Network for updating firmware and / or software in wireless communication devices

• US 8,875,116 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2009
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Neill, Patrick, Lilley, Patrick C., Rao, Bindu Rama
• Primary Examiner(s): Nahar, Qamrun
• Application Number:
  US12/636,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20100095293A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,782 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/168
• 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 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

One or more methods and systems of updating software in wireless communication devices are presented. In one embodiment, software updates are generated by a generation environment and distributed by a distribution environment. One or more wireless communication devices receive one or more software updates from the distribution environment. In one embodiment, software updates are generated from processing performed at a pre-processing device such as a cable television set-top-box or a server of the distribution environment. A software processing package, provided by the generation environment, is used to generate such software updates for the one or more wireless communication device. One or more methods of provisioning and billing wireless communication devices are also presented.

Claims

1. A method of updating software in a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

transmitting a software version identifier from said wireless communication device to a distribution environment, said software version identifier processed by said distribution environment to generate a software update for said wireless communication device;

receiving a software update or a software processing package into a pre-processing device from said distribution environment;

transmitting a software update from the pre-processing device to the wireless communication device by way of a local area network; and

updating said wireless communication device with said software update.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said distribution environment comprises a wide area network.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said wide network comprises a cable TV network.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising processing performed by the pre-processing device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said pre-processing device comprises a set-top-box.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said set-top-box notifies availability of said software update to said wireless communication device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said software update is generated by using a software processing package.

8. The method of claim 7 comprising processing a portion of software provided by said wireless communication device at said distribution environment.

9. The method of claim 7 comprising processing a portion of software provided by said wireless communication device at the pre-processing device.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising generating one or more update packages for storage in said distribution environment.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said generating is performed by a generation environment.

12. The method of claim 4 comprising generating one or more update packages for storage in said pre-processing environment.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said updating comprises:

employing a download agent to download said software update; and

employing an upload agent to remove a portion of existing software in said wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said employing an upload agent to remove a portion of existing software frees up memory space.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein said removal of a portion of existing software may be selectively reinstated.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said transmitting and said receiving is performed by way of a wireless air interface.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said wireless air interface comprises one of the following:

a short range wireless network compliant with network Bluetooth standard, an IEEE 802.11 wireless network, a GSM wireless network, a CDMA wireless network, and a TDMA wireless network.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein, based on one or more factors, said wireless air interface selects a transport protocol for updating the software.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said one or more factors comprise available power of said wireless communication device, size of said software update, and airtime or service costs.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein said one or more factors are incorporated in a customer preference profile.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-processing device comprises a set-top box and wherein receiving comprises receiving the software processing package into the set-top box and the method further comprises:

receiving an existing software module from the wireless communication device into the set-top box via the local area network;

reconfiguring the existing software module using the software preprocessing package to produce the software update.

21. A method of distributing one or more software updates to a plurality of wireless communication devices, the method comprising:

receiving, in a pre-processing device, at least a portion of software from at least one of the plurality of wireless communication devices;

receiving, in the pre-processing device from a generation environment, the one or more software updates;

pre-processing the at least a portion of software in the pre-processing device using the one or more software updates, the pre-processing producing updated software; and

transmitting said one or more software updates from the pre-processing device to the at least one of the plurality of wireless communication devices using a wireless air interface.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein said air interface comprises one of the following:

an IEEE 802.11 wireless network and a short range wireless network compliant with Bluetooth.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein said pre-processing device comprises a cable television set-top-box.

24. A method of backing up software of a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

transmitting, over a wireless air interface, a portion of said software from memory in a wireless communication device of a user to a storage device in a distribution environment or a pre-processing device;

determining that said portion of said software should be restored to said wireless communication device; and

wirelessly receiving said portion of said software from said storage device and re-writing said portion of said software into said memory of said wireless communication device.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein determining comprises:

updating said software in said wireless communication device; and

determining that said updated software is incompatible with said wireless communication device.

27. An apparatus, comprising:

a wireless air interface;

a memory device; and

hardware coupled to the wireless air interface and to the memory device to execute software;

wherein upon executing the software, the hardware receives into the memory device at least a portion of software from a wireless communication devices, receives an executable software processing package from a generation environment, executes the software processing package to reconfigure the at least a portion of software to generate reconfigured software, and transmits the reconfigured software to the wireless communication device via a wireless air interface.