Enabling Embedded Solutions with Container Technology

Containerization enables the creation of a standardized bundle of software components — including a collection of all required configuration files, libraries, and utilities — allowing an application to run in a specified environment. Containers for Linux and VxWorks can be confidently deployed across different hardware environments and kernel versions. Containers stay lightweight and manageable by sharing the kernel of the operating system. This simplifies management and updating of code, since the latest iteration of the operating system doesn’t need to be distributed each time a container is deployed into a system.

Container Formats and Orchestration

Docker popularized the use of containers with tooling that made it easy and simple for anyone to build and distribute images. Released as open source in 2013, the original creators worked with the community to standardize the specifications based on their work.

Standardization has advanced container adoption, expanding interoperability across multiple architectures. The Open Container Initiative (OCI) lists three specifications for container developers to follow:

1. Image specification: Defines the container images, which are basically file system bundles stored in a registry from which they can be retrieved by a host
2. Distribution specification: Provides a means to locate images in the registery and download them
3. Runtime specification: Establishes the rules for unpacking the image contents, the file system bundle that will be used by the container when running

VxWorks supports these specifications, enabling use of common formats and tools for developing and deploying containers. VxWorks containerized workloads can even be controlled by Kubernetes to orchestrate containers across devices.

Through Wind River® Studio, orchestration of containers can be extended to manage a large fleet of devices running VxWorks. For example, software upgrades of applications in VxWorks can be configured within Kubernetes and applied automatically.

What Is Inside a Container?

Typically, containers are associated with deploying microservices in the cloud. However, containers can also be used for deploying traditional services and applications. Wind River takes this one step further by extending support for containerizing embedded software on VxWorks.

By definition, containers consolidate the vital elements of a set of modular, interlinked applications into a cohesive solution. The concept is based on building large software applications from many smaller, independent blocks, as shown in Figure 1 (page 5). This approach takes advantage of proven open source tools, frameworks, and software to speed software development time and reduce costs. It also breaks free of the legacy practice of building monolithic, inflexible software applications that are difficult to create and update. Instead, this modular approach favors portability, lightweight operation, and agility. These attributes are essential for supporting modern architectures, including cloud-native and service-oriented architecture as used in automotive designs. Wind River supports containers in both VxWorks and Wind River Linux to build next-generation architectures based on cloud-native principles across multiple industries.

The challenges of effectively deploying embedded applications that comply with the rigors of vehicular, medical, or edge computing use cases are well suited to container technology. Rob Woolley, principal technologist at Wind River, summarized the benefits in his paper, “Deploying Embedded Applications Faster with Containers.” He notes, “Embedded developers can benefit from the infrastructure-agnostic, scalable execution environment enabled by containers. Imagine a design process — from development to test to deployment to production to management — in which developers can share resources, pipelines, and results across the team. Instead of being limited by the number of development boards available, companies could exploit the elasticity of the cloud to set up multiple instances of a system on demand.”

Embedded use cases often require low-latency, responsive, deterministic behavior. VxWorks has been engineered to provide an RTOS for these types of deployments, with OCI-compliant container support for enabling small-footprint embedded solutions. It has a long history of use in products that require rigorous security compliance with specialized certifications. VxWorks suits demanding use cases in industries such as medical, aerospace, transportation, and Industry 4.0 robotics and automation.

The characteristics of containers are ideal for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), ready for producing new software updates quickly from new source code changes. Their modularity means they can be lever- aged in a DevSecOps workflow with automated orchestration (as shown in Figure 2). Containers built for VxWorks are highly portable across environments that value security and frequent urgent software patches to address cybersecurity concerns.

Wind River advanced simulation software offers an effective way for developers and system architects to test containers to identify and resolve software defects before deploying to the physical device. As the DevSecOps model becomes more widely adopted, containers can be engineered to minimize embedded solution issues, probing for potential problems at the earliest stages of development.

