. About MicroEJ
• IS2T S.A. founded in 2004 – offices in France, Germany, USA
– $5M Series A funding in 2011 – $20M R&D total investment
– http://www.microej.com/about
• Independent Software Vendor, global player in the IoT industry
– Licenses: embedded (tools & runtime) + cloud (store)
– Professional services, training & consulting
• Expertise in embedded, virtualization,
software engineering & processes
• Partnerships with key IoT, silicon,
embedded SW and HW vendors, EMS,
clouds
8 June 2016 2© MicroEJ

3. IoT Business Trends
• Manufacturing imposes using industrial-grade components
• Large production volumes (billions of devices) impose low product cost
• Battery-operated devices impose low power consumption
• Internet pace imposes shorter time-to-market
• Smartphones and tablets set new user experience expectations for
consumer products
• IoT business model is likely to evolve from device-centred (retail business)
to services-centred (operator business) to data-centred (BI)
Revenues from device (electronic product) sales
< Revenues from subscriptions to web-based services delivered through devices
< Revenues from data streams delivered by devices Time/IoT maturity
8 June 2016 3© MicroEJ

4. IoT Technical Challenges
• Interoperability with cloud infrastructure implies IP-based networking
– Directly on edge node device, or through a gateway – for interfacing with cloud servers
• Embedded constraints
– Fragmented processor architectures and low-level HW-dependant SW (HdS) & tools
– Limited resources: memory, storage, computing, bandwidth, battery life…
– Diversity of connectivity links, wired & wireless
– Interfacing to the physical world (sensors & actuators, analog & digital…)
• Architecture choices on silicon integration of main hardware functions
– Computing, memory (RAM), storage (flash), connectivity (RF, wired), data collection (I/Os)…
– On-chip or on board: MPU, MCU, SoC, modules (comms, sensor), ASIC, components…
• Value is delivered by software
– Communication protocols, user interfaces, manageability, scalability, data & services…
• IoT is not Arduino, nor Linux on Raspberry Pi, nor Android on dual core GHz processors
8 June 2016 4© MicroEJ

5. Embedded Devices
• SMART devices need to be able to acquire, compute and store data, and perform several tasks
– Peripherals, processors (MCU, FPU, DSP), RAM, flash…
• CONNECTED devices need to support many connectivity, communications and security standards
– Physical/Link: 802.15.4, 868-902 MHz, 802.11, Bluetooth, cellular 2G/3G/4G…
– Network/Transport: Wi-Fi, 6LowPAN, TCP/UDP-IP, TLS/DTLS, ZigBee, Z-Wave…
• INTERACTIVE devices provide graphical and touch interface
– Graphical User Interface (GUI), Human-Machine Interface (HMI)
• MANAGED devices allow software content update and operations management from the Cloud
– Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware update
– Device Management (DM)
• May use proprietary communication protocols over standard links
– Sensors, actuators, I/Os (GPIO, PWM, DAC/ADC, USB, I2C, SPI, UART…)
– Internet client/server (sockets)
8 June 2016 5© MicroEJ

6. IoT Devices
• Should use standard communication protocols over standard links
• IoT devices use standard-based frameworks and agents for communicating
with each other and connecting to services in the cloud that provide
software content and operations management
– WebSocket, TLS, HTTPS REST…
– Thread, AllJoyn, DDS, XMPP, AMQP, MQTT, CoAP, LWM2M…
• They leverage data streams and formats for cloud-based analytics
– XML, JSON…
• SCALABLE devices may run multiple applications that can be dynamically
downloaded and installed/uninstalled (without FW update)
– User experience similar to smartphones/tablets = application store
8 June 2016 6© MicroEJ

7. IoT Edge-to-Cloud
8 June 2016 7© MicroEJ
HW
SW
GUI
Data Analytics
Sensors
Data Y
DM X Third-Party
Agents
Apps GWY IoT Cloud
Platform Y
IoT Cloud
Platform X
Application
Store
Download Device
Management
Connect

8. Device
B
Device
A
IoT Non-Portability & Scale
?
8 June 2016 8© MicroEJ
Cloud
Y
Cloud
X
Cloud
Z
Device
C
Combination of clouds and protocols: HTTPS, REST, MQTT, CoAP, LWM2M…
Combination of: ISA, compilers, RTOS, libraries (FS…), stacks (TCP-UDP/IP, TLS/DTLS…)

9. • Embedded C/RTOS solutions have
efficiently addressed SW bring-up on
fragmented hardware by providing
vertical integration layers for each
combination (ISA/compiler/libs)
• But they may require integration
work for the BSP and native libraries
• They may not provide ready-to-use
solutions for enabling IoT and cloud-
ready SW capabilities
• Applications still need to be ported
from one vertical silo to another,
further fragmenting developer
communities
Vertical Integration
8 June 2016 9© MicroEJ

10. • The MicroEJ® Operating System leverages
the best of both worlds:
– The scalability of embedded RTOS
solutions for SW bring-up
– The large community of mobile & PC
developers for efficient SW
applications development
• It provides APIs both for BSP/RTOS/libs
integration and SW app development
• It enables horizontal integration of OS
services thanks to a virtualization layer that
isolates application layers from
lib/RTOS/BSP/compiler/ISA layers
Horizontal Integration
8 June 2016 10© MicroEJ

