The engineers at Toradex have publicly released an experimental version of their Over-The-Air (OTA) solution under Toradex Labs.
Modern embedded systems need a reliable and secure way to deliver software updates remotely. Toradex aims to accomplish this by publishing critical operating system updates to customers with devices running TorizonCore, an easy-to-use industrial-grade Linux OS. The system will provide full control over which updates and when these updates are pushed to their devices by way of a web interface. Additionally, customers will be able to push their own updates to their devices using the same OTA system.
Managing deployed devices is made easy by providing a high-level view of all devices and their current status. Grouping devices together into fleets is supported and makes managing updates for many devices easy. Every device publishes information up to the server which can prove useful for evaluating device health, inconsistencies in deployed devices, etc.
Toradex wants to help reduce your time-to-market and decrease the overall risk inherent in implementing or integrating this feature yourself. The device update mechanism updates all levels of software, from the hardware device-tree layers up to the application. Using this system in tandem with the Docker container functionality provided by TorizonCore establishes a device as a 100% updatable, and remotely managed platform!
The system itself is based upon the Open-Source Automotive-Grade project maintained by HERE.com (formerly Advanced Telematic Systems) known as OTA Community Edition.
The system leverages the security framework of Uptane to secure and verify updates received on the device. It is designed to be fault-tolerant and can withstand drops in network connectivity, power-outages, etc. It is also an appropriate choice for devices that have limited or lightweight data connections such as a cellular network. The updates are differential, which minimizes the size of an update by only transferring the pieces of an update which are different than what already exists on the device.
The OTA Service is available today for free and will work on all Toradex System on Modules with Torizon support, feedback is highly encouraged.
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