REMOTE ACCESS DIAGNOSTIC MECHANISM FOR COMMUNICATION

• US 20130339782A1
• Filed: 08/22/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Beverly, Harlan T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,909,978 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

A method for diagnosing and correcting errors at a data processing system is disclosed includes detecting at a first device of the system, such as a network interface device, an error at a second device of the system, such as a data processor. In response to detecting the error, the first device communicates a help request via a network. In response to the help request, the first device receives diagnostic and error correction routines from a remote system. The first device executes the routines and provides information to the remote system to diagnose and correct errors at the second device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, at a data processing device, an error at a first system of a network, wherein the first system includes the data processing device;

in response to detecting the error at the first system,

transmitting a help request from the data processing device to a second system of the network;

authenticating the second system at the data processing device based, at least in part, on authentication information received from the second system after transmitting the help request;

receiving an error correction routine from the second system, in response to said authenticating the second system and based, at least in part, on diagnostic information associated with the first system;

executing the error correction routine at the data processing device to resolve the error at the first system; and

in response to detecting that the error at the first system is resolved,

disabling an operation for authenticating the second system at the data processing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling the operation for authenticating the second system at the data processing device, in response to detecting the error at the first system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing a diagnostic routine at the data processing device to determine the diagnostic information associated with the first system, in response to authenticating the second system and receiving a diagnostic request from the second system; and

transmitting the diagnostic information associated with the first system to the second system.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, at the data processing device, the diagnostic routine in the diagnostic request from the second system via the network.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said executing the diagnostic routine comprises:

storing the diagnostic routine at a memory portion of the first system, wherein the memory portion is associated with an interrupt service routine of the first system;

providing an interrupt to the first system; and

executing the diagnostic routine at the first system, in response to receiving the interrupt.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

configuring the first system to operate in a loop state while storing the diagnostic routine at the memory portion of the first system.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing a memory diagnostic on the memory portion of the first system prior to storing the diagnostic routine, to determine whether the memory portion is operational for storage of the diagnostic routine; and

notifying the second system regarding whether the memory portion is operational for storage of the diagnostic routine, in response to said performing the memory diagnostic.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving the diagnostic request at the data processing device from the second system, in response to authenticating the second system and determining that the memory portion is operational for storage of the diagnostic routine.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein said executing the diagnostic routine comprises:

transmitting an execution request from the data processing device to a device driver of the first system, wherein the execution request includes a request for the device driver to execute the diagnostic routine.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the first system comprises a data processor, and wherein the error indicates that the data processor is unable to execute the diagnostic routine.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said detecting the error comprises:

transmitting a message from the data processing device to the data processor; and

detecting the error at the first system, in response to determining that a response to the message has not been received within a predefined period of time.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said detecting the error at the first system comprises:

detecting that a power level associated with the data processor of the first system is below a threshold power level, or

receiving an error notification from the data processor indicating the error at the data processor.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the data processing device comprises a network interface card.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the data processing device comprises a first virtual device, and the first system comprises a second virtual device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system comprises a device driver of the first system, wherein the device driver is configured to control the data processing device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

enabling the operation for authenticating the device driver, in response to detecting the error at the first system

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

transmitting a diagnostic request from the data processing device to the device driver of the first system, wherein the diagnostic request comprises an indication of a diagnostic routine of the device driver; and

executing the diagnostic routine at the device driver to determine diagnostic information associated with the first system, in response to receiving the diagnostic request.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

transmitting an error correction request from the data processing device to the device driver, wherein the error correction request comprises an indication of the error correction routine of the device driver based, at least in part, on the diagnostic information determined by the device driver.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said executing the error correction routine comprises:

executing the error correction routine at the device driver to resolve the error at the first system, in response to receiving the error correction request.

20. A method, comprising:

detecting, at a data processing device, an error at a data system, wherein the data system includes the data processing device;

in response to detecting the error,

storing, from the data processing device via a network, a diagnostic routine at a memory portion of the data system, the memory portion associated with an interrupt service routine of the data system;

providing a first interrupt from the data processing device to the data system, to cause the data system to execute the diagnostic routine for determining diagnostic information associated with the data system; and

storing, from the data processing device, an error correction routine at the memory portion of the data system based, at least in part, on the diagnostic information; and

providing a second interrupt from the data processing device to the data system, to cause the data system to execute the error correction routine for resolving the error of the data system.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

executing a memory diagnostic on the memory portion prior to storing the diagnostic routine.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

configuring the data system to operate in a loop state while storing the diagnostic routine at the memory portion of the data system.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving the diagnostic routine at the data processing device from a remote device, in response to detecting the error.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the data processing device comprises a network interface device, and wherein the data system comprises a data processor.

