Open Source Summit Europe 2022

Over The Air Device Firmware Update is one of the most-desired features for any IoT device management solution. In a world where all solutions are cloud-connected, DFU is a table stakes feature. But modern DFU approaches are brittle, and developers are forced to choose between either an "OS DFU" approach, in which a vendor solves the DFU problem end-to-end within the kernel, while specifying a very narrow choice of hardware, language, and IDE; or "Co-operative DFU," in which a vendor provides a cloud service to securely host firmware images and transport onto the device, but in which the "last mile" of the update process is the developer’s responsibility. Both methods can be made reliable, but are risky and can be inadvertently rendered nonfunctional by an errant 'infinite loop,' memory or flash overwrite, or bad interrupt handler. What if there was a third way? An approach for performing firmware updates "from the outside" without MCU involvement? An approach that can update firmware regardless of RTOS or language, and can even be used to switch between them? In this session, Brandon Satrom will introduce such an approach, and demonstrate how this capability allows developers more choice of host, language, and RTOS, without sacrificing the stability end-to-end DFU.