A new firmware upgrade mechanism designed for software defined radio based system

Abstract

This paper presents a new firmware upgrade mechanism for Software Defined Radio (SDR) based systems. The mechanism solves many problems existing in firmware on-site upgrade, and makes the upgrade of SDR based systems to be much quicker and easier. A remote upgrade method is used in this mechanism. The software scheme and hardware structure of this mechanism are illustrated. A synchronization mechanism and alternating upgrade strategy are used in the software scheme. In the hardware structure, eight memory sections are allocated to satisfy the requirement of software scheme, and different operation attributes are set for these memory sections. With the implementation of these strategies and settings, this firmware upgrade mechanism becomes safe, secure and reliable. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.