Simulation software can effectively detect and ensure that safety vulnerabilities don’t go unnoticed and can be eliminated before a container goes into large-scale distribution. This simulation technology makes it possible to test effectively on virtual hardware, an important capability when exploring potential attack vectors that are difficult or impossible to check on a live system.

Creating a digital twin of a container-enabled system is increasingly important to long-term operation and upgrades. Nicolas Chaillan, founder of Ask Sage and former U.S. Air Force and Space Force chief software officer, commented, “A digital twin is essential when it comes to modeling and simulation. It empowers teams effectively to know exactly how the system is going to behave before bending metal. And a lot of people look at software agility and forget that you can do a lot of that. You don’t have to always be in a waterfall universe in hardware. I think you can easily now swap hardware, swap compute with a rack or some type of easily replaceable hardware, compute, or storage capability — on jets, on ships, you name it.”

Rethinking the design of an existing embedded system to embrace a software-defined architecture is not a trivial pursuit. However, momentum is building throughout the industry to embrace containers as a logical evolution of modern development practices. Commenting on the direction in which design is proceeding toward a software-defined model at Aptiv, Senior VP of Transformation and Special Projects Glen De Vos said, “We went through all of these proofs of concept and studies with the automotive OEMs to [say], ‘This is why this works.’ We’re now in the next phase, the software equivalent of that: We’re going to show you smart software architecture with containerization and the DevOps environment, and that’s the process for now. We think the math is very compelling. In fact, the technology has gone from being unsustainable to being profitable.”

Container technology for embedded solutions is still in the early stages of adoption. However, it is part of an industry-wide transformation of how software is designed using modular components, built with DevSecOps practices for increased agility, security, and ongoing maintenance. The shift to cloud delivery of software patches and upgrades can, in the long term, save companies substantial cost and efficiently open new opportunities to reliably meet customer demands and industry requirements.

As awareness of the benefits of embedded container technology grows, and the containerization skills of software developers keep pace with this growth, the technology holds the promise of a bright future.

AI and Container Technology Are a Winning Combination

Container technology combined with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning facilitate powerful capabilities. Examples include:

• Predictive maintenance: Machine learning models within embedded solutions can assess the probability of parts failure, triggering timely maintenance procedures and preventing unexpected downtime. This is particularly important in the aerospace industry, in which safety and fail-safe operation are paramount.
• Identifying and combating security threats: The dangers of security breaches — including malware and unauthorized access to systems — can be lessened by employing AI to monitor the behavior of embedded applications and block intrusions.
• Balancing resource use: AI makes it possible to intelligently allocate resources within embedded container applications, creating an optimal balance of processor, memory, and storage resources as well as delivering dynamic scalability to meet application requirements.

Expect AI to provide value and benefits in a host of emerging technolo-gies as containers are widely adopted, encompassing (but not limited to) autonomous vehicles, avionics, smart grid installations, smart city infrastructure, and intelligent agricultural equipment.

Conclusion

As the embedded industry tackles the challenges and complexities of software lifecycle maintenance and critical security concerns, support for containers in VxWorks provides a solution for regular, reliable, and large-scale deployment of updates. The adoption of container technology in VxWorks opens the door for innovation by leveraging existing industry standards and tools for existing and next-generation designs. Container use provides modular software that can be reused across projects, resulting in cost savings and faster time-to-market.

Containers provide agility to contend with the accelerated pace of change in technologies, map to diverse use cases, and create business opportunities. Visit www.windriver.com/containers to learn more about how Wind River can help you adopt containers.

Additional Resources

What Are Embedded Containers? Discover the ways in which container technology is bridging the divide between enterprise and embedded systems.

Hype Cycle for Container Technology, 2023: Get insights from Gartner on the benefits of container technology to enable digital business strategies.

Container Technology Energizes Edge Computing: See how manufacturers, medical organizations, energy providers, aerospace firms, and others can take advantage of the container support included with VxWorks.