Why Over-The-Air Firmware Is Essential for Transforming IoT Platform?

Change is essential for improvement. Almost nothing can be improved without making a change to it. This holds true in many situations, especially, in case of machines, which are directly reliant on evolving technology for their improvement. And specifically, in case of IoT machines, which are operating on an IoT platform and are fed by a rapidly-transforming IoT technology.

The Reason Why Internet of Things Companies Shied Away from Updating IoT Devices

Not a long time ago, the task of making changes to an IoT device was nothing less than a challenge. The changes were made via firmware updates that required the device to be pulled apart and then connected to a computer or laptop. Not user friendly at all! This is why, internet of things companies shied away from updating their IoT devices frequently (no one wants to bother their consumers frequently).

How Over-The-Air Firmware Helped IoT Development and Security?

With security becoming a prime concern of internet of things companies, the need for making frequent changes to IoT devices started growing. It became essential to update the firmware of IoT devices to keep them fighting fit against hack attacks by notorious hackers. But, the rudimentary methodology employed by IoT companies came across as a stumbling block. No company wanted to force its customers into updating to the latest firmware (due to the hassle) and at the same time they could not afford hackers to gain ground.

In this confusing situation for internet of things companies, over-the-air firmware upgrade came as a great respite. It allowed IoT devices to be updated by creating a remote secure connection over the air and solved the problem for IoT vendors.

Need for Building IoT Devices with OTA Functionality

The only problem with OTA (Over-The-Air) firmware upgrade is that you need to have OTA functionality built into the IoT device. This means that it cannot work with legacy devices that do not have this capability built into them at the time of manufacture. However, such are the benefits of OTA that it makes great business sense to incorporate this technology into devices. Some of its advantages are:

1.      With OTA, it becomes easier to remove bugs from an IoT device. Whenever a company’s testing team finds a bug, it can devise a patch and send it across conveniently to all devices via the OTA interface.

2.      It has become a lot easier to add new features to a device by upgrading the firmware. In the past, internet of things companies used to add features in a rush or sold their IoT devices minus vital features. In both the cases, user experience was affected and a company risked losing their customer to competition.

3.      In the past, companies used to send updates via unsecured channels like emails or USB devices (on mail). This was not a completely secure approach and customers ran the risk of receiving a compromised security update (due to interception and alteration by hackers). But, with OTA there is hardly any risk of update getting intercepted.

A Thing to Keep in Mind before Employing OTA

OTA has changed the landscape completely when it comes to improving IoT devices. However, over the air transfer of the firmware does have one challenge that needs to be addressed by internet of things companies.

Firmware update is important, however, there is a possibility of device getting damaged, if you lose your internet connection during the firmware update process. But, the good news is that there are many OTA firmware providers that send their firmware updates in chunks. When you receive a firmware update from such a provider and lose your connection, the update will stop for the time connection is unavailable and then resume when the internet connection is reestablished.

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Created on Feb 13th 2019 05:10. Viewed 306 times.

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