CN108632309B

CN108632309B - Method and device for upgrading narrow-band Internet of things terminal

Info

Publication number: CN108632309B
Application number: CN201710161845.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周凯
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Huawei Cloud Computing Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2017-03-17
Filing date: 2017-03-17
Publication date: 2020-10-27
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-17
Also published as: CN108632309A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a method and a device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of things terminal, relates to the technical field of communication, and can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading an NB-IoT terminal in a cell. The method of the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: when receiving service data sent by a first terminal, judging whether an upgrading terminal exists in a target cell to which the first terminal belongs; if the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrading instruction to the first terminal; and if the terminal which is upgrading exists in the target cell, sending a delayed upgrading instruction to the first terminal, wherein the delayed upgrading instruction comprises upgrading time or delay time. The method and the device are suitable for the process of upgrading the narrow-band Internet of things terminal.

Description

Method and device for upgrading narrow-band Internet of things terminal

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a method and a device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of things terminal.

Background

Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a low-power-consumption wide area network transmission technology in the field of Internet of Things, and can support cellular data connection of low-power-consumption equipment in a wide area network. The NB-IoT network has the characteristics of wide coverage, low power consumption, massive connection and the like. The NB-IoT network comprises NB-IoT terminals and an IoT platform, and a device management server in the IoT platform can perform device management operations such as software upgrading, firmware upgrading, configuration and fault location on the NB-IoT terminals. The NB-IoT terminal refers to equipment with an NB-IoT chip inserted, such as a water meter, an electric meter, a gas meter, an intelligent garbage can and the like, and has the characteristics of low speed, deep coverage, low power consumption and low cost.

Currently, most NB-IoT terminals are powered by batteries and have limited power, so that most NB-IoT terminals are in a power saving mode to obtain a long life cycle. Under the power saving mode, the NB-IoT terminal wakes up only within a fixed time period (such as 8: 00 to 9: 00 every day) and reports data to the Internet of things platform, and an equipment management server in the Internet of things platform can only perform batch upgrading on the NB-IoT terminal in parallel according to self processing capacity within a time window (such as 30 seconds) in which the NB-IoT terminal wakes up.

However, when there are many NB-IoT terminals upgraded in parallel in a cell, the download speed of the cell is very slow, and may be only several hundred bits per second. Thus, the time for upgrading each NB-IoT terminal is relatively long, so that the efficiency of upgrading the NB-IoT terminals is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of things terminal, which can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading an NB-IoT terminal in a cell.

In order to achieve the purpose, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal, where the method includes: when business data sent by a first terminal are received, an equipment management server of a narrowband Internet of things terminal judges whether an upgrading terminal exists in a target cell to which the first terminal belongs; if the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, the equipment management server sends an immediate upgrading instruction to the first terminal; and if the terminal which is being upgraded exists in the target cell, the equipment management server sends a delayed upgrading instruction to the first terminal, wherein the delayed upgrading instruction comprises upgrading time or delay time. Therefore, only one terminal is upgraded in the same time in each target cell, and compared with the parallel upgrading of a plurality of terminals, the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can shorten the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package and improve the upgrading efficiency of the terminal.

In a possible design, before sending the delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the device management server needs to determine an upgrade time or a delay time of the first terminal, so that the device management server can upgrade the first terminal at the upgrade time or upgrade the first terminal after waiting for the delay time. The method for specifically determining the upgrading time or the delay time comprises the following steps: if the delay upgrading instruction is not generated in the current awakening period, the equipment management server determines the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the current awakening period. If the delayed upgrading instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, determining the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the upgrading time or the delay time contained in the previous delayed upgrading instruction and the rated download duration of the upgrading packet required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrading instruction.

In a possible design, if receiving the service data sent by other terminals in the process of downloading the upgrade package by the first terminal which has received the upgrade delay instruction, the device management server sends the upgrade delay instruction to other terminals, so that the terminal being upgraded is in a higher priority, and upgrade failure caused by upgrade interruption is avoided.

In one possible design, the device management server determines whether the terminal being upgraded exists in the target cell according to whether the terminal being downloaded the upgrade package exists in the target cell. In the process of upgrading the terminal, the downloading of the upgrade package can influence the downloading speed of the target cell, and the downloading speed of the target cell cannot be influenced by locally installing the upgrade package by the terminal. Therefore, when the terminal downloading the upgrade package is prompted to exist in the target cell, it can be considered that the terminal currently being upgraded does not exist in the target cell, and the terminal currently sending the service data can be upgraded.

