Network for updating electronic devices

• US 8,555,273 B1
• Filed: 09/17/2004
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Chia, Teck, Dinh, John D. V., Gustafson, James P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Cheneca
• Application Number:
  US10/943,455
• Time in Patent Office: 3,308 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an electronic device network for lifecycle management of firmware and software in electronic devices. The electronic device network may also be adapted to manage configuration parameters in the electronic devices. Lifecycle management provided by the electronic device network may include firmware and software downloading, firmware and software updating, and remote locking and remote enabling of electronic device capability. An update store module in the electronic device network may be adapted to dispense update packages to requesting electronic devices. The electronic devices may employ one or a plurality of update agents to update software and firmware therein. A boot loader in the electronic device is capable of determining whether an update agent is to be invoked or whether a previous backup copy of the update agent in non-volatile memory is to be invoked upon determining, based upon status information, that an update is to be conducted, rather than a normal startup operation without updates.

Claims

1. A method of updating a plurality of mobile electronic devices, the method comprising:

selecting an update package for updating one of firmware and software, according to at least one modifiable download state, including a conflict resolution state and a deletion resolution state, associated with the update package, wherein the download state is based upon a modifiable status of the update package;

transmitting the selected update package to a plurality of associated mobile electronic devices, wherein the update package comprises a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software in mobile electronic devices of the download group; and

wherein the plurality of associated mobile electronic devices comprises a grouping of electronic devices unauthorized to download the update package and a non-removable download group, the non-removable download group comprising a grouping of electronic devices permitted to download the update package regardless of client identification and authorization.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating the mobile electronic devices based upon at least one of an identical electronic device make, an identical electronic device, an identical installed firmware version, an identical installed software version, an identical installed operating system, and an identically installed encryption implementation.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising prompting an electronic device management system to select at least one group of associated mobile electronic devices to transmit the update package to.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising prompting an electronic device management system to select whether an update package to be transmitted is for one of a silent update and an opt-in update, and autonomously performing the silent update and prompting an electronic device end-user to authorize and participate in the opt-in update.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising transmitting notifications to the associated electronic devices that an update is one of pending, in-progress, completed, failed, aborted, and successful.

6. A method for managing update processing in a mobile electronic device, the method comprising:

storing an update package in a designated non-volatile memory location, in the mobile electronic device;

computing an update state descriptor, according to at least one modifiable download state, including a conflict resolution state and a deletion resolution state, associated with the update package, in the mobile electronic device, wherein the update state descriptor includes a field employed to store an address of the update package; and

after computing the update state descriptor, storing the update state descriptor in another designated non-volatile memory location, in the mobile electronic device.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising booting the mobile electronic device after the update state descriptor and the update package are written to respective designated non-volatile memory locations.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising identifying an update status of one of firmware and software to be updated.

9. An update management system for distributing an update package adapted to be processed by an updating software, the system comprising:

at least one server having a processor that maintains at least one modifiable download state associated with the update package, including a conflict resolution state and a deletion resolution state, wherein the download state is based upon a modifiable status of the update package; and

wherein the at least one server distributes the update package to members of at least one download group depending upon the at least one download state, and wherein the updating software is adapted to process a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device;

wherein the members of at least one download group comprise a grouping of electronic devices unauthorized to download the update package and a non-removable download group, the non-removable download group comprising a grouping of electronic devices permitted to download the update package regardless of client identification and authorization.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one download state indicates that an update package associated with the at least one download state is authorized for downloading.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one download state indicates that an update package associated with the at least one download state is unauthorized for downloading.

12. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one download group comprises at least one update package authorized for downloading.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the update package is associated with the at least one download group based upon the at least one download state of the associated update package.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one download group comprises a grouping of electronic devices authorized to download the update package.

15. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one download group comprises at least one update package unauthorized for downloading.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the update package is associated with the at least one download group based upon the at least one download state of the associated update package.

17. The system according to claim 9, wherein electronic devices in the non-removable download group share a particular parameter value.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the particular parameter value comprises unique hardware identification associated with one of the electronic device and a particular electronic device manufacturer.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the particular parameter value comprises a version of the one of firmware and software to be updated.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein the particular parameter value is employed to facilitate selection of an update package to be downloaded to an electronic device, the particular parameter value is selected from at least one of an electronic device model identification, an electronic device manufacturer identification, a firmware version, a software version, an electronic device international mobile equipment identifier IMEI, a telephone number, and a device unique identification.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein the particular parameter value comprises a parameter request, wherein the electronic device is adapted to respond to the parameter request by transmitting a requested parameter.

