Demonstration abstract: Simply RIOT — Teaching and experimental research in the Internet of Things

Abstract

Manufacturers announce on a regular basis the availability of novel tiny devices, most of them featuring network interfaces: the Internet of Things (IoT) is already here - from the hardware perspective. On the software side however, embedded platforms available so far made it uneasy for developers to build apps that run across heterogeneous IoT hardware. Linux does not scale down to small, energy-constrained devices, while alternatives such as Contiki yield a steep learning curve and lengthy development life-cycles because they rule out standard programming and debugging tools. RIOT is a new open source software platform bridging this gap. RIOT allows just about any programmer to develop IoT application with zero learning curve. This is achieved by allowing standard C and C++ application programming with multi-threading, using well-known debugging tools (gdb, Valgrind, profilers etc.), while requiring only a minimum of 1.5 kB of RAM. RIOT also provides built-in energy efficiency and real-time capabilities. These characteristics make this platform attractive in several contexts, including teaching in the field of the Internet of Things, and experimental research in the domain of sensor networks and the IoT.