RIOT Vision

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 standards in terms of software platform openness, interoperability, and automatic updating. This has led to much quicker paced progress, and to the development of billions of new applications built on top of these standard open platforms, that interact in innovative ways with one another and with the cloud.

One can expect a similar revolution in the software platforms powering Internet of Things devices. It is yet unclear which software platforms will emerge as dominant (RIOT is a contender), but it is quite likely that new standards will be set in the near future, in terms of platform openness, API, automated software updates and other characteristics that are necessary to enable a modern, large scale, secure ecosystem. Similarly to the smartphone industry, such an Internet of Things (IoT) software evolution will quite likely fuel a new world of applications developed by various third parties, leveraging 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 Internet of Things 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.