Accelerating Time-to-Market
enable this is left to the system developer . Consequently , this user space code will need to go through certification . However , significant expense in both time and money can be avoided by utilizing an existing certifiable COTS software communications framework , discussed next .
The purpose of seL4 is to provide a reliable , safe , and secure foundation for applications that require it . This includes , for example : military systems , medical devices , robotics , autonomous vehicles , and energy systems . Without exception , these high assurance applications require a reliable and robust distributed communications capability , which is not provided by seL4 .
Figure 3-4 . Microkernels provide process separation .
The seL4 kernel currently has a limited infrastructure for developing complex , high-assurance distributed systems . Since the inherent design of seL4-based architectures is to partition the application space , as shown in concept above ( Figure 3-4 ), applications themselves need to deal with developing and managing all of the communication complexity . For example , configuring the inter-process communications ( IPC ) channels is complex . Developers will also need to define a protocol , serialization and deserialization , and several communications management features . Without standards , this will lead to numerous one-off approaches and as a result significantly limit component reuse within seL4 .
The Object Management Group ( OMG ) Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems ( DDS ) is a real-time , secure , loosely-coupled , publish / subscribe software connectivity framework for distributed systems and is ideally suited as the communications layer for high assurance systems , including for any safety RTOS such as seL4 . While there are other open source and commercial off-the-shelf communications framework technologies , those frameworks lack high assurance certification and at best they provide rudimentary all-or-none security .
For DDS , seL4 creates an enriched , lower cost , smaller footprint , high assurance foundation . For seL4 , DDS provides an open standards-based communications protocol . DDS will significantly simplify seL4 inter-component / application development , reduce associated costs , and promote component interoperability in the seL4 development community . DDS is a solution that will standardize data distribution in a more consistent , secure and efficient manner . It provides a publish subscribe model that enables easier , faster and more secure distributed system development . Application developers can be alleviated from the burden of creating their own piecemeal , perhaps proprietary , and one-off solutions for message-based communications and
92 July 2022