A Scalable FOTA Updating Architecture for Industry 4.0 Applications using Wi-Fi and LoRa

Abstract

This paper proposes a scalable and efficient firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) updating architecture that reliably enables the simultaneous remote mass deployment of new firmware versions on Industry 4.0 machines. The architecture comprises remotely interconnected software and hardware sys-tems for providing firmware mass deployment employing Wi-Fi and LoRa technologies. A custom bootloader for Microchip 8-bit and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers has been developed to support remote FOTA operations. Cloud Web, Flutter mobile, and desktop applications are developed with a cloud server to provide remote FOTA operations. A simulation using cloud Web and Flutter mobile applications proves identical results according to the proposed architecture. Experimental work was performed on a Microchip PIC PIC18F4431 development board, and the results showed a significant match to the conducted simulation.