Firmware Upgrade (OTA)

OTA stands for "Over-The-Air technology", which enables remote management of software through mobile communication interfaces. Simply put, it is remote firmware upgrading.

Function Description

• Upgrade Package Management: Add upgrade packages for different versions of different products.
• Task Management: Create upgrade tasks, set upgrade time (immediate or scheduled), select devices to upgrade (all or partial).
• Upgrade Report: View statistics of Pending, Pushed, Upgrading, Success, Failure, and Cancelled. View upgrade progress, and retry failed upgrades.

OTA Upgrade Process

The OTA upgrade process under MQTT protocol is shown below.

OTA Upgrade Description

• If the device needs to report the version number before the first upgrade, it is recommended to report it once during system startup, without periodic reporting. After a successful upgrade, report the version immediately.
• After receiving the upgrade notification from the IoT platform, the device can download the upgrade package immediately or fetch upgrade info later when idle.
• The IoT platform determines if the OTA upgrade is successful based on whether the progress reported by the device is 100%.
• For upgrading devices, if the pushed version matches the current version, the platform defaults to pushing the latest version info 3 times. The 4th time counts as failure (retry allowed).
• Supports breakpoint resume (see interface docs).

Data Format Description

Topics and data formats used in OTA:

1. (Optional) Device connects to OTA service and reports version. Device pushes current OTA module version to Topic: ota/device/inform.

   {
       "id": "147258369",
       "params": {
           "version": "v1.0.1",
           "module": "default"
       }
   }

   Param	Type	Description
   id	String	Message ID. Length 10, unique in current device.
   version	String	OTA module version.
   module	String	OTA module name. 'default' represents entire firmware.

2. After triggering upgrade in console, device receives upgrade package URL. Device subscribes to Topic: ota/device/inform/\$\{AccessToken\}.

   {
       "id":"147258369",
       "code": 200,
       "params":{
           "version":"v1.1",
           "size":432945,
           "url":"http://dev.thingspane.cn/files/ota/s121jg3245gg.zip",
           "signMethod":"Md5",
           "sign":"a243fgh4b9v",
           "module":"MCU",
           "extData":{
                   "key1":"value1",
                   "key2":"value2"
            }
       }
   }

   Param	Type	Description
   id	Long	Message ID.
   code	String	Status code.
   version	String	Upgrade package version.
   size	Long	File size (bytes).
   url	String	Storage URL on OSS.
   sign	String	File signature.
   signMethod	String	Sign method (SHA256, MD5). Android diff supports MD5 only.
   module	String	Module name. Default module implies no module param.
   extData	Object	Custom info. _package_udi is reserved.

3. During upgrade, device reports progress to Topic: ota/device/progress.

   {
       "step":"100",
       "desc":"Upgrade Progress 100%",
       "module": "MCU"
   }

   Param	Type	Description
   step	String	Progress percentage (1-100). -1: Failed. -2: Download failed. -3: Check failed. -4: Write failed.
   desc	String	Description (<128 chars). Can carry error info on exception.
   module	String	Module name. Optional.

Operation Steps

1. Product Management -> Firmware Upgrade -> Add Upgrade Package.
2. Click View to enter Task List.
3. Click Add Upgrade Task.
4. Click View to enter Upgrade Details. View progress, retry failures, or cancel.