Systems and Methods for Distributing Updates to Devices
AssigneeAxon Enterprise, Inc.
InventorsTyler J. Conant, Rick Wong, Raymond T. Fortna, Nathan A. Grubb, Mark A. Hanchett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Users may carry multiple electronic devices that can communicate between each other wirelessly. For example, law enforcement officers may carry several wirelessly connected electronic devices. However, some of these devices may have limited battery power, bandwidth, and/or ranges, restricting their ability to receive software updates. To compensate for these limitations, devices may be updated through associated intermediate devices. The intermediate devices may further provide a conduit for updating devices with restricted communications ability.
Claims20
A method for distributing updates from an update distribution server to a device, the method comprising:
- receiving, from the device, a message indicating a device type, a device identifier, and a software version;
- determining if the software version is the current version for the device;
- in response to the software version not being the current version, transmitting the current software version to the device from the server;
- storing, on the server, the device identifier and the current software version on the device.
A method for distributing updates from a server to a device via an intermediate device, the method comprising:
- receiving, by the server, a message from the device via the intermediate device, indicating a device type, a device identifier, and a software version of the device;
- in accordance with the device type and the software version, determining whether the software version of the device is a current software version;
- in accordance with determining that the software version is not the current version, transmitting the current software version to the intermediate device;
- transmitting, by the intermediate device, the current software from the intermediate device to the device;
- confirming, by the intermediate device, to the server that the end device has installed the current software version;
- and
- associating, on the server, the device identifier and the current software version.
A method for updating an electronic device, the method comprising:
- broadcasting, by a server, a notice, the notice including one or more device types and a respective current version of software for each device type;
- receiving, by the electronic device, the notice;
- determining, by the electronic device, whether the software version of the device is the same as the current version of the software for device according to the version notice;
- transmitting, by the device, a request to the server, for the current version of software, the request including a device type and a device identifier;
- transmitting, by the server, the current version of software to the device;
- and
- storing, on the server, the device identifier and at least one of the current version of the software transmitted to the device and a version identifier of the current version of the software.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.