Method and system of processing an image upgrade

• US 10,101,987 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2015
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Echelon Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echelon Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Riley, Glen M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brophy, Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US14/644,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20160266887A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,315 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include methods, apparatuses, and systems for processing an image update in a networkable node. An exemplary method comprises initiating an image update process with a node, transmitting an update image to the node, transmitting a confirmation request to determine the node received the update image, upon receiving confirmation the node received the update image, transmitting a switchover command to the node to cause the node to switch from its primary image to the update image, and confirming the switching of the image of the node.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating an image update process with a node by transmitting an initiation request message to the node, the initiation request message including a type of the image, a subtype of the image, an image instance number, a session number, a packet size, a packet count, an image size, and an image header, the image header is the first 16 bytes of the image and contains a sufficient amount of the image for compatibility validation, wherein the type of the image, the subtype of the image, and the image instance number are included in an image identifier field that is 10 bytes in size;

receiving a response message to the initiation request message, the response message including a result code and a digest algorithm to use for transmitting the image;

transmitting an update image to the node;

transmitting a confirmation request to determine the node received the update image;

upon receiving confirmation, the node received the update image, transmitting a switchover command to the node to cause the node to switch from its primary image to the update image; and

confirming the switching of the image of the node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the update image transmitting is a packetized transmission wherein a size of each packet is determined by the node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each packet includes a session number, packet number, and an image chunk.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is one of a system image, data, or application.

5. The method of claim 1, initiating an image update with a node further comprises:

receiving an initiation response message from the node to indicate a status of the initiation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein confirming the switching of the image of the node comprises:

transmitting a unicast confirm request message including a session number; and

receiving an indication from the node of if any packets were missed.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

re-transmitting any packet that was missed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating the image by sending a validate request to the node; and

receiving an indication from the node of validity of the image.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a commitment request message to the node for the node to commit the image and confirm commitment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the image type is one of a:

control processor system image,

control processor application,

control processor digital signal processor (DSP) image,

control processor data image,

host processor system image,

host processor application,

host processor DSP image,

host processor data image, and

host processor combine image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the image type is identified using an 8-bit value.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the header is set to all zeros indicating that no compatibility checking is to be done.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the image instance number is an 8-byte number that specifies the image.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the result code is one of success, results still pending, invalid image type, invalid image type, invalid image subtype, image incompatible.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the digest algorithm is indicated in a bit mask.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the bit mask indicates use of MD5 or SHA256.