JP2010183474A - Method of updating software of radio communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a software version technology effectively utilizing a redundant configuration method without increase in system costs. <P>SOLUTION: An EMS 8 periodically requests a version-up server 14 to inquire whether or not a file of latest version is present or not, acquires information on software version from a radio communication gateway 10 and, if not latest, notifies an operator of the software version. The EMS 8 brings one of a plurality of CPU boards 2 of the radio communication gateway 10 into a standby state and transmits a request for downloading latest software to the radio communication gateway 10. On the basis of the instruction, an O&M application 24 of the radio communication gateway 10 downloads the latest software to install it. Furthermore, the EMS 8 performs re-initiation upon receipt of the notification. The EMS 8 notifies the switched-over CPU 2 of switching-over. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a management apparatus for a wireless communication system, for example, a wireless communication base station in an outdoor area, a gateway installed in a building by collecting the base stations, and software data and versions of each system are managed. The present invention relates to a management apparatus for a wireless communication system to which a software update technology for updating to the latest version of software in a system is applied in an EMS system that manages an application server and a wireless communication base station, gateway, and application server.

  In recent years, in a wireless communication system, in addition to various wireless communication systems, data transmission / reception techniques using networks such as the Internet and LAN that are rapidly spreading among wired communication lines have been developed.

  The conventional system will be described below. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system 100. The communication system 100 includes a plurality of wireless communication base stations 7 (hereinafter referred to as “BS7”), an EMS (Element Management System) 8, and a plurality of wireless communication gateways 10. Trademark) network 6. Here, three wireless communication gateways 10 are installed in areas A to C.

  The BS 7 is connected to a wireless communication terminal (hereinafter referred to as “MS9”) by a wireless transmission path 11 (hereinafter referred to as “wireless transmission path 11”). The MS 9 accesses an external network 6b (such as the Internet) connected to the wide area Ethernet network 6 via the BS 7 and the wireless communication gateway 10 that manages the BS 7. The wide area Ethernet network 6 is connected to a version upgrade server 14 that manages the control software of the wireless communication gateway 10.

  The wireless communication gateway 10 is a system based on an ATCA (Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture) platform, and includes a switch card 1, a CPU board 2, a management card 3, a power supply 4 and a fan 5. Since the ATCA system 10 can be realized with a general configuration, a detailed description thereof is omitted. The wireless communication gateway 10, the EMS 8, and the BS 7 are connected by a wide area Ethernet network 6 and are connected by an Internet transmission path 12.

  At present, the wireless communication gateway 10 is not allowed to be stopped, and the CPU board 2 is composed of an active CPU board 2a and a standby CPU board 2b and is duplicated. When the software is upgraded, the version is upgraded from either one. For example, while the active CPU board 2a is operating, the version is first upgraded from the standby CPU board 2b, and then the version of the active CPU board 2a is upgraded.

  Various techniques have been proposed for the software update method. For example, there is a technique for checking the software version according to the activation status of the wireless terminal (see Patent Document 1). This technique avoids excessive version confirmation processing and reduces power consumption (prevents battery life from being shortened).

JP 2008-258833 A

  When there are a plurality of active CPU boards 2a and one standby CPU board 2b, for example, the end user is informed in advance that the service is temporarily interrupted, and the active CPU board 2a performs versioning. Up is made. In general, firstly, the upgrade work is rehearsed, and a new software operation in the active CPU board 2a is monitored for a while by the operator. However, of course, this work requires labor costs. Alternatively, for the duplexing of the wireless communication gateway system 10, another system is added to a cold state that is not in operation. One of the duplexed systems is kept in the version upgrade work state, that is, the duplexed state is maintained as a cold working system. Therefore, the gateway that has been tripled and upgraded for a while is monitored, and there is a problem that system cost is increased. There is a problem that this cannot be applied when there are a plurality of active CPU boards 2a and only one standby CPU board 2b. Further, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to reduce the cost of the entire system by avoiding excessive version confirmation processing and reducing power consumption and battery life. However, cost reduction related to system multiplexing has not been considered, and another technique has been demanded.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and provide a software version technique that utilizes a redundant configuration method without increasing system cost. .

  One embodiment of the present invention relates to a software update method in a wireless communication system. The method includes: a wireless communication gateway including a plurality of active CPU boards and a standby CPU board; an application server that manages software of each system in the wireless communication gateway; and the wireless communication gateway And a management apparatus that manages the application server, wherein the software update method is in a wireless communication system, wherein the management apparatus is set in the wireless communication gateway and the latest version of the file existing in the application server. A version confirmation step for obtaining a version of the current software, comparing the versions, and determining whether or not an update is necessary, and when the management apparatus determines that an update is necessary in the version confirmation step, , The wireless communication Standby transition instruction step for instructing one of the CPU boards of the gateway to enter a standby state, and after the management device confirms that one of the CPU boards is in a standby state, the wireless communication gateway An update instruction step for instructing to download and update the latest version of the software from the application server, and the management device confirms the completion of the update of the software of the CPU board based on the update instruction, and the update is completed. And a restarting step for instructing restart of the CPU board whose software has been updated.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a technique capable of upgrading without maintaining the non-stop state and without increasing the cost of the entire system.

