5 years ago.

Over the Air Firmware suggestions (Hardware suggestions)

We are developing a product and are stuck at Firmware over the air updates.

It seems like we will need a system that meets the following requirements:

  • From a firmware perspective, the platform should support delta updates so the entire firmware package doesn't have to be sent OTA, just the changes.
  • 32k ram minimum.
  • Ideally comes with an MPU.
  • Also ideally comes with some sort of cryptoprocessor/engine or crypto hardware acceleration - this is a nice to have but certainly not essential. Note: the last two are for security purposes only.

Do these requirements make sense to you? Would love to know if I'm missing anything critical.

I had some questions about how to handle the increased flash memory storage needs:

  • Should we go with a microcontroller having 512KB (512K x 8) or
  • Go with a uC having lesser memory and add an external flash memory
  • Also which of the above options are better in terms of firmware and other development and or best used in the development?
  • What else is required for FUOTA that we are forgetting?

Thanks for the help! Really appreciate the guidance.

For the smaller code size and if u don't need RTOS, add following line to mbed_app.json file

{
"requires": ["bare-metal"]
}
posted by Kamil M 01 Nov 2019

2 Answers

5 years ago.

Hi Amir,

ARM Pelion Client supports both internal (RAM) flash and external flash and has delta update.

I would start testing by selecting test board from: https://os.mbed.com/platforms/ and then continue to https://www.pelion.com/docs/ You will find instruction how to connect the device to Pelion and how to do firmware update.

Regards, Pekka

5 years ago.

What is your connection. If u are transmitting and receiving data over sub-ghz (RF), forget everything. Code your own firmware update algorithm.