Over-the-air Updates Using IoT: What Are They and How Do They Work?

What is an over-the-air (OTA) update? Why is it important?

Using IoT to digitally transform your organization provides countless benefits—increased revenue, accelerated innovation, higher quality, and lower costs. However, each organization faces unique challenges when scaling its IoT footprint and maximizing benefits. Geographically diverse organizations, rapid expansion initiatives, unreliable regional and local infrastructure, or looming security threats often require companies to rethink their tactics for deploying IoT resources. 

If your organization faces barriers or risks to reliable physical access, IoT-enabled over-the-air updates provide crucial support for remote software updates to your connected devices. This streamlines scaling IoT operations and ensures your organization can overcome obstacles to digital transformation and marketplace agility.

History of OTA updates

A refresh of the mobile phone boom is necessary to understand the history of IoT over-the-air updates. In 1999, the BlackBerry 850 was released; its support for wireless email made it the must-have business accessory.  Telecommunication companies recognized their current wireless data capacity could not support the device’s ability to transmit texts, emails, synchronized calendars, and other data, with some notorious network failures. Flash-forward to June 2007, when Apple unveiled the iPhone, which became an instantaneous cultural phenomenon, delivering data-heavy media like music, photos, and video. Competing offerings subsequently expanded the market. Apps dependent on constant data transfer (e.g., GPS location, social media) and cloud-enabled services (like wireless OS updates) further ballooned network traffic.

What does this history lesson have to do with IoT over-the-air updates? Because mobile phones were the first mass-market instance of wireless IoT device, the infrastructure needed to support this need didn’t exist. Telco companies raced to build wireless networks at an unprecedented scale. Almost overnight, the core infrastructure was laid to facilitate long-distance wireless transmission. The network transformation triggered by the mobile device market was instrumental to industrial IoT developers. These companies realized that they could transmit data at scale and, looking beyond data being pulled from devices, saw the value in pushing data to manage, update, and service these devices remotely.

By the mid-2010s, IoT over-the-air updates began to serve various devices, such as industrial sensors, medical devices, and connected cars. These remote updates became crucial for maintaining device security, functionality, and compliance with evolving standards. Today, IoT over-the-air updates are a standard feature across many industries. The focus of OTA updates has shifted toward enhancing security and efficiency—and the proliferation of 5G, edge computing, AI, and machine learning has opened the door to predictive maintenance and real-time problem resolution.

How do over-the-air updates work? 

IoT-enabled over-the-air updates leverage wireless communication technologies, such as satellite, Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or other radio frequencies, to deliver updates directly to devices. Each device is equipped to verify the authenticity of the update package and perform post-update validation that the update was successful.

OTA updates vs. manual updates 

Historically, any software or firmware update required direct interaction with the device, usually involving physical connections or actions on each machine. With OTA deployment, updates can be applied to all connected devices simultaneously, without physical interaction. This allows for greater convenience, scalability, and security than manual, labor-intensive, and error-prone updates. An easy analog to the impact of this change is IT updates. Even ten years ago, many IT departments were physically and painstakingly updating operating systems and applications, machine by machine. Today, most large organizations have remote, secure rollouts that have transformed these efforts' speed, security, and reliability.

Common OTA update scenarios

Every IoT environment is unique. An iOS update has different needs than an industrial device update, which looks nothing like a connected car update. Thankfully, OTA updates can be implemented in various ways depending on the specific requirements and constraints of the IoT ecosystem. Different scenarios leverage unique network architectures to ensure efficient and reliable delivery.

Edge to cloud 

IoT devices operating “at the edge”—meaning close to the physical location where data is needed—directly receive updates from a cloud server. While this approach is straightforward, each device must have a consistent, reliable internet connection for it to work.

Gateway to cloud 

A central gateway device receives cloud updates and distributes them to connected devices. This process reduces bandwidth usage and allows updates to be managed locally, even if the edge devices lack direct cloud connectivity.

Edge to gateway to cloud 

Edge devices send their data to a local gateway, which then communicates with the cloud. This setup allows for efficient local processing and management, with the cloud providing centralized control and analytics. 

Asset OTA

Specific assets such as cars or phones receive updates directly, usually over cellular networks. This scenario is common in large-scale deployments, ensuring all devices remain updated regardless of location. 

What are the challenges associated with designing an OTA update system? 

While IoT over-the-air updates offer significant benefits for managing and maintaining a fleet of IoT devices, designing an effective update system has challenges. Addressing these roadblocks ensures the update process's reliability, security, and efficiency. 

Security risks 

Securing IoT over-the-air updates is crucial to preventing malicious parties from intercepting or tampering with updates. Robust encryption, authentication, and secure delivery systems can all help protect against cyber threats and unauthorized access.

Device bricking 

There’s a risk that an update fails mid-process or contains critical errors, rendering the IoT device inoperable, or “bricked.” Implementing safeguards such as rollback mechanisms and validation checks can help mitigate this risk and ensure devices can recover from unsuccessful updates. 

Choosing the right service

There are many IoT over-the-air update options, so it’s essential to consider factors like scalability, reliability, cost, and compatibility with existing infrastructure. The chosen service must support your IoT deployment's specific needs and challenges and should consider device types, network conditions, and regulatory requirements.

IoT Platform

Particularly for companies that are either still implementing their IoT strategy or looking to change their IoT infrastructure, it is essential to closely validate the capabilities and value of different IoT platforms—both for general use cases and specifically their ability to meet your IoT over-the-air update requirements and challenges. Buyer’s guides (for manufacturing or service applications) and vendor rankings are valuable resources.

Benefits of OTA updates for IoT deployment

OTA updates are a surefire way to scale and streamline IoT deployments from day one. While challenges may arise, successful IoT over-the-air updates can save weeks of manual labor and reduce the high costs of implementing large-scale changes.

Continued updates after device deployment 

When adding new features to a product is easy, all customers—past and present—reap the benefits. Organizations can deploy OTA updates as often as needed to improve system functionality, safety, efficiency, and innovation. That means whether someone bought the product yesterday or a year ago, they can benefit from the same upgraded device.

Aid in innovation 

IoT over-the-air updates enable instantaneous, streamlined, continuous improvement—without the need for physical intervention. This agility allows organizations to quickly adapt to market demands, experiment with new technology, and maintain a competitive advantage through quick, iterative enhancements.

Reduce recalls and truck rolls 

When updates are deployed manually, geographically diverse organizations must send teams to each device to physically install the change. IoT over-the-air updates eliminate the need for technicians to physically visit each device, reducing truck rolls and minimizing product recalls. By enabling timely fixes for software-related issues, organizations can ensure devices are updated and functioning correctly without returning them to a service center. 

Conclusion