11. IoT Portability & Scale
8 June 2016 11© MicroEJ
Cloud
Y
Cloud
X
Cloud
Z
Device
A
Device
B
Device
C
Combination of clouds and protocols: HTTPS, REST, MQTT, CoAP, LWM2M…
Combination of: ISA, compilers, RTOS, libraries (FS…), stacks (TCP-UDP/IP, TLS/DTLS…)
MicroEJ OS
A
N
Y
A
N
Y
Reusable SWReusable SW
Reusable SWReusable SW

12. HW Virtualization
ADVANTAGES HOW:
Hardware independence
• True Portability of BINARY SW across HW (no
recompilation needed)
Micro-Virtualization layer (30KB)
• Formal Separation between HW-dependent-SW and
HW-independent-SW
Safe SW programming & execution Build & runtime checks, Sandboxing
Full set of SW foundation blocks High-level API & stacks
Secured investments
• Legacy code integration
Multi-language support: Java, C/C++, ASM
Future-proof
• SW updates
• New SW downloads
Multi-application framework
• Build-time configuration
• Run-time add-ons
8 June 2016 12© MicroEJ

13. MicroEJ OS
Platform
OPERATING SYSTEM
BSP/DRIVERS
TARGET HARDWARE
APPLICATIONS
APP 1 APP 2 APP 3 APP 4 …
CORE
Secure Multi-Application Engine
CORE
Memory Management
CORE
Languages/Utilities/Test
CORE
CPU & Power Management
CORE
Components Management
IO
Sensors/Actuators/GPIO
COMM
Connectivity Wired/Wireless
STORE
Application Management
NUM
Numerical Methods
FILE & DATA
Persistence/File System
GUI
Graphics/Touch
NET & SEC
Network Protocols & Security
IOT
IoT/Cloud Middleware
8 June 2016 13© MicroEJ

14. MicroEJ OS Foundations
HW Foundations
• MCU/MPU/SoC architectures and
starter kits
– ARM Cortex M/A
– MIPS, RX, Power, TriCore…
SW Foundations
• Hardware-dependent Software
– Bare metal/any RTOS
– BSP, drivers, libraries
• Native SW SDKs
8 June 2016 14© MicroEJ

15. MicroEJ Cloud Connections
Data Analytics
• HTTPS REST
• MQTT
• CoAP
• AMQP
Device Management
• LWM2M
• OMA-DM
• TR-069
8 June 2016 15© MicroEJ
IP
TCP UDP
TLS DTLS
SMS
CoAPMQTT
LWM2M

16. MicroEJ OS Core
Secure multi-application engine
• Optimized virtual machine
• “Green thread” integration to RTOS
Languages, utilities & test
• Efficient Java-to-C native interface
• Test suite harness (for HW-in-the-loop testing)
• Performance traces
Memory management
• Smart RAM optimizer (garbage collector)
• Shared C-Java heap (immortal objects)
• Static objects in flash (immutable objects)
CPU & Power management
• Management of app permissions to access system resources
Components management
• Static and dynamic code loader, incremental
• Management of binary app lifecycle
• Sandboxing
8 June 2016 © MicroEJ 16
KEY FIGURES:
Soft Core (virtualization)
+ Smart RAM Optimizer
< 30 KB of Flash
Multi-app add-on < 10 KB of Flash
RAM footprint < 1.5 KB
Boot time < 2ms
on Cortex-M3 at 120 MHz
RTOS stack size < 1KB

17. Multi-App Sandboxing
Built OS defines set of API &
resources available to apps
• Can’t access directly to code, objects,
threads
• No (bypassing) native code call allowed
• No inter-dependencies between apps
• Fully managed in binary
• Install, uninstall, start, stop
HARDWARE
BSP (= DRIVERS + RTOS)
RTOS
Task 1
MicroEJ Task (“Green Thread”)
RTOS
Task 2
RTOS
Task n
MicroEJ CoreMemory Mgmt
Components Management
Resource Mgmt
Predictable Thread Scheduler
MicroEJ Libraries
App
1
App
2
App
3
App
4
App
5
App
n
Downloaded
App
Isolation
Layer
Resident
8 June 2016 © MicroEJ 17

18. Firmware Build
8 June 2016 18© MicroEJ

19. Firmware & Apps Deploy
8 June 2016 19© MicroEJ

20. MicroEJ Store
8 June 2016 20© MicroEJ

21. End-to-End IoT
8 June 2016 21© MicroEJ
IOT DEVICES
SW CONTENT
MANAGEMENT
DEVICE
MANAGEMENT
DATA
ANALYTICS
GATEWAY
P
OS
STORE
OS
IOT
CLOUD PLATFORM
MicroEJ PartnersP

22. OS for IoT
8 June 2016 22© MicroEJ
RTOS Linux
MPU (>$10 ASP)MCU ($1-6 ASP)
Volumes 75%
25%
SW Foundation

23. Thank You
8 June 2016 23© MicroEJ
• General information
– www.microej.com
• MicroEJ SDK free evaluation for OEMs
– www.microej.com/get-started
• Free MicroEJ Studio for application developers
MicroEJ Application Store
– store.microej.com
• Developer resources (source, doc, examples…)
– developer.microej.com
• Contact us
– contact@microej.com
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