GB2363946A

GB2363946A - Remote updating of a program in a mobile communication unit

Info

Publication number: GB2363946A
Application number: GB0122125A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Yutaka Tomiyori
Original assignee: NEC Corp
Current assignee: NEC Corp
Priority date: 1999-08-11
Filing date: 2000-08-11
Publication date: 2002-01-09
Anticipated expiration: 2020-08-11
Also published as: GB2371724A; GB2363946B; GB0122125D0; GB0203799D0; GB2371724B

Abstract

Version information for a program currently stored in a mobile communication terminal is stored in a database of a download controller, associated with a telephone number of the mobile communication terminal. When a new version of the program is input from an input unit, the download controller transmits the input program to the mobile communication terminal according to the telephone number via a mobile base station and an exchange station. When the mobile communication terminal receives the input program, the stored program is updated with the input program.

Description

2363946 MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR UPDATING A PROGRAM STORED IN A

MOBILE TERMINAL

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1 Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a mobile communication system In particular it relates to a mobile communication system, wherein a program currently stored in a mobile communication terminal can be easily updated.

2 Description of the Related Art

Conventionally, when a software program that is internally stored in a mobile communication terminal, such as a mobile cellular phone, needs to be updated, the updating of the program is performed at a maintenance facility or in the plant of a carrier provider or a terminal manufacturer The mobile communication terminal is designed so that a user thereof can not arbitrarily rewrite the program, because the mobile communication terminal can become inoperable if the user incorrectly updates the program.

When the program for the mobile communication terminal is updated at a maintenance facility, etc, a computer connected to the mobile communication terminal is used to rewrite the program, or the mobile communication terminal is disassetmbled so that memory modules in which the program is stored can be exchanged.

Since the updating of the program stored in the mobile communication terminal has to be performed at the maintenance facility etc, once a mobile communication terminal has been marketed, it is difficult to rewrite the program stored therein.

Moreover, a great deal of labor is required to perform the program updating process because of the use of the computer or the disassembling of the mobile communication terminal, whereby there is the possibility that an operational failure may be induced by updating the program.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the preferred embodi- ments of the present invention to provide a mobile communication system capable of easily updating or rewriting a program stored in a mobile communication terminal.

Another object of the preferred embodiments of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication system capable of updating or rewriting a program stored in a mobile communication terminal without an undue amount of labour.

Still another object of the preferred embodiments of the present invention is to provide a mobile communi- cation system capable of updating or rewriting a program stored in a mobile communication terminal at predetermined times.

A mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a mobile communication terminal having a first storage unit which stores a first program, a second storage unit storing first management information for the first program, an input unit inputting a second program and second management information for the second program, and a controller coupled to the second storage unit and the input unit, controlling transmission of the second program to the mobile communication terminal based on the first management information and the second management information.

Another mobile communication system,, according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein a plurality of mobile communication terminals are coupled to an exchange station through a base station, comprises a storage unit storing first management information for each of the plurality of mobile communication terminals concerning a program currently stored in the mobile communication terminal, and second -management information identifying each of the plurality of mobile communication terminals, wherein the first management information is stored associated with the second management information by each of the plurality of mobile communication terminals, an input unit inputting an input program and third management information f or applying the input program; and a controller coupled to the storage unit and the input unit, searching the first management information and the second management information for a target mobile communication terminal among the plurality of mobile communication terminals based on the third management information input by said input unit, and transmitting the input program to the target mobile communication terminal according to the searching result.

A mobile communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a storage unit storing a first version of a program, a receiver receiving a second version of a program, wherein the second version of the program is a subsequent version to the first version of the program, and a controller updating the first version of the program stored in the storage unit with the second version of the program.

A method of downloading a program to a mobile communication terminal having stored therein a first program, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises inputting a second program, transmitting the second program to a mobile communication terminal when the version of the first program is subsequent to the version of the second program, and updating the first program stored in the mobile communication terminal with the second program.

Another method of updating a program stored in a mobile communication terminal, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises storing first management information for a program currently stored in a mobile communication terminal, in association with a telephone number of the mobile communication terminal, inputting an input program and second management information for the input program, and transmitting the input program to the mobile communication terminal using the telephone number based on the first management information and the second management information.

A program download controller according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a storage unit storing first management information for a first program stored in a terminal, an input unit inputting a second program and second management information for the second program, and a control unit controlling transmission of the second program to the terminal based on the first and second management information.