It is a figure which shows the example of a basic network structure based on a prior art. It is a functional block diagram which shows schematic structure of the redundant configuration system based on this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure from the upgrade start to completion based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the inquiry processing procedure from EMS at the time of steady state to a version upgrade server based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the process sequence which notifies an operator that it is an old version based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the CPU board standby state process sequence based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the process sequence which carries out the download request | requirement from the version up server based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the process sequence downloaded from the version up server based on Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the process sequence of a download completion notification and CPU board restart based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the process sequence of a switchover request after restart notification reception based on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the upgrade completion notification procedure based on embodiment.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter simply referred to as “embodiment”) will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment described below, the EMS upgrades the software in a state where the session information of the active CPU board of the wireless communication gateway is transferred to the standby CPU board and the operation is continued. This provides a software version method utilizing a redundant configuration method without increasing system cost.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the redundant configuration system 200 according to the present embodiment. The configuration of the redundant configuration system 200 includes the wireless communication gateway 10, the upgrade server 14, and the EMS 8 in the communication system 100 of FIG. 1 shown in the background art, and is stored with the communication system 100 shown in the background art. The program (application) to be executed is different. Further, the wireless communication gateway 10 can be realized by a system using an ATCA platform or a μTCA (Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture) platform which is an extension standard of the ATCA platform as described above. Since the wireless communication gateways 10 in each area can be realized with the same configuration, the wireless communication gateway 10 in the area A will be mainly described below.

  The CPU board 2 is composed of four boards of first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04. Each of the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 includes GW software 23, management software (hereinafter abbreviated as “O & M application”) 24, and redundant application 25. Here, the GW software 23 is a program for causing each of the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 of the ATAC system 10 to function as a gateway. The O & M application 24 is a program that performs network maintenance management. Further, the redundancy application 25 is a program for causing the redundancy of the wireless communication gateway 10 to function. The characteristic operations in the present embodiment of the GW software 23, the O & M application 24, and the redundant application 25 will be described below.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure for upgrading (updating) the software from the old version of the multiple CPU boards 2 (# 01 to # 04) from the EMS 8 to the latest version according to an instruction from the operator. 4 to 11 show the correspondence between the configurations in FIG. 2 in correspondence with the processing of the flowchart described in FIG. 3, and show only the wireless communication gateway 10 in area A. ing.

  The outline of the software version upgrade method proposed in this embodiment is as follows. First, the EMS 8 periodically inquires whether the latest version file exists in the upgrade server 14. Subsequently, the EMS 8 transmits a software version information request to the wireless communication gateway 10. Further, when the software version acquired from the wireless communication gateway 10 is old, the EMS 8 notifies the operator to that effect. Thereafter, the EMS 8 puts one CPU board 2 out of the plurality of CPU boards 2 of the wireless communication gateway 10 into a standby state. Further, when receiving from the wireless communication gateway 10 that the EMS 8 has shifted to the standby state, the EMS 8 transmits a download request, which is an instruction to download the latest software, from the upgrade server 14 to the wireless communication gateway 10. Subsequently, based on the instruction, the O & M application 24 of the wireless communication gateway 10 downloads the latest software from the version upgrade server 14. Then, the O & M application 24 changes to the latest software, and the EMS 8 receives the notification and restarts the upgraded CPU board 2. Further, the EMS 8 notifies the CPU board 2 that has switched over from the active system to the standby system for version upgrade so that it can be switched over again and returned to its original state. Further, the EMS 8 receives notification from the O & M application 24 that the status has changed to the active state, and notifies the operator that the version upgrade process has been completed. More specific description will be given below.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a procedure for inquiring whether the latest version of the file exists in the upgrade server 14 from the EMS 8 at a predetermined cycle in a normal state. Here, it corresponds to the processing of S20a and S20b of FIG. As shown in the figure, first, the EMS 8 periodically makes an inquiry to the upgrade server 14 to check whether there is an upgrade of each software (S20a). Then, the version upgrade server 14 notifies the latest version of each software to the EMS 8 in response to the above inquiry from the EMS 8 (S20b).

