Firmware OTA Upgrade Overview


You can upgrade device firmware by using EnOS upgrade over-the-air (OTA) service. With this service, you can manage device firmware versions on EnOS and push new firmware versions to devices for bug fixing and function upgrading.

Full Lifecycle Management of Firmware Versions

You can use EnOS Management Console to manage the full firmware version lifecycle, including creating new firmware versions, setting upgrade policies, and deleting firmware versions. EnOS can push the upgrade requests to filtered or selected devices and record their upgrade progress and results. Devices can request an OTA upgrade to EnOS, search for the available new firmware, and proceed with the OTA upgrade.


The lifecycle management in EnOS is as follows:

../../_images/ota_lifecycle_management.png

Device SDK for OTA

The device SDK can be used to encapsulate the messaging interfaces for version reporting and upgrading. Developers should ensure the new firmware can be installed on devices, reboot, and report the new firmware version to EnOS.

Firmware OTA Upgrade Process

EnOS supports the following firmware upgrade modes.

  • Cloud initiated OTA process: EnOS pushes the upgrade to the device, upgrading the device to a specified version.

  • Upon device request: Devices initiate the OTA request and ENOS provides the list of available firmware. The device will then proceed with the OTA upgrade.

Cloud Initiated OTA Process

This process is as follows:

../../_images/cloud_pushed_ota_process.png


After a batch upgrade job is created in EnOS, the list of devices to be upgraded is maintained as per the upgrade policy. EnOS pushes the upgrade request to the devices in order of the upgrade sequence:

  • If the devices are online, EnOS will push the new firmware to devices to start the upgrade process.

  • If the devices are offline, EnOS will push the new firmware to devices after they are online.


Generally, the devices will start the OTA upgrade process once they receive the request and report their new versions after rebooting. However, whether to perform the OTA upgrade depends on the device settings. Device developers can still add an upgrade confirmation for the downloaded OTA firmware on devices so that users can choose whether to proceed with the upgrading. The partition storing the new firmware is activated only after confirmation.

Upon Device Request

This process is as follows:

../../_images/update_upon_request_ota.png


OTA upgrade can be initiated by devices. When devices send the upgrade requests to EnOS, EnOS decides whether the devices fall into any upgrade list. If the device can be upgraded, EnOS sends available firmware to the devices. The upgrade starts after the device confirms the upgrade.


Upon device request upgrades require manual intervention and confirmation steps. It provides more flexibility for users to decide whether to upgrade the devices.

Get Started

  1. To use SDK to develop OTA capabilities on a device, see Developing OTA Capabilities on Devices.

  2. To upload a device firmware in EnOS, see Uploading Firmware.

  3. To upgrade the firmware of a small batch of devices and verify whether the firmware can be pushed to the devices and whether the firmware can be upgraded successfully, see Verifying Firmware.

  4. To configure and schedule a batch upgrade job to upgrade qualified devices as per the upgrade policy and methods, see Batch Upgrading Firmware.