A transmission signal includes a second program, according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the transmission signal is transmitted to a mobile communication terminal storing a first program, and the mobile communication terminal is determined according to a first management information for the first program and a second management information for the second program.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred features of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:FIG 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a mobile communication system according to the present invention; FIG 2 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a mobile communication terminal shown in FIG 1; FIG 3 is a diagram showing data stored in a database shown in FIG 1; FIG 4 is a flowchart showing a program download process at a network side according to the present invention; FIG 5 is a flowchart showing the program updating process at the network side in cooperation with FIG 4; FIG 6 is a flowchart showing a program download process at a mobile communication terminal side according to the present invention; FIG 7 is a flowchart showing the program updating process at the mobile communication terminal side in cooperation with FIG 6; FIG 8 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of a mobile communication terminal; and FIG 9 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of a program download controller according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be discussed by referring to the drawings.

Referring to FIG 1, a mobile communication system has mobile communication terminals 1 such as a mobile cellular phone, a portable telephone etc, a wireless base station 2, a wireless base station controller 3, an exchange station 4, and a download controller 5.

The mobile communication terminal 1 includes a program download unit 10 for downloading a program, such as a control program, an operation program and an application program, to an internal memory (not shown), whereby programs that have previously been stored in the internal memory can be updated or rewritten.

In the download controller 5, a download control unit 51 controls the exchange station 4 to download a program and output the downloaded program A database 52 is used to store a telephone number, a serial number and model information for each mobile communication terminal 1, and version information for a program that is currently installed or stored in each mobile communication terminal 1 An input unit 54 inputs a program to be downloaded and an instruction for downloading the program to the mobile communication terminals 1 A memory 53 stores the program input by the input unit 54.

The exchange station 4 includes an interface 41 with the download control unit 51 of the program download controller 5.

Referring to FIG 2, the mobile communication terminal 1 includes a program download unit 10, an antenna 11, a wireless transmission/reception unit 12, a base band transmitter 13, a transmission data processor 14, a base band receiver 15, a reception data processor 16, a transmission/reception controller 17, a central processing unit (CPU) 18, a read only memory (ROM) 19, a random access memory (RAM) 20, a display/keypad controller 21, a display 22, a keypad 23, a power controller 24, a battery 25, a microphone 26, and a loudspeaker 27 The program download unit 10 includes a program download controller 31 and a memory 32 for storing a downloaded program.

Referring to FIG 3, an arrangement of the database 52 is shown In FIG 3, stored in the database 52 are telephone numbers of each of the mobile communication terminals 1, e g, " 0912345678 ", " 09012345679 " and " 09012345700 "; product serial numbers of each of the mobile communication terminals 1, e g, " 1999010001 ", " 1999010002 " and " 1999010100 "; model numbers of each of the mobile communication terminals 1, e g, "N 206 " and "N 207 ", version numbers of programs currently stored in each of the mobile communication terminals 1, e g, "Vl 01 " and "V 1 20 "; and dates of the latest program update for each of the mobile communication terminals 1, e g, " 1999/04/01 ", " 1999/04/10 " and " 1999/05/01 " Next, a program download process according to the present invention will be discussed with reference to FIGS 1-7.

When a version of a program that is currently stored in the memory 32 of the mobile communication terminal 1 is upgraded, a system manager inputs an upgraded version of the program to the download controller 5 via the input unit 54 The input program is thereafter stored in the memory 53 of the download controller 5 (Sl) See Fig 4.

Subsequently, the system manager employs the input unit 54 to set a condition for an application of the input program, e g, information about the model of the mobile communication terminal 1 to which the input program is applicable and/or the date when the input program was upgraded ( 52) The mobile communication terminal with the currently stored program which is to be updated with the input program will be referred to as a target mobile communication terminal 1.

The download controller 5 searches for and extracts the telephone number of the target mobile communication terminal 1 from the database 52 based on the condition input via the input unit 54 Then, the download controller 5 issues an initial download request, via the interface 41, to the exchange station 4 to initiate the program download process for the target mobile communication terminal 1 ( 53).

The exchange station 4 manages the communication state of each mobile communication terminal 1 When the exchange station 4 receives the initial download request from the download controller 5 to initiate the program download process for the target mobile communication terminal 1, the exchange station 4 performs a process to confirm that the target mobile communication terminal 1 is in a call waiting state When it is determined that the target mobile communication terminal 1 is in the call waiting state ( 57), the exchange station 4 dials the telephone number of the target mobile communication terminal 1 and calls the target mobile communication terminal 1 via the wireless base station controller 3 and the base station 2.

