DeOTA-IoT: A Techniques Catalog for Designing Over-the-Air (OTA) Update Systems for IoT

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Software Engineering
• Embedded Systems

Background:

• Internet of Things (IoT) expansion necessitates secure and reliable embedded software lifecycle management.
• Over-the-Air (OTA) updates are crucial for evolving IoT deployments but often lack structured design guidelines.
• Existing OTA solutions are frequently ad hoc, hindering alignment with specific IoT quality requirements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a consolidated catalog of techniques and mechanisms for designing robust OTA update systems in IoT.
• To provide a structured basis for selecting OTA mechanisms based on system quality attributes.
• To evaluate the catalog's effectiveness in a controlled industrial setting.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature review of academic and industrial sources to identify OTA techniques.
• Development of a catalog categorizing 34 techniques into six mechanisms with use cases and quality attribute mappings.
• A controlled industrial experiment involving 10 engineers comparing catalog-assisted design with traditional methods.

Main Results:

• A catalog of 34 OTA techniques organized into six mechanisms, with explicit quality attribute impacts.
• Clarified architectural definitions for 'technique' and 'mechanism' in OTA systems.
• Empirical evidence from an industrial experiment demonstrating the catalog's utility in quality-aware design.

Conclusions:

• The catalog provides a systematic foundation for designing IoT OTA update systems.
• The structured approach enhances the selection of OTA mechanisms, balancing quality attributes effectively.
• This work bridges the gap between ad hoc design practices and the need for quality-aware OTA solutions in IoT.