Remote Physical Device Updates for Selective, Faster Resets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable television systems face significant service disruptions during remote physical device resets due to lengthy hard and soft reset processes, which can take 4-5 minutes and over a minute, respectively, impacting video and data services.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic update system for remote physical devices that identifies and updates only the modified portions of the software image, allowing for a more efficient reset process by minimizing the need to download the entire image file and boot the operating system, thereby reducing service downtime.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a hard reset process is performed on a remote physical device, then the device is fully restarted to ensure operational reliability, but service disruption time increases to 4-5 minutes
Solution Approach 1:
The reset process is segmented into selective restart of only modified software components rather than restarting the entire device. The system identifies and restarts only the specific software images that have been updated, leaving other operational components running continuously, thus reducing service disruption time while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
Software images are updated and prepared in advance on the centralized server before being deployed to remote physical devices. This preliminary preparation allows the reset process to only transfer and restart specific pre-prepared images rather than performing comprehensive system initialization during the reset operation.
2Loss of time
If a soft reset process is performed on a remote physical device, then service disruption is minimized, but the reset process still takes over a minute and modifies operational states
Solution Approach 1:
The reset operation extracts and restarts only the specific software image components that have been modified, rather than performing a comprehensive soft reset of the entire device. This selective extraction reduces the reset duration to under a minute while maintaining operational stability by leaving unchanged components running.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically determines which software components need to be restarted based on the actual modifications detected, rather than following a fixed reset procedure. This dynamic approach allows the reset process to adapt to the specific state of each device and only modify what is necessary, reducing both time and operational impact.
3Reliability
If the entire software image file is downloaded and the operating system is booted during reset, then the device is fully updated, but service disruption increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of downloading and installing the entire software image file, the system performs partial action by only transferring and installing the specific modified portions of the software image that have changed since the last update. This partial approach maintains update completeness for the necessary components while avoiding the excessive action of reinstalling the entire operating system, thus preserving service continuity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for updating an embedded device that includes a processor that receives an image file including at least one of kernel software, hardware configuration data, and application software. The embedded device parses the image file to determine portions of the image file that have been indicated by at least one flag as being modified from that currently being included on the embedded device. The embedded device installing at least portions of the image file on the embedded device and resetting portions of the embedded device based upon the at least one flag.