When the exchange station 4 has succeeded in dialing and establishing communications with the target mobile communication terminal 1 ( 58 and 59), the exchange station 4 issues a download request and transmits the input program from the download controller 5 to the target mobile communication terminal 1 ( 510 to 512).

When the exchange station 4 has transmitted the input program, and receives from the target mobile communication terminal 1 a control message representing a reception end signal, the exchange station 4 completes the program download process and terminates the communications with the target mobile communication terminal 1 ( 514) Then, the exchange station 4 notifies the download controller 5 that the program download process has been completed for the target mobile communication terminal 1 Upon receipt of this notification from the exchange station 4, the download controller 5 updates data for the target mobile communication terminal 1 stored in the database 52 ( 515 and 516), so that a new program updating date and a new downloaded program version number are reflected in the database entries for the target mobile communication terminal 1.

When the target mobile communication terminal 1 is busy ( 56), or although not busy ( 56), is not in a call waiting state ( 57), it is determined that the next program download process to be performed is for another target mobile communication terminal 1 is performed ( 517) Similarly, when the target mobile communication terminal 1 does not respond to the download request from the exchange station 4 ( 51 l), or when the target mobile communication terminal 1 does not transmit the reception end signal to the exchange station 4 ( 515), it is determined that the next program download process to be performed is for another target mobile communication terminal 1 ( 517) When the next program download process is performed, the same process shown in FIGS 4 and 5 is performed.

Moreover, if the transmission of the input program from the exchange station 4 to the target mobile communication terminal 1 is interrupted ( 513), information regarding the point in the input program where the interruption occurred is stored.

Then, this information regarding the point of interruption is read out to restart the program download process from the point of interruption ( 54 and 55) and the program download process continues.

Such an interruption may be caused when the target mobile communication terminal 1 starts speech communication.

According to this embodiment, in the case where a program download process is performed for a plurality of target mobile communication terminals 1, when the program download process to one target mobile communication terminal 1 is interrupted, the program download process to the other target communication terminals 1 is continued The interrupted program download process for the target communication terminal 1 is restarted from the point of interruption after completion of the program download process for the other mobile communication terminals 1 Alternatively, the next program download process for another target communication terminal 1 is not performed until a program download process for the current target communication terminal 1 has succeeded even if the program download process for the current target communication terminal 1 is interrupted.

Next, a program download process at the mobile communication terminal 1 will be discussed with reference to the drawings, mainly FIGS 2, 6 and 7.

Upon the receipt of the call and the download request from the exchange station 4, the target mobile communication terminal 1 notifies the wireless base station 2 that the target mobile communication terminal 1 has received the download request and enters a program download mode ( 521-25) The target mobile communication terminal 1 then receives the input program via the wireless transmission/reception unit 12, the base band receiver 15 and the reception data processor 16, and sequentially stores the input program in the memory 32 ( 526-27) If the program download process is interrupted during its reception, the target mobile communication terminal 1 returns to be in a call waiting state ( 528) In this case, since the information regarding the point in the input program where the interruption occurred is stored at the exchange station 4 or the download controller 5, the program download process restarts based on this information On the target mobile communication terminal 1, the same processes from 522 to 527 are repeated until the program download process succeeds.

When the target mobile communication terminal 1 has successfully completed reception of the input program ( 529), the target mobile communication terminal 1 notifies the wireless base station 2 of the completion and terminates the communication connection ( 530 and 531).

Following this, the target mobile communication terminal 1 uses the program download controller 31 to erase a program that is currently stored in the ROM 19, and then writes the downloaded input program in the ROM 19 An alterable memory device such as an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) can be used as the ROM 19.

The updating of the program is thus terminated ( 532 and 533).

As is described above, according to this embodiment, in an exchange network side or a wireless base station side, an instruction to update or rewrite a program stored in a mobile communication terminal is issued based on the product model number, the serial number and/or the program version information for each mobile communication terminal Therefore, a user need not carry the mobile communication terminal to a lo retailer or a maintenance service place to have the program rewritten and the user is always assured that the latest program will be automatically and timely provided.

In this case, since the program is downloaded is based on information stored in the database 52, sufficient security can be maintained.

Furthermore, programs for the mobile communication terminal 1 can be updated without users or a maintenance person having to touch the terminal 1 itself Therefore, the occurrence of failure due to mistakes made during program rewriting can be prevented, and the cost of training program rewrite staff members, and other maintenance expenses, can be reduced In addition, programs can be downloaded efficiently by utilizing time periods, such as the late night hours, when network traffic is light.

