Campaign for downloading data into portable communicating objects

• US 20090037586A1
• Filed: 07/28/2005
• Published: 02/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gemalto SA (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Gemplus (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Boussoukaia, Nadir, Martinent, Frederic, Pascal, Guillaume, Loubaud, Laurent
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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

The downloading of data from a server into one (Cn) of the portable communicating objects (C1 CN), such as chip cards or mobile terminals, over a radiocommunications network involves: a preprocessing of data (PRET) in the server into at least one data message intended for the communicating object; a sending (E) of the data message from the server to the communicating object; a reception (R) by the server of an acknowledgement of reception by the communicating object, and; a post-processing of data (POST) in the server contingent on the acknowledgement of reception. The pre-processings of data (P1) and post-processings of data (P3) concerning the communicating objects are respectively executed before and after sending the data message and receiving the acknowledgements of reception (P2) concerning the communicating objects. The server communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the sending and receiving of messages.

Claims

1. A method for downloading data from a server into portable communicating objects through a radiocommunications network;

the downloading of data relating to a communicating object comprising data pre-processing in the server for pre-processing data into at least one data message whose destination is the communicating object, transmission of the data message from the server to the communicating object, and reception by the server of an acknowledgment transmitted by the communicating object, and data post-processing in the server depending on the acknowledgement;

said method including the step of executing the data pre-processing phases and the data post-processing phases relating to the communicating objects respectively before and after the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements relating to the communicating objects, wherein the server means (SAC, BD) communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the transmissions of message data and during the receptions of acknowledgements.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data pre-processing relating to communicating objects that have at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only before the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data post-processing relating to communicating objects that have at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only after the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data pre-processing relating to a communicating object also includes reading security parameters specific to the communicating object from a database associated with the server, generating a data message header including the security parameters that have been read, fragmenting the data to be downloaded into data fields and concatenating each data field with the generated header into a data message to be transmitted.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data post-processing relating to a communicating object also includes analyzing acknowledgements delivered by the communicating object, updating a synchronization count as a function of the number of acknowledgements analyzed, and updating an image of the contents of the communicating object in a data base associated with the server.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data messages and the acknowledgements are respectively transmitted and received by the server means through a communications gateway during at least one predetermined time range and with a maximum rate dependent on the operation of the communications gateway.

7. A download server for downloading data into portable communicating objects of mobile terminals through a radiocommunications network, said download server being including a pre-processing module for pre-processing data into data messages whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating objects while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network, a transmit-receive module for transmitting the data messages to communicating objects and for receiving acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating objects through the radiocommunications network in response to the data messages, and a post-processing module for post-processing data in the server depending on the received acknowledgements while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network.

8. A server according to claim 7, wherein the communicating objects are removable user smart cards of mobile terminals.

9. A server according to claim 7, wherein the communicating objects are mobile terminals.

10. A computer program on a computer-readable information medium, said computer program including program instructions adapted to implementing a method for downloading data from a server into portable communicating objects through a radiocommunications network when said program is loaded and executed in the server, said program including pre-processing instructions for pre-processing data into data messages whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating objects while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network, transmit-receive instructions for transmitting the data messages to the communicating objects and for receiving acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating objects through the radiocommunications network in response to the data messages, and post-processing instructions for post-processing data in the server depending on the received acknowledgements while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network.