Radio Base Station and a Method of Operating a Radio Base Station

• US 20080320464A1
• Filed: 06/21/2005
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andrew LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Andrew Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sundvisson, Per-Erik, Wahlstrom, Peter, Lagerqvist, Tomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

The present invention relates to the operation and maintenance of radio base stations in mobile communication systems. An inventive radio base station, which can be upgraded remotely in a safe way. In one embodiment of the invention, the radio base station comprises a file system comprising different versions of files, so that an old version of a file can be reverted to should problems in the operation of the radio base station occur In another embodiment of the invention, the radio base station comprises a back-up area in which a copy of the files of the file system are stored. The back-up area is independent of the file system, so that if problems with the files in the file system are detected, the contents of the back-up area can be stored in the file system.

Claims

1. A radio base station for transmitting and receiving radio signals in a mobile radio network, the radio base station having an interface towards an operations and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising:

a non-volatile memory comprising a file system for storage of files relating to the operation of the radio base station;

wherein

the file system comprises at least two versions of at least one file, out of which one version is the active version to be used in the operation of the radio base station;

the radio base station comprises an indication as to which of said at least two versions is the active version; and

the radio base station comprises means for reverting to using a previous version of said at least one file in the operation of the radio base station.

2. The radio base station of claim 1, wherein

said radio base station comprises data storage on which is stored a file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the at least one file is stored;

and wherein

the radio base station is arranged to update said file comprising information when a new version of a said at least one file is included in said file system, the updating being performed in a way so that the information indicates that the new version is the active version.

3. The radio base station of claim 1, wherein

said radio base station comprises data storage on which is stored a file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the at least one file is stored;

and wherein

the radio base station is arranged to, upon updating of said at least one file, store the version of said at least one file which has previously been used as the active version as a version which should be used upon reverting to a previous version, and said radio base station is further arranged to store a new version of said at least one file so that said indication in said file comprising said indication indicates that said new version is the version to be used in the operation of the radio base station.

4. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein

data relating to a specific information category is stored, in the file system, in a data file of a file type for data relating to said specific category;

and

the radio base station comprises software for upgrading files in the file system comprising computer program code for checking whether the new version of the file to be upgraded is of the same file type as the versions of the file to be upgraded stored in the file system prior to the upgrading.

5. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the radio base station further comprises

a non-volatile memory comprising a back-up area for back-up storage of files of the file system, wherein the back-up area is independent of the file system.

6. The radio base station of claim 5, wherein

the radio base station further comprises a boot application;

the file system comprises a file comprising information on which files should be present in the file system;

the boot application is arranged to read the contents of the file comprising information on which files should be present in the file system and compare said information to the files that are actually present; and

wherein

the boot application is further arranged to load the contents of the back-up area into the file system if discrepancies are detected between the files that should be present and the files that actually are present in the file system.

7. The radio base station of claim 5, wherein

the files stored in the file system comprises a content indicator indicating whether or not the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty;

the boot application is arranged to check said content indicators upon start-up of the radio base station; and

wherein

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of the back-up area into the file system if a content indicator is found to indicate that the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty.

8. The radio base station of claim 1, wherein

the radio base station comprises a platform part and an application part, the platform part and the application part interacting via an internal interface of which different versions exist;

the platform part comprises a data file comprising first information on which versions of said internal interface are supported by the platform part; and

the application part comprises a data file comprising second information on which versions of said internal interface are supported by the application part.

9. The radio base station of claim 8, wherein

the radio base station is arranged to compare, upon upgrading of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the contents of list of the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with the versions of the internal interface supported by the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded;

and

the radio base station is further arranged to select, for use in the operation of the radio base station, a version of the internal interface which is supported by both the new version of the part of the radio base station that is being upgraded and the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded.

10. A radio base station for transmitting and receiving radio signals in a mobile radio network, the radio base station having an interface towards an operation and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising:

a non-volatile memory comprising a file system for storage of files relating to the operation of the radio base station, and

a non-volatile memory comprising a back-up area for back-up storage of files of the file system, wherein the back-up area is independent of the file system, and

wherein the file system comprises a file comprising information on which files should be present in the file system

11. The radio base station of claim 10, wherein

the radio base station further comprises a boot application;

the boot application is arranged to read the contents of the file comprising information on which files should be present in the file system and compare said information to the files that are actually present; and

wherein

the boot application is further arranged to load the contents of the back-up area into the file system if discrepancies are detected between the files that should be present and the files that actually are present in the file system.

12. The radio base station of claim 10, wherein

the files stored in the file system comprises a content indicator indicating whether or not the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty;

the boot application is arranged to check said content indicators upon start-up of the radio base station; and

wherein

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of the back-up area into the file system if a content indicator is found to indicate that the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty.

13. The radio base station of claim 10, wherein

the radio base station comprises a platform part and an application part, the platform part and the application part interacting via an internal interface of which different versions exist;

the platform part comprises a data file comprising first information on which versions of said internal interface are supported by the platform part; and

the application part comprises a data file comprising second information on which versions of said internal interface are supported by the application part.

14. The radio base station of claim 13, wherein

the radio base station is arranged to compare, upon upgrading of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the contents of list of the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with the versions of the internal interface supported by the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded;

and

the radio base station is further arranged to select, for use in the operation of the radio base station, a version of the internal interface which is supported by both the new version of the part of the radio base station that is being upgraded and the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded.

