Before talking about the IoT operating system, let’s talk about the Internet of Things first.
What is the Internet of Things? The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that realizes the interconnection of all things. It gives objects control, perception and decision-making power, and promotes the development of various life scenes in the direction of intelligence. From an architectural perspective, the Internet of Things consists of four levels: sensing, transmission, platform, and application. Take the air conditioning scenario in smart homes as an example:
Sensing layer - the air conditioner is equipped with human body infrared, temperature and other sensors to collect indoor temperature and determine whether there are people; transmission layer - the air conditioner is equipped with an Internet of Things wireless transmission module and connected to the Internet through WiFi and other methods; platform layer - through mobile APP and behind the scenes Management platform software; application layer - use APP for remote control, timer switch, automatic shutdown when leaving the room, etc.;
Picture from: Tianfeng Securities. Panoramic map of the Internet of Things industry chain
After understanding the Internet of Things, let’s take a look at the operating system.
The operating system is a system that manages computer hardware and software resources. It is responsible for scheduling and managing various resources of the computer system, including processors, memory, external storage, input and output devices, etc. The basic functions of the operating system include process management, memory management, file system and device drivers. Process management is responsible for scheduling and managing computer system processes so that various applications can run. Memory management is responsible for allocating and managing the memory space of the computer system so that various applications can share and use memory. The file system is responsible for managing and organizing the files of the computer system so that users can easily access and operate these files. Device drivers are responsible for managing and controlling various external devices of the computer system, such as printers, monitors, etc.
Overlooking Starlink IoT Platform
After understanding the concepts of IoT and operating systems, let’s take a look at what is an IoT operating system?
The IoT operating system is the core basic software that supports the large-scale development of IoT technology, including the operating system kernel, peripheral components and services, IoT security framework, etc., to support the formation of an IoT software platform with low power consumption and secure communication attributes. The kernel of the IoT operating system usually has functions such as task management, interrupt management, exception handling, clock management, storage management, synchronization and communication. The IoT operating system coordinates and controls various software and hardware resources downwards and provides a unified application programming interface upwards, reducing the complexity, cost and time of IoT application development. The architecture diagram of the IoT operating system is as follows:
Figure from: China Communications Standards Association: Internet of Things Operating System Security White Paper
Compared with traditional operating systems, IoT operating systems have the following characteristics:
1. Tailorable scalability:
According to different hardware capabilities and application scenarios, the IoT operating system needs to be tailored and configured to flexibly respond to different needs. To achieve the above-mentioned flexible configuration, the operating system needs to adopt the idea of "modularization and componentization", such as modular design of components, scalable open architecture, etc.
2. Low power consumption and energy saving:
Due to limitations in deployment location, space, thermal environment, etc., low power consumption has become a very critical indicator for IoT devices and operating systems. When designing the overall architecture of the IoT operating system, some logical judgments such as energy-saving mode, sleep mode, and frequency reduction mode should be added to support sufficient power endurance.
3. Security:
As the basic software of the Internet of Things, the operating system needs to pay special attention to the security of information and have the ability to resist risk intrusions. Secondly, we must pay attention to functional safety and avoid security risks caused by software functional defects.
4. Real-time:
Most devices in the Internet of Things application field require real-time performance, whether it is data collection, information interaction or operation control. A real-time operating system means that when external events or data are generated, it can be collected in real time and processed at a sufficiently fast speed, and its processing results can control the production process or respond quickly to the processing system within specified events, and schedule An operating system that uses all available resources to complete real-time tasks and controls real-time tasks to run in a coordinated manner.
5. Ubiquitous communication:
Since the deployment scenarios of IoT devices vary widely and the communication standards that may be adopted are diverse, the operating system as the basic software of the IoT requires built-in various short-range and long-range communication protocols, which can support GPRS/HSPA/4G/5G /NB-IoT and other cellular wireless communication functions can also support near-field communication functions such as WiFi/ZigBee/NFC/RFID.
6. Cloud connectivity:
After IoT devices complete data collection, the massive data usually needs to be stored and analyzed in the cloud. Therefore, cloud connectivity is a fundamental feature of IoT operating systems. With built-in cloud platform connectivity middleware, IoT operating systems can greatly simplify the development of IoT applications.
About Starlink IoT Platform
Starlink IoT platform is owned by Yuanwang and builds an efficient, stable and secure application platform between IoT applications and real devices.
For devices, Starlink supports providing safe and reliable device connection and communication capabilities, supporting multi-driver (protocol) adaptation, connecting massive devices, providing device management and control, driver management capabilities, supporting device object model definition, and providing standard object models. , Simplify device application development.
For applications, Starlink provides API and MQTT services to meet the development needs of application systems in various industries, allowing IoT companies to focus more on the development of their own applications, thereby shortening the development cycle of IoT systems and reducing corporate R&D, operations and operations. dimension cost.