Context-awareness based system supporting autonomous system construction and method of operating the system

• US 20070150589A1
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Sun, Kim, Won, Kim, Do
• Application Number:
  US11/636,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150589A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting

Abstract

Provided are a context-awareness based system supporting autonomous system construction and a method of operating the system. A context-awareness based user system operating in association with at least one server providing system software and platform software includes a platform manager downloading at least one piece of software required to operate the user system from the server according to a context profile based on context information provided by a sensor and managing the downloaded software; and a profile cache storing at least one profile managed by the platform manager. Accordingly, user convenience can be maximized by autonomously modifying or reconstructing a system software structure in order to cope with various situations that arise when using a single user system.

Claims

1. A context-awareness based user system operating in association with at least one server providing system software and platform software, the user system comprising:

a platform manager downloading at least one piece of software required to operate the user system from the server according to a context profile based on context information provided by a sensor and managing the downloaded software; and

a profile cache storing at least one profile managed by the platform manager.

2. The user system of claim 1, wherein the platform manager comprises:

a sensor data analyzer acquiring context information of the user system;

a profile manager accessing and managing profiles stored in the profile cache; and

a software execution unit receiving and executing at least one piece of software.

3. The user system of claim 2, wherein the software execution unit comprises:

a download unit downloading system software, platform software, and service software for extending the platform software by being specified to the context information;

a conformance verifier performing verification of the downloaded software;

a software execution controller controlling execution of verified software; and

an error controller processing an error state generated by the conformance verifier or the software execution controller and outputting the processing result.

4. The user system of claim 2, wherein the platform manager further comprises:

a communication processing unit providing interfaces between the user system and the servers; and

a service management module controlling the platform manager and the profile cache.

5. The user system of claim 1, wherein the user system accesses the sensor using a wireless protocol comprising Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Zigbee, or Bluetooth.

6. The user system of claim 2, wherein the profile cache stores a system profile describing the specification of the user system, a context profile describing context information of a user or the user system, and a service profile describing information on a software combination optimized based on the system profile and the context profile.

7. A context-awareness based system supporting autonomous system construction, the system comprising:

a user system receiving and managing dynamic context information from at least one sensor;

a resource locator providing a location of context profile information from sensor information detected by the user system;

a context profile server providing a context profile suitable for the context of a user or the user system in response to a request of the user system;

a platform broker creating a service profile by calculating a software combination optimized based on a system profile and the context profile provided by the user system, downloading software corresponding to the created service profile from a software download server, compiling the downloaded software, and transmitting the compiled software to the user system;

the software download server storing various kinds of system software, platform software, and service software in a source or binary level; and

a software backup server entirely or selectively backing up software of the user system for the purpose of a software environment change or safety of the user system according to a context change.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user system comprises:

a platform manager downloading at least one piece of software required to operate the user system from the servers according to a context profile based on context information provided by a sensor and managing the downloaded software; and

a profile cache storing at least one profile managed by the platform manager.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the platform manager comprises:

a sensor data analyzer acquiring context information of the user system;

a profile manager accessing and managing profiles stored in the profile cache; and

a software execution unit receiving and executing at least one piece of software.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the software execution unit comprises:

a download unit downloading system software, platform software, and service software for extending the platform software by being specified to the context information;

a conformance verifier performing verification of the downloaded software;

a software execution controller controlling execution of verified software; and

an error controller processing an error state generated by the conformance verifier or the software execution controller and outputting the processing result.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the platform manager further comprises:

a communication processing unit providing interfaces between the user system and the servers; and

a service management module controlling the platform manager and the profile cache.

12. A method of operating a user system operating in association with at least one server providing at least one piece of system software operated by the user system, the method comprising:

(a) downloading system software suitable for a basic platform from the server and installing the downloaded system software;

(b) downloading optimized software from the server according to context information provided by a sensor and installing and operating the downloaded software as basic platform software; and

(c) constituting and operating extended platform software by downloading platform software according to a context change additionally occurring during an operation of the user system and porting the downloaded platform software onto the basic platform software.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising preparing a boot code for driving the user system before (a) is performed.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein (a) comprises:

(a1) providing at least one selectable basic platform to a user and setting one of the at least one selectable basic platform as a basic platform;

(a2) receiving system software corresponding to the basic platform; and

(a3) performing system porting with the system software, performing verification of the system software, and executing the system software.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein (b) comprises:

(b1) receiving a context profile corresponding to context information acquired from a sensor;

(b2) providing the context profile and the specification of the user system to the server and receiving software optimized according to the user system, which is created by the server; and

(b3) receiving the optimized software, performing verification of the received software, and executing the received software.

16. A method of operating a user system, the method comprising:

(a) acquiring context information from a sensor and transmitting the acquired context information to a resource locator;

(b) receiving a location of a server providing a context profile according to the context information from the resource locator;

(c) accessing the context profile server and receiving the context profile;

(d) creating a service profile by a platform broker receiving the context profile and a system profile from the user system;

(e) the platform broker receiving software corresponding to the service profile from a download server, optimizing the received software to the user system, and transmitting the optimized software to the user system; and

(f) the user system receiving the optimized software and verifying and executing the received software.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising a backup server entirely or selectively backing up software of the user system and providing the software when a request is received from the user system.

18. A computer readable recording medium storing a computer readable program for executing a method of operating a user system operating in association with at least one server providing at least one piece of system software operated by the user system, the method comprising:

(a) downloading system software suitable for a basic platform from the server and installing the downloaded system software;

(b) downloading optimized software from the server according to context information provided by a sensor and installing and operating the downloaded software as basic platform software; and

(c) constituting and operating extended platform software by downloading platform software according to a context change additionally occurring during an operation of the user system and porting the downloaded platform software onto the basic platform software.

19. A computer readable recording medium storing a computer readable program for executing a method of operating a user system, the method comprising:

(a) acquiring context information from a sensor and transmitting the acquired context information to a resource locator;

(b) receiving a location of a server providing a context profile according to the context information from the resource locator;

(c) accessing the context profile server and receiving the context profile;

(d) creating a service profile by a platform broker receiving the context profile and a system profile from the user system;

(e) the platform broker receiving software corresponding to the service profile from a download server, optimizing the received software to the user system, and transmitting the optimized software to the user system; and

(f) the user system receiving the optimized software and verifying and executing the received software.