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source RTOS (e.g., TinyOS, eCOS or FreeRTOS) or a closed source executive (from
over 300 commercial/proprietary options) to manage resources and simplify value-
added applications programming. Developers will surely use OSS tools to create leave
node devices, and semiconductor suppliers will provide open source device drivers and
other elements to support them, but the applications running on them will likely remain
closed (as are many other types of device software). The peer - level end points are by
de
nition multi-function devices and have the potential (or the necessity) of deploying
enterprise-peer OSes
Linux, BSD, versions of Windows, etc. These devices represent
more interesting opportunities for OSS, from system software (especially Linux and
Android) up through middleware and applications frameworks, as well as routing
software. Additionally, with fewer resource limitations and constraints on bills-of-
material (BoM) costs, these types of devices are easier to build and accessible to
-
home
brewing
and the creativity of the maker movement.
In discussion of open source for the IoT, we should examine two distinct types of
infrastructure
routers, gateways, and aggregators that bridge between the existing
Internet and IoT end points, vs. access points, LAN router and edge routers, backbone
and core switches, and routers that constitute the Internet. The former infrastructure
provide ample opportunities for OSS deployment and for the evolution of new open
source implementations: embedded Linux provides a flexible platform with native IP
networking, IP routing software, and standardized local
-
le systems. New IoT frame-
works are almost universally rst hosted on Linux, as are most popular programming
languages and tool kits. The latter infrastructure, from local wireless networks to
broadband and mobile baseband access, to edge and core networking, is already teeming
with open source software.
As with Internet infrastructure, the cloud is substantially built on open source
software components
Linux, virtualization platforms, orchestration and management
software, application support libraries and other types of cloud middleware, and the
tools and frameworks developers use to write and deploy code
-
all open source. That
is not to say that all cloud software is open (e.g., Microsoft Azure), nor that software
that implements IaaS and PaaS is readily available as open source (e.g., the code behind
Amazon Web Services or Rackspace Cloud Hosting). And, while code that implements
(or will implement) IoT applications and IoT-centric SaaS solutions leverages OSS,
there is no impetus for that code to be open source itself.
As with the existing marketplaces of mobile apps and the even broader universe of
web applications, IoT end-user apps certainly bene
-
t from the existence of open source
development tools and middleware, but have no particular impetus towards being open
source themselves. Reasons include small audiences for niche apps unlikely to engender
and support communities; mostly traditional per-unit business models; freeware with
revenue from advertising or in-app purchases that don
'
t accrue additional bene
t from
the
nity with a particular brand/
company who regards their end-user apps as conferring proprietary advantage.
Across all nodes and tiers, developers of course rely on development tools to build
and debug the software they create and deploy. Today, it is no exaggeration to say that
most development tools derive from OSS projects or simply are open source.
frictionless
distribution model of OSS; strong af
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