In a possible design, in a designated wake-up period, when receiving service data sent by a second terminal, if there is no terminal being upgraded in a target cell, the device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the second terminal, and records upgrade information of the second terminal, where the upgrade information at least includes signal strength and upgrade packet download duration. And then, the equipment management server generates an upgrading strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrading information of all the second terminals, wherein the upgrading strategy at least comprises the rated downloading time of the upgrading packet corresponding to the signal intensity of each level. The device management server may determine the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength as the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade policy, and may also determine the maximum download duration and the minimum download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength as the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade policy. The equipment management server determines the upgrading strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell in the appointed awakening period so as to determine the rated download duration of the upgrading packet corresponding to the terminal managed by the target cell in other awakening periods, and therefore the upgrading time or the delay time is distributed to the terminal

In a possible design, before sending a delay upgrade instruction to a first terminal, an equipment management server first determines the current signal strength of the first terminal according to service data sent by the first terminal, and then determines a rated download duration of an upgrade packet required by the first terminal according to the current signal strength of the first terminal and an upgrade policy of the target cell of the first terminal, so as to allocate upgrade time or delay time to the terminal.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a device for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal, where the device may implement a function executed by an equipment management server of the narrowband internet of things terminal in the above method example, and the function may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processor and a transceiver in the structure, and the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions of the method. The transceiver is used for transmitting and receiving data. The apparatus may also include a memory for coupling to the processor for storing program instructions and data necessary for the apparatus.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer storage medium, configured to store computer software instructions for a device management server of the narrowband internet of things terminal, where the computer software instructions include a program designed to execute the foregoing aspect.

Compared with the prior art that the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in a time window, the equipment management server performs batch upgrading on the NB-IoT terminal according to the self processing capacity, the method and the device for upgrading the narrowband IoT terminal provided by the embodiment of the invention indicate the terminal to be upgraded immediately when the terminal which is being upgraded does not exist in the target cell, and indicate the terminal to be upgraded at the specified upgrading time when the terminal which is being upgraded exists in the target cell. Therefore, only one terminal is upgraded in the same time in each target cell, so that the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package is shortened, and the upgrade efficiency of the terminal is improved. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading the NB-IoT terminal in the cell.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of an NB-IoT system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a logic structure of a device for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of another method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a device for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 provides an architecture diagram of an NB-IoT system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is used to upgrade an NB-IoT terminal. The NB-IoT system 100 provided in the embodiment of the present invention includes a terminal 101, an access network 102, a core network 103, an internet of things platform 104, and an internet of things application server 105. The terminal 101 may be a device such as a meter, a mobile phone, or a camera, into which an NB-IoT chip is inserted. The core network 103 mainly includes network elements such as a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 106, a Serving GateWay (SGW) 107, and a packet data GateWay (PDN GateWay, PGW) 108. The internet of things platform 104 includes a built-in device management server 109, a database 110, and an internet of things server 111.

In the architecture shown in fig. 1, the terminal 101 may communicate with the internet of things platform 104 through a communication network, report terminal data, and execute a command issued by the internet of things platform 104. A communication network formed by the access network 102 and the core network 103 can provide transparent transmission of data, and is a data transmission channel between the terminal 101 and the internet of things platform 104. The internet of things platform 104 is responsible for management, connection, data acquisition and analysis of the terminal 101, and provides an interface for the internet of things application server 105. A database 110 built in the internet of things platform 104 may be used to store data, and the data stored in the database 110 is processed by the internet of things server 111. The device management server 109 built in the internet of things platform 104 is responsible for software upgrade, firmware upgrade, configuration and fault location of the terminal 101. The internet of things application server 105 provides statistical data of corresponding permissions for different classes of users. The device management server 109 in the embodiment of the present invention mainly functions to upgrade a terminal. Specifically, the upgrading process can refer to the detailed description of the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus 200 for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is used for upgrading a terminal in the NB-IoT system shown in fig. 1. The apparatus 200 for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal may include one or more ports 204 coupled with a transceiver (transceiver) 201. The transceiver 201 may be a transmitter, a receiver, or a combination thereof, which transmits or receives data packets from other network nodes through the port 208. The processor 202 is coupled to the transceiver 206 for processing data packets. Processor 202 may include one or more multi-core processors and/or memories. The processor 202 may be a general purpose processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or a Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

The memory 203 may be a non-transitory storage medium coupled to the processor 202 for storing different types of data, such as service data, upgrade packages, upgrade information, and upgrade policies. Memory 203 may comprise Read Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), or other types of dynamic storage devices that may store information and instructions, and may also be a disk Memory. The memory 203 may be used to store instructions that implement a semantic query correlation method. It will be appreciated that the executable instructions may be programmed or loaded into the processor 202 of the apparatus 200 for at least one of caching and long term storage.

