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

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and a device for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals, relate to the field of communication technologies, and can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell. The method of the embodiment of the present invention includes: when receiving service data sent by a first terminal, judging whether there is a terminal being upgraded in a target cell to which the first terminal belongs; if there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell , send an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal; if there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell, send a delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal, where the delayed upgrade instruction includes upgrade time or delay time. The embodiments of the present invention are applicable to a process of upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal.

Description

Method and device for upgrading narrowband Internet of Things terminal

technical field

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal.

Background technique

Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a low-power WAN network transmission technology in the field of IoT, which can support the cellular data connection of low-power devices in the WAN. The NB-IoT network has the characteristics of wide coverage, low power consumption, and massive connections. The NB-IoT network includes NB-IoT terminals and an IoT platform. The device management server in the IoT platform can perform device management operations such as software upgrade, firmware upgrade, configuration, and fault location for the NB-IoT terminal. Among them, NB-IoT terminals refer to devices with NB-IoT chips inserted, such as water meters, electricity meters, gas meters, and smart trash cans, which have the characteristics of low speed, deep coverage, low power consumption, and low cost.

At present, most NB-IoT terminals are powered by batteries with limited power. Therefore, in order to obtain a longer life cycle, most NB-IoT terminals have turned on the power saving mode. In the power saving mode, the NB-IoT terminal only wakes up within a fixed time period (such as 8:00 to 9:00 every day) and reports the data to the IoT platform, and the device management server in the IoT platform only Within the time window (such as 30 seconds) when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up, the NB-IoT terminal can be upgraded in batches in parallel according to its own processing capability.

However, when there are many NB-IoT terminals upgraded in parallel in a cell, the download speed of the cell will be very slow, perhaps only a few hundred bits per second. In this way, it takes a long time to upgrade each NB-IoT terminal, which makes upgrading the NB-IoT terminal less efficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and device for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals, which can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell.

In order to achieve the above object, the embodiment of the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal. The method includes: when receiving service data sent by a first terminal, a device management server of the narrowband Internet of Things terminal determines that the first terminal belongs to whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell; if there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, the device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal; if there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell, the device management server sends an upgrade instruction to the first terminal. The first terminal sends a delayed upgrade instruction, where the delayed upgrade instruction includes an upgrade time or a delay time. In this way, each target cell only upgrades one terminal at the same time. Compared with upgrading multiple terminals in parallel, the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can shorten the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package, and improve the upgrade 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 the upgrade time or 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. A specific method for determining the upgrade time or delay time is as follows: if no delay upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, the device management server determines the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal according to the current wake-up period. If a delayed upgrade instruction has been generated within the current wake-up period, the first terminal is determined according to the upgrade time or delay time included in the previous delayed upgrade instruction and the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrade instruction upgrade time or delay time.

In a possible design, if the first terminal that has received the delayed upgrade instruction downloads the upgrade package, and receives service data sent by other terminals, the device management server sends the delayed upgrade instruction to the other terminals, so that the The upgraded terminal is in a higher priority to avoid upgrade failure caused by upgrade interruption.

In a possible design, the device management server determines whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell according to whether there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell. During the process of upgrading the terminal, the download of the upgrade package will affect the download speed of the target cell, while the local installation of the upgrade package on the terminal will not affect the download speed of the target cell. Therefore, when there is a terminal downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it can be considered that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and the terminal currently sending service data can be upgraded.

In a possible design, within a specified wake-up period, when receiving the service data sent by the second terminal, if there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, the device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the second terminal, And record the upgrade information of the second terminal, where the upgrade information at least includes the signal strength and the download duration of the upgrade package. Afterwards, the device management server generates an upgrade policy for the terminals managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all second terminals, and the upgrade policy at least includes the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength. The device management server may determine the average 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, or may determine the maximum download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength The duration and the minimum download duration of the upgrade package are determined as the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade policy. The device management server determines the upgrade strategy of the terminal managed by the target cell within the specified wake-up period, so as to determine the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the terminal managed by the target cell in other wake-up periods, so as to assign the upgrade time or delay time to the terminal

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

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for upgrading a narrowband IoT terminal. The apparatus can implement the function performed by the device management server of the narrowband IoT terminal in the above method example. The function may be implemented by hardware, or The corresponding software implementation is performed by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

In a possible design, the structure of the apparatus includes a processor and a transceiver, and the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions in the above method. The transceiver is used to transmit and receive data. The apparatus may also include a memory for coupling with the processor to hold program instructions and data necessary for the apparatus.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions used by the device management server of the narrowband Internet of Things terminal, including the program designed for executing the above aspect.

