Refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrading method and system based on IOT

Abstract

The invention provides a refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrading method and system based on IOT, and the method comprises the steps: an upgrading management device creates a corresponding upgrading request packet when judging that a refrigeration controller associated with the upgrading management device needs to be subjected to firmware upgrading; the cloud server transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the upgrade request package sent by the upgrade management device and a pre-configured first mapping table; the firmware upgrade package is managed in a centralized mode through the cloud server, automatic detection, safe downloading and efficient installation of firmware are achieved through an intelligent communication mechanism between the upgrade management device and the refrigeration controller, the upgrade request can be actively pushed according to the use condition of the refrigeration controller, and the user experience is further improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of industrial control, and in particular to remote firmware upgrade of a refrigeration controller based on IOT. Background Art

[0002] With the development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, remote monitoring and management of refrigeration equipment has become increasingly important. Traditional refrigeration equipment management methods often rely on manual inspections and on-site maintenance, which is not only inefficient, but also difficult to detect and handle equipment failures in a timely manner, resulting in the inability to effectively protect the storage environment of sensitive items such as food or medicine.

[0003] Some existing solutions attempt to improve this situation by introducing network connection functions, so that the status of refrigeration equipment can be monitored remotely. However, these solutions are usually limited to data collection and transmission, and there is still a lack of effective means for remote firmware upgrades. Firmware is the core of refrigeration equipment operation, and its stability and performance directly affect the normal operation and energy efficiency of the equipment. Therefore, how to achieve remote upgrades of refrigeration equipment firmware has become an urgent problem to be solved in the industry.

[0004] Although some remote upgrade systems currently available on the market can provide firmware update services, they generally have the following shortcomings:

[0005] 1) The upgrade process is complicated and requires professional personnel to operate, which increases operation and maintenance costs;

[0006] 2) Low security, vulnerable to cyber attacks, and the risk of data leakage;

[0007] 3) Poor compatibility. Different models of equipment require different upgrade strategies, making it difficult to achieve unified management;

[0008] 4) The user experience is poor, and the equipment is down for a long time during the upgrade process, affecting normal use. Summary of the invention

[0009] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention proposes a remote upgrade method and system for refrigeration controller firmware based on IOT.

[0010] The main contents of the present invention include:

[0011] The method for remote firmware upgrade of a refrigeration controller based on IOT includes: a cloud server transmits a corresponding firmware upgrade package to a corresponding refrigeration controller according to a pre-configured first mapping table according to an upgrade request package sent by an upgrade management device; the upgrade request package includes a virtual address of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded and firmware information to be upgraded; the firmware information to be upgraded includes a firmware code and a version number; wherein the first mapping table is a mapping table between a virtual destination address and an actual address of the refrigeration controller;

[0012] The upgrade management device is pre-associated with several refrigeration controllers. When the upgrade management device determines that the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to perform a firmware upgrade, it creates a corresponding upgrade request package; the upgrade management device stores a pre-configured second mapping table, which is a mapping table between the MAC address of the refrigeration controller associated with the upgrade management device and its virtual address.

[0013] Preferably, when the upgrade management device determines that the refrigeration controller associated therewith needs to be upgraded in firmware, it creates a corresponding upgrade request package, including:

[0014] The upgrade management device obtains the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated with it, and obtains the corresponding updated firmware information from the cloud server according to the model of the refrigeration controller, the firmware information including the model of the refrigeration controller, the firmware code and the version number; when the version number of the updated firmware information is higher than the version number of the existing firmware information, it is determined that the corresponding type of refrigerator needs to undergo a firmware upgrade.

[0015] Preferably, the upgrade management device stores the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated with it, and periodically obtains updated firmware information of the corresponding model from the cloud server. When the version number of the updated firmware information is higher than the version number of the existing firmware information, it is determined that the corresponding type of refrigerator requires a firmware upgrade.

[0016] Preferably, the upgrade management device receives an active upgrade request from a refrigeration controller associated therewith, wherein the active upgrade request includes the MAC address of the refrigeration controller and firmware information to be upgraded.

[0017] Preferably, the step of associating the upgrade management device with the refrigeration controller includes:

[0018] Obtain the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the IP address of the gateway of the refrigeration controller;

[0019] The upgrade management device provides a unique virtual port number for the refrigeration controller, and creates a virtual address of the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the virtual port number and the virtual address of the corresponding gateway;

[0020] The upgrade management device adds the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the corresponding created virtual address into the second mapping table.