The apparatus 200 for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal may implement a process of executing one or more instructions to trigger upgrading of the terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. These instructions may be stored in the memory 203 or may be integrated in the kernel of the operating system of the device upgrading the terminal or in a plug-in to the kernel.

In another embodiment, the apparatus 200 as an apparatus for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal includes a memory 203, a processor 202, a transceiver 201, and one or more ports 204 coupled to the transceiver 201. A memory 203 for storing computer executable program code; a processor 202 is coupled with the memory 203 and the transceiver 201;

wherein the program code includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus of the upgrade terminal to perform the relevant steps performed by the device management server of fig. 3-5.

In addition, fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a device management server of a narrowband internet of things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, and includes a memory 203, a processor 202, a transceiver 201, and one or more ports 204 coupled to the transceiver. A memory 203 for storing computer executable program code; a processor 202 is coupled with the memory 203 and the transceiver 201;

wherein the program code includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal to perform relevant steps performed by the device management server in fig. 3 to 5.

It should be noted that the first terminal, the second terminal, and the terminal mentioned in the embodiment of the present invention are all NB-IoT terminals. The first and second embodiments of the present invention do not have any technical significance, but are used to distinguish different terminals. The equipment management server provided by the embodiment of the invention is an equipment management server of a narrow-band Internet of things terminal.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal, and as shown in fig. 3, the method specifically comprises the following steps:

301. and the first terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server.

In the embodiment of the invention, the first terminal can be various terminals inserted with NB-IoT chips and terminals supporting NB-IoT technology. After the NB-IoT terminal collects the service data, the service data can be sent to the equipment management server through the NB-IoT network, so that the equipment management server can provide services for users. The service data may be audio information collected by a sound collection device such as a microphone, picture information collected by an image collection device such as a camera, code information collected by an intelligent instrument such as a water meter and an electric meter, and the like.

At present, in order to obtain a longer life cycle, the NB-IoT terminal wakes up only at a fixed time, and after keeping for a certain time, enters sleep again. In order to facilitate the statistics and analysis of the service data reported by the NB-IoT terminal by the device management server, the fixed waking time of the NB-IoT terminal is concentrated in a fixed time period, the fixed time period is referred to as a waking cycle, the waking time of the NB-IoT terminal is referred to as a waking time, and the time period from the waking of the NB-IoT terminal to the sleep again is referred to as a terminal waking time window.

When the NB-IoT terminal wakes up, the NB-IoT terminal can send the service data to the equipment management server. And if the instruction sent by the equipment management server is received in the awakening time window, the NB-IoT terminal executes the instruction and re-enters the sleep mode after the instruction execution is finished. And if the instruction sent by the equipment management server is not received in the awakening time window, the NB-IoT terminal directly reenters the sleep. And when the NB-IoT terminal goes to sleep, the NB-IoT terminal cannot receive the indication sent by the equipment management server.

In the actual application process, a manager can select a terminal to be upgraded and a corresponding upgrade package through an authentication (Portal) interface of the internet of things server, and the internet of things server issues an upgrade task to the equipment management server. After that, when the device management server receives the traffic data sent by the NB-IoT terminal, it may first determine whether the NB-IoT terminal belongs to a terminal that needs to be upgraded. If yes, go to step 302; otherwise, the service data is processed normally.

For example: the wake-up period for terminals in cell 1 is 8: 00 to 9: 00, wake-up time window 30 seconds. Table 1 is a terminal wake-up schedule, 8: 00, terminal a1, terminal B1, terminal C1 wake up in cell 1, terminal B1 is upgrading, 8: 05, terminal a1, terminal B1, terminal C1 wake up in cell 1, terminal B1 is upgrading. As shown in table 1, the wake-up time of terminal a2 in cell 1 is 8: 05, terminal a2 at 8: 05, sending the service data to the equipment management server. After receiving the service data sent by the terminal a2, the device management server first determines whether the terminal a2 belongs to a terminal that needs to be upgraded. If yes, go to step 302; otherwise, the received data is processed normally. If the terminal a2 receives the instruction transmitted from the device management server within 30 seconds, the terminal a2 executes the instruction. If the terminal a2 does not receive the instruction sent by the device management server within 30 seconds, the terminal a2 goes to sleep again until the next wake-up time comes.

