Program obtainment method and packet transmission apparatus

• US 20040107293A1
• Filed: 11/26/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Okura, Hirotsugu
• Application Number:
  US10/721,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20040107293A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A packet transmission apparatus for downloading a program is provided. A packet processor reads a packet from a data buffer and a program tag extractor extracts information from a tag in the packet, which indicates a location where a program is stored. A downloader downloads an individual program from the location and stores the program in a program storage. A program switch controls a program executor to execute a preliminary program while the individual program is being downloaded. When the download is completed, the program switch controls the program executor to switch over to the individual program. The packet executor executes the individual program and controls the packet transmission.

Claims

1. A packet transmission apparatus comprising:

an extraction unit which extracts information from a stream packet to be sent to a terminal, which indicates a location where an individual program for performing a specific process on the stream is stored;

a download unit which downloads the individual program from the location;

a storage which stores the downloaded individual program; and

an execution unit which executes the individual program by incorporating the individual program into a packet processing on the stream.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a switch unit which provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the individual program after the download of the individual program is completed, and wherein the execution unit performs a normal packet transmission processing on the stream until receiving the switchover instruction.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the storage stores a preliminary program and the switch unit provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the preliminary program until the download of the individual program is completed.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage stores the information, which indicates the location where the individual program is stored, in association with the individual program, and if the information extracted by the extraction unit, which indicates the location where the individual program is stored, has been already stored in the storage, the individual program is not downloaded once more and the packet processing is performed using the individual program stored in the storage.

5. A packet transmission apparatus comprising:

an extraction unit which extracts information from a stream packet to be sent to a terminal, which indicates a characteristic of the stream data;

a download unit which searches and downloads an individual program suitable for the characteristic;

a storage which stores the downloaded individual program; and

an execution unit which executes the individual program by incorporating the individual program into a packet processing on the stream.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a switch unit which provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the individual program after the download of the individual program is completed, and wherein the execution unit performs a normal packet transmission processing on the stream until receiving the switchover instruction.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the storage stores a preliminary program and the switch unit provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the preliminary program until the download of the individual program is completed.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the storage stores the information, which indicates the characteristic of the stream data, in association with the individual program, and if the information extracted by the extraction unit, which indicates the characteristic of the stream data, has been already stored in the storage, a packet processing using the individual program stored in the storage is performed without downloading the individual program.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a switch unit which selects from the storage an individual program for converting the packet in accordance with a processing capacity of the terminal, and provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the selected individual program.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a switch unit which selects from the storage an individual program for converting the packet in accordance with a wireless communication quality if the terminal connects by wireless, and provides the execution unit with a switchover instruction to incorporate the selected individual program.

11. A program obtainment method comprising:

extracting information from a stream packet to be sent to a terminal, which indicates a location where an individual program for performing a specific process on the stream is stored;

performing a normal packet transmission processing on the stream while the individual program is being downloaded from the location; and

performing a packet processing continuously by incorporating the individual program into the packet processing once the download of the individual program is completed.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing a preliminary program beforehand and performing the packet processing by incorporating the preliminary program until the download of the individual program is completed.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the information, which indicates the location where the individual program is stored, in association with the individual program, and wherein if the information extracted by the extraction unit, which indicates the location where the individual program is stored, has been already stored, the individual program is not downloaded once more and the packet processing is performed using the stored individual program.

14. A program obtainment method comprising:

extracting information from a stream packet to be sent to a terminal, which indicates a characteristic of the stream data;

performing a normal packet transmission processing on the stream while the individual program suitable for the characteristic is being downloaded; and

performing a packet processing continuously by incorporating the individual program into the packet processing once the download of the individual program is completed.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing a preliminary program beforehand and performing the packet processing by incorporating the preliminary program until the download of the individual program is completed.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing the information, which indicates the characteristic of the stream data, in association with the individual program, and wherein if the information extracted by the extraction unit, which indicates the characteristic of the stream data, has been already stored, the individual program is not downloaded once more and the packet processing is performed using the stored individual program.