APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPGRADING FIRMWARE OF ENERGY METERING DEVICE

• US 20130117740A1
• Filed: 11/05/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LS Industrial Systems Company Limited (Ls Electric Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: LSIS Co. Ltd. (LS Corporation)
• Inventors: OH, Junghwan
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• 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: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device are provided. A method for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device which receives firmware from a server via a network and upgrade firmware includes: transmitting a size of a firmware segment to the server, initializing firmware upgrade, receiving a firmware segment from the server, and controlling the energy metering device to operate with received firmware in response to a request for activating firmware from the server. The server communicates with the energy metering device by using an object model obtained by object-modeling the size of a firmware segment, the firmware segment download, and the activation request.

Claims

1. An apparatus for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device in a system including a server transmitting firmware, the apparatus comprising:

a communication unit that transmits and receives firmware upgrade information including an object model and the server via a network, and receives firmware from the server;

a first storage unit that stores the received firmware; and

a controller that controls the first storage unit to store the received firmware, and controls the energy metering device to be driven with the firmware stored in the first storage unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second storage unit that stores firmware being currently operated.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object model comprises:

an identifier that identifies a pertinent object model as firmware upgrade;

a firmware segment size as a size of a segment transmitted once by the server to the energy metering device;

a firmware upgrade state;

a firmware upgrade start that notifies the energy metering device about starting of firmware upgrading, by the server; and

a firmware activation that activates reception-completed firmware.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the object model comprises:

an identifier that identifies a pertinent object model as firmware upgrade;

a firmware segment size as a size of a segment transmitted once by the server to the energy metering device;

a firmware upgrade state;

a firmware upgrade start that notifies the energy metering device about starting of firmware upgrading, by the server; and

a firmware activation that activates reception-completed firmware.

5. A method for upgrading firmware by a server that transmits firmware to be used for upgrading by an energy metering device via a network, the method comprising:

requesting a size of a firmware segment to the energy metering device;

transmitting a start of firmware upgrade;

transmitting a firmware segment to the energy metering device based on a size of the firmware segment; and

transmitting a request for activating the transmission-completed firmware to the energy metering device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the transmitting of the firmware segment to the energy metering device is repeatedly performed until when the transmission of a plurality of firmware segments is completed.

7. A method for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device which receives firmware from a server via a network and upgrades firmware, the method comprising:

transmitting a size of a firmware segment to the server;

initializing firmware upgrade;

receiving a firmware segment from the server; and

controlling the energy metering device to operate with received firmware in response to a request for activating firmware from the server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the initializing comprises:

checking an overall size of the firmware to be received, and determining the number of firmware segments to be received.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

acknowledgement notifying the server that data has been received from the server.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

object-modeling that includes an identifier for identifying a pertinent object model as firmware upgrade, and

determining whether or not firmware upgrading is requested upon checking the identifier.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving of the firmware segment from the server is repeatedly performed until when transmission of a plurality of firmware segments is completed.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the receiving of the firmware segment from the server is repeatedly performed until when transmission of a plurality of firmware segments is completed.

13. A system comprising:

a server that transmits a firmware to an energy metering device via a network; and

the energy metering device that receives the firmware from the server via the network,

wherein the firmware is modeled as an object model such that the server and the energy metering device recognize firmware upgrading, and

the object model comprises;

an identifier that identifies a pertinent object model as firmware upgrade;

a firmware segment size as a size of a segment transmitted once by the server to the energy metering device;

a firmware upgrade state;

a firmware upgrade start that notifies the energy metering device about starting of firmware upgrading, by the server; and

a firmware activation that activates reception-completed firmware.