TABLE 1 terminal Wake-Up time Table

302. When receiving the service data sent by the first terminal, the device management server judges whether the target cell to which the first terminal belongs has the terminal being upgraded. If the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, executing steps 303 and 304; otherwise, steps 305 and 306 are performed.

Considering that the NB-IoT network bandwidth is narrow and the number of terminals accessed in a cell is large, parallel upgrading of multiple terminals results in a slow download speed of a single terminal, a long time for downloading the upgrade package by the single terminal, and large power consumption. In order to reduce the power consumption of the terminals and enable each terminal to finish upgrading as quickly as possible, in the embodiment of the invention, only one terminal can download the upgrading package in each cell at the same time.

When the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, the equipment management server can determine which terminal which needs to be upgraded is upgraded at the current moment according to the sequence of the received service data. If the device management server receives the service data sent by the multiple terminals at the same time, the device management server may determine the terminal upgraded at the current time according to the sequence of the internal processing service data, or may randomly select one terminal as the terminal upgraded at the current time, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the determining, by the device management server, whether the terminal being upgraded exists in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs may specifically be implemented as: judging whether a terminal for downloading the upgrade package exists in the target cell; if the terminal downloading the upgrade package does not exist in the target cell, determining that the terminal downloading the upgrade package does not exist in the target cell; and if the terminal downloading the upgrade package exists in the target cell, determining that the terminal downloading the upgrade package exists in the target cell.

303. And the equipment management server sends an immediate upgrading instruction to the first terminal.

The immediate upgrading instruction is used for indicating the first terminal to be upgraded immediately. It can be understood that the immediate upgrade instruction carries a download path of the upgrade package, and the terminal may download the upgrade package according to the download path.

304. And when an immediate upgrading instruction sent by the equipment management server is received, the first terminal downloads the upgrading package.

When the instruction received by the first terminal is an immediate upgrading instruction, it indicates that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and the first terminal can immediately download the upgrading packet. And after downloading the upgrade package and locally installing and restarting, the first terminal sends an upgrade result to the equipment manager, wherein the upgrade result comprises upgrade success, upgrade failure and failure reasons, and records error information of the upgrade process to a log.

305. And the equipment management server sends a delayed upgrading instruction to the first terminal.

The delay upgrading instruction comprises upgrading time or delay time. The upgrade delay instruction is used for instructing the first terminal to download the upgrade package from the upgrade time, or instructing the first terminal to download the upgrade package after waiting for the delay time. The delay time is the time that the first terminal needs to wait before downloading the upgrade package.

306. When receiving a delay upgrading instruction sent by the equipment management server, the first terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server again according to the upgrading time or the delay time carried in the delay upgrading instruction.

When the instruction received by the first terminal is a delayed upgrading instruction, the first terminal acquires upgrading time and sends service data to the equipment management server again at the upgrading time; or the first terminal acquires the delay time and sends the service data to the equipment management server again after waiting for the delay time.

As shown in table 1, the device management server, at 8: when 00, the service data transmitted by terminals a1, B1 and C1 in cell 1 are received simultaneously. The device management server determines that terminal a1 does not require an upgrade and that terminals B1 and C1 require an upgrade. If there is no terminal currently upgraded in the cell 1, the device management server selects one terminal from the terminals B1 and C1 to upgrade, for example, the terminal B1. After that, the device management server transmits an immediate upgrade instruction to the terminal B1 and a delayed upgrade instruction to the terminal C1. The device management server, at 8: and 05, receiving the service data transmitted by the terminals A2, B2 and C2 which need to be upgraded. At this time, the device management server determines that terminal B1 is upgrading in cell 1, and the device management server transmits a deferred upgrade instruction to terminals a2, B2, and C2, respectively.

Considering that the NB-IoT network has the characteristic of massive connection, the number of the terminals is large, and in order to shorten the time for upgrading the terminals in batches, improve the network utilization rate and avoid the situation that the terminals in a cell are concentrated in the same time period for upgrading as much as possible. Therefore, the upgrade time in the upgrade delay instruction in the embodiment of the present invention may be a time other than the wake-up period, and the delay time may be a time longer than the duration of the wake-up period. Therefore, the terminal wakes up for upgrading in the non-wake-up period, the time for upgrading the terminal in batches is shortened, the efficiency for upgrading the terminal in batches is improved, and the problem of upgrading massive terminals (such as 100 ten thousand) in the instruction time period (such as 2 weeks) is solved.

