Adaptive Firmware Download with Forward Error Correction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing firmware update methods in wireless mesh networks face challenges with unreliable packet reception due to noisy RF environments and varying interference levels, leading to inefficient broadcast processes and extensive retransmissions.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a firmware updating system that uses Reed-Solomon encoding and adaptive packet recovery mechanisms, including redundant packets and a viral peer-to-peer distribution model, to enhance packet reception reliability and efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant broadcasts with systematic repetition of each packet are employed, then packet reception reliability is improved, but the update process speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The firmware image is divided into multiple packets that are broadcast in sequence. Instead of repeating each packet individually, the system uses forward error correction to segment the data with redundancy, allowing receivers to reconstruct lost packets without requiring retransmission of the entire firmware image or individual packet repetitions.
Solution Approach 2:
Redundant packets are prepended to the firmware image before broadcasting. These preliminary redundant packets contain extra information that enables receivers to correct lost packets during reception, eliminating the need for subsequent retransmissions and maintaining both reliability and speed.
2Reliability
If the network head interrogates nodes to find missing packets and retransmits them, then packet reception reliability is improved, but the update process time increases due to extensive retransmissions
Solution Approach 1:
Forward error correction codes are calculated and prepended to the firmware image before broadcasting. This preliminary action provides receivers with the mathematical tools needed to correct lost packets independently, eliminating the need for network head interrogation and retransmission of missing packets.
Solution Approach 2:
Receivers use the embedded forward error correction information to self-correct lost packets without requiring assistance from the network head. Each receiver independently decodes and reconstructs missing packets using the redundant information already present in the broadcast, eliminating the time-consuming interrogation and retransmission process.
3Productivity
If broadcast efficiency is increased by reducing retransmissions, then update speed is improved, but packet reception reliability may deteriorate in noisy RF environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of data redundancy from traditional repetition codes to forward error correction codes. This parameter change allows the system to achieve both high update speed by avoiding retransmissions and high reliability by providing receivers with the mathematical tools to correct lost packets in noisy RF environments.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methodologies for implementing a firmware download to endpoints in a mesh network. A firmware package is divided into a number of blocks, each block containing a number of packets and sent as a broadcast to endpoints in a wireless mesh network. A number of redundancy packets are sent to permit calculation of lost packets. A maximum number of redundancy packets to be sent is determined and a forward error correction code is developed depending on the maximum number of redundancy packets and the total number of firmware packets to be sent. A first block of redundancy packets, less than the maximum number, is sent followed by additional blocks of redundancy packets depending on reports from the receiving endpoints.