Compared with the method and device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal provided by the embodiments of the present invention, in the prior art, within the time window when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up, the device management server performs parallel processing on the NB-IoT terminal according to its own processing capability. For batch upgrade, the present invention instructs the terminal to upgrade immediately when there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and instructs the terminal to upgrade at a designated upgrade moment when there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell. In this way, each target cell can only upgrade one terminal at the same time, thereby shortening the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package and improving the upgrade efficiency of the terminal. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of an NB-IoT system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic diagram of a logical structure of an apparatus for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart of a method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart of another method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a flowchart of another method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

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

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

In the architecture shown in FIG. 1 , the terminal 101 can communicate with the IoT platform 104 through a communication network, report terminal data and execute commands issued by the IoT platform 104 . The 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 IoT platform 104 . The IoT platform 104 is responsible for the management, connection, data collection and analysis of the terminal 101 , and provides an interface for the IoT application server 105 . The database 110 built in the IoT platform 104 can be used to store data, and the data stored in the database 110 is processed by the IoT server 111 . The device management server 109 built in the IoT platform 104 is responsible for software upgrade, firmware upgrade, configuration and fault location of the terminal 101 . The IoT application server 105 provides statistical data of corresponding permissions for different categories of users. In this embodiment of the present invention, the main function of the device management server 109 is to upgrade the terminal. Specifically, for the upgrade process, reference may be made to the detailed introduction in the embodiments of the present invention later.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus 200 for upgrading a narrowband IoT terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is used for upgrading the terminal in the NB-IoT system shown in FIG. 1 . The apparatus 200 for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals may include one or more ports 204 coupled to a transceiver 201 . Transceiver 201 may be a transmitter, a receiver, or a combination thereof, sending or receiving data packets through port 208 from other network nodes. Processor 202 is coupled to transceiver 206 for processing data packets. Processor 202 may include one or more multi-core processors and/or memory. The processor 202 may be a general-purpose processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processing, DSP).

The memory 203 may be a non-transitory storage medium, coupled with the processor 202, and used to store different types of data, such as business data, upgrade packages, upgrade information, and upgrade policies. The memory 203 may include a read-only memory (ReadOnly Memory, ROM), a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, and may also be a disk memory. Memory 203 may be used to store instructions for implementing semantic query related methods. It will be appreciated that by programming or loading executable instructions into the processor 202 of the apparatus 200, 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 an upgrading terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. These instructions may be stored in the memory 203, and may also be integrated in the kernel of the operating system of the device for upgrading the terminal or a plug-in of the kernel.

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

The program code includes instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the instructions cause the apparatus for upgrading the terminal to execute the relevant steps executed by the device management server in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 .

In addition, FIG. 2 can also serve as a schematic structural diagram of a device management server for a narrowband IoT terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, including 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 codes; the processor 202 is coupled with the memory 203 and the transceiver 201;

The program code includes instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the instructions cause the apparatus for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals to perform the relevant steps performed by the device management server in FIGS. 3 to 5 .

It should be noted that the first terminal, the second terminal, and the terminal mentioned in the embodiments of the present invention are all NB-IoT terminals. The first and the second in the embodiment of the present invention have no technical significance, and are only used to distinguish different terminals. The device management server mentioned in the embodiment of the present invention is a device management server of a narrowband Internet of Things terminal.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal. As shown in FIG. 3 , the method flow specifically includes the following steps:

301. The first terminal sends service data to a device management server.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first terminal may be various terminals with NB-IoT chips inserted, and terminals supporting the NB-IoT technology. After the NB-IoT terminal collects business data, it can send the business data to the device management server through the NB-IoT network, so that the device management server can provide services for users. The business 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, and code number information collected by smart meters such as water meters and electricity meters.

At present, in order to obtain a longer life cycle, the NB-IoT terminal only wakes up at a fixed time, and then goes back to sleep after a certain period of time. In order to facilitate the device management server to count and analyze the business data reported by the NB-IoT terminal, the fixed wake-up time of the NB-IoT terminal is concentrated in a fixed period of time. This fixed period of time is called the wake-up period, and the NB-IoT terminal wakes up. The coming time is called the wake-up time, and the time period from when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up to re-entering sleep is called the time window for the terminal to wake up.