Since the terminal in the cell 1 does not wake up in the non-awake period without receiving the delay upgrade instruction, only the terminal that received the delay upgrade instruction wakes up at the upgrade time in the non-awake period or wakes up after waiting for the delay time. Table 2 shows an upgrade schedule that is assigned to the terminal by the device management server by delaying the upgrade order based on table 1, where terminal C1 in cell 1 is at 9: 10 awake, terminal a2 at 9: 40 wakeup, terminal B2 was at 10: 10 awake, terminal C1 at 9: 10 to 9: 30 upgrade, terminal a2 at 9: 40 to 10: 00 upgrade, terminal B2 at 10: 10 to 10: 30, upgrading. Upgrade time 9 carried in the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server to the terminal C1: 10, the upgrade time 9 carried in the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server to the terminal a 2: 40, the upgrade time 10 carried in the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server to the terminal B2: 10. after receiving the deferred upgrade instruction, terminal C1, at 9: 10 sends the traffic data to the device management server, terminal a2 at 9: 40 sends the traffic data to the device management server, terminal B2 at 10: the service data is transmitted to the device management server 10.

TABLE 2 upgrade time Allocation Table

Considering that a certain time is needed for a terminal to download an upgrade package, in order to ensure that only one terminal is upgraded in each cell at the same time, the equipment management server needs to plan the terminal upgrade ending time besides allocating the upgrade time to the terminal. When a certain terminal does not finish downloading the upgrade package at the planned upgrade ending moment, the terminal downloading the upgrade package is used as the high priority, and the upgrade moment is redistributed to the following terminals. As shown in table 2, the upgrade end time scheduled by the device management server for terminal C1 is 9: 30, but 9: at 30 terminal C1 actually reached 9: the upgrade package download is completed 40, and at 9: when the terminal A2 is on line at 30, the terminal C1 is used as high priority to reallocate upgrading time to the terminal A2, and the terminal C1 downloads the upgrading package normally until the upgrading package is completed.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after sending the upgrade delay instruction to the first terminal, the following steps may be further performed:

and if the service data sent by other terminals are received in the process of downloading the upgrade package by the first terminal, sending a delay upgrade instruction to other terminals.

In order to avoid the influence of the upgrade delay of the terminal C1 on terminals other than the terminal a2, the device management server transmits a delay upgrade instruction to the terminal a 2.

TABLE 3 actual upgrade schedule

The purpose of the upgrade delay instruction sent by the device management server to the first terminal is to notify the terminal of the next wake-up time, and the instruction may be a general instruction and is not limited to only be used for upgrading. And when receiving the upgrade delay instruction, the first terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server to inform the equipment management server of the communication. Therefore, when receiving the upgrade delay instruction, the first terminal sends the service data to the device management server, where the service data may be actually acquired information such as audio, pictures, and code numbers, or may be pre-agreed information such as null information.

Compared with the prior art that the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in a time window, the equipment management server performs batch upgrading on the NB-IoT terminal according to the self processing capacity, the method for upgrading the narrowband IoT terminal provided by the embodiment of the invention indicates the terminal to be upgraded immediately when the terminal which is being upgraded does not exist in the target cell, and indicates the terminal to be upgraded at the specified upgrading time when the terminal which is being upgraded exists in the target cell. Therefore, only one terminal is upgraded in the same time in each target cell, so that the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package is shortened, and the upgrade efficiency of the terminal is improved. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading the NB-IoT terminal in the cell.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal, as shown in fig. 4, the method specifically comprises the following steps:

steps 401 to 404 are similar to steps 301 to 304, and are not described herein again.

405. The device management server determines whether a delayed upgrade instruction is generated within a current wake-up period. If the delay upgrade instruction is not generated in the current wake-up period, execute step 406; if the delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, step 407 is executed.

The current wake-up period refers to a wake-up period to which the time when the device management server receives the service data sent by the terminal belongs.

406. And the equipment management server determines the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the current awakening period.

If the delay upgrading instruction is not generated in the current wake-up period, the first terminal is a delayed terminal, and the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal is related to the current wake-up period.

As shown in table 2, the current wake-up period of the terminal in cell 1 is 8: 00 to 9: 00, terminal C1 is the first delayed terminal in the current wake-up period, and the upgrade time allocated for terminal C1 is 9: 00, only one terminal can be upgraded in each cell at the same time. In order to improve the network utilization and shorten the time for batch upgrading, the idle time of the cell 1 should not be too large, for example, the upgrading time of the terminal C1 may be 9: 10.

407. and the equipment management server determines the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the upgrading time or the delay time contained in the previous delayed upgrading instruction and the rated downloading time of the upgrading packet required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrading instruction.

The equipment management server can plan the upgrade ending time according to the upgrade time allocated to the terminal and the rated download time of the upgrade package.

