Over The Air Programming (Ota); Overview; Benefits - Libelium Waspmote Technical Manual

21. Over the Air Programming (OTA)

21.1. Overview

The concept of Wireless Programming or commonly known as Programming Over the Air (OTA) has been used in the past
years overall for the reprogramming of mobile devices such as cell phones. However, with the new concepts of Wireless
Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things where the networks consist of hundreds or thousands of nodes OTA is taken to a
new direction, and for the first time it is applied using unlicensed frequency bands (2.4GHz, 868MHz, 900MHz) and with low
consumption and low data rate transmission using protocols such as 802.15.4 and ZigBee.
Besides, Libelium provides an OTA method based on FTP transmissions to be used with GPRS, GPRS+GPS, 3G and WiFi modules.
Note that the concept of OTA may have some other names such as:
• Over the air -> OTA
• Over the air Programming -> OTAP
• Firmware over the air -> FOTA
• Programming Over the air-> POTA
• Over the air service provisioning -> OTASP
• Over the air provisioning -> OTAP
• Over the air parameter administration -> OTAPA
• Over the air upgrade -> OTAU
• Over the air update -> OTAUR
• Over the air Download -> OAD
• Over the air flashing -> OTAF
• Over the air parameter administration -> OTAPA
• Multihop Over the air programming (MOTAP)

21.2. Benefits

Libelium OTA Benefits:
OTA with 802.15.4/ZigBee:
• Enables the upgrade or change of firmware versions without physical access.
• Discover nodes in the area just sending a broadcast discovery query.
• Upload new firmware in few minutes.
• No interferences: OTA is performed using a change of channel between the programmer and the desired node so no
interferences are generated to the rest of the nodes.
OTA with 3G/GPRS/WiFi:
• Enables the upgrade or change of firmware versions without physical access.
• Upgrades the new firmware by querying a FTP server which helps to keep battery life.
• Upload new firmware in few minutes.
To know more about OTA benefits and process, please read the Over the Air Programming Guide:
http://www.libelium.com/development/waspmote/documentation/over-the-air-programming-guide-otap/
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Over the Air Programming (OTA)
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