Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices

Songran Liu; Mingsong Lv; Wei Zhang; Xu Jiang; Chuancai Gu; Tao Yang; Wang Yi; Nan Guan

doi:10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices

Songran Liu
, Mingsong Lv^*
, Wei Zhang
, Xu Jiang
, Chuancai Gu
, Tao Yang
, Wang Yi
, Nan Guan

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Firmware update is an essential service on Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to fix vulnerabilities and add new functionalities. Firmware update is energy-consuming since it involves intensive flash erase/write operations. Nowadays, IoT devices are increasingly powered by energy harvesting. As the energy output of the harvesters on IoT devices is typically tiny and unstable, a firmware update will likely experience power failures during its progress and fail to complete. This paper presents an approach to increase the success rate of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. The main idea is to first conduct a lightweight flash write with reduced erase/write time (and thus less energy consumed) to quickly save the new firmware image to flash memory before a power failure occurs. To ensure a long data retention time, a reinforcement step follows to re-write the new firmware image on the flash with default erase/write configuration when the system is not busy and has free energy. Experiments conducted with different energy scenarios show that our approach can significantly increase the success rate and the efficiency of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. © 2023 EDAA.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2023 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE) - Proceedings
Publisher	IEEE
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9783981926378
ISBN (Print)	9798350396249
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990
Publication status	Published - 2023
Event	2023 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE 2023) - Flanders Meeting and Convention Center (FMCCA), Antwerp, Belgium Duration: 17 Apr 2023 → 19 Apr 2023

Publication series

Name	Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE
Volume	2023-April
ISSN (Print)	1530-1591
ISSN (Electronic)	1558-1101

Conference

Conference	2023 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE 2023)
Abbreviated title	DATE 23
Place	Belgium
City	Antwerp
Period	17/04/23 → 19/04/23

Bibliographical note

Full text of this publication does not contain sufficient affiliation information. With consent from the author(s) concerned, the Research Unit(s) information for this record is based on the existing academic department affiliation of the author(s).

Funding

This work is partially supported by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (GRF 11208522, 15206221) and Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 61772123).

Research Keywords

energy-harvesting
firmware update
IoT

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

Access Output

10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

Other Access Options

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Permanent Link

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Cite this

Liu, S., Lv, M., Zhang, W., Jiang, X., Gu, C., Yang, T., Yi, W., & Guan, N. (2023). Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices. In 2023 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE) - Proceedings (Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE; Vol. 2023-April). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

@inproceedings{bc97385481604fb9919a7ea5d7f7e5b6,

title = "Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices",

abstract = "Firmware update is an essential service on Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to fix vulnerabilities and add new functionalities. Firmware update is energy-consuming since it involves intensive flash erase/write operations. Nowadays, IoT devices are increasingly powered by energy harvesting. As the energy output of the harvesters on IoT devices is typically tiny and unstable, a firmware update will likely experience power failures during its progress and fail to complete. This paper presents an approach to increase the success rate of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. The main idea is to first conduct a lightweight flash write with reduced erase/write time (and thus less energy consumed) to quickly save the new firmware image to flash memory before a power failure occurs. To ensure a long data retention time, a reinforcement step follows to re-write the new firmware image on the flash with default erase/write configuration when the system is not busy and has free energy. Experiments conducted with different energy scenarios show that our approach can significantly increase the success rate and the efficiency of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. {\textcopyright} 2023 EDAA.",

keywords = "energy-harvesting, firmware update, IoT",

author = "Songran Liu and Mingsong Lv and Wei Zhang and Xu Jiang and Chuancai Gu and Tao Yang and Wang Yi and Nan Guan",

note = "Full text of this publication does not contain sufficient affiliation information. With consent from the author(s) concerned, the Research Unit(s) information for this record is based on the existing academic department affiliation of the author(s).; 2023 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE 2023), DATE 23 ; Conference date: 17-04-2023 Through 19-04-2023",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990",

language = "English",

isbn = "9798350396249",

series = "Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE",

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Liu, S, Lv, M, Zhang, W, Jiang, X, Gu, C, Yang, T, Yi, W & Guan, N 2023, Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices. in 2023 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE) - Proceedings. Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE, vol. 2023-April, IEEE, 2023 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE 2023), Antwerp, Belgium, 17/04/23. https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices. / Liu, Songran; Lv, Mingsong; Zhang, Wei et al.
2023 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE) - Proceedings. IEEE, 2023. (Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE; Vol. 2023-April).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices

AU - Liu, Songran

AU - Lv, Mingsong

AU - Zhang, Wei

AU - Jiang, Xu

AU - Gu, Chuancai

AU - Yang, Tao

AU - Yi, Wang

AU - Guan, Nan

N1 - Full text of this publication does not contain sufficient affiliation information. With consent from the author(s) concerned, the Research Unit(s) information for this record is based on the existing academic department affiliation of the author(s).

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Firmware update is an essential service on Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to fix vulnerabilities and add new functionalities. Firmware update is energy-consuming since it involves intensive flash erase/write operations. Nowadays, IoT devices are increasingly powered by energy harvesting. As the energy output of the harvesters on IoT devices is typically tiny and unstable, a firmware update will likely experience power failures during its progress and fail to complete. This paper presents an approach to increase the success rate of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. The main idea is to first conduct a lightweight flash write with reduced erase/write time (and thus less energy consumed) to quickly save the new firmware image to flash memory before a power failure occurs. To ensure a long data retention time, a reinforcement step follows to re-write the new firmware image on the flash with default erase/write configuration when the system is not busy and has free energy. Experiments conducted with different energy scenarios show that our approach can significantly increase the success rate and the efficiency of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. © 2023 EDAA.

AB - Firmware update is an essential service on Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to fix vulnerabilities and add new functionalities. Firmware update is energy-consuming since it involves intensive flash erase/write operations. Nowadays, IoT devices are increasingly powered by energy harvesting. As the energy output of the harvesters on IoT devices is typically tiny and unstable, a firmware update will likely experience power failures during its progress and fail to complete. This paper presents an approach to increase the success rate of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. The main idea is to first conduct a lightweight flash write with reduced erase/write time (and thus less energy consumed) to quickly save the new firmware image to flash memory before a power failure occurs. To ensure a long data retention time, a reinforcement step follows to re-write the new firmware image on the flash with default erase/write configuration when the system is not busy and has free energy. Experiments conducted with different energy scenarios show that our approach can significantly increase the success rate and the efficiency of firmware update on energy-harvesting IoT devices. © 2023 EDAA.

KW - energy-harvesting

KW - firmware update

KW - IoT

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U2 - 10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

DO - 10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10136990

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 9798350396249

T3 - Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE

BT - 2023 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE) - Proceedings

PB - IEEE

T2 - 2023 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE 2023)

Y2 - 17 April 2023 through 19 April 2023

ER -

Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Research Keywords

RGC Funding Information

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GRF: Managing Information Synchronicity in Real-Time Systems

GRF: Building a Theoretical Foundation for Real-time ROS

Cite this

Light Flash Write for Efficient Firmware Update on Energy-harvesting IoT Devices

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Research Keywords

RGC Funding Information

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Projects

GRF: Managing Information Synchronicity in Real-Time Systems

GRF: Building a Theoretical Foundation for Real-time ROS

Cite this