[0021] Preferably, the cloud server sends the upgrade data to all upgrade management devices by broadcasting, wherein the upgrade data includes the type, firmware number and firmware version number of the upgradeable refrigerator;

[0022] The upgrade management device obtains the upgrade data, determines whether the refrigeration controller associated with itself needs to be upgraded, and if so, sends an upgrade request packet to the cloud server; if not, does not reply.

[0023] Preferably, the virtual address of the refrigeration controller includes a gateway IP address associated with the refrigeration controller and a virtual port number of the refrigeration controller.

[0024] The present invention also proposes an IOT-based remote upgrade system for refrigeration controller firmware, comprising a cloud server, a plurality of upgrade management devices communicating with the server, and a plurality of refrigeration controllers associated with the upgrade management devices, wherein the refrigeration controllers are connected to the upgrade management devices in a many-to-one manner;

[0025] The cloud server stores a first mapping table and multiple groups of firmware upgrade packages; each group of the firmware upgrade packages corresponds to a certain type of refrigeration controller;

[0026] The upgrade management device stores the second mapping table and / or firmware information of several refrigeration controllers associated therewith;

[0027] Wherein, the first mapping table is a mapping table between the virtual destination address and the actual address of the refrigeration controller; the second mapping table is a mapping table between the MAC address of the refrigeration controller associated with the corresponding upgrade management device and its virtual address;

[0028] When there is a need for an upgrade, the upgrade management device creates an upgrade request package for the corresponding refrigeration controller and sends it to the cloud server. The cloud server obtains the upgrade request package and transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the refrigeration controller according to the first mapping table. The upgrade request package includes the virtual address of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded and the firmware information to be upgraded.

[0029] Preferably, the upgrade management device periodically queries the cloud server for firmware information corresponding to the refrigeration controller associated with it, or the upgrade management device receives an upgrade request from the refrigeration controller associated with it;

[0030] When the firmware version number of the corresponding firmware information queried is greater than the firmware version number of the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated therewith, a corresponding upgrade request package is created.

[0031] Preferably, the cloud server transmits the upgrade data to all upgrade management devices by broadcasting, wherein the upgrade data includes the type, firmware code and firmware version number of the upgradeable refrigeration controller;

[0032] The upgrade management device determines whether the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to be upgraded based on the upgrade data, and if so, creates a corresponding upgrade request packet and transmits it to the cloud server.

[0033] Compared with the prior art, the invention proposes a method and system for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller, which has the following beneficial effects:

[0034] (1) Firmware upgrade packages are centrally managed through a cloud server, and the intelligent communication mechanism between the upgrade management device and the refrigeration controller is utilized to achieve automatic detection, secure download, and efficient installation of the firmware.

[0035] (2) The present invention also adopts virtual address mapping technology to improve the security of data transmission and supports many-to-one management, greatly reducing operation and maintenance costs.

[0036] (3) The present invention can also actively push upgrade requests based on the usage of the refrigeration controller, further improving the user experience. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] Figure 1 It is a functional structure block diagram of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] The technical solution protected by the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0039] See also Figure 1 . The IOT-based remote firmware upgrade method for a refrigerated controller proposed by the present invention, the refrigerated controller establishes an association with a trusted upgrade management device, so that the corresponding upgrade management device can obtain the firmware information of the refrigerated controller and the Mac address of the refrigerated controller, wherein the firmware information of the refrigerated controller includes the model of the refrigerated controller, the code of the firmware contained therein, and the version number of the corresponding firmware; the upgrade management device can establish an association with the corresponding refrigerated controller by Bluetooth pairing, and create a unique virtual address for it according to the obtained Mac address to create a corresponding second mapping table; the virtual address includes the IP address of the gateway for the external communication of the refrigerated controller and the virtual port number of the refrigerated controller.

