# Design of Remote Upgrade System for Data Processing Unit in Marine Engine Room Simulator
## 1 Introduction  
The marine engine room simulator has been popular in the training and competency evaluation for seafarers [1]. With the continuous optimization of each subsystem in the marine engine room simulator, it is unavoidable to upgrade the model, control algorithm, and communication protocol. The conventional solution is to manually update the firmware in the field. However, it has high maintenance costs and poor efficiency [2]. The existing architecture no longer meets the needs of the intelligent development of the industry. On the other hand, with the new generation of information technology and the necessity to upgrade the simulator, a flexible framework is needed to support and promote development.  
In the Internet of Things (IoT), remote firmware upgrade is one of the more critical research elements [3]. A Malware called Mirai infected these devices and launched the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks [4]. The number of attacks involving IoT devices during 2018 increased, with 32.7 million IoT incidents reported last year [5]. People are starting to worry about security vulnerabilities and feature upgrades in IoT placements. Therefore, the need for firmware upgrades over the air (OTA) has been added to the requirements for embedded software. In terms of security, the firmware of IoT devices is securely upgraded using the LoRa communication protocol through blockchain framework technology [6]. However, collaboration through numerous gateways is desired to increase the firmware upgrade process's reliability and performance. [PERSON] et al. designed a secure and reliable firmware update process for low-power wireless IoT devices using an adaptivedata rate algorithm [7]. It offers the possibility of firmware upgrades for energy-constrained IoT devices.  
The firmware upgrade is a key technology in IoT [8]. Internet of Things (IoT) devices rely upon remote firmware upgrades to fix bugs and make security enhancements [9]. However, there are few research studies on the remote upgrade of the data processing unit (DPU) in the marine engine room simulator. In addition, there is also no standard firmware upgrade and specification for simulator-related fields. In order to reduce the number of times that engineers solve firmware problems on site, it also provides a new method for remote operation and maintenance of marine engine room simulators. In this paper, we propose a system for remote firmware upgrades for DPUs. The system not only solves the drawback of unstable and unreliable firmware upgrades in the marine engine room simulator but also realizes the firmware upgrade in the wide area network.  
In summary, we make the following contributions:  
1. We first propose a system for enabling firmware upgrades for the simulator. The problem of untimely and inconvenient firmware upgrades for existing emulators is solved. The intelligence of the marine engine room simulator is improved.
2. We have improved the availability of firmware upgrades by the remote upgrade configuration, as well as automatic upgrades by networking.
3. We have improved the reliability of program upgrades through program verification as well as program backups, ensuring that the simulator will still work in the event of an upgrade failure.  
The paper includes the following content. The introduction underlines the significance and relevance of the chosen topic. Then, a remote upgrade system for marine engine room simulators is presented based on the evolution of important technologies employed in other fields. The second part, explains the simulator's components, structural layout, and network topology. In the third part, a scheme is put forward that uses functional design and technical support to remotely upgrade firmware. In the fourth part, Testing and Discussion describes the performance tests after the DPU firmware upgrade. We also analyze its test results. The results are as expected. Finally, the conclusion is a summary evaluation of the whole scheme.