The invention relates to the field of embedded systems, and discloses an asymmetric
firmware over-the-air upgrading method. The method comprises two
firmware over-the-air upgrading stages: firstly, in main
system upgrading, after a main
system upgrading differential
package is downloaded to an upgrading partition of a nonvolatile memory, the equipment is restarted, and a main
system area in the nonvolatile memory is emptied at the same time; and the new main system
mirror image is synthesized by the main system upgrading differential
package and the original file in the nonvolatile memory, is temporarily stored in the
volatile memory, and is used for overwriting the original main system file. And if the upgrading fails, the guarding system obtains and installs a complete main system
mirror image from the upper computer. In the
daemon system upgrading process, the
daemon system upgrading differential
package is downloaded as well, and the
daemon system area is emptied after the equipment is restarted. The new daemon system
mirror image is generated by the daemon system
upgrade differential package and the original file, is stored in the
volatile memory, and overwrites the original daemon system file in the nonvolatile memory. And when the upgrading is unsuccessful, the main system is responsible for acquiring and installing the complete guarding system mirror image from the upper computer. By means of the method, the storage space needed by FOTA upgrading can be greatly saved, when one system goes wrong in upgrading, the other system can obtain the complete upgrading package to complete upgrading, and the upgrading reliability is enhanced.