Over-the-Air Firmware Updates for Constrained NB-IoT Devices

Mahfoudhi, Farouk; Sultania, Ashish Kumar; Famaey, Jeroen

doi:10.3390/s22197572

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Several notable studies were analysed related to the firmware updates management, optimisation of the update files transmission, and improving the process of writing to the microcontroller's program memory. In the field of firmware update management, Mahfoudhi [5] describes an over-the-air firmware update management model for NB-IoT networks as the number of end devices increases significantly, seeking improvements in flexibility, installation time, efficiency, and cost reduction. In a similar context, Frisch [6] proposes a set of models and rules for the firmware update process based on secure distribution and automatic installation mechanisms.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Firmware Update Method to Microcontrollers during Runtime

Neves,

Santos,

Valente

2024

Electronics

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This article presents a new firmware update paradigm for optimising the procedure in microcontrollers. The aim is to allow updating during program execution, without interruptions or restarts, replacing only specific code segments. The proposed method uses static and absolute addresses to locate and isolate the code segment to be updated. The work focuses on Microchip’s PIC18F27K42 microcontroller and includes an example of updating functionality without affecting ongoing applications. This approach is ideal for band limited channels, reducing the amount of data transmitted during the update process. It also allows incremental changes to the program code, preserving network capacity, and reduces the costs associated with data transfer, especially in firmware update scenarios using cellular networks. This ability to update the normal operation of the device, avoiding service interruption and minimising downtime, is of remarkable value.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Firmware Update Method to Microcontrollers during Runtime

Neves,

Santos,

Valente

2024

Electronics

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“…In addition, the update methods could be tested in the context of IoT projects based on other communication protocols such as NBIoT [37] and Zigbee [38], or even proprietary ones such as Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) running in nRF24L Series chips [39].…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Malumbres,

Saldana,

Berné

et al. 2024

Sensors

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The capacity to update firmware is a vital component in the lifecycle of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, even those with restricted hardware resources. This paper explores the best way to wirelessly (Over The Air, OTA) update low-end IoT nodes with difficult access, combining the use of unicast and broadcast communications. The devices under consideration correspond to a recent industrial IoT project that focuses on the installation of intelligent lighting systems within ATEX (potentially explosive atmospheres) zones, connected via LoRa to a gateway. As energy consumption is not limited in this use case, the main figure of merit is the total time required for updating a project. Therefore, the objective is to deliver all the fragments of the firmware to each and all the nodes in a safe way, in the least amount of time. Three different methods, combining unicast and broadcast transmissions in different ways, are explored analytically, with the aim of obtaining the expected update time. The methods are also tested via extensive simulations, modifying different parameters such as the size of the scenario, the number of bytes of each firmware chunk, the number of nodes, and the number of initial broadcast rounds. The simulations show that the update time of a project can be significant, considering the limitations posed by regulations, in terms of the percentage of airtime consumption. However, significant time reductions can be achieved by using the proper method: in some cases, when the number of nodes is high, the update time can be reduced by two orders of magnitude if the correct method is chosen. Moreover, one of the proposed methods is implemented using actual hardware. This real implementation is used to perform firmware update experiments in a lab environment. Overall, the article illustrates the advantage of broadcast approaches in this kind of technology, in which the transmission rate is constant despite the distance between the gateway and the node. However, the advantage of these broadcast methods with respect to the unicast one could be mitigated if the nodes do not run exactly the same firmware version, since the control of the broadcast update would be more difficult and the total update time would increase.

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“…In [4], a reliable rmware OTA updating approach intended for constrained IoT devices was proposed. The Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) was utilized as a low-power wireless communi-cation technology that managed a server along with remotely-connected devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of IoT Wireless Programmer for Microchip AVR Microcontrollers’ OTA Firmware Updates

ahemd,

Badawy

2023

Preprint

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Sensor Networks (WSN) are mainly composed of intelligent interconnected devices (things) that require remote ubiquitous over-the-air re-programming. Conse- quently, existing functionalities are updated, and firmware errors and security flaws are corrected along with the addition of new functionality. These enable their designated applications to be dynamically re-purposed. In this paper, a reliable design of an IoT Wireless Microchip ATMEL AVR Programmer device that provides firmware OTA updates utilizing Wi-Fi and LoRa technologies is proposed. It supports both the official Program and Debug Interface (PDI) and Tiny Programming Interface (TPI) for Microchip ATMEL AVR programming and debug- ging. TPI and PDI protocols are supported by the Microchip ATMEL AVR ATtiny and ATxmega family of microcontrollers. The research’s fundamental contribution is to realize wireless communication for the standard official Microchip ATMEL AVR Programmer for remotely writing, reading, erasing, and verifying a microcontroller’s Flash and EEPROM memories without the need for a custom bootloader. Simulations are performed utilizing the AVRDUDESS and the NetBurner Virtual COMM Port Converter applications that proved robust firmware OTA up- dating procedures. Experimental work is conducted on the AVR ATtiny10/20 and ATxmega32A4U microcontrollers, which proved an outstanding performance of sending a 6.315KB firmware file within 25 and 35 seconds using Wi-Fi and LoRa respectively.

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Over-the-Air Firmware Updates for Constrained NB-IoT Devices

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

Innovative Firmware Update Method to Microcontrollers during Runtime

Innovative Firmware Update Method to Microcontrollers during Runtime

Firmware Updates over the Air via LoRa: Unicast and Broadcast Combination for Boosting Update Speed

Design of IoT Wireless Programmer for Microchip AVR Microcontrollers’ OTA Firmware Updates

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