If a delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, it indicates that there is a terminal that is delayed before, in order to ensure that each cell upgrades only one terminal at the same time, the upgrade time of the first terminal is related to the upgrade time of the previous delayed terminal and the rated download time of the upgrade package, and the delay time of the first terminal is also related to the delay time of the previous delayed terminal and the rated download time of the upgrade package.

As shown in table 2, the terminals delayed in the current wake-up period in the cell 1 are terminals C1, a2, and B2 in sequence, and the upgrade time allocated by the device management server to the terminal a2 is 9: and 40, the rated download time of the distributed upgrade package is 20 minutes. Determining that the upgrade ending time planned by the known device for the terminal A2 is 10 according to the upgrade time of the terminal A2 and the rated download duration of the upgrade package of the terminal A2: 00. at this time, the upgrade time of the terminal B2 only needs to be 10: 00, it can be guaranteed that each cell can upgrade only one terminal at the same time. In order to improve the network utilization and shorten the time for batch upgrading, the idle time of the cell 1 cannot be too large, for example, the upgrading time of the terminal B2 may be 10: 10.

steps 408 and 409 are as in steps 305 and 306, and are not described herein.

Compared with the prior art in which the NB-IoT terminal wakes up within a time window, the device management server performs batch upgrading on the NB-IoT terminal in parallel according to the processing capacity of the device management server. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading the NB-IoT terminal in the cell.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband internet of things terminal, and as shown in fig. 5, the method specifically comprises the following steps:

501. and the second terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the terminals are divided into the first terminal and the second terminal according to the time for sending the service data to the device management server. The second terminal is a terminal which sends service data to the equipment management server within a specified wake-up period, and the first terminal is a terminal which sends the service data to the equipment management server after the specified wake-up period.

502. And in the appointed awakening period, when the service data sent by the second terminal is received, the equipment management server judges whether the terminal which is being upgraded exists in the target cell.

And the appointed awakening period is used for determining the upgrading strategy of the target cell according to the upgrading information of the terminal.

In order to allocate a reasonable upgrade time or delay time for the terminal, in the embodiment of the present invention, the upgrade package download time length of one wakeup period acquisition terminal may be specified, so as to estimate the upgrade package download time lengths of other terminals in the same cell. In the embodiment of the present invention, the designated wakeup period may be any wakeup period in the process of upgrading terminals in batches. Before the designated wake-up period, the device management server still uses the method for upgrading the terminal in the prior art, and after the designated wake-up period, the device management server uses the method for upgrading the terminal in the embodiment of the invention. It can be understood that, in order to improve the efficiency of batch upgrade, the designated wake-up period may be the first wake-up period in the process of batch upgrading the terminal.

503. And if the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, the equipment management server sends an immediate upgrading instruction to the second terminal.

504. And the second terminal downloads the upgrade package according to the received immediate upgrade instruction.

505. And the equipment management server records the upgrading information of the second terminal.

The upgrade information at least comprises signal intensity and upgrade package downloading duration.

The upgrade package download duration depends on the upgrade package size, terminal type and signal strength. Therefore, the device management server needs to record the corresponding relationship between the size of the upgrade package, the signal strength, the terminal type, and the download duration of the upgrade package, as shown in the upgrade information table in table 4.

TABLE 4 upgrade information Table

In the actual use process, the same type of terminal is generally upgraded, so the size of the upgrade package is generally consistent with the type of equipment, and the download time length of the upgrade package finally depends on the signal strength. For example, in the process of batch upgrading of water meters, the device management server only needs to record the corresponding relationship between the download duration of the upgrade package and the signal strength, as shown in the water meter upgrade information table in table 5.

Table 5 water meter updating information table

506. And the equipment management server generates an upgrading strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrading information of all the second terminals.

The upgrading strategy at least comprises the rated downloading time length of the upgrading packet corresponding to the signal intensity of each level.

In this embodiment of the present invention, step 506 may be specifically implemented as: the equipment management server respectively determines the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals; and the equipment management server determines the average value of the download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength as the rated download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and generates the upgrade strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell. Table 6 is an upgrade policy table generated by the device management server according to the average value of the download time of the upgrade package.

TABLE 6 upgrade policy Table

In addition, step 506 may also be specifically implemented as: the equipment management server respectively determines the minimum download time length of the upgrade package and the maximum download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals; and the equipment management server determines the maximum downloading time length of the upgrade package and the minimum downloading time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level as the rated downloading time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level in the upgrade strategy, and generates the upgrade strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell. Table 7 is an upgrade policy table generated by the device management server according to the minimum download duration of the upgrade package and the maximum download duration of the upgrade package.

