Radio base station and a method of operating a radio base station

• US 8,595,713 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2005
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Andrew LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Andrew LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sundvisson, Per-Erik, Lagerqvist, Tomas, Wahlstrm, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Tuan A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dinh, Lynda
• Application Number:
  US11/571,658
• Publication Number:
  US 20080320464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,080 Days
• Field of Search: 717/173, 717167-170, 707/200, 707/202, 707/203, 707/640, 707/679, 707/674, 707/684, 713/1, 713/200, 455/561
• US Class Current: 717/168
• 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 with a remote operation and maintenance node, the radio base station comprising:

a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices;

a non-volatile memory comprising a file system in which files relating to operation of the radio base station are stored;

wherein

the file system comprises at least two versions of an operational file, out of which one version is an active version used in the operation of the radio base station and received from the remote operation and maintenance node as an upgrade version of the operational file and out of which one version is a previous version;

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

the radio base station operates using the upgrade version of the operational file as the active version of the operational file;

the radio base station (i) determines that its operation using the upgrade version of the operational file is running smoothly and (ii) detects that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node;

the radio base station reverts to using the previous version of the operational file in the operation of the radio base station instead of the upgrade version of the operational file after (i) determining that the operation of the radio base station using a new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is running smoothly and (ii) detecting that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.

2. The radio base station of claim 1, wherein

the non volatile memory stores are start file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the operational file is stored;

and wherein

the radio base station is arranged to update the re start file comprising said indication when a new active version of the operational file is included in said file system by way of an update operation.

3. The radio base station of claim 1, wherein the non volatile memory stores are start file comprising said indication, said indication comprising information regarding where in the file system the active version of the operational file is stored;

and wherein

the radio base station is arranged to, upon updating of said operational file, store a version of the operational file that previously was 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 an updated version of the operational file as a new active version of the operational file so that said indication in the re start file indicates that said new active version is a 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 information category;

and

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

5. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory comprises the backup area for back up storage of files of the file system, wherein the backup area is independent of the file system.

6. The radio base station of claim 5, wherein

the radio base station further comprises the boot application;

the file system comprises an information file comprising information regarding files that should be present in the file system;

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

wherein

the boot application is further arranged to load the contents of the backup 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 1, wherein the radio base station comprises a platform part, an application part and plural versions of an internal interface, the platform part and the application part interacting via one of the versions of the internal interface;

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

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

8. The radio base station of claim 7, wherein

the radio base station is arranged to compare, upon upgrading of one of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, the data file for the part of the radio base station that is not being upgraded with an updated version of the data file for 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 upgraded and the part of the radio base station that is not upgraded.

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

a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices;

a hardware-based platform part, a software-based application part, and plural versions of an internal interface, the platform part and the application part interacting via one of the versions of the internal interface;

the platform part comprises a first data file comprising first information identifying versions of said internal interface that are supported by the platform part;

the application part comprises a second data file comprising second information identifying versions of said internal interface that are supported by the application part;

the radio base station is arranged to compare, upon upgrading of one of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, a data file for the part of the radio base station that is not upgraded with an updated version of the data file for the new version of the part of the radio base station which is upgraded;

the radio base station is further arranged to select, based on the comparison and for use in 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 upgraded and the part of the radio base station that is not upgraded;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.

10. A method of upgrading a file to be upgraded in a radio base station having a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices, the file-to-be-upgraded being a data file or an executable file, the radio base station having an interface with a remote operation 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 stored in the non-volatile, writable memory;

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

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

operating the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded as the active version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

(i) determining that the operation of the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is running smoothly and (ii) detecting that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node; and

reverting to using the previous version of the file-to-be-upgraded in the operation of the radio base station instead of the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded after (i) determining that the operation of the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is running smoothly and (ii) detecting that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node, wherein;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising

storing are start 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 re start file to indicate that the new version is the active version when storing said new version.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising modifying the re-start file, 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, so that the previous version of the file to be upgraded is the active version of the file to be upgraded.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising

storing are start 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

the previous version of said file to be upgraded is maintained as a version which should be used upon reverting to a previous version.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein

the non-volatile, writeable memory comprises the backup area for back up storage of files in the file system, the backup area being independent of 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.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, if the radio base station cannot operate, the contents of the backup area are copied into the file system.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein

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

and wherein the method comprises

checking whether a version of the file to be upgraded that is stored in the file system prior to the upgrading, is of the same specific file type as the new version; and

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

17. A method of operating a radio base station having a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices, the radio base station having a hardware-based platform part, a software-based application part and plural versions of an internal interface, the platform part and the application part communicating via one of the versions of the internal interface, the radio base station further having an interface with a remote 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;

comparing, upon upgrading of one of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, contents of the list of the part of the radio base station that is not upgraded with an updated version of the list for the new version of the part of the radio base station which is upgraded; and

selecting, based on the comparison and for use in operation of the radio base station, a version of the internal interface that is supported by both the part of radio base station which is upgraded and the part of radio base station which is not upgraded, wherein;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the comparing and selecting are performed by the remote operation and maintenance node.

19. A non-transient computer readable medium comprising computer program code that, when executed on digital programmable circuitry of a radio base station having a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices, a hardware-based platform part, a software-based application part and plural versions of an internal interface, the platform part and the application part communicating via one of the versions of the internal interface, the radio base station further having an interface with a remote operation and maintenance node:

stores, in a non-volatile memory of the radio base station, a first list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the platform part;

stores, in a non-volatile memory of the radio base station, a second list of which versions of the internal interface are supported by the application part; and

compares, upon upgrading of one of the platform part or the application part with a new version of the platform part or the application part, contents of the list of the part of the radio base station that is not upgraded with an updated version of the list for the new version of the part of the radio base station which is being upgraded; and

selecting, based on the comparison and for use in operation of the radio base station, a version of the internal interface that is supported by both the part of the radio base station which is upgraded and the part of the radio base station which is not upgraded, wherein;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.

20. A non-transient computer readable medium comprising computer program code that, when executed on digital programmable circuitry of a radio base station, upgrades a file to be upgraded in the radio base station, the file-to-be-upgraded being a data file or an executable file, wherein the radio base station has an interface with an operation and maintenance node, the radio base station including a non-volatile, writable memory storing a file system in which the file to be upgraded is stored and a radio interface that provides mobile communications to end user mobile electronic devices, the code to carry out the upgrade includes code to:

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

store the new version of the file to be upgraded in the file system while keeping a previous version of the file to be upgraded stored in the non-volatile, writable memory;

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

arrange the indication so that said indication indicates that the new version of the file to be upgraded is the active version;

operate the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded as the active version of the file-to-be-upgraded;

(i) determine that the operation of the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is running smoothly and (ii) detect that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node; and

revert to using the previous version of the file-to-be-upgraded in the operation of the radio base station instead of the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded after (i) determining that the operation of the radio base station using the new version of the file-to-be-upgraded is running smoothly and (ii) detecting that the radio base station is not able to contact the remote operation and maintenance node, wherein;

the radio base station further comprises a content indicator for a file stored in the file system, the content indicator indicating whether or not the file associated with the content indicator is faulty;

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

the boot application is further arranged to load contents of a backup area into the file system if the content indicator indicates that the file is faulty.