Over-the-air programming

Over-the-air programming (OTA) refers to various methods of distributing new software, configuration settings, and even updating encryption keys to devices like cellphones, set-top boxes or secure voice communication equipment (encrypted 2-way radios). One important feature of OTA is that one central location can send an update to all the users, who are unable to refuse, defeat, or alter that update, and that the update applies immediately to everyone on the channel. A user could "refuse" OTA but the "channel manager" could also "kick them off" the channel automatically.

In the context of the mobile content world these include over-the-air service provisioning (OTASP), over-the-air provisioning (OTAP) or over-the-air parameter administration (OTAPA), or provisioning handsets with the necessary settings with which to access services such as WAP or MMS.

As mobile phones accumulate new applications and become more advanced, OTA configuration has become increasingly important as new updates and services come on stream. OTA via SMS optimises the configuration data updates in SIM cards and handsets and enables the distribution of new software updates to mobile phones or provisioning handsets with the necessary settings with which to access services such as WAP or MMS. OTA messaging provides remote control of mobile phones for service and subscription activation, personalization and programming of a new service for mobile operators and telco third parties.

Various standardization bodies were established to help develop, oversee, and manage OTA. One of them is the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

More recently, with the new concepts of Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things, where the networks consist of hundreds or thousands of nodes, OTA is taken to a new direction: for the first time OTA is applied using unlicensed frequency bands (868 MHz, 900 MHz, 2400 MHz) and with low consumption and low data rate transmission using protocols such as 802.15.4 and ZigBee.

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