[0040] Each upgrade management device can be connected to multiple refrigerated controllers, which can be servers or server clusters with integrated gateway functions, configured by the users of the refrigerated controllers; the upgrade management device communicates with the cloud server, which can provide corresponding upgrade resources; and the existing firmware information of the corresponding refrigerated controller can be stored in the upgrade management device, so that when the corresponding upgrade data is received from the cloud server broadcast transmission, the upgrade management device does not need to query the various refrigerated controllers associated with it, and can determine whether there is a refrigerated controller that needs to be upgraded, and respond or not reply as needed. When the upgrade management device finds that the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to be upgraded (that is, the cloud server has corresponding upgrade resources), it can create a corresponding upgrade request package for the corresponding refrigeration controller, and send the existing firmware information and virtual address of the corresponding refrigeration controller to the cloud server. The cloud server obtains the actual address corresponding to the virtual address by querying the first mapping table stored therein, and transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package according to the actual address; wherein the actual address may include the IP address of the gateway of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded and the port number of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded, and the port number may be virtual or actual. When the port number is virtual, the actual port number may be stored in the gateway connected to it, thereby further ensuring the security of communication.

[0041] Specifically, the IOT-based refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrade system proposed in the present invention includes a cloud server, several upgrade management devices communicating with the server, and several refrigeration controllers associated with the upgrade management devices, and the refrigeration controllers and the upgrade management devices are connected in a many-to-one manner.

[0042] The cloud server stores a first mapping table and multiple groups of firmware upgrade packages; each group of the firmware upgrade packages corresponds to a certain type of refrigeration controller; the cloud server sends the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the data of the upgrade request package sent by the upgrade device, and it can wait passively or send the upgrade data to all upgrade devices by broadcasting when there are updated upgrade resources. The upgrade data only needs to include the type of refrigeration controller to be upgraded, the corresponding firmware code and the firmware version number and other summary information, that is, all upgrade devices are informed by broadcasting that there are upgrade resources for a certain firmware of a certain type of refrigeration controller, and the upgrade management device decides whether to upgrade the corresponding type of refrigeration controller; when the refrigeration controller associated with a certain upgrade management device needs to be upgraded, the upgrade management device creates an upgrade request package for it, so that the cloud server sends the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the corresponding upgrade request package; and if the refrigeration controller associated with a certain upgrade management device does not need to be upgraded, the broadcast can be ignored.

[0043] Specifically, the upgrade management device obtains the broadcast upgrade data, and queries whether the model of the refrigeration controller associated with itself and the code of the corresponding firmware match. If they match, it determines whether the firmware version number in the upgrade data is higher than the corresponding firmware version number. If so, the upgrade can be performed. In addition, the upgrade management device can also receive an active upgrade request from the refrigeration controller associated with it. After receiving the active upgrade request, it can send a query request to the cloud controller. If there are upgradeable resources of the corresponding type and the corresponding firmware, the cloud server gives feedback, and the upgrade management device creates an upgrade request package for the corresponding refrigeration controller and transmits it to the cloud server.

[0044] Furthermore, the active upgrade request includes the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the firmware information to be upgraded. When a refrigeration controller associates with an upgrade management device for the first time, the upgrade management device obtains the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the IP address of the gateway of the refrigeration controller, provides it with a unique virtual port number, creates a virtual address of the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the virtual port number and the virtual address of the corresponding gateway; and then adds the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the corresponding created virtual address into the second mapping table.

[0045] The first mapping table is a mapping table between the virtual destination address and the actual address of the refrigeration controller; the second mapping table is a mapping table between the MAC address of the refrigeration controller associated with the corresponding upgrade management device and its virtual address;

[0046] When there is a need for an upgrade, the upgrade management device encapsulates the firmware information and virtual address of the corresponding refrigeration controller to create a corresponding upgrade request package and sends it to the cloud server. The cloud server obtains the upgrade request package and transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the refrigeration controller according to the first mapping table. The virtual address of the refrigeration controller includes the virtual address of the gateway associated with the refrigeration controller and the virtual port number of the refrigeration controller. The cloud server obtains the actual address of the gateway corresponding to the refrigeration controller to be forwarded by querying the first mapping table, and forwards the corresponding upgrade resources through the gateway. The gateway can obtain the real port number from the cloud server, or obtain the real port number corresponding to the virtual port number by querying its own form, and the forwarding is completed.

[0047] The above descriptions are merely embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. Any equivalent structure or equivalent process transformation made using the contents of the specification and drawings of the present invention, or directly or indirectly applied in other related technical fields, are also included in the patent protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A remote firmware upgrade method for a refrigeration controller based on IOT, characterized in that: The cloud server transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the corresponding refrigeration controller according to the pre-configured first mapping table according to the upgrade request package sent by the upgrade management device; the upgrade request package includes the virtual address of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded and the firmware information to be upgraded; the firmware information to be upgraded includes the firmware code and the version number; wherein the first mapping table is a mapping table between the virtual destination address and the actual address of the refrigeration controller; The upgrade management device is pre-associated with several refrigeration controllers. When the upgrade management device determines that the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to perform a firmware upgrade, it creates a corresponding upgrade request package; the upgrade management device stores a pre-configured second mapping table, which is a mapping table between the MAC address of the refrigeration controller associated with the upgrade management device and its virtual address.

2. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 1, characterized in that: When the upgrade management device determines that the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to be upgraded in firmware, it creates a corresponding upgrade request package, including: The upgrade management device obtains the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated with it, and obtains the corresponding updated firmware information from the cloud server according to the model of the refrigeration controller, the firmware information including the model of the refrigeration controller, the firmware code and the version number; when the version number of the updated firmware information is higher than the version number of the existing firmware information, it is determined that the corresponding type of refrigerator needs to undergo a firmware upgrade.

3. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 2, characterized in that: The upgrade management device stores the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated with it, and periodically obtains updated firmware information of the corresponding model from the cloud server. When the version number of the updated firmware information is higher than the version number of the existing firmware information, it is determined that the corresponding type of refrigerator needs to be upgraded in firmware.

4. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 2, characterized in that: The upgrade management device receives an active upgrade request from a refrigeration controller associated therewith, wherein the active upgrade request includes a MAC address of the refrigeration controller and firmware information to be upgraded.

5. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 4, characterized in that: The step of associating the upgrade management device with the refrigeration controller comprises: Obtain the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the IP address of the gateway of the refrigeration controller; The upgrade management device provides a unique virtual port number for the refrigeration controller, and creates a virtual address corresponding to the refrigeration controller according to the virtual port number and the IP address of the corresponding gateway; The upgrade management device adds the mac address of the refrigeration controller and the corresponding created virtual address into the second mapping table.

6. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 2, characterized in that: The cloud server sends the upgrade data to all upgrade management devices by broadcasting, wherein the upgrade data includes the type, firmware number and firmware version number of the upgradeable refrigerator; The upgrade management device obtains the upgrade data, determines whether the refrigeration controller associated with itself needs to be upgraded, and if so, sends an upgrade request packet to the cloud server; if not, does not reply.

7. The method for remotely upgrading the firmware of a refrigeration controller based on IOT according to claim 1, characterized in that: The virtual address of the refrigeration controller includes a gateway virtual address associated with the refrigeration controller and a virtual port number of the refrigeration controller.

8. IOT-based refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrade system, characterized in that: It includes a cloud server, several upgrade management devices communicating with the server, and several cold storage controllers associated with the upgrade management devices, wherein the cold storage controllers are connected to the upgrade management devices in a many-to-one manner; The cloud server stores a first mapping table and multiple groups of firmware upgrade packages; each group of the firmware upgrade packages corresponds to a certain type of refrigeration controller; The upgrade management device stores the second mapping table and / or firmware information of several refrigeration controllers associated therewith; Wherein, the first mapping table is a mapping table between the virtual destination address and the actual address of the refrigeration controller; the second mapping table is a mapping table between the MAC address of the refrigeration controller associated with the corresponding upgrade management device and its virtual address; When there is a need for an upgrade, the upgrade management device creates an upgrade request package for the corresponding refrigeration controller and sends it to the cloud server. The cloud server obtains the upgrade request package and transmits the corresponding firmware upgrade package to the refrigeration controller according to the first mapping table. The upgrade request package includes the virtual address of the refrigeration controller to be upgraded and the firmware information to be upgraded.

9. The IOT-based refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrade system according to claim 8, characterized in that: The upgrade management device periodically queries the cloud server for firmware information corresponding to the refrigeration controller associated with it, or the upgrade management device receives an upgrade request from the refrigeration controller associated with it; When the firmware version number of the corresponding firmware information queried is greater than the firmware version number of the existing firmware information of the refrigeration controller associated therewith, a corresponding upgrade request package is created.

10. The IOT-based refrigeration controller firmware remote upgrade system according to claim 8, characterized in that: The cloud server transmits upgrade data to all upgrade management devices by broadcasting, wherein the upgrade data includes the type, firmware code and firmware version number of the upgradeable refrigeration controller; The upgrade management device determines whether the refrigeration controller associated with it needs to be upgraded based on the upgrade data, and if so, creates a corresponding upgrade request packet and transmits it to the cloud server.

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