When the NB-IoT terminal wakes up, the NB-IoT terminal can send service data to the device management server. If the command sent by the device management server is received within the wake-up time window, the NB-IoT terminal executes the command and re-enters sleep after the command execution ends. If the instruction sent by the device management server is not received within the wake-up time window, the NB-IoT terminal directly re-enters sleep. When the NB-IoT terminal goes to sleep, the NB-IoT terminal cannot receive the instructions sent by the device management server.

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

For example, the wake-up period of the terminal in cell 1 is from 8:00 to 9:00 every day, and the time window for waking up is 30 seconds. Table 1 is the terminal wake-up schedule. At 8:00, terminal A1, terminal B1, and terminal C1 in cell 1 wake up, and terminal B1 is being upgraded. At 8:05, terminal A1, terminal B1, and terminal C1 in cell 1 wake up , Terminal B1 is being upgraded. As shown in Table 1, the wake-up time of terminal A2 in cell 1 is 8:05, and terminal A2 sends service data to the device management server at 8:05. After receiving the service data sent by the terminal A2, the device management server first determines whether the terminal A2 belongs to the terminal that needs to be upgraded. If yes, execute step 302; otherwise, process the received data normally. If the terminal A2 receives the instruction sent by 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 re-enters sleep until the next wake-up time arrives.

Table 1 Terminal wake-up schedule

302. When receiving the service data sent by the first terminal, the device management server determines whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs. If there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, go to steps 303 and 304; otherwise, go to steps 305 and 306.

Considering the narrow bandwidth of the NB-IoT network and the large number of terminals connected to the cell, upgrading multiple terminals in parallel will result in a slower download speed for a single terminal, a longer time for a single terminal to download the upgrade package, and higher power consumption. big. In order to reduce the power consumption of the terminal and make each terminal complete the upgrade as quickly as possible, in the embodiment of the present invention, only one terminal in each cell can download the upgrade package at the same time.

When there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, the device management server may determine which terminal to be upgraded at the current moment is to be upgraded according to the order in which the service data is received. If the device management server receives service data sent by multiple terminals at the same time, the device management server can determine the terminal to be upgraded at the current moment according to the order in which the service data is processed internally, or randomly select a terminal as the terminal to be upgraded at the current moment. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the device management server determines whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs. Specifically, it can be implemented as: determining whether there is a terminal downloading the upgrade package in the target cell; if there is no terminal in the target cell that is downloading the upgrade package; For the terminal downloading the upgrade package, it is determined that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell; if there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it is determined that there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell.

303. The device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal.

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

304. When receiving the immediate upgrade instruction sent by the device management server, the first terminal downloads the upgrade package.

When the instruction received by the first terminal is an immediate upgrade instruction, it means that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and the first terminal can immediately download the upgrade package. After downloading the upgrade package and performing local installation and restarting, the first terminal sends the upgrade result to the device manager, including the upgrade success, the upgrade failure and the reason for the failure, and records the error information of the upgrade process to the log.

305. The device management server sends a delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal.

The delay upgrade instruction includes the upgrade time or the delay time. The delay upgrade instruction is used to instruct the first terminal to download the upgrade package from the upgrade moment, or to instruct 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 the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server, the first terminal sends the service data to the device management server again according to the upgrade time or delay time carried in the delayed upgrade instruction.

When the instruction received by the first terminal is a delayed upgrade instruction, the first terminal obtains the upgrade time, and re-sends the service data to the device management server at the upgrade time; or the first terminal obtains the delay time, and sends to the device management server after waiting for the delay time. The device management server sends the service data again.

As shown in Table 1, the device management server simultaneously receives service data sent by terminals A1, B1, and C1 in cell 1 at 8:00. The device management server determines that the terminal A1 does not need to be upgraded, and the terminals B1 and C1 need to be upgraded. If there is no terminal being upgraded in the cell 1 at this time, the device management server selects a terminal from the terminal B1 and the terminal C1 to perform the upgrade, for example, the terminal B1. After that, the device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the terminal B1 and a delayed upgrade instruction to the terminal C1. At 8:05, the device management server receives the service data sent by the terminals A2, B2, and C2 that need to be upgraded. At this time, the device management server determines that the terminal B1 in the cell 1 is being upgraded, and the device management server sends instructions to delay the upgrade to the terminals A2, B2, and C2, respectively.