TABLE 7 upgrade policy Table

507. And the first terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server.

508. When receiving the service data sent by the first terminal, the device management server judges whether the target cell to which the first terminal belongs has the terminal being upgraded. If there is no terminal in the target cell being upgraded, execute steps 509 and 510; otherwise, steps 511 to 515 are performed.

509. And the equipment management server sends an immediate upgrading instruction to the first terminal.

510. And when an immediate upgrading instruction sent by the equipment management server is received, the first terminal downloads the upgrading package.

511. And the equipment management server determines the current signal strength of the first terminal according to the service data sent by the first terminal.

512. And the equipment management server determines the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal according to the current signal intensity of the first terminal and the upgrade strategy.

When the upgrade policy at least includes the upgrade package maximum download duration and the upgrade package minimum download duration corresponding to each level of signal strength, the device management server may use the upgrade package maximum download duration as the upgrade package rated download duration required by the first terminal, or use the upgrade package minimum download duration as the upgrade package rated download duration required by the first terminal. The maximum download duration of the upgrade package is used as the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal, so that the occurrence of secondary delay can be reduced; and the minimum download duration of the upgrade package is used as the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal, so that the idle time of a cell can be reduced, and the efficiency of upgrading the terminals in batches is further improved.

513. And the equipment management server stores the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal.

Before the equipment management server sends the delay upgrading instruction to the first terminal, the rated downloading time of the upgrading packet required by the first terminal is stored, so that the upgrading time or the delay time of the next first terminal can be determined conveniently. It should be noted that, for a first terminal corresponding to a rated download duration of a first upgrade package stored in a current wake-up period, an upgrade time or a delay time may be directly determined according to the current wake-up period.

514. And the equipment management server sends a delayed upgrading instruction to the first terminal.

The delay upgrading instruction comprises upgrading time or delay time.

515. When receiving a delay upgrading instruction sent by the equipment management server, the first terminal sends the service data to the equipment management server again according to the upgrading time or the delay time carried in the delay upgrading instruction.

Compared with the prior art that the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in a time window, the equipment management server performs batch upgrading on the NB-IoT terminal according to the self processing capacity, the method for upgrading the narrowband IoT terminal provided by the embodiment of the invention indicates the terminal to be upgraded immediately when the terminal which is being upgraded does not exist in the target cell, and indicates the terminal to be upgraded at the specified upgrading time when the terminal which is being upgraded exists in the target cell. Therefore, only one terminal is upgraded in the same time in each target cell, so that the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package is shortened, and the upgrade efficiency of the terminal is improved. Meanwhile, the invention generates the upgrading strategy of the target cell according to the upgrading information collected in the appointed awakening period, and determines the upgrading time or delay time of the terminal according to the upgrading strategy, so that the terminal can be upgraded in the non-awakening period, thereby improving the utilization rate of network resources, shortening the time for upgrading the terminal in batches and further improving the efficiency for upgrading the terminal. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention can solve the problem of low efficiency in upgrading the NB-IoT terminal in the cell.

The above description mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of the device management server. It is understood that the device management server includes hardware structures and/or software modules for performing respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software, with the exemplary elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The embodiment of the present invention may divide the functional modules of the terminal according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided for each application function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, the division of the modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing each function module into corresponding functions again, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a message processing apparatus, which may be the device management server in the foregoing embodiment. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a possible structure of the apparatus, such as a device management server, involved in the foregoing embodiments. The device comprises a judging module 601, a sending module 602, a first determining module 603, a recording module 604, a generating module 605 and a second determining module 606. The determining module 601 is configured to support the device management server to perform step 302 in fig. 3, step 402 in fig. 4, and steps 502 and 508 in fig. 5; the sending module 602 is configured to support the device management server to perform steps 303 and 305 in fig. 3, steps 403 and 408 in fig. 4, and steps 503, 509, and 514 in fig. 5, and the first determining module 603 is configured to support the device management server to perform steps 405, 406, and 407 in fig. 4; the recording module 604 is configured to support the device management server to perform step 505 in fig. 5; the generating module 605 is configured to support the device management server to execute step 506 in fig. 5; the second determining module 606 is used to support the device management server to execute steps 511 and 512 in fig. 5. All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the system, the apparatus and the module described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention are intended to be covered by the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of things terminal is applied to a device management server of the narrowband Internet of things terminal, and comprises the following steps:

when receiving service data sent by a first terminal, judging whether an upgrading terminal exists in a target cell to which the first terminal belongs;

