Self-adaptive silent upgrading system and method for intelligent terminal suitable for aging

Abstract

The invention relates to a self-adaptive silent upgrading system and method for an intelligent terminal suitable for aging, and belongs to the technical field of communication. The system comprises a terminal and a platform in communication connection with the terminal; the terminal comprises a power consumption monitoring unit, a nonvolatile memory, a silence termination analyzer and a prompt module. The platform comprises a communication module, a power consumption threshold judgment unit, a silent termination instruction generation unit and a breakpoint resume scheduling unit. The power consumption monitoring unit is used for acquiring a power consumption index P of the terminal in real time; the power consumption threshold judgment unit is used for comparing the power consumption index P with a preset first threshold Pth in real time, and the breakpoint resume scheduling unit is used for recovering an OTA upgrading task based on offset information when the terminal is awakened next time. And the ultra-low power consumption, silent and continuous OTA upgrading is realized.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application belongs to the field of communication technology, and specifically relates to an adaptive silent upgrade system and method for aging-friendly smart terminals. Background Technology

[0002] As the population ages, home-based elderly care has become an important component of my country's elderly care service system. In home settings, low-power IoT terminals such as wireless pagers, fall detectors, and sleep monitoring mats are widely deployed to collect real-time data on the elderly's activity levels and send distress signals to family members or community centers in emergencies. These devices typically use disposable button batteries or limited-capacity rechargeable batteries and are required to operate continuously for 3-5 years or even longer without human intervention. Therefore, ultra-low power consumption design has become a core constraint on terminal hardware, communication protocols, and software architecture.

[0003] On the other hand, in order to quickly fix vulnerabilities, iterate functions, or adapt to new cloud platform interfaces, operators need to regularly perform online firmware upgrades (OTA) on deployed devices.

[0004] Traditional OTA processes typically include: the platform pushing the upgrade package, the terminal receiving and writing it to the local flash memory, restarting and entering the BootLoader to complete the firmware replacement, and reconnecting to the platform for version verification. The entire process requires continuous operation of radio frequency transceiver, flash memory erase and write, and CPU operations, with peak current reaching tens of milliamps, far exceeding the power consumption of daily maintenance (microamp level). For home-based elderly care devices with a battery capacity of <1000mAh, a full upgrade can cause the battery to drop sharply by 10% to 30%, which may trigger undervoltage shutdown in severe cases, directly interrupting emergency call services and posing a great safety hazard.

[0005] To reduce power consumption during upgrades, existing technologies mainly employ the following two approaches:

[0006] The first type is differential upgrade + deep sleep: the platform only issues incremental patches, and the terminal enters deep sleep after receiving the patches, which is then periodically woken up by the RTC to complete the local synthesis. Although this solution reduces the amount of data, it still requires receiving all patches at once, which cannot solve the problem of excessive instantaneous power consumption; in addition, if the power is insufficient during the upgrade process, the patch data will be lost, the terminal cannot be rolled back, and it will become unusable.

[0007] The second type involves segmented downloads followed by manual triggering: the platform divides the firmware into several segments, and the terminal automatically pauses downloads based on a battery threshold. Downloads resume via a button or app after the user manually charges the device. This solution relies on active operation by the elderly, which contradicts the concept of "unobtrusive" elderly care. Furthermore, in home settings, devices are often installed in concealed locations such as under beds or in bathroom ceilings, making manual intervention difficult.

[0008] Furthermore, existing OTA mechanisms generally lack support for "silent upgrade" scenarios: when the terminal's battery level is close to the alarm threshold, it may still consume additional power due to pop-up notification sounds, LED flashing, or vibration motor operation, further exacerbating the risk of battery depletion. At the same time, in multi-terminal batch upgrade scenarios, the platform lacks a scheduling strategy based on battery recovery speed, which can easily lead to a "rush" of concurrent downloads, resulting in gateway congestion and a collective drop in battery voltage.

[0009] In summary, how to achieve ultra-low power consumption, silent, and sustainable OTA upgrades while ensuring the continuity of home-based elderly care services has become a pressing technical challenge in the industry, and there is an urgent need for an adaptive silent upgrade system and method for age-friendly smart terminals. Summary of the Invention

[0010] This application provides an adaptive silent upgrade system and method for age-friendly smart terminals, which solves the problems of excessive instantaneous power consumption, easy bricking due to insufficient power, need for manual triggering which violates the concept of seamless elderly care, and gateway congestion and battery drop caused by multiple terminals concurrency in traditional OTA upgrades. It fills the technical gap in home-based elderly care devices in the scenarios of "ultra-low power consumption, silent and undisturbed operation, interrupted transmission resume, and intelligent scheduling".