Considering that the NB-IoT network has the characteristics of massive connections and a large number of terminals, in order to shorten the time for batch upgrade of terminals and improve network utilization, try to avoid the terminals in the cell to be upgraded in the same time period. Therefore, the upgrade time in the delayed upgrade instruction in the embodiment of the present invention may be a time outside the wake-up period, and the delay time may be a time longer than the wake-up period. In this way, in the non-wake-up period, some terminals wake up to upgrade, which shortens the time to upgrade terminals in batches, improves the efficiency of batch upgrading terminals, and meets the requirements of a large number of terminals (eg, 1 million terminals) within the instruction time period (eg, 2 weeks). ) upgrade problem.

Since the terminal in cell 1 will not wake up in the non-wake-up period without receiving the delayed upgrade instruction, only the terminal that has received the delayed upgrade instruction wakes up at the upgrade time during the non-wake-up period, or is waiting for Wake up after a delay time. Table 2 shows the upgrade schedule assigned to the terminal by the device management server through the delayed upgrade instruction on the basis of Table 1. In cell 1, terminal C1 wakes up at 9:10, terminal A2 wakes up at 9:40, and terminal B2 wakes up at 10:00. :10 wakes up, terminal C1 is upgraded from 9:10 to 9:30, terminal A2 is upgraded from 9:40 to 10:00, and terminal B2 is upgraded from 10:10 to 10:30. The upgrade time carried in the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server to terminal C1 is 9:10, the upgrade time carried in the delayed upgrade command sent by the device management server to terminal A2 is 9:40, and the delayed upgrade sent by the device management server to terminal B2 The upgrade time carried in the instruction is 10:10. After receiving the delayed upgrade instruction, terminal C1 sends service data to the equipment management server at 9:10, terminal A2 sends service data to the equipment management server at 9:40, and terminal B2 sends service data to the equipment management server at 10:10.

Table 2 Upgrade time allocation table

Considering that it takes a certain amount of time for the terminal to download the upgrade package, in order to ensure that only one terminal can be upgraded in each cell at the same time, the device management server not only allocates the upgrade time to the terminal, but also plans the terminal upgrade end time. When a terminal has not finished downloading the upgrade package at the planned upgrade end time, the terminal that is downloading the upgrade package is given a high priority, and the upgrade time is reassigned to the following terminal. As shown in Table 2, the upgrade end time planned by the device management server for the terminal C1 is 9:30, but at 9:30, the terminal C1 does not complete the download of the upgrade package until 9:40, and at 9:30, the terminal A2 is already online , at this time, the terminal C1 should be taken as the high priority, and the upgrade time should be reassigned to the terminal A2, and the terminal C1 will download the upgrade package normally until it is completed.

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

If, in the process of downloading the upgrade package, the first terminal receives service data sent by other terminals, a delay upgrade instruction is sent to the other terminals.

In order to avoid the influence of terminal C1 upgrade delay on terminals other than terminal A2, the device management server sends a delay upgrade instruction to terminal A2.

Table 3 Actual upgrade schedule

It should be noted that the purpose of the delayed upgrade instruction sent by the device management server to the first terminal is to notify the terminal when the terminal will wake up next time. When receiving the delayed upgrade instruction, the purpose of sending the service data to the device management server by the first terminal is to inform the device management server that communication is possible. Therefore, when receiving the delayed upgrade instruction, the service data sent by the first terminal to the device management server may be not only information actually collected such as audio, picture, code number, etc., but also pre-agreed information such as empty information.

Compared with the method for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the device management server performs batch upgrades on NB-IoT terminals in parallel according to its own processing capability within the time window when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in the prior art. , the present invention instructs the terminal to upgrade immediately when there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and instructs the terminal to upgrade at a designated upgrade moment when there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell. In this way, each target cell can only upgrade one terminal at the same time, thereby shortening the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package and improving the upgrade efficiency of the terminal. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal. As shown in FIG. 4 , the method flow specifically includes the following steps:

Steps 401 to 404 are like steps 301 to 304, which are not repeated here.

405. The device management server determines whether a delayed upgrade instruction has been generated in the current wake-up period. If no delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up cycle, step 406 is executed; if a delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up cycle, step 407 is executed.

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

406. The device management server determines the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal according to the current wake-up period.