if the terminal which is upgrading does not exist in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrading instruction to the first terminal;

and if the terminal which is upgrading exists in the target cell, sending a delayed upgrading instruction to the first terminal, wherein the delayed upgrading instruction comprises upgrading time or delay time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before sending the deferred upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises:

if the delay upgrading instruction is not generated in the current awakening period, determining the upgrading time or delay time of the first terminal according to the current awakening period;

if the delayed upgrading instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, determining the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the upgrading time or the delay time contained in the previous delayed upgrading instruction and the rated download duration of the upgrading packet required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrading instruction.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein after sending the deferred upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises:

and if receiving the service data sent by other terminals in the process of downloading the upgrade package by the first terminal, sending a delay upgrade instruction to the other terminals.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the determining whether there is an upgrading terminal in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs comprises:

judging whether a terminal for downloading an upgrade package exists in the target cell;

if the terminal downloading the upgrade package does not exist in the target cell, determining that the terminal downloading the upgrade package does not exist in the target cell;

and if the terminal downloading the upgrade package exists in the target cell, determining that the terminal downloading the upgrade package exists in the target cell.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in a designated wakeup period, when service data sent by a second terminal is received, if no terminal which is upgrading exists in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrading instruction to the second terminal;

recording upgrading information of a second terminal, wherein the upgrading information at least comprises signal intensity and upgrading packet downloading duration;

and generating an upgrading strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrading information of all the second terminals, wherein the upgrading strategy at least comprises the rated downloading time of the upgrading packet corresponding to the signal intensity of each level.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein before sending the deferred upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises:

determining the current signal intensity of the first terminal according to the service data sent by the first terminal;

and determining the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal according to the current signal intensity of the first terminal and the upgrade strategy.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the generating an upgrade policy for the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals comprises:

respectively determining the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals;

and determining the average value of the download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength as the rated download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and generating the upgrade strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell.

8. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the generating an upgrade policy for the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals comprises:

according to the recorded upgrading information of all the second terminals, respectively determining the minimum downloading time length of the upgrading package and the maximum downloading time length of the upgrading package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level;

and determining the maximum download time length of the upgrade package and the minimum download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level as the rated download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level in the upgrade strategy, and generating the upgrade strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell.

9. The utility model provides a device of upgrading narrowband thing networking terminal which characterized in that, the device includes:

the system comprises a judging module, a judging module and a judging module, wherein the judging module is used for judging whether an upgrading terminal exists in a target cell to which a first terminal belongs when business data sent by the first terminal is received;

a sending module, configured to send an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal when the determining module determines that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell;

the sending module is further configured to send a delay upgrading instruction to the first terminal when the determining module determines that the terminal being upgraded exists in the target cell, where the delay upgrading instruction includes an upgrading time or a delay time.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

the first determining module is used for determining the upgrading time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the current awakening period when the delayed upgrading instruction is not generated in the current awakening period;

the first determining module is further configured to, when a delay upgrade instruction has been generated in the current wake-up period, determine the upgrade time or the delay time of the first terminal according to the upgrade time or the delay time included in a previous delay upgrade instruction sent by the sending module and a rated download duration of an upgrade package required by a terminal corresponding to the previous delay upgrade instruction.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the sending module is further configured to:

and when receiving service data sent by other terminals in the process of downloading the upgrade package by the first terminal, sending a delay upgrade instruction to the other terminals.

12. The apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the determining module is specifically configured to:

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sending module is further configured to:

in a designated wakeup period, when service data sent by a second terminal is received and the judging module determines that no terminal which is upgrading exists in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrading instruction to the second terminal;

the device further comprises:

the recording module is used for recording the upgrading information of the second terminal for receiving the immediate upgrading instruction sent by the sending module, and the upgrading information at least comprises signal intensity and upgrading packet downloading duration;

and the generating module is used for generating an upgrading strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the upgrading information of all the second terminals recorded by the recording module, wherein the upgrading strategy at least comprises upgrading packet rated downloading time length corresponding to each level of signal intensity.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a second determining module, configured to determine, according to the service data sent by the first terminal, a current signal strength of the first terminal;

the second determining module is further configured to determine a rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal according to the current signal strength of the first terminal and the upgrade policy generated by the generating module.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the generating module is specifically configured to:

respectively determining the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level according to the upgrade information of all the second terminals recorded by the recording module;

16. The apparatus according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the generating module is specifically configured to:

according to the upgrade information of all the second terminals recorded by the recording module, the minimum download time length of the upgrade package and the maximum download time length of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal intensity of each level are respectively determined;