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OTA Firmware Update Architecture

  • Article

4/8/2010

This topic describes the overall architecture of OTA Firmware Update.

Note

This architecture applies to Windows Mobile 6.1 and later.

For a broad overview, see Understanding OTA Firmware Update.

Assumptions

  • The OEM has created update packages for various versions using Image Update.
  • The update packages are signed.
  • The update packages are stored in the OMA DM server or in a download server.

The OTA firmware update process can be automated. Your OMA DM server initiates this process, which involves interaction among the DM server, the OMA DM client, the Download Agent, and the image update installer on the client device.

The following illustration shows the architecture for OTA firmware update.

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The following numbered steps correspond with the numbers in the illustration:

  1. The OMA DM server sends a notification SMS trigger to the client device.
    The SMS message includes server identification (server ID) and tells the client device to initiate a session with the OMA DM server. The client device uses the server ID to verify that the server is authorized to communicate with it.

  2. The client device sends a message over an IP connection to initiate a session. The message includes device information, such as information from the DevInfo Configuration Service Provider.

  3. Microsoft strongly recommends that the OMA DM server send a ROMPackage object query to the client device to get the ROM versions of the device.

    Note

    The ROM on a Windows Mobile device is segmented into packages. Each ROM package has its own version, and each package can be updated independently.

    The device uses the ROMPackage Configuration Service Provider to return the version information to the OMA DM server. For more information, see ROMPackage Configuration Service Provider. For an XML example of querying the ROM packages on the device, see ROMPackage Configuration Service Provider Examples for OMA DM.
    Packages are identified by package identification (package ID).

  4. Based on the ROM versions, the OMA DM server determines which update package should be implemented and then sends the package information (such as the URL indicating the location of the package) to the firmware update managed object.
    The OMA DM server then performs an Exec command.
    For more information, see FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider. For an example of the XML for OTA firmware Update, see OTA Firmware Update Example.

  5. The FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider accepts the request and then passes the package download URL to the Download Agent.

  6. The Download Agent notifies the user of the update for informational purposes, and then downloads the package from the server.

    Note

    Microsoft recommends that the server use HTTP and support byte range headers. In case of interruption, the use of byte range headers enables a download to resume from the point of interruption; otherwise, the download restarts.

    Note

    The user can monitor the download status by looking at a progress bar in the Download Agent UI.

    If the download fails, the device initiates a DM session and sends the generic alert 1226 to notify the OMA DM server of the download failure. The State node in the FwUpdate object is also updated with the download state.

  7. If the download succeeds, the Download Agent device calls the device Image Update installer to install the update. The Update Agent (UpdateBin.exe) initiates the update process.
    If the installation succeeds, the device is rebooted, and a UI prompt informs the user that the installation succeeded.
    If the installation fails, the Download Agent maps the failure code to a Firmware Update Managed Object (FUMO) result code, and then collects the necessary information from the FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider.

  8. The State node in the FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider is updated with failure or success.

  9. The final status (success or failure) is sent to the OMA DM server over a new DM session by using the OMA DM generic alert 1226. The correlator that was set during the Exec command of the FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider is also passed. For information about FUMO result codes that Windows Mobile supports, see OTA Firmware Update Result Codes.

  10. The OMA DM server can query the ROMPackage object to verify that the version node contains the updated version information.

See Also

Reference

Server Requirements for OTA Firmware Update
ROMPackage Configuration Service Provider
FwUpdate Configuration Service Provider
OTA Firmware Update Example

Concepts

Options for Delivering Provisioning XML Files
OMA DM Generic Alert
Firmware Update Final Notification

Other Resources