Architecture and implementation of a remote management framework for dynamically reconfigurable devices

This paper presents Smart Box Management (SBM) - an end-to-end remote management framework for Internet enabled devices. In SBM, client devices securely communicate over the public Internet for device management specific services such as remote registration, remote configuration, dynamic updates (downloads) and device diagnostic uploads with the SBM server. The SBM client device is a smart box - a device that can easily adapt to dynamic software updates constituting entirely new applications, bug fixes or patches to latest updates of the existing code base. SBM uses HTTP to leverage a Web-based device management infrastructure that offers several benefits: ubiquity, security, reliability and a high degree of user friendliness. In this paper we delineate the SBM framework, detail the SBM protocol and describe our experiences in the implementation of a successful SBM prototype.