[0011] To achieve the above objectives, this application provides an adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals, including a terminal and a platform that communicates with the terminal;

[0012] The terminal includes a power consumption monitoring unit, non-volatile memory, a silent termination parser, and a prompt module;

[0013] The platform includes a communication module, a power consumption threshold judgment unit, a silent termination instruction generation unit, and a breakpoint resume scheduling unit.

[0014] The power consumption monitoring unit is used to obtain the terminal's power consumption index P in real time;

[0015] The power consumption threshold judgment unit is used to compare the power consumption index P with the preset first threshold Pth in real time. If the power consumption index P is lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the silent termination instruction generation unit is triggered to generate a silent termination instruction. The silent termination instruction is sent to the terminal through the communication module, and the terminal's prompt module remains silent. If the power consumption index P is not lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the terminal's prompt module outputs a prompt to inform the user.

[0016] The silent termination parser is used to immediately terminate the current OTA upgrade task upon receiving a silent termination command, put the terminal into sleep mode, and write the current fragment offset information issued by the platform into non-volatile memory through the silent termination parser.

[0017] The breakpoint resume scheduling unit is used to resume the OTA upgrade task based on offset information when the terminal wakes up again.

[0018] In one embodiment, when the platform manages multiple terminals simultaneously, the breakpoint resume scheduling unit prioritizes scheduling the terminal with the largest increase in power consumption index P for resume transmission.

[0019] In one embodiment, the terminal is an integrated device for home-based elderly care call or activity monitoring, and the priority of the silent termination command is higher than all other uplink data except for emergency call data.

[0020] In one embodiment, both the silent termination command and the subsequent resume command are encrypted using AES-128-CBC, and the key is generated by the platform and the terminal based on ECDH negotiation.

[0021] In one embodiment, the power consumption index P is at least one of battery voltage, battery internal resistance, remaining power percentage, or instantaneous power consumption integral value;

[0022] This application also proposes an adaptive silent upgrade method for age-friendly smart terminals, including:

[0023] S1: The platform issues an upgrade start command, and the terminal enters the OTA upgrade task receiving state;

[0024] S2: The platform receives the power consumption indicator P reported by the terminal in real time;

[0025] S3: If P < Pth, the platform's silent termination instruction generation unit generates a silent termination instruction and communicates with the relevant authorities.

[0026] Module distribution;

[0027] S4: After receiving the silent termination command, the terminal shuts down wireless transceiver and enters sleep mode, as resolved by the silent termination command.

[0028] The device will write the current fragment offset information issued by the platform into the non-volatile memory;

[0029] S5: The terminal reports offset information to the platform upon the next wake-up;

[0030] S6: The platform's breakpoint resume scheduling unit executes breakpoint resume based on the offset information;

[0031] In one embodiment, the first threshold Pth is dynamically adjusted by the platform based on the battery aging model and sent to the terminal through an encrypted instruction frame; the silent termination instruction includes an instruction type identifier 0xFA, a retry time window T in minutes, and a cyclic redundancy check code.

[0032] In one embodiment, it further includes:

[0033] If the platform does not detect a rise in the terminal power consumption index P within N consecutive time windows T, the terminal will be marked as "upgrade failed" and an alarm will be pushed to the preset contact person.

[0034] After receiving the silent termination command, the terminal disables all interrupt sources except for RTC wake-up, and restarts the wireless module only when the power consumption index P rises and reaches the second threshold Pth'.

[0035] Beneficial effects

[0036] Compared with existing technologies, the beneficial effects of this application are: while ensuring the continuity of home-based elderly care services, it achieves ultra-low power consumption, silent, and resumable OTA upgrades.

[0037] Specifically, this is reflected in:

[0038] (1) A silent termination mechanism is adopted to address the problem of "excessive instantaneous power consumption leading to a sudden drop in power". The platform monitors the power consumption index P in real time. When P < Pth, a silent termination command is immediately issued. The terminal instantly shuts down the radio frequency, reduces the CPU frequency, and enters the RTC wake-up sleep mode. In actual tests, the peak current of OTA can be compressed from 30mA to <1mA, and the battery voltage drop is controlled within 1%, completely eliminating the risk of "10% to 30% power loss" during a one-time upgrade.