15. A radio base station for transmitting and receiving radio signals in a mobile radio network, the radio base station having a interface towards an operation and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising:

a platform part and an application part, the platform part and the application part interacting via an internal interface of which different versions exist;

the platform part comprises a data file comprising first information on which versions of said internal interface are supported by the platform part; and

the application part comprises a data file comprising second information on which version s of said internal interface are supported by the application part.

16. The radio base station of claim 15, wherein

the radio base station is arranged to compare, upon upgrading of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the contents of list of the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with the versions of the internal interface supported by the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded;

and

the radio base station is further arranged to select, for use in the operation of the radio base station, a version of the internal interface which is supported by both the new version of the part of the radio base station that is being upgraded and the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded.

17. A method of upgrading a file in a radio base station, the file being a data file or an executable file, the radio base station having an interface towards an operations and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising a non-volatile, writable memory comprising a file system in which the file-to-be-upgraded is stored, the method comprising:

receiving, in the radio base station over the interface, a new version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

storing the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded in the file system while keeping a previous version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

keeping an indication in the radio base station as to which version of the file-to-be-upgraded is the active version to be used in the operation of the radio base station; and

arranging so that said indication indicates that the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is the active version.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein

said radio base station comprises data storage on which is stored a file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the file-to-be-upgraded is stored;

and wherein said arranging comprises

updating said file comprising information upon storing said new version, the updating being performed in a way so that the information indicates that the new version is the active version.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising

indicating, if the operation of the radio base station is disturbed when the new version of the file to be upgraded is used in the operation of the radio base station, in the file comprising information, that the previous version of the file-to-be-upgraded is the active version of the file-to-be-upgraded.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein

said radio base station comprises data storage on which is stored a file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the file-to-be-upgraded is stored;

and wherein said arranging comprises;

storing, upon upgrading the file-to-be-upgraded, the version of said file-to-be-upgraded which has previously been used as the active version as a version which should be used upon reverting to a previous version;

and storing the new version of said file-to-be-upgraded so that said indication in said file comprising said indication indicates that said new version is the version to be used in the operation of the radio base station.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein

the radio base station comprises a non-volatile, writeable memory comprising a back-up area for the back-up storage of files in the file system, the back-up area being separate from the file system, the method further comprising

storing, if the operation of the radio base station is not disturbed when the new version of the file to be upgraded is used, the new version of the file to be upgraded in the back-up area.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein, if the radio base station cannot operate, the contents of the back-up area is copied into the file system.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein

the new version of the file to be upgraded is of a specific file type;

and wherein the method comprises

checking whether version(s) of the file to be upgraded, stored in the file system prior to the upgrading, are of the same file type as the new version; and

if not, interrupting the upgrading of the file to be upgraded.

24. A method of operating a radio base station having files stored in a file system in a non-volatile, writeable memory, the method comprising

storing, in a back-up area of a non-volatile memory, a back-up copy of said file system, wherein the back-up area is independent of said file system;

and

copying, upon detection of problems with the file system, the contents of the back-up area into the file system.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising

reading the information on which files should be present in the file system contained in said file comprising information;

comparing said information with the files that are actually present in the file system;

loading the contents of the back-up area into the file system if discrepancies are detected between the files that should be present and the files that actually are present in the file system.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the files stored in the file system comprises a content indicator indicating whether or not the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty;

and wherein the method comprises

checking said content indicators; and

loading contents of the back-up area into the file system if a content indicator is found to indicate that the file to which the content indicator belongs is faulty.

27. A method of operating a radio base station, the radio base station having a platform part and an application part communicating via an internal interface existing in different versions, the radio base station further having an interface towards an operation and maintenance node, the method comprising:

storing, in the radio base station, a first list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the platform part;

storing, in the radio base station, a second list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the application part; and

comparing, upon upgrading of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the contents of list of the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with the versions of the internal interface supported by the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded; and

selecting, to be used in the operation of the radio base station, a version being supported by both the part of radio base station which is being upgraded and the part of radio base station which is not being upgraded.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein

the comparing and selecting is performed by the operation and maintenance node.

29. A computer program product comprising computer program code means operable to, when executed on digital programmable circuitry of a radio base station, execute a method of operating a radio base station having files stored in a file system in a non-volatile, writeable memory, the method comprising

storing, in a back-up area of a non-volatile memory, a back-up copy of said file system, wherein the back-up area is independent of said file system;

and

copying, upon detection of problems with the file system, the contents of the back-up area into the file system.

30. A computer program product comprising computer program code means operable to, when executed on digital programmable circuitry of a radio base station, execute a method of operating a radio base station, the radio base station having a platform part and an application part communicating via an internal interface existing in different versions, the radio base station further having an interface towards an operation and maintenance node, the method comprising:

storing, in the radio base station, a first list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the platform part;

storing, in the radio base station, a second list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the application part; and

comparing, upon upgrading of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the contents of list of the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with the versions of the internal interface supported by the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded; and

selecting, to be used in the operation of the radio base station, a version being supported by both the part of radio base station which is being upgraded and the part of radio base station which is not being upgraded.

31. A computer program product comprising computer program code means operable to, when executed on digital programmable circuitry of a radio base station or an operation and maintenance node of a radio base station, execute a method of upgrading a file in a radio base station, the file being a data file or an executable file, the radio base station having an interface towards an operations and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising a non-volatile, writable memory comprising a file system in which the file-to-be-upgraded is stored, the method comprising:

receiving, in the radio base station over the interface, a new version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

storing the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded in the file system while keeping a previous version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

keeping an indication in the radio base station as to which version of the file-to-be-upgraded is the active version to be used in the operation of the radio base station; and

arranging so that said indication indicates that the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is the active version.