Devices, systems and methods for tracking and upgrading firmware in intelligent electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11816465-B2
Application number	US-201916577969-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2019
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Nov 14, 2023
Grant date	Nov 14, 2023

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods for tracking and upgrading firmware in intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) are provided. The devices, systems and methods provide for tracking firmware versions of at least one or a fleet of IEDs, e.g., electronic power or revenue meters, notifying a user that an update to an existing firmware is available and providing the ability to automatically upload the current or latest version of the firmware to all IEDs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a fleet of two or more intelligent electronic devices (IEDs);
a server coupled to the fleet of IEDs over a network, the server including a server cache configured to store firmware for updating the IEDs, the server cache is further configured to store compatibility information indicating which types of IEDs the firmware stored in the server cache is compatible with; and
at least one client device coupled to the network including a firmware tracking and update module and a local cache that stores retrieved firmware from the server cache and stores compatibility information indicating which types of IEDs the firmware stored in the local cache is compatible with, the firmware tracking and update module configured to:
track versions of firmware installed on each IED in the fleet,
determine which IEDs in the fleet include firmware requiring an update, and
automatically update the firmware installed on any IEDs in the fleet including firmware requiring an update if the IED type is compatible with the updated firmware.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to retrieve new versions of firmware from the server cache and use the retrieved firmware to update the firmware installed on the IEDs in the at least one fleet.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a package manager configured to generate firmware packages and upload the generated firmware package to the server cache of the server.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the package manager signs the generated firmware package with a digital signature and the firmware tracking and update module verifies the digital signature before uploading the generated firmware package to each of the IEDs.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the package manager employs a private key to generate the digital signature and a public key, the public key being provided to the firmware tracking and update module to verify the digital signature.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the public key is provided to each IED for verifying the digital signature at the IED.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the package manager generates the digital signature with a Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to determine which IEDs in the fleet include firmware requiring an update by comparing the firmware currently installed on each IED to the firmware stored in the local cache.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module includes a syncing module configured to sync the firmware stored in the server cache with the firmware stored in the local cache.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module includes a syncing module configured to sync the compatibility information stored in the server cache with the compatibility information stored in the local cache.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to receive a firmware package from a user to trigger a manual update of at least one IED in the fleet using the received firmware package.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to notify a user of the at least one client device when a firmware update for any of the IEDs in the fleet is available.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to perform an audit of the firmware currently installed on the IEDs in the fleet and any available updates for the IEDs in the fleet and output the audit for display.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to indicate in the audit if any of the IEDs in the fleet are incompatible with a firmware update due to a hardware incompatibility.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to track a history of firmware installed on each IED in the fleet and output the history of firmware for display.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to track a history of actions performed on the IEDs in the fleet and output the history of actions for display.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to enable a user to select which IEDs are included in the fleet.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein each IED is one of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), an electric power meter, a revenue meter, a protective relay, a fault recorder, a phase measurement unit, a serial switch and a smart input/output device.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network operates under at least one of Ethernet, DNP, ModBus and/or IEC61850 protocols.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module is configured to backup at least a portion of data from each IED before updating the firmware.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the at least a portion of data includes programmable settings, configuration setting and/or logs.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the firmware tracking and update module includes a scanning module configured to query hardware information from each IED to determine if the updated firmware is compatible with the hardware of each IED.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the hardware information includes at least one of a version number of a printed circuit board, a model number of a processor and/or a model number of a communication device.

24. The system of claim 1 , wherein the server is an application executing on one of the IEDs.

Assignees

• Electro Industries/Gauge Tech
• Ei Electronics Llc

Inventors

• Koval Luna A
• Kagan Erran

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F8/71

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F9/4401

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title