[0039] (2) To address the issue of "patches being lost and bricked when the battery is low", non-volatile breakpoint saving is adopted. The parser is silently terminated and the current fragment offset is written to Flash before power failure. Even if the battery is briefly powered off or in deep sleep, it can still accurately resume transmission after restarting, achieving a 100% breakpoint resume success rate and avoiding "bricking" accidents.

[0040] (3) To address the issue of “relying on manual triggering which violates the concept of seamless elderly care”, the system adopts a completely silent and prompt-free approach. During the upgrade process, the prompt module remains silent, without pop-ups, lights, or vibrations, ensuring zero perception for the elderly. The system features autonomous wake-up under the dual conditions of RTC timing and power consumption recovery, requiring no button or APP operation, truly aligning with the concept of “seamless elderly care”.

[0041] (4) To address the issue of "multiple terminals causing gateway and battery voltage drops", a dynamic scheduling strategy is adopted. The platform's breakpoint resume scheduling unit prioritizes the terminal with the "largest increase in power consumption index P". Combined with the AES-128-CBC encrypted channel, actual tests show that the gateway's concurrent traffic can be reduced by 60%, the overall upgrade cycle can be shortened by 40%, and network congestion and battery voltage drops caused by "rushing" downloads can be avoided. Attached Figure Description

[0042] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of this application. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0043] Figure 1 The upgrade method flowchart provided for this application;

[0044] Figure 2 The upgrade system architecture diagram provided for this application.

[0045] Explanation of reference numerals in the attached figures: Detailed Implementation

[0046] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application are described clearly and completely below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of this application, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are also within the scope of protection of this application.

[0047] See Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, this application provides an adaptive silent upgrade system and method for an aging-friendly smart terminal. The system and method include a terminal and a platform connected to the terminal. The terminal includes a power consumption monitoring unit, a non-volatile memory, a silent termination parser, and a prompt module. The platform includes an NB-IoT or Cat-M1 communication module, a power consumption threshold judgment unit, a silent termination instruction generation unit, and a breakpoint resume scheduling unit. The power consumption monitoring unit is used to acquire the terminal's power consumption index P in real time. The power consumption threshold judgment unit is used to compare the power consumption index P with a preset first threshold Pth in real time.

[0048] To adapt to the low-power characteristics of the terminal, the power consumption monitoring unit periodically collects a comprehensive power consumption index P that is strongly correlated with battery health. The collection period can be dynamically extended or reduced according to the actual workload of the terminal, ensuring accurate sensing of battery status while minimizing energy consumption during the monitoring process; the power consumption index P can be at least one of battery voltage, battery internal resistance, remaining power percentage, or instantaneous power consumption integral value.

[0049] Considering the limitations of terminal storage resources and power consumption, when a silent termination command arrives, the non-volatile memory only stores a "breakpoint summary" instead of the complete fragment data to simplify storage content and reduce write power consumption. The "breakpoint summary," serving as the core basis for subsequent upgrade recovery, includes at least: the confirmed highest consecutive address marker, i.e., the current fragment offset information issued by the platform, clearly identifying the transmission progress node before the interruption; the summary value of the most recently successfully verified data, providing a basis for data integrity verification; and a terminal-side timestamp or wake-up sequence number, used by the platform to identify the terminal status and avoid version conflicts. The silent termination parser is used to immediately terminate the current OTA upgrade task upon receiving the silent termination command, causing the terminal to enter sleep mode, and writing the current fragment offset information issued by the platform into the non-volatile memory via the silent termination parser.

[0050] The silent termination resolver runs continuously as a hardware interrupt or a highest priority task to ensure a rapid response to silent termination commands. Upon receiving the command, it immediately executes the following operations according to preset logic: First, it shuts down the RF transceiver module and non-essential peripherals such as sensors and displays, cutting off redundant power sources; then, it writes the "breakpoint summary" to non-volatile memory to prevent information loss; finally, it triggers the terminal to enter an ultra-low power sleep mode, waiting for the wake-up condition to be triggered. After receiving the silent termination command, the terminal shuts down all interrupt sources except for RTC wake-up, and restarts the wireless module only when the power consumption index P rises and reaches the second threshold Pth'.

[0051] When the terminal wakes up again, the silent termination parser will actively trigger the "breakpoint summary" reporting process to report the upgrade status at the time of the interruption to the platform, providing data support for subsequent upgrade decisions.

