Ota Reprogramming Overview; Cancelling Ota Reprogramming - GE MDS SD Series Reference Manual

MDS 05-4846A01, Rev. C
NOTE: It is possible for Remote radios receiving a firmware upgrade
to complete reprogramming before the initiating station does.
This is because transmissions are sent out "broadcast style"
and will be sent up to the number of times entered in the
parameter of the radio. In a strong signal environment,
Count
the image may be received successfully the first time, but the
initiator does not know this, and continues broadcasting image
data blocks until the specified retry count has been reached.

OTA Reprogramming Overview

The "Root" is the central location from which polling originates. Other
locations in the network should be designated as "Nodes" which are the
receiving stations. Over-the-air firmware upgrades should always be
initiated from the Root. This ensures that all radios in the network will
be properly updated.
Once an OTA reprogram session has started, the initiating radio selects
either the active or inactive image stored in its non-volatile storage
which is copied to all the other radios in the network.
The initiator broadcasts a series of messages to one or more remote
Nodes to accomplish the reprogramming process. The "broadcast"
method is used to program the greatest number of radios in the shortest
amount of time, however, the initiating station remains unaware of the
number or success of downstream radios participating in reprogram-
ming.
During reprogramming the status of the reprogramming will be avail-
able on all the radios participating in process. Because the initiator is
"broadcast-only" this status can only indicate progress toward sending
out of all messages. On the Nodes, the progress toward completion of
reception of reprogramming information is indicated.
Receiving stations can automatically reboot to the new image after suc-
cessful reprogramming. Alternatively, there is an OTA reboot command
that can be broadcast from the initiator to all receiving stations. This last
option instructs the receivers to reboot to a specific firmware revision if
available, and not already running at that revision.

Cancelling OTA Reprogramming

During the reprogramming operation the user has the ability to cancel
reprogramming at anytime either on the initiator, which will affect all
radios, or on individual receiving stations. Note that cancelling repro-
gramming at the initiator results in all radios in the network having only
one (instead of two) applications programmed in their image banks.
That is, the "inactive" image (which was only partially upgraded) will
be corrupt and unusable until reprogrammed at a later time.
SD Series Ref. Manual (Packet & Transparent Mode)
Retry
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