Domain Specific Embedded Software Solutions and Promotion of - PDF document

Domain Specific Embedded Software Solutions and Promotion of Embedded Linux in Korea Jung-Guk Kim Moon Hae Kim Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea Konkuk University, Korea jgkim@ hufs.ac.kr mhkim@ konkuk.ac.kr Abstract these architectures are introduced. Then, as conclusions, the proposed promotion policies are described. In last April, a survey to find out Korean embedded S/W solutions and their competitiveness has been 2. Mobile Phone performed. In this paper, the survey results and the general S/W stack architectures used for DMB, mobile phone, telematics, and home server services are briefly In the domain of Mobile Phone service, the S/W stack introduced. Some promotion polices for S/W and OSS architecture has been defined as to have four layers; OS, business proposed to the Korean government are also core system components, middlewares and applications. introduced. Based on this survey, we propose to discuss For each function module in the four layers, domestic solutions and their competitiveness have been surveyed. how to collaborate in the area of open source for As in the figure 1, the competitiveness is classified into embedded software. four levels; strong, competitive, weak and very weak; according to the existence of domestic solutions and their 1. Introduction degrees of commercial usages. In Korea, DMB, home network, mobile phone and telematics services can be stated as most hot application- domains of embedded system industry. In these four services, a number of big companies are doing their businesses relatively well and their progresses of developing new-generation services are very rapid. Though their businesses are very successful, the current embedded S/W industry still has some critical problems such as lack of core solutions and lack of solution business. These difficulties are considered to be the main sources of the current depression in S/W business in Korea. To overcome these difficulties and to prepare appropriate S/W business promotion policies, the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) decided to survey current situation and competitiveness of embedded S/W solutions developed by Korean companies. The KIPA survey team did their work on four domains, that is, mobile phone, DMB, home server, and telematics. As a result, several policies to promote S/W businesses have been proposed to Figure 1. Mobile Phone S/W Stack the government in April 2005. In this paper, the S/W reference architectures that have been used for each domain and the current industry situations according to The results of this survey are as follows. � As the layer goes to the lower system layer, the

competitiveness becomes weaker. For example, the � The competitiveness of OS and protocol layer is domestic embedded Linux solution is just in the very weak. level of prototype development mainly because of � From CODEC to application layer, the solutions the maintenance problem. seem to have competitiveness relative to foreign � In the virtual machine (middleware) layer, the solutions. Korean WIPI solution is active but this is restricted � Related to TPEG, several standards are currently in Korea. In the case of export, the Java phone is being made. widely required but the support shows weakness. � In the layer of application, service applications and 4. Telematics solution components related to multimedia came out to have strong points compared to foreign solutions. Telematics is a compound terminology from telecommunications and informatics and the coverage of Considering the international trend in embedded OS is this technology in Korea is from traveling guide to that OS venders announce new generation OS that is automotive control. optimized and specialized to new chip sets of mobile We defined the telematics S/W stack as to have four phones, the weakness in lower layers is thought to deepen layers; that is; OS, middlewares for multimedia and virtual the dependency of core technologies. machine service, telematics management and application layer. In the telematics domain, the survey results are as follows. 3. DMB DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) is an extension of DAB(Digital Audio Broadcasting) and is divided into satellite DMB and terrestrial DMB service. The satellite DMB service was started at the last September in Korea and the terrestrial DMB service will be began in this year. Figure 2 shows the S/W architecture and competitiveness of solutions of DMB terminals. Figure 3. Telematics S/W Stack � The part of application layer related to information service is strong, however, services related to safety and control are just in the state of beginning. � Usually, a kind of traditional real-time OS is preferred although real-time control services related to automotive control and safety are not yet included in telematics services. Figure 2. DMB S/W Stack 5. Home Server In this survey, we defined that home-server service is The survey results are as follows. composed of home gateway and home set-top box service.

The service components of home gateway service are as as follows. follows. � Network gateway service; � Home office services (VoIP, etc.) � Home automation services � Home security services The service components of home set-top box service are as follows. � ICE(Information, Communication, Entertainment) services � Home gateway related services (Security, Automation) � Digital contents related services � Home office related services Figure 5. Home STB S/W Stack The above home STB services can be stated as the merged one of IP-STB and home network. Lack of core solutions such as RTOS, basic � middlewares, and new technical components in compliance with new international standards. Economical difficulties of small collaborating � companies due to the style of contracts (SI- based) with CE venders; Lack of license-based business; � Duplicated developments of S/W components � such as device drivers, system modules, etc.; Difficulties in continuous and high-quality � maintenance and technical support for domestic solutions including embedded Linux. To overcome these difficulties, we proposed to set up an organization named “Embedded S/W Engineering Center” that may be ether a public or private corporation. The followings are main activities of this organization. Figure 4. Home Gateway S/W Stack Continuous technical supports and maintenance � for open source S/W solutions including embedded Linux ; As in the other domains, in the OS and system module Organizing an alliance program for continuous � layers, the industry shows their relative weakness. In this maintenance; survey, especially the CAS(Controlled Access System) and Maintaining a embedded S/W solution-map DB � DRM(Digital Rights Management) are came out to be key to promote fast and effective collaborations business components in home server domain as well as in between companies; DMB, however, it was found out that there’s no original domestic solutions. Technical marketing of domestic solutions; � Developing common basic solutions such as � device drivers, GUI modules, etc.; 6. Proposed Promotion Policies Maintenance of a DB containing information of � high skilled embedded S/W engineers; Based on the results of survey, the main reasons of the depression of S/W business in Korea can be summarized

In the above, the jobs relevant to embedded Linux came from awareness of the fact that a fast and effective way to overcome the lack of low-level core solutions is to make open source S/W solutions to be more reliable, more powerful, and more maintainable. KIPA and Ministry of Information & Communications accepted these proposed policies this year. Moreover, they made a plan to expand these activities to international collaborative jobs among Korea, Japan and China by proposing it to the CJK Open Source S/W Promotion Forum. References [1] Jung G. Kim, et al., “Analysis of Embedded S/W Industry based on the Embedded S/W Solution Map,” a KIPA Report, April 2005.