[0052] The operation of the prompt module is strictly controlled by the power consumption threshold judgment result. If the power consumption index P is lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the silent termination instruction generation unit is triggered to generate a silent termination instruction. The silent termination instruction is sent to the terminal via the communication module, and the terminal's prompt module remains silent. If the power consumption index P is not lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the prompt module outputs upgrade-related prompts in a "silent visual / audible mode". The prompt format can be flexibly configured as a single LED flash, a short buzzer, or set to be completely turned off according to the actual scenario requirements to avoid consuming battery power due to unnecessary prompt operations, thereby informing the user of the upgrade progress.

[0053] The RTC wake-up logic, designed independently of the main processor, supports dual-mode operation: "timed wake-up" and "power consumption recovery wake-up". Even in extreme scenarios with extremely low battery power, the RTC module's low-power characteristics can still reliably wake up the terminal according to a preset cycle or when a power consumption increase is detected, ensuring the upgrade process is recoverable and avoiding upgrade interruptions due to prolonged terminal sleep.

[0054] The platform communicates with the terminal via NB-IoT or Cat-M1 communication modules. The platform-side communication module utilizes low-power wide-area communication technology with PSM power-saving mode / eDRX extended discontinuous reception capability, precisely matching the terminal's low-power operating mode. By issuing a silent termination command within the terminal's active downlink window, invalid communication attempts are reduced, lowering the bidirectional communication power consumption between the platform and the terminal, while ensuring the timeliness of command transmission.

[0055] The power consumption threshold judgment unit, as the core decision-making unit for collaborative upgrades, has the following main functions: receiving the power consumption index P reported by the terminal in the idle window in real time, and constructing a dynamic perception link for the terminal battery status; combining the aging model of the terminal battery, the ambient temperature compensation coefficient, and the historical discharge curve, dynamically generating and updating the first threshold Pth in real time through an algorithm to ensure that the threshold is adapted to the battery degradation degree and usage environment of different terminals; encapsulating the generated Pth in an encrypted instruction frame and sending it out. The frame format reuses the same logical channel as the regular service frame, eliminating the need to open up a dedicated channel, simplifying the communication protocol design, and reducing system complexity.

[0056] The first threshold Pth is dynamically adjusted by the platform based on the battery aging model and sent to the terminal via encrypted instruction frames.

[0057] The silent termination instruction generation unit is linked with the power consumption threshold judgment unit. When the terminal power consumption index P is detected to be lower than the first threshold Pth, the silent termination instruction generation process is immediately initiated. The instruction field includes at least the instruction type identifier 0xFA, the retry time window T in minutes, the breakpoint digest request flag, and the cyclic redundancy check code to ensure that the terminal can accurately identify the purpose of the instruction and execute the corresponding operation.

[0058] The silent termination command has a higher priority than all other uplink data except for emergency call data. The silent termination command and subsequent resume commands are encrypted using AES-128-CBC, and the key is generated by the platform and the terminal based on ECDH negotiation.

[0059] This application also proposes an adaptive silent upgrade method for age-friendly smart terminals, including:

[0060] S1: Upgrade Startup and Preparation. The platform issues an upgrade start command, which contains key information such as firmware version and upgrade scope. After receiving the command, the terminal verifies the legality and completeness of the instruction. If it is correct, it switches to the OTA upgrade task receiving state, clears the historical upgrade cache, and prepares to receive upgrade data.

[0061] S2: Power consumption dynamic monitoring and reporting. The platform receives the power consumption index P reported by the terminal in real time. After the terminal enters the upgrade reception state, the power consumption monitoring unit starts power consumption acquisition at a set period, and reports the obtained comprehensive power consumption index P to the platform through the communication module in the idle window, forming a real-time feedback closed loop of the terminal battery status.

[0062] S3: Silent termination decision-making and instruction issuance. If P < Pth, the silent termination instruction generation unit of the platform generates a silent termination instruction and issues it through the communication module. The power consumption threshold judgment unit on the platform side receives and analyzes the P value reported by the terminal in real time, and compares it with the dynamically updated first threshold Pth. Once it is determined that P < Pth, that is, the battery power is not sufficient to support subsequent upgrades, the silent termination instruction generation unit is immediately triggered to generate an instruction, and it is issued through the communication module in the terminal downlink window.

[0063] S4: Terminal silent processing and sleep. After receiving the silent termination instruction, the terminal closes the wireless transceiver and enters the sleep state. The silent termination parser writes the current shard offset information sent by the platform into the non-volatile memory. After receiving the silent termination instruction, the terminal is preferentially processed by the silent termination parser: quickly save the "breakpoint summary" to the non-volatile memory, then turn off the radio transceiver and unnecessary peripherals, reduce the terminal power consumption to the sleep level, and enter the ultra-low power sleep mode.

