Real-Time and Security Requirements for the Internet of Things Operating Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new emerging technology connecting an enormous number of networked computing devices embedded into arbitrary "things" of our daily life. IoT's presence spans from convenience applications to the most life-critical areas, and thus sets security and real-time execution as its most crucial requirements, relevant for both hardware and software. Traditional operating systems (OS) running on today's embedded systems are commonly unable to cover both requirements. In this paper we revisit existing concepts and present specific requirements for designing a novel OS kernel for the IoT. The dependable kernel will have to provide real-time execution and also offer guarantees on security at the same time.