25. A data system comprising:

a first processor device;

a network interface comprising a second processor device, the network interface coupled with the first processor device, the network interface configured to;

detect an error at the first processor device;

in response to detecting the error at the first processor device,

transmit a help request from the network interface to a remote device via a network;

authenticate the remote device based, at least in part, on authentication information received from the remote device after transmitting the help request;

receive an error correction routine from the remote device, in response to authenticating the remote device and based, at least in part, on diagnostic information associated with the first processor device;

execute the error correction routine to resolve the error at the first processor device; and

in response to detecting that the error at the first processor device is resolved

disable an operation for authenticating the remote system at the network interface.

26. The data system of claim 25, wherein the network device is further configured to:

store a diagnostic routine received from the remote device at a memory portion of the data system, wherein the memory portion is associated with an interrupt service routine of the data system; and

provide an interrupt from the second processor device to the first processor device to cause the first processor device to execute the diagnostic routine to determine the diagnostic information associated with the first system.

27. The data system of claim 25, wherein the network device is further configured to:

store an error correction routine received from the remote device at a memory portion of the data system, wherein the memory portion is associated with an interrupt service routine of the data system; and

provide an interrupt from the second processor device to the first processor device to cause the first processor device to execute the error correction routine.

28. A data system comprising:

a first processor device; and

a network interface comprising a second processor device, the network interface coupled with the first processor device, the network interface configured to;

detect an error at the first processor device;

in response to detecting the error,

store a diagnostic routine at a memory portion of the data system, the memory portion associated with an interrupt service routine of the data system;

provide a first interrupt from the second processor device to the first processor device, to cause the first processor device to execute the diagnostic routine for determining diagnostic information associated with the data system;

store an error correction routine at the memory portion of the data system based, at least in part, on the diagnostic information; and

provide a second interrupt from the second processor device to the first processor device to cause the first processor device to execute the error correction routine for resolving the error of the data system.

29. The data system of claim 28, wherein the first processor device is further configured to:

execute the diagnostic routine to determine the diagnostic information of the data system, in response to receiving the first interrupt; and

execute the error correction routine to resolve the error of the first processor device, in response to receiving the second interrupt.

30. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having machine executable instructions stored therein, the machine executable instructions comprising instructions to:

detect, at a data processing device, an error at a first system of a network, wherein the first system includes the data processing device;

in response to detecting the error at the first system,

transmit a help request from the data processing device to a second system of the network;

authenticate the second system at the data processing device based, at least in part, on authentication information received from the second system after transmitting the help request;

receive an error correction routine from the second system, in response to authenticating the second system and based, at least in part, on diagnostic information associated with the first system;

execute the error correction routine at the data processing device to resolve the error at the first system; and

in response to detecting that the error at the first system is resolved,

disable an operation for authenticating the second system at the data processing device.

31. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 30, wherein said instructions further comprise instructions to:

store a diagnostic routine received from the second system at a memory portion of the first system, wherein the memory portion is associated with an interrupt service routine of the first system;

provide an interrupt to the first system; and

execute the diagnostic routine at the first system to determine the diagnostic information associated with the first system, in response to receiving the interrupt.

32. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 30, wherein said instructions further comprise instructions to:

store an error correction routine received from the second system at a memory portion of the first system, wherein the memory portion is associated with an interrupt service routine of the first system;

provide an interrupt to the first system; and

execute the error correction routine at the first system, in response to receiving the interrupt from the data processing device.

33. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having machine executable instructions stored therein, the machine executable instructions comprising instructions to:

detect, at a data processing device, an error at a data system, wherein the data system includes the data processing device;

in response to detecting the error,

store, from the data processing device via a network, a diagnostic routine at a memory portion of the data system, the memory portion associated with an interrupt service routine of the data system;

provide a first interrupt from the data processing device to the data system to cause the data system to execute the diagnostic routine for determining diagnostic information associated with the data system;

store, from the data processing device, an error correction routine at the memory portion of the data system based, at least in part, on the diagnostic information; and

provide a second interrupt from the data processing device to the data system, to cause the data system to execute the error correction routine for resolving the error of the data system.

34. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein said instructions further comprise instructions to:

perform a memory diagnostic on the memory portion prior to storing the diagnostic routine, to determine whether the memory portion is operational for storage of the diagnostic routine.