[0064] S5: Terminal wake-up and breakpoint summary reporting. When the terminal wakes up next time, it reports the offset information to the platform. After the terminal is woken up by the RTC timer or detects that the power consumption index rises to meet the wake-up condition, it automatically starts and the silent termination parser triggers the "breakpoint summary" reporting process, and sends the summary information containing the offset information stored to the platform to request subsequent upgrade instructions.

[0065] S6: Upgrade decision execution and status update. The breakpoint resume scheduling unit of the platform executes breakpoint resume according to the offset information. After receiving the "breakpoint summary", the breakpoint resume scheduling unit on the platform side compares it with the mirror image information stored in the database, and executes resume, rollback or retransmission operations. When the upgrade process (including resume completion or rollback in place) ends, the platform sends a status clearing command to the terminal, and the terminal clears the "breakpoint summary" mark in the non-volatile memory. The platform synchronously updates the terminal upgrade status to "completed" or "rollback successful".

[0066] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, and are not intended to limit them. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or perform equivalent replacements for some or all of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. An adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals, characterized in that: This includes the terminal and the platform that communicates with the terminal; The terminal includes a power consumption monitoring unit, a non-volatile memory, a silent termination parser, and a prompt module; The platform includes a communication module, a power consumption threshold judgment unit, a silent termination instruction generation unit, and a breakpoint resume scheduling unit. The power consumption monitoring unit is used to obtain the power consumption index P of the terminal in real time; The power consumption threshold judgment unit is used to compare the power consumption index P with the preset first threshold Pth in real time. If the power consumption index P is lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the silent termination instruction generation unit is triggered to generate a silent termination instruction. The silent termination instruction is sent to the terminal through the communication module, and the terminal's prompt module remains silent. If the power consumption index P is not lower than the preset first threshold Pth, the terminal's prompt module outputs a prompt to inform the user. The silent termination parser is used to immediately terminate the current OTA upgrade task upon receiving a silent termination command, causing the terminal to enter hibernation, and to write the current fragment offset information issued by the platform into the non-volatile memory through the silent termination parser. The breakpoint resume scheduling unit is used to resume the OTA upgrade task based on the offset information when the terminal wakes up again.

2. The adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the platform manages multiple terminals simultaneously, the breakpoint resume scheduling unit prioritizes the terminal with the largest increase in power consumption index P for resume transmission.

3. The adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 1, characterized in that, The terminal is an integrated device for home-based elderly care calls or activity monitoring, and the silent termination command has a higher priority than all other uplink data except for emergency call data.

4. The adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 1, characterized in that, The silent termination command and subsequent resume command are both encrypted using AES-128-CBC, and the key is generated by the platform and the terminal based on ECDH negotiation.

5. The adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 1, characterized in that, The power consumption index P is at least one of battery voltage, battery internal resistance, remaining power percentage, or instantaneous power consumption integral value.

6. An adaptive silent upgrade method for age-friendly smart terminals, based on the adaptive silent upgrade system for age-friendly smart terminals as described in any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that, include: S1: The platform issues an upgrade start command, and the terminal enters the OTA upgrade task receiving state; S2: The platform receives the power consumption indicator P reported by the terminal in real time; S3: If P < Pth, the platform's silent termination instruction generation unit generates a silent termination instruction and sends it through the communication module. S4: After receiving the silent termination command, the terminal shuts down the wireless transceiver and enters sleep mode. The silent termination parser writes the current fragment offset information sent by the platform into the non-volatile memory. S5: The terminal reports the offset information to the platform when it wakes up again; S6: The platform's breakpoint resume scheduling unit executes breakpoint resume based on the offset information.

7. The adaptive silent upgrade method for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 6, characterized in that, The first threshold Pth is dynamically adjusted by the platform based on the battery aging model and sent to the terminal through an encrypted instruction frame; the silent termination instruction includes an instruction type identifier, a retry time window T in minutes, and a cyclic redundancy check code.

8. The adaptive silent upgrade method for age-friendly smart terminals according to claim 6, characterized in that, Also includes: If the platform does not detect a rise in the terminal power consumption index P within N consecutive time windows T, the terminal will be marked as "upgrade failed" and an alarm will be pushed to the preset contact person. After receiving the silent termination command, the terminal disables all interrupt sources except for RTC wake-up, and restarts the wireless module only when the power consumption index P rises and reaches the second threshold Pth'.

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