Opensource IOT Initiative

IONMP Specification

A protocol written exclusively for IOT. The protocol specification defines the structure of messages for devices to participate in a plug-an-play IOT environment. Read more ...

In today's scenario, when you try to identify the right protocol for building an IOT solution, you will realize that the protocols that exist today were not really written with IOT in mind. IOT itself is a marriage of several technologies. There are protocols at the signalling/messaging levels like HTTP, HTTPS, MQTT, COAP, etc., ; Then there is REST which comes closest to what we want to achieve, when it comes to implimenting IOT solutions. However, REST is an architectural style and by definition, it doesn't define any standards or rules. So an IOT implementor chooses one's own way of implementing the solution without a proper IOT standards per-se.
IONMP - Input Output Nodes Messaging Protocol is an answer to this issue. This protocol has been written specifically with IOT endpoints in mind. A few important points about the protocol :

The protocol defines the communication at the IOT application level. It will not try to define protocol for any other layer.
The protocol is agnostic to all communication layers like the physical layer and ethernet layer – You can choose WiFi, Wired Ethernet, Bluetooth or whatever you like and this should have no bearing on the workings of the system. The protocol is agnostic to the messaging protocol – that is, HTTP, HTTPS, MQTT, etc.,
The protocol uses the payload as the means of messaging. The actual message as per the protocol will be in the payload. By doing this, we will provide a great deal of flexibility in the system.
The protocol has definitions to ensure that security is taken care of.

Where to get it?

Specification - The specification is being maintained using Github.
Link to Repository url

Issues - Issues are tracked using the Github Issue tracker
Link to Issue Tracker

Server Implementation

IONMP server. Our implementation has been written in python. In the current version, the server does not implement the entire specification, but it is good enough to be fully functional. We have, in fact, implemented several proof of concept IOT implementations using this server. This server is a continous work in progress development and slowly we will make it fully IONMP compliant.
The server has complete support for entities behind NAT. The implementation works directly with most common routers without having to punch holes in the firewall or the router.

Where to get it?

Repository - The repository is available at Github.
Link to Repository url

Issues - Issues are tracked using the Github Issue tracker
Link to Issue Tracker

Device Implementations

Libraries / Reference implementations for clients that implement the IONMP Protocol. We will be spreading these into two categories -

Microcontroller specific device libraries
Actual implementation of IONMP compliant devices

For the libraries part, we currently have support for the ESP8266 and ESP32 devices. We have structured these libraries in such a way that a developer can easily create IONMP compliant devices without having to do a lot of heavy lifting. By importing and using our libraries, (s)he will be able to build IONMP compliant devices with just a few additional lines.

Where to get it?

Repository - The repository is available at Github.
Link to Repository url

Issues - Issues are tracked using the Github Issue tracker
Link to Issue Tracker

License

Currently all our opensource projects are licensed using the AGPL License. A copy of the AGPL license can be found Here

Why AGPL? Why not a business friendly opensource license like Apache?
Let's start with saying that we are fans of big fans of business friendly licenses like Apache or MIT. We sincerely WANT to release our software under one of these license, typically Apache. At the same time, we chose GPL for the reason mentioned in the next para.

The initial codebase of all the products of this opensource suite and the developers for the projects have been contributed by Qantom. Even though it is an opensource initiative and the code would grow based on community support, during the initial days, the project has to be funded by Qantom. That being said, when the community downloads and uses any of these code, we expect that the project benefits in any one of the following ways:

When anybody uses the code and makes changes to the code, these modifications are submitted back into the opensource suite (AGPL mandates that this be done). This ensures that the codebase grows in strength.

If somebody wants to use the codebase for commercial purposes and extend upon it; and at the same time doesn't want to relinquish their own code modifications into the open source community, then the entity has to opt for the commercial licensing from Qantom. The revenue from this licensing will help us to continue funding the projects.

Eventaully our desire is to convert this license into a more business friendly opensource license like Apache License. For this to happen, ThingsPing® should be able to financially sustain itself - either by means of donations, sponsorship or some other revenue generation. Until then, we will have to live with AGPL3 License.

Team

We are bunch of passionate developers, mostly alumini of the prestigous BITS Pilani.
A few students from BITS Pilani's special track post graduation program on IOT, as part of our capstone project, wanted to work on an IOT platform that was protocol, vendor and hardware agnostic. As luck would have it, one of the students was from Qantom software. Qantom has been working on technologies using the SIP protocol for almost two decades and had already worked on many technologies that were required for the capstone implementation. Qantom agreed to contribute some of its code base and technology know how. Thus the IONMP Framework and the related products were born!.

Raghu

Tejaswi

Priyavrat

Ritu

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