Sharing access to application located on a smart card for clients in parallel

• US 8,706,875 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Froeding, Emil Nicolaj, Ilsoee, Joergen Moeller, Vestergaard, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Oanh
• Application Number:
  US13/139,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20110320600A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,953 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 709/225, 709/229, 715/733, 715/741, 715/743
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3574 Multiple applications on card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

This patent application relates to a method, a computer program product, a computer program, an apparatus, and a system for sharing an access to at least one application located on a smart card unit.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an access request for at least one application located on a smart card unit, wherein the request is received from one client of at least two clients;

checking whether the at least one application located on the smart card unit is already active;

activating the at least one application located on the smart card unit when the application is not active;

sharing access to the at least one application located on the smart card unit for the at least two clients in parallel, wherein sharing access is granted according to access rules, wherein the one client of the at least two clients has a higher priority than the remaining clients of the at least two clients, and wherein access to the at least one application can be performed by at least one of;

referencing the application explicitly and referencing the application implicitly;

receiving a deactivate request for the at least one application from the one client of the at least two clients;

checking whether access to the at least one application is shared with at least one other client of the at least two clients; and

deactivating the at least one application when there is no other client sharing the at least one application located on the smart card.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising;

exposing a common interface for the at least two clients to handle the access request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the at least one application is active, the sharing access is provided to the at least one application for the one client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating the at least one application is only performed when the number of active applications does not exceed a maximum number of applications.

5. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor circuitry; and

at least one memory circuitry including computer program code, the at least one memory circuitry and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor circuitry, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

receive an access request for at least one application located on a smart card unit, wherein the request is received from one client of at least two clients;

check whether the at least one application located on the smart card unit is already active;

activate the at least one application located on the smart card unit when the application is not active;

share access to the at least one application located on the smart card unit for the at least two clients in parallel, wherein sharing access is granted according to access rules, wherein the one client of the at least two clients has a higher priority than the remaining clients of the at least two clients, and wherein access to the at least one application can be performed by at least one of;

referencing the application explicitly and referencing the application implicitly;

receive a deactivate request for the at least one application from the one client of the at least two clients;

check whether access to the at least one application is shared with at least one other client of the at least two clients; and

deactivate the at least one application when there is no other client sharing the at least one application located on the smart card.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, comprising:

a common interface configured to handle the one access request.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein when the at least one application is active, the sharing is provided to the at least one application for the one client.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein activating the one application is only performed when the number of active applications does not exceed a maximum number of applications.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one application represents at least two applications, and wherein an application being currently accessed represents a first application, wherein the apparatus is configured to interleave access of the first application in case of receiving an access request for a second application of said at least two applications having a higher priority.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the interleaving comprises:

stop access of the first application;

access the second application; and

restart access of the first application when the second application is finished.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein a first client of the at least two clients represents a modem client of a modem engine and a second client of the at least two clients represents a host client of an application engine.

12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus is configured to track currently selected file information of an accessed application.

13. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein one application of the at least one application represents a telecom telecommunications application.

14. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the smart card unit represents a universal integrated circuit card.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer program code, which when executed by at least one processor circuitry causes operations comprising:

receiving an access request for at least one application located on a smart card unit, wherein the request is received from one client of at least two clients;

checking whether the at least one application located on the smart card unit is already active;

activating the at least one application located on the smart card unit when the application is not active;

sharing access to the at least one application located on the smart card unit for the at least two clients in parallel, wherein sharing access is granted according to access rules, wherein the one client of the at least two clients has a higher priority than the remaining clients of the at least two clients, and wherein access to the at least one application can be performed by at least one of;

referencing the application explicitly and referencing the application implicitly;

receiving a deactivate request for the at least one application from the one client of the at least two clients;

checking whether access to the at least one application is shared with at least one other client of the at least two clients; and

deactivating the at least one application when there is no other client sharing the at least one application located on the smart card.