System and method for maintaining applications with their current versions

• US 7,234,035 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2002
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schlarb, John M., Jerding, Dean F., Rodriguez, Arturo A., Domina, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): BATAILLE, PIERRE MICHE
• Application Number:
  US10/107,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20020104097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,910 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 711/171, 711/172, 717/11, 717/170, 717/178, 717/173, 455/419, 725/115, 709/217, 709/219, 709/213, 709/200
• US Class Current: 711/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/62 Uninstallation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8402 involving a version number, e.g. version number of EPG data arrangements for version control in computers G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for a communication terminal to manage memory and maintain a current application version for multiple applications are provided. The system and method provide for managing memory in a communication terminal coupled to a server device enabling the communication terminal to provide memory capacity for storing in a memory and executing on the communication terminal a plurality of applications downloaded from the server device. Prior to downloading an application, the communication terminal determines an amount of memory capacity required by an application client to be downloaded from the server device. The communication terminal then attempts to allocate the memory capacity. If memory cannot be allocated from the system heap, the communication terminal purges data contained in the memory according to a dynamic list of priorities to create memory capacity in the memory for the application client. Once sufficient memory capacity has been created, it is allocated to the application client, and the application client is downloaded to the communication terminal.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining a current version of a selected application in a memory of a communication terminal coupled to a server device, comprising the steps of:

receiving, at the communication terminal, a current version indication for each of a plurality of applications supported by the server device;

receiving, at the communication terminal, an activation request for a selected application that is stored in a memory of the communication terminal;

in response to receiving an activation request, retrieving, at the communication terminal, a version parameter from the selected application, wherein the version parameter denotes the version number of the selected application;

determining, at the communication terminal, whether the version parameter matches a current version indication associated with the selected application; and

in response to determining that the version parameter retrieved from the selected application fails to match the current version indication, suspending, at the communication terminal, at least one service provided by the selected application that is to be updated and downloading a current version of the selected application while tuning to a different application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the version parameter is included in a uniform resource locator (URL) address for the selected application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the version parameter is retrieved when the selected application is activated for execution of services for comparison to the current version indication.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

suspending all services provided by the selected application if the version parameter fails to match the current version indication.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

unloading the selected application from memory if the version parameter fails to match the current version indication; and

downloading from the server device a current version of the selected application, wherein the current version of the selected application is stored in the memory.

6. A system for maintaining a current version of a selected application in a memory of a communication terminal coupled to a server device, comprising:

logic configured to receive, at the communication terminal, a current version indication for each of a plurality of applications supported by the server device;

logic configured to receive, at the communications terminal, an activation request for a selected application that is stored in a memory of the communication terminal;

logic configured to receive, at the communication terminal, a version parameter from the selected application, in response to receiving an activation request for a selected application, wherein the version parameter denotes the version number of the downloaded application;

logic configured to determine, at the communication terminal, whether the version parameter matches a current version indication associated with the selected application;

logic configured to suspend, at the communications terminal, at least one service provided by the selected application that is to be updated; and

logic configured to download a current version of the selected application, in response to determining that the version parameter retrieved from the selected application fails to match the current version indication,

wherein the system is configured to download a current version of the selected application while tuning to a different application.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the version parameter is included in a uniform resource locator (URL) address for the selected application.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising logic configured to retrieve the version parameter when the selected application is activated for execution of services for comparison to the current version indication.

9. The system of claim 6, further comprising logic configured to suspend all services provided by the selected application if the version parameter fails to match the current version indication.

10. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

logic configured to unload the downloaded application from memory if the version parameter fails to match the current version indication; and

logic configured to download from the server device a current version of the selected application, wherein the current version of the selected application is stored in the memory.