22. An update management system comprising:

a server having a processor adapted to evaluate an update package to determine at least one modifiable download state, including a conflict resolution state and a deletion resolution state, and at least one download group associated with the update package, wherein the download state is based upon a modifiable status of the update package, and wherein the update package comprises a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device; and

wherein the at least one download group comprises a grouping of electronic devices unauthorized to download the update package and a non-removable download group, the non-removable download group comprising a grouping of electronic devices permitted to download the update package regardless of client identification and authorization.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the server is adapted to prioritize a plurality of matching updates by evaluating the at least one download state associated with each of the plurality of matching updates.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the server is adapted to select an update package having a highest priority for updating one of firmware and software.

25. The system according to claim 23, wherein the server is adapted to select an update package based upon an indicator associated with the update package, wherein the indicator is identifiable through a conflict resolution analysis.

26. The system according to claim 23, wherein a downloaded update package is quarantined and evaluated in at least one component of the system to prevent malicious attacks and electronic device damage.

27. The system according to claim 22, wherein a plurality of update packages are stored in an update store module comprising non-volatile memory.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the plurality of update packages stored in the update store module each comprise an associated update state, wherein the update state indicates that the plurality of update packages comprise one of a new update package, an update package being testing, an approved update package, a released update package, an inactive update package, an obsolete update package, and a discarded update package.

29. An update generation system adapted to generate an update package for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device, the update generation system comprising:

at least one processor that generates the update package using the first and the second versions of one of firmware and software and software linker information received via an interface supporting a plurality of compiling and linking formats;

wherein the at least one processor employs software interfaces supporting zoning a generated update package for a mobile device, wherein zoning a generated update package comprises dividing the generated update package into code segments and employing different settings and rules for updating different code segments; and

wherein the zoning includes;

a preprocessor, a write unit size, an updateable zone, an excluded zone, an update agent zone, and a reserved write unit zone.

30. The system according to claim 29, wherein zoning a generated update comprises zone management, wherein zone management comprises defining at least one of a pre-processor, a write unit size, an updateable zone, an excluded zone, an updating software zone, and a reserved write unit zone.

31. A system for managing updates of one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device, the system comprising:

at least one processor operably coupled to interface circuitry that communicates via a wireless network, and to memory having stored therein executable code comprising;

firmware management code that controls negotiation and downloading to the electronic device of an update package for updating one or both of firmware and software in the electronic device according to at least one modifiable download state, including a conflict resolution state and a deletion resolution state, associated with the update package, the firmware management code comprising;

at least one communications handling component;

at least one data transfer handling component;

at least one display handling component; and

at least one event-handling component; and

at least one component that determines if the electronic device belongs to a grouping of electronic devices unauthorized to download the update package, and determines if the electronic device belongs to a non-removable download group, the non-removable download group comprising a grouping of electronic devices permitted to download the update package regardless of client identification and authorization.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the at least one communications handling component comprises at least one of a short message service (SMS)-based protocol, an extensible markup language (XML)-based protocol, and a device management based protocol.

33. The system according to claim 31, wherein the at least one data transfer handling component comprises at least one of a download protocol compatible with Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)-specification and a simple object access protocol (SOAP)-based protocol.

34. The system according to claim 31, wherein the at least one display handling component comprises a customer care module.

35. The system according to claim 31, wherein the at least one event handling component comprises at least one of a firmware management client and a software management client.

36. The system according to claim 31, wherein the executable code comprises:

at least one update status descriptor handling component;

at least one update storage handling component;

at least one electronic device reset handling component; and

at least one update status notification handling component.

37. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein updating code executable by a processor to process a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device, the updating code comprising:

a zoning component capable of processing non-contiguous code segments, wherein zoning comprises dividing the code segments of an update package for the mobile device and employing different settings and rules for updating different code segments;

a pre-processing component for reducing a size of the updating software;

at least one updateable component;

a digital signature decryption component; and

a verification component.

38. The computer readable medium according to claim 37, wherein the updating code operates independently of an operating system employed in the mobile electronic device.

39. The computer readable medium according to claim 37, wherein the updating code is compiled and linked separately from firmware and software resident in the mobile electronic device.

40. The computer readable medium according to claim 37, wherein the updating code is adapted to run independent of runtime libraries, compiler supplied runtime code, and linker supplied runtime code.