If no delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, it means that the first terminal is the first terminal to be delayed, and the upgrade time or 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 terminals in cell 1 is from 8:00 to 9:00, the terminal C1 is the first terminal to be delayed in the current wake-up period, and the upgrade time allocated to the terminal C1 is after 9:00. Only one terminal can be upgraded in each cell at the same time. In order to improve the network utilization rate and shorten the batch upgrade time, the idle time of the cell 1 should not be too large, for example, the upgrade time of the terminal C1 may be 9:10.

407. The device management server determines the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal according to the upgrade time or delay time included in the previous delayed upgrade instruction and the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrade instruction.

The device management server may plan the end time of the upgrade according to the upgrade time allocated to the terminal and the rated download duration of the upgrade package.

If a delayed upgrade instruction is generated in the current wake-up period, it means that there are previously delayed terminals. In order to ensure that only one terminal is upgraded in each cell at the same time, the upgrade time of the first terminal and the upgrade time of the previous delayed terminal and The rated download time of the upgrade package is related, 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 that are delayed in the current wake-up period in cell 1 are terminals C1, A2, and B2 in sequence. The upgrade time allocated by the device management server to terminal A2 is 9:40, and the rated download duration of the allocated upgrade package is 20 minute. According to the upgrade time of the terminal A2 and the rated download duration of the upgrade package of the terminal A2, it can be determined that the upgrade end time planned by the device for the terminal A2 is 10:00. At this time, the upgrade time of the terminal B2 only needs to be after 10:00 to ensure that each cell only upgrades one terminal at the same time. In order to improve the network utilization rate and shorten the batch upgrade time, the idle time of the cell 1 cannot be too large, for example, the upgrade time of the terminal B2 can be 10:10.

Step 408 and step 409 are the same as step 305 and step 306, which will not be repeated here.

Compared with the method for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the device management server performs batch upgrades on NB-IoT terminals in parallel according to its own processing capability within the time window when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in the prior art. The present invention allocates an upgrade time or delay time for the delayed upgrade terminals, and arranges some terminals to upgrade in a non-wake-up period, thereby improving the utilization rate of network resources, shortening the batch upgrade time, and improving the efficiency of batch upgrade terminals. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal. As shown in FIG. 5 , the method flow specifically includes the following steps:

501. The second terminal sends service data to a device management server.

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

502. During the specified wake-up period, when receiving the service data sent by the second terminal, the device management server determines whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell.

The specified wake-up period is used to determine the upgrade strategy of the target cell according to the upgrade 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, a wake-up period may be specified to collect the upgrade package download duration of the terminal, so as to estimate the upgrade package download duration of other terminals in the same cell. In this embodiment of the present invention, the specified wake-up period may be any wake-up period in the process of upgrading terminals in batches. Before the wake-up period is specified, the device management server still uses the method for upgrading the terminal in the prior art, and after the wake-up period is specified, the device management server uses the method for upgrading the terminal in the embodiment of the present 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 upgrade of terminals.

503. If there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, the device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the second terminal.

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

505. The device management server records the upgrade information of the second terminal.

The upgrade information includes at least the signal strength and the download time of the upgrade package.

The download time of the upgrade package 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 time of the upgrade package, as shown in the upgrade information table in Table 4.

Table 4 Upgrade Information Sheet

In the actual use process, the same type of terminal is generally upgraded, so the size of the upgrade package and the device type are generally the same, and the download time of the upgrade package ultimately depends on the signal strength. For example, in the process of batch upgrade of water meters, the device management server only needs to record the correspondence between the download duration of the upgrade package and the signal strength, as shown in Table 5, the water meter upgrade information table.

Table 5 Water Meter Upgrade Information Sheet

506. The device management server generates an upgrade policy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals.

The upgrade strategy includes at least the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength.

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

Table 6 Upgrade strategy table

In addition, step 506 can also be specifically implemented as follows: the device management server determines the minimum download duration of the upgrade package and the maximum download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength according to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals; The maximum download duration of the upgrade package and the minimum download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal strength of each level are determined as the rated download time of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade policy, and the upgrade policy of the terminal managed by the target cell is generated. 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 strategy table

507. The first terminal sends service data to the device management server.

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

509. The device management server sends an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal.

510. When receiving the immediate upgrade instruction sent by the device management server, the first terminal downloads the upgrade package.

