Device management in a network

• US 8,893,110 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2012
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Kapadekar, Vivek, Rao, Bindu Rama
• Primary Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US13/456,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20120210315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-172
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Methods and devices supporting the management of a plurality of electronic devices and processing of update information for updating software and/or firmware in the electronic devices. Prompting of users may be made using a language associated with the electronic device, and authorization to update an electronic device may be secured using a subscriber identity module.

Claims

1. A method for updating an electronic device over a network comprising:

sending information for updating the electronic device over the network;

retrieving information from an interchangeable circuit card in the electronic device; and

determining whether processing of information for updating the electronic device is allowed based on a comparison between a portion of the information for updating the electronic device and a corresponding portion of the information from the interchangeable circuit card, wherein the portion of the information for updating the electronic device includes a set of Firmware-Over-the-Air (FOTA) credentials and wherein the corresponding portion of the information from the interchangeable circuit card includes the set of FOTA credentials, and updating the electronic device if a condition flag in the set of FOTA credentials is set to allow.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information from the interchangeable circuit card in the electronic device includes retrieving information from a subscriber identity module (SIM) card.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information from the SIM card includes an Firmware-Over-the-Air (FOTA) file and wherein the sending is allowed to begin if the FOTA update allowed bit is set.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the FOTA credentials in the information for updating an electronic device is located in a header of the information for updating an electronic device.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for updating an electronic device over a network executable by a computer to cause the computer to:

develop an update package for the electronic device;

place a signature into the update package wherein the signature in the update package corresponds to a signature in an interchangeable circuit card in the electronic device, wherein the signature is unique to a system operator that operates the system on which the electronic device functions;

store the update package in an update server; and

send the update package to the electronic device over the network, wherein the signature in the update package and the signature in the interchangeable circuit card are used to permit a secure update of the electronic device using the update package, wherein the signature in the update package and the signature in the interchangeable circuit card is validated by the system operator and the update packages is rejected if the validation fails.

6. The medium of claim 5, wherein the signature in the update package and the signature in the interchangeable circuit card provide the system operator a control point for rejecting update packages that are not explicitly authorized by the system operator.

7. The medium of claim 5, wherein the signature in the interchangeable circuit card is placed in the interchangeable circuit card during a manufacturing process and wherein the system operator provides the interchangeable circuit card.

8. The medium of claim 5, wherein the signature is placed in the update packages in a post processing activity.

9. An electronic device comprising:

at least one processor operable to communicate over a network;

non-volatile memory operably coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the non-volatile memory comprises code executable by the at least one processor to receive and process information for updating firmware and/or software in the electronic device;

interface circuitry for operably coupling the at least one processor to a user interchangeable circuit card; and

wherein the executable code causes at least a portion of the information for updating the firmware and/or software in the electronic device to be compared to a corresponding portion of information in the user interchangeable circuit card to determine whether processing of information for updating the firmware and/or software in the electronic device is allowed, wherein the at least a portion of the information for updating the firmware and/or software in the electronic device includes a set of Firmware-Over-the-Air (FOTA) credentials and wherein the corresponding portion of the information from the user interchangeable circuit card includes the set of FOTA credentials, and updating the firmware and/or software in the electronic device if a condition flag in the set of FOTA credentials is set to allow.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the network comprises a public wireless network.

11. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the electronic device comprises a cellular handset.

12. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the information for updating firmware and/or software in the electronic device comprises a set of instructions executable by the code to transform an first version of firmware and/or software to an updated version.

13. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the user interchangeable circuit card comprises a subscriber identity module (SIM) card.