A real-time operating system (RTOS) offers a lightweight and efficient foundation for IoT devices. Additionally, it delivers real-time responsiveness and deterministic behavior, enabling devices to make split-second decisions and take immediate action.
In the fast-paced world of the Internet of Things (IoT), the choice of operating system can make or break a device. While Linux has been the go-to option for many developers, a new contender is on the rise: the real-time operating system (RTOS).
The RTOS offers a lightweight and efficient foundation for IoT devices. It delivers real-time responsiveness and deterministic behavior, enabling devices to make split-second decisions and take immediate action.
Moreover, RTOS boasts inherent security advantages, thanks to its smaller attack surface and reduced complexity compared to full-fledged systems, a big plus considering the recent backdoor issues plaguing Linux. Let’s dive deeper into these factors driving the RTOS revival in IoT development.
The evolving device landscape
The Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. The role of IoT devices has become more well-defined, and the community has matured, leading to a greater demand for specialized solutions tailored to specific use cases. Consumer and industrial IoT devices are no longer the complex, feature-rich systems they once were. Instead, there is a growing emphasis on simplicity, focused functionality, and resource efficiency.
Devices are becoming smaller, cheaper, and more ubiquitous, often serving a single primary function at a time. This shift has paved the way for the adoption of the RTOS, which offers a lightweight and efficient foundation for IoT devices.
In contrast to general-purpose operating systems like Linux, which are built to support multiple applications running simultaneously with separate memory and file spaces, RTOS adopts a more streamlined approach. By integrating applications and tasks directly into the system with minimal separation between memory spaces and hardware, RTOS offers a focused and efficient solution.
Several RTOS platforms have emerged as leading contenders, each offering distinct capabilities and benefits to developers. Zephyr, an open-source project backed by The Linux Foundation, has gained considerable momentum thanks to its collaborative nature and expanding community support. Meanwhile, FreeRTOS and ThreadX, acquired by Amazon and Microsoft, respectively, have seen increased adoption due to the backing of these tech giants and their robust development ecosystems.
This involvement of major tech companies, coupled with the advancements made by microcontroller manufacturers, has propelled RTOS development environments to new heights. Boasting comprehensive tooling, thriving community support, and mature middleware, RTOS has emerged as a powerful yet streamlined solution that maintains its real-time responsiveness while making strides in usability, security, and scalability.
As the IoT landscape continues to evolve, with a growing emphasis on specialization and targeted functionality, RTOS is well-positioned to meet the moment.
See also: Why the Time for Real-time Is Now, And What to Do About It
The need for real-time decision making
In addition to focused functionality, there’s a competing drive for on-board decisions to be made faster. This is where the real-time element comes into play.
Take industrial IoT. These systems increasingly rely on RTOS for their ability to perform a single action at a time, dedicating all computing power to that specific task. This focused approach enables RTOS to respond quickly to external commands or sensor information while consuming less computing power and energy. This is vital in industrial settings since constantly replacing batteries or dealing with power outages is not feasible in environments with thousands of IoT devices. A win-win.
Additionally, as touched upon, RTOS has undergone significant advancements in recent years, with IP stack and TLS stack capabilities now approaching the stability of their Linux counterparts. Solutions like lwIP for IP stack and mbedTLS for encryption have matured, providing developers with robust and reliable options for secure connectivity.
Finally, Linux can often be overkill. Simple devices like smart lights or automatic pet feeders often only need the basics. In the past, developers would have had to invest significant time into setting up RTOS, IP stack, and encryption libraries. However, user-friendly development environments now allow developers to have an RTOS-based project up and running in less than an hour.
As a result of these advancements, RTOS has become more accessible, reliable, and trusted by developers, which is crucial when considering the final element: security.
See also: It’s the Right Time to Start a Real-time Data Business
The security sticking point
It’s not just the development environment that’s changed over the past five years – the threat landscape has become increasingly dangerous, with IoT attacks quadrupling due to the rise of malware and botnets. Therefore, the third and final reason developers are turning to RTOS is that it’s less hackable.
RTOS is designed with security and minimalism as core principles. Unlike general-purpose operating systems that support dynamic loading of programs at runtime, RTOS systems are typically compiled statically during development. All code that runs on an RTOS device is determined and integrated into the system at build time, reducing the potential attack surface.
By focusing solely on executing predetermined tasks with low latency, rather than supporting multiple processes and dynamic program loading, RTOS offers a reduced and well-defined attack surface with clear visibility into the limited codepaths. This static and streamlined approach makes it significantly more difficult for malicious actors to inject arbitrary code or exploit vulnerabilities.
Moreover, the recent incident involving Linux, the world’s most widely used open-source operating system, highlights the potential risks associated with complex and extensive codebases. Over Easter weekend, Linux narrowly escaped a massive cyberattack thanks to the vigilance of a single volunteer who discovered a backdoor. Had this malicious code spread more widely, countless systems could have been compromised for years. This close call raises concerns about whether Linux and its subsystems have become so big that malicious code can be injected without detection.
Faced with these security challenges, developers are increasingly opting for the simplicity and inherent security benefits of RTOS. By keeping things streamlined, RTOS minimizes potential vulnerabilities and provides a more secure device foundation.
Overall, this is a perfect storm of factors: the growing simplicity of devices, the need for real-time decision-making, and the paramount importance of security. For developers, RTOS is proving to be key to creating efficient, responsive, and secure solutions. By embracing the power and potential of this operating system, expect the connected device industry to unlock new possibilities and drive connected innovation. Watch this space.