As a result, according to this embodiment, since programs can be easily rewritten without requiring maintenance facilities or using carrier providers' or terminal manufacturers' plants, the labor effort required for updating programs can be eliminated, and the possibility of inducing operational failures by updating a program can be prevented.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be discussed with reference to FIGS 8 and 9.

In FIG 8, a mobile communication terminal 1 A is the same as the mobile communication terminal 1 shown in FIG 2, except for a timer 28 The same reference numerals are also used to denote corresponding components Furthermore, the operations performed by the components of this embodiment, are substantially the same as those performed by corresponding components of the mobile communication terminal 1 shown in FIG 2.

Also, a download controller 5 A of this embodiment shown in FIG 9, is substantially the same as that of the download controller 5 shown in FIG 1, except for a timer 55 The same reference numerals are also used to denote corresponding components Furthermore, the operations performed by the components of this embodiment are substantially the same as those performed by corresponding components of the download controller 5 shown in FIG 1.

In this embodiment, a program download time is the time when a program download process is performed The program download time is managed or controlled by the timers 28 and 55, and the program download process, for example, is automatically initiated at a predetermined time specified by the timers 28 and 55.

On the terminal side, a user or a carrier provider sets a predetermined automatic download start time Then, when the timer 28 reaches the predetermined automatic download start time, if the target mobile communication terminal 1 A is off, the target mobile communication terminal 1 A automatically powers itself on and then waits for arrival of a downloading start instruction from the base station.

On the base station side, the predetermined automatic download start time that is set for each mobile communication terminal 1 A is stored The program download process for the target mobile communication terminal 1 A begins when the predetermined time is reached.

lo This embodiment can be easily implemented merely by adding the timers 28 and 55 to the download controller 5 and the mobile communication terminal 1 as discussed in the first embodiment.

When midnight, for example, is set as the is predetermined automatic download start time for a mobile communication terminal l A, the program download process is performed at a time period during which line traffic is comparatively light, so that the program download process is prevented from overwhelming the transmission capabilities of a communication line.

Furthermore, when the predetermined time is set for a period during which the user normally does not frequently employ the mobile communication terminal, the program can be updated while, for example, the user is sleeping As a result, there is less of a chance that downloading will interfere with the user's employ- ment of the mobile communication terminal.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteris- tics thereof The embodiments of the present invention described here are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (which term includes the claims) and/or shown in the drawings may be incorporated in the invention independ- ently of other disclosed and/or illustrated features.

The text of the abstract filed herewith is repeated here as part of the specification.

Version information for a program currently stored in a mobile communication terminal is stored in a database of a download controller, associated with a telephone number of the mobile communication terminal.

When a new version of the program is input from an input unit, the download controller transmits the input pro- gram to the mobile communication terminal according to the telephone number via a mobile base station and an exchange station When the mobile communication ter- minal receives the input program, the stored program is updated with the input program.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1 A mobile communication apparatus, comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a first version of a program; a receiver configured to receive a second version of a program, wherein the second version of the program is a subsequent version to the first version of the program; and, a controller configured to update the first version of the program stored in said storage unit with the second version of the program.

2 The mobile communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a timer for generating a timing signal at a predetermined time, wherein in response to the timing signal said control- ler renders said receiver capable of receiving the second version of the program.

3 The mobile communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, further comprising a trans- mitter for sending a notification to a base station that said controller has completed updating the first version of the program with the second version of the program.

4 A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium bearing computer-readable instructions, the product being configured to cause:

a storage unit of a mobile communication apparatus to store a first version of a program; a receiver of the mobile communication apparatus to receive from a base station a second version of the program, wherein the second version of the program is a subsequent version to the first version of the program; and, a controller of the mobile communication apparatus to update the first version of the program stored in said storage unit with the second version of the program.

The computer program product as claimed in claim 4, wherein the product is also configured to cause:

a timer of the mobile communication apparatus to generate a timing signal at a pre-determined time, wherein in response to the timing signal said controller renders said receiver capable of receiving the second version of the program.

6 The computer program product as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the product is also configured to cause:

a transmitter of the mobile communication apparatus to send a notification to a base station that said controller has completed updating the first version of the program with the second version of the program.

7 A mobile communication apparatus substanti- ally as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

8 A computer program product substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.