SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LIVE UPGRADE AND UPDATE OF FIRMWARE ON AN EMBEDDED NETWORKING DEVICE

摘要

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support performing a live update or upgrade of a firmware of an embedded networking device to a successful completion without resetting the embedded networking device. For the live update or upgrade to the firmware of the embedded networking device, a new version of the firmware that includes new features/enhancements to improve the product functionality or fix bugs encountered in previous versions of the firmware is installed seamlessly on the embedded networking device to replace the current version of the firmware on one or more cores at a time. During the live firmware updating or upgrading process, various software applications running on other cores of the embedded networking device continue to perform packet processing operations without any interruption. The live firmware update process continues until all cores of the embedded networking device are updated with the newly updated/upgraded firmware.

主权项

1. A system to support live upgrade and update of firmware on an embedded networking device, comprising:
a firmware controller configured to
shut down one or more applications running on one or more cores of multiple cores of the embedded networking device;load and execute a newly updated/upgraded firmware of the embedded networking device on the one or more cores of the embedded networking device while allowing the applications to continue running on the remaining cores of the embedded networking device without interruption, downtime or reset;resume to run the applications on the one or more cores of the embedded networking device with the newly updated/upgraded firmware;repeat the steps above until all cores of the embedded networking device are updated with the newly updated/upgraded firmware.