Service Oriented Architecture (OSGi-ME)
The number of applications is growing fast in markets like the Home, Automotive, Mobile markets. In order to deliver applications fast, application code structuring and flexibility are key points in Embedded Computing.
Many players on the market also think to open the devices to third-party applications in order to accelerate service delivery through an open application store. Device openess to third-party application demands the ability to deploy application modules developed by distinct service providers on the same device on a robust basis.
IS2T specified with Orange a new standard for service deployment called OSGi-ME. OSGi-ME is based on the well know OSGi specification (visit www.osgi.org for more information), but is fully dedicated to fulfill embedded system requirements.
The OSGi framework allows to organize software architectures on the basis on component models providing an even improved flexibility compared to classic modular architectures. The OSGi-ME specific features offer new improvements compared to the features available with classic OSGi implementations.
OSGi-ME new functionalities are all dedicated to solve issues developers have to face to in the embedded world, dealing with constrained devices:
- Very small memory footprint (about 40KBytes)
- Transactional model for high reliability
- Safe service management including dependency management
- Code and data isolation for security and confidentiality
Share 3rd Party Applications
Application sharing is very popular in communication systems involved in the M2M (Machine to Machine) market. Typical equipement are home-boxes, GSM/UMTS modules, multimedia centers, etc.
Thanks to OSGi-ME, it is very easy to share several services from different providers on the same hardware platform.
Services can share functionalities between each others without compromising data and code isolation when shakeholders want to keep part their valuable data and critical parts of programs private.
Thanks to the dynamic and reliable bundle management, it is possible build services that can evolve during the application life-cycle including a fin-grained upgrade according to the end-user's service subscriptions
Advanced Modular Architecture With SOA
OSGi-ME can be used as a means to access to an advanced software architecture where modularity is very important for application scalability and maintenance.
Here, dynamic evolution is not the main requirement because all bundles are statically activated. However, the strength of the system resides in a well organized structure where a large number of bundles can be easily reorganized for a new product design.