Managing distribution of software updates in near field communication (NFC) mobile devices

• US 9,198,031 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2014
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ashley, Paul A., Butler, Anthony M., Kothari, Ravi, Lin, Yu-Chen
• Primary Examiner(s): GONZALES, APRIL GUZMAN
• Application Number:
  US14/297,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20150126110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

A method, system and a computer program product for managing distribution of software updates in Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile devices includes retrieving information of one or more softwares in one or more NFC mobile devices by a NFC reader in communication range with the one or more NFC mobile devices, transmitting the retrieved information from the NFC reader to a distribution server which determines if the one or more softwares requires an update based on the retrieved information, in response to said determination, receiving an available updated software or update components of the one or more softwares from the distribution server to the NFC reader and transmitting thereof from the NFC reader to a secure element of the one or more NFC mobile devices whose one or more softwares require an updation.

Claims

1. A method for managing distribution of software updates in near field communication (NFC) mobile devices, the method comprising:

retrieving information of one or more softwares in one or more NFC mobile devices by a NFC reader in communication range with the one or more NFC mobile devices;

transmitting the retrieved information from the NFC reader to a distribution server which determines if the one or more softwares require an update based on the retrieved information;

in response to said determination, receiving an available updated software or update components of the one or more softwares transmitted from the distribution server to the NFC reader; and

transmitting the available updated software or updated components of the one or more softwares from the NFC reader to a temporary staging area of a secure element of the one or more NFC mobile devices whose one or more softwares require the update,

wherein the updated software or update components are moved from the temporary staging area to a production area of the secure element by the distribution server, and the installation of the updated software or update components in the production area of the secure elements is initiated by the distribution server, wherein the temporary staging area and production area are memory partitions of the secure elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieval includes requesting and receiving the information from the NFC mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes information regarding the one or more softwares and a distribution server identifier thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the software information is transmitted to the distribution server identified from the distribution server identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated software or update components received from the distribution server by the NFC reader is cryptographically protected.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated software or update components are verified before storing in the temporary and production staging areas by verification applications installed in the temporary and production staging areas respectively.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the softwares includes an operating system of the NFC mobile device and mobile applications in the NFC mobile device.

8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product comprises at least one component operable to:

retrieve information of one or more softwares in one or more near field communication (NFC) mobile devices by a NFC reader in communication range with the one or more NFC mobile devices;

transmit the retrieved information from the NFC reader to a distribution server which determines if the one or more softwares require an update based on the retrieved information;

in response to said determination, receive an available updated software or update components of the one or more softwares from the distribution server to the NFC reader; and

transmit the available updated software or updated components of the one or more softwares from the NFC reader to a temporary staging area of a secure element of the one or more NFC mobile devices whose one or more softwares require the update,

wherein the updated software or update components are moved from the temporary staging area to a production area of the secure element by the distribution server, and the installation of the updated software or update components in the production area of the secure elements is initiated by the distribution server, wherein the temporary staging area and production area are memory partitions of the secure elements.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the retrieval includes requesting and receiving the information from the NFC mobile device.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the information includes information regarding the one or more softwares and a distribution server identifier thereof.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the software information is transmitted to the distribution server identified from the distribution server identifier.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the updated software or update components received from the distribution server by the NFC readers is cryptographically protected.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the updated software or update components are verified before storing in the temporary and production staging areas by verification applications installed in the temporary and production staging areas respectively.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the softwares includes an operating system of the NFC mobile device and mobile applications in the NFC mobile device.