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

512. The device management server determines the 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.

When the upgrade strategy includes at least the maximum download time of the upgrade package and the minimum download time of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal strength of each level, the device management server can either use the maximum download time of the upgrade package as the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal, or The minimum download duration of the upgrade package is taken as the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal. Wherein, taking the maximum download time of the upgrade package as the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal can reduce the occurrence of secondary delays; and taking the minimum download time of the upgrade package as the rated download time of the upgrade package required by the first terminal, The idle time of the cell can be reduced, and the efficiency of batch upgrading of terminals can be further improved.

513. The device management server stores the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal.

The device management server stores the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal each time before sending the delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal, so as to determine the upgrade time or delay time of the next first terminal. It should be noted that, for the first terminal corresponding to the rated download duration of the first upgrade package stored in the current wake-up period, the upgrade time or delay time may be directly determined according to the current wake-up period.

514. The device management server sends a delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal.

The delay upgrade instruction includes the upgrade time or the delay time.

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

Compared with the method for upgrading narrowband IoT terminals provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the device management server performs batch upgrades on NB-IoT terminals in parallel according to its own processing capability within the time window when the NB-IoT terminal wakes up in the prior art. , the present invention instructs the terminal to upgrade immediately when there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, and instructs the terminal to upgrade at a designated upgrade moment when there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell. In this way, each target cell can only upgrade one terminal at the same time, thereby shortening the time for each terminal to download the upgrade package and improving the upgrade efficiency of the terminal. At the same time, the present invention generates the upgrade strategy of the target cell according to the upgrade information collected in the designated wake-up period, and determines the upgrade time or delay time of the terminal according to the upgrade strategy, so that the terminal can also upgrade in the non-wake-up period, thereby improving the utilization rate of network resources. , shorten the time for batch upgrade of terminals, and further improve the efficiency of terminal upgrade. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention can solve the problem of low efficiency when upgrading NB-IoT terminals in a cell.

The foregoing mainly introduces the solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention from the perspective of the device management server. It can be understood that the device management server includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing various functions. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the present invention can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software in conjunction with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is performed by hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of the present invention.

In this embodiment of the present invention, functional modules may be divided for the terminal according to the foregoing method examples. For example, each application function may be divided into each functional module, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware, and can also be implemented in the form of software function modules. It should be noted that, the division of modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be other division manners in actual implementation.

In the case where each functional module is divided according to each function again, the embodiment of the present invention further provides a message processing apparatus, and the apparatus may be the device management server in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6 , FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the apparatus involved in the above embodiment, such as a device management server. The apparatus includes 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 . Wherein, the judgment module 601 is used to support the device management server to perform step 302 in FIG. 3 , the step 402 in FIG. 4 , and the steps 502 and 508 in FIG. 5 ; the sending module 602 is used to support the device management server to perform the steps in FIG. 3 303 and 305, steps 403 and 408 in FIG. 4, steps 503, 509 and 514 in FIG. 5, the first determination module 603 is used to support the device management server to perform steps 405, 406 and 407 in FIG. 4; the recording module 604 It is used to support the device management server to perform step 505 in FIG. 5; the generating module 605 is used to support the device management server to perform step 506 in FIG. 5; the second determination module 606 is used to support the device management server to perform step 511 and 512. Wherein, all relevant contents of the steps involved in the above method embodiments can be cited in the functional descriptions of the corresponding functional modules, which will not be repeated here.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described systems, devices and modules may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk and other mediums that can store program codes.

The above are only specific embodiments of the present invention, but the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention. .

Claims (16)

