Firmware updates using visible light medium
A system management method and resource for managing a plurality of managed servers in a data center includes providing a firmware update to a plurality of digital light transmitters located in the data center. Each transmitter may be associated with a corresponding subset of the managed servers and each managed server subset may include one or more digital light receivers. The transmitters may be configured to generate digital light indicative of the firmware update by modulating one or more visible light carrier signals in accordance with a modulation technique and the firmware update. Each transmitter may employ LiFi as the digital light protocol and each receiver may comprise a LiFi compliant receiver.
1. A system management method comprising:
accessing, by a management resource configured to manage a plurality of managed servers in a data center, a firmware update; and
providing update information indicative of the firmware update to each of a plurality of digital light transmitters located in the data center wherein each of the plurality of digital light transmitters is:
associated with a corresponding subset of the plurality of managed servers, wherein each subset includes one or more digital light receivers; and
configured to generate digital light indicative of the firmware update by modulating one or more visible light carrier signals in accordance with a modulation technique and the firmware update.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each digital light transmitter comprises a Light Fidelity (LiFi) compliant transmitter and wherein each digital light receiver comprises a LiFi compliant receiver.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each managed resource includes a digital light receiver.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one managed resource in each subset includes a digital light receiver and wherein said one managed receiver is configured to communicate the updated package to the other receivers.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a primary source of illumination within at least a portion of the data center comprises the digital light transmitters.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each managed resource includes a baseboard management controller configured to receive the firmware update from a digital light receiver.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the firmware update comprises a digitally signed data object and wherein the baseboard management controller is configured to verify the signature.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
the data center includes:
a first digital light transmitter associated with a first type of server;
a second digital light transmitter associated with a second type of server;
wherein a server type is indicative of at least one of:
an operating system; and
a firmware attribute; and
a firmware update associated with the first type of server is provided to the first digital light transmitter but not the second digital light transmitter.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital light transmitters are located at regular intervals throughout the data center and wherein a distance between adjacent digital light transmitters is less than approximately 10 meters.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modulation technique comprises a modulation selected from: on-off keying modulation, variable pulse position modulation, and pulse amplitude modulation.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modulation technique comprises:
variable pulse position modulation.
12. A system management resource comprising:
a processor;
a network interface for communicating with at least one of:
one or more managed servers; and
one or more managed system interfaces; and
a computer readable storage medium comprising processor executable instructions that when executed cause the process to perform operations, comprising:
accessing, by a management resource configured to manage a plurality of managed servers in a data center, a firmware update; and
providing update information indicative of the firmware update to each of a plurality of light fidelity (LiFi) transmitters located in the data center wherein each of the plurality of LiFi transmitters is:
associated with a corresponding subset of the plurality of managed servers, wherein each subset includes one or more LiFi receivers; and
configured to generate LiFi indicative of the firmware update by modulating one or more visible light carrier signals in accordance with a modulation technique and the firmware update.
13. The system management resource of claim 12 , wherein a primary source of illumination within at least a portion of the data center comprises the LiFi transmitters.
14. The system management resource of claim 12 , wherein each managed resource includes a baseboard management controller configured to receive the firmware update from a LiFi receiver.
15. The system management resource of claim 14 , wherein the firmware update comprises a digitally signed data object and wherein the baseboard management controller is configured to verify the signature.
16. The system management resource of claim 14 , wherein:
the data center includes:
a first LiFi transmitter associated with a first type of server;
a second LiFi transmitter associated with a second type of server;
wherein a server type is indicative of at least one of:
an operating system; and
a firmware attribute; and
a firmware update associated with the first type of server is provided to the first LiFi transmitter but not the second LiFi transmitter.
17. The system management resource of claim 12 , wherein the digital light comprises a single carrier signal.
18. The system management resource of claim 17 , wherein the modulation technique is selected from: on-off keying modulation, variable pulse position modulation, and pulse amplitude modulation.
19. The system management resource of claim 12 , wherein the digital light comprises multiple carrier signals modulated using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
20. The system management resource of claim 12 , wherein the digital light transmitter receives multiple input signals and wherein the transmitter employs color shift keying to encode intensity value onto a plurality of multi-colored LEDs.