1. A method for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal, wherein the method is applied to a device management server of a narrowband Internet of Things terminal, and the method comprises: When receiving the service data sent by the first terminal, determine whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs; If there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal; If there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell, a delayed upgrade instruction is sent to the first terminal, where the delayed upgrade instruction includes an upgrade time or a delay time. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before sending a delay upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises: If no delayed upgrade instruction is generated within the current wake-up period, determining the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal according to the current wake-up period; If a delayed upgrade command has been generated within the current wake-up period, the upgrade package is determined according to the upgrade time or delay time included in the previous delayed upgrade command and the rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the terminal corresponding to the previous delayed upgrade command. Describe the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein after sending a delay upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises: If the first terminal receives service data sent by other terminals during the process of downloading the upgrade package, the first terminal sends a delay upgrade instruction to the other terminals. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the judging whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs comprises: Determine whether there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell; If there is no terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it is determined that there is no terminal that is being upgraded in the target cell; If there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it is determined that there is a terminal that is being upgraded in the target cell. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: During the specified wake-up period, when receiving the service data sent by the second terminal, if there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, send an immediate upgrade instruction to the second terminal; Record the upgrade information of the second terminal, where the upgrade information at least includes the signal strength and the download duration of the upgrade package; According to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals, an upgrade policy of the terminal managed by the target cell is generated, and the upgrade policy at least includes the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein before sending a delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal, the method further comprises: Determine the current signal strength of the first terminal according to the service data sent by the first terminal; The rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the first terminal is determined according to the current signal strength of the first terminal and the upgrade policy. 7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the generating an upgrade policy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all second terminals, comprising: According to the recorded upgrade information of all the second terminals, determine the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal strength of each level; The average download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength is determined as the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and an upgrade strategy for the terminal managed by the target cell is generated. 8. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the generating an upgrade policy of the terminal managed by the target cell according to the recorded upgrade information of all second terminals, comprising: According to the recorded upgrade information of all second terminals, respectively determine the minimum download duration of the upgrade package and the maximum download time of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength; Determine the upgrade package maximum download duration and the upgrade package minimum download duration corresponding to each level of signal strength as the upgrade package rated download duration corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and generate an upgrade strategy for the terminal managed by the target cell. . 9. A device for upgrading a narrowband Internet of Things terminal, wherein the device comprises: a judgment module, configured to judge whether there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell to which the first terminal belongs when receiving the service data sent by the first terminal; a sending module, configured to send an immediate upgrade instruction to the first terminal when the judging module determines that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell; The sending module is further configured to send a delayed upgrade instruction to the first terminal when the determination module determines that there is a terminal being upgraded in the target cell, where the delayed upgrade instruction includes an upgrade time or a delay time. 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus further comprises: a first determining module, configured to determine the upgrade moment or delay time of the first terminal according to the current wake-up period when no delayed upgrade instruction has been generated within the current wake-up period; The first determining module is further configured to, when a delayed upgrade instruction has been generated in the current wake-up period, according to the upgrade time or delay time included in the previous delayed upgrade instruction sent by the sending module, and the previous one. The rated download duration of the upgrade package required by the terminal corresponding to the delayed upgrade instruction determines the upgrade time or delay time of the first terminal. 11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the sending module is further configured to: When receiving service data sent by other terminals during the process of downloading the upgrade package by the first terminal, a delay upgrade instruction is sent to the other terminals. 12. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the judging module is specifically configured to: Determine whether there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell; If there is no terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it is determined that there is no terminal that is being upgraded in the target cell; If there is a terminal that is downloading the upgrade package in the target cell, it is determined that there is a terminal that is being upgraded in the target cell. 13. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sending module is further configured to: Within a specified wake-up period, when receiving the service data sent by the second terminal and the judgment module determines that there is no terminal being upgraded in the target cell, sending an immediate upgrade instruction to the second terminal; The device also includes: a recording module, configured to record the upgrade information of the second terminal that receives the immediate upgrade instruction sent by the sending module, where the upgrade information at least includes the signal strength and the download duration of the upgrade package; The generating module generates an upgrade strategy for the terminals managed by the target cell according to the upgrade information of all second terminals recorded by the recording module, where the upgrade strategy at least includes the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength. 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the apparatus further comprises: a second determining module, configured to determine the current signal strength of the first terminal according to the service data sent by the first terminal; The second determining module is further configured to determine the 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 strategy generated by the generating module. 15. The apparatus according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the generating module is specifically used for: According to the upgrade information of all the second terminals recorded by the recording module, the average value of the download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to the signal strength of each level is determined respectively; The average download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength is determined as the rated download duration of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and an upgrade strategy for the terminal managed by the target cell is generated. 16. The apparatus according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the generating module is specifically used for: According to the upgrade information of all the second terminals recorded by the recording module, respectively determine the minimum download duration of the upgrade package and the maximum download time of the upgrade package corresponding to each level of signal strength; Determine the upgrade package maximum download duration and the upgrade package minimum download duration corresponding to each level of signal strength as the upgrade package rated download duration corresponding to each level of signal strength in the upgrade strategy, and generate an upgrade strategy for the terminal managed by the target cell. .

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