  FIG. 5 shows that the EMS 8 transmits a software version information request to the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 of the wireless communication gateway 10 in the area A, and the software version acquired by replying to the request is the version upgrade server. It is a figure which shows the example of a process sequence notified to an operator, when it is older than the version in this. Here, it corresponds to the steps S21a to S21d in FIG. The EMS 8 transmits a software version information acquisition request to the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 of the wireless communication gateway 10 in the area A (S21a). That is, the EMS 8 instructs the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 of the wireless communication gateway 10 to notify the EMS 8 of the software version. Then, the first to fourth CPU boards # 01 to # 04 of the wireless communication gateway 10 send the version information of the monitoring target software related to the O & M application 24 included therein to the EMS 8 and reply (S21b). Further, the EMS 8 compares the version information acquired from the upgrade server 14 with the version information acquired from the CPU board 2 (S21c). If the EMS 8 determines that the versions of the GW software 23 of the first to third CPU boards # 01 to # 03 are old, the GW software 23 of the first to third CPU boards # 01 to # 03 is updated to the latest version. The operator is notified of the fact that it can be uploaded to a predetermined display device (not shown) (S21d).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a processing procedure for requesting a switchover and preparing for version upgrade in order to place the first CPU board # 01 once in a standby state when the EMS 8 receives an approval operation of the operator. Here, it corresponds to the processing of S22a to S22d in FIG. In addition, on the screen that indicates that the GW software 23 of the first to third CPU boards # 01 to # 03 can be upgraded, “execute all”, “change”, or “do not execute”. Any item is displayed so as to be selectable by the operator (S22a). That is, the EMS 8 prompts the operator to select any item for the upgrade process. When the operator selects “execute all” (1 in S22a), the EMS 8 transmits a switchover instruction to the first CPU board # 01 so as to shift from the active system to the standby system (S22b). . Subsequently, when the first CPU board # 01 obtains a switchover instruction, the O & M application 24 starts a switchover process (S22c).

  On the other hand, when the operator selects “do not execute” (2 in S22a), the process returns to the steps of S20a and S20b. When the operator selects “change” (S22a-3), the EMS 8 either “executes” or “does not execute” version upgrades for the first to third CPU boards # 01 to # 03. The operator is requested to specify (S22d). That is, the operator selects whether to upgrade the GW software 23 for each of the first to third CPU boards # 01 to # 03 serving as the active system.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a processing procedure for making a download request from the version up server. Here, the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01 changes the state of the first CPU board # 01 from the active state (hereinafter abbreviated as “ACT”) to the standby state (hereinafter abbreviated as “STD”). The switching is acquired from the redundant application 25 and transmitted to the EMS 8. In response to this, the EMS 8 transmits a download request for the latest GW software 23 from the upgrade server 14 to the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01. This figure corresponds to the processing of S23a and S23b of FIG. When the O & M application 24 receives the status change notification from the redundant application 25, that is, the notification indicating that the ACT has moved to STD, the O & M application 24 transmits the notification to the EMS 8 (S23a). When the first CPU board # 01 moves to STD due to switchover, the fourth CPU board # 04 becomes ACT. Here, when the first CPU board # 01 moves to STD and the fourth CPU board # 04 moves to ACT, the session information and the like are transferred from the first CPU board # 01 to the fourth CPU board # 04. As a result, the operation is continued properly. Next, after confirming that the state of the first CPU board # 01 is STD, the EMS 8 downloads the file of the latest version of the GW software 23 from the upgrade server 14 to the O & M application 24. (S23b).

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure example in which the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01 downloads the latest GW software 23 from the version upgrade server 14 using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Here, it corresponds to the processing of S24a and S24b of FIG. The O & M application 24 downloads the latest version file of the wireless communication gateway 10 in the area A from the upgrade server 14 using a predetermined protocol (for example, FTP command) (S24a). Further, the O & M application 24 stores the GW software 23 downloaded from the upgrade server 14 in a predetermined storage area in the first CPU board # 01, for example, a hard disk (S24b).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing processing after the GW software 23 is downloaded from the upgrade server 14, and corresponds to the processing of S25a and S25b in FIG. After the download is completed, the O & M application 24 changes the current GW software 23 to the latest GW software 23 and notifies the EMS 8 that the download is complete (S25a). Subsequently, after confirming the completion of download in the first CPU board # 01, the EMS 8 transmits an instruction to restart the first CPU board # 01 (S25b).

  In FIG. 10, the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01 transmits a restart notification to the EMS 8 after restarting. The EMS 8 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure example for requesting a switchover to the fourth CPU board # 04 after receiving the restart notification. Here, it corresponds to the processing of S26a and S26b of FIG. First, when the restart is completed, the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01 transmits a restart notification to the EMS 8 (S26a). Subsequently, when receiving the restart notification of the first CPU board # 01, the EMS 8 requests the fourth CPU board # 04 to perform a switchover to move from the active system to the standby system (S26b).

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a version upgrade completion notification procedure. Here, it corresponds to the processing of S27a and S27b of FIG. When the O & M application 24 of the first CPU board # 01 receives the state change notification from the redundant application 25, that is, the notification indicating that the STD has moved to ACT, the O & M application 24 transmits the notification to the EMS 8 (S27a). Then, after confirming that the first CPU board # 01 has become ACT, the EMS 8 notifies the operator that the upgrade of the first CPU board # 01 has been completed (S27b). Then, the EMS 8 determines whether or not all the CPU cards 2 to be upgraded have been upgraded (S28a), and if there is still a CPU card 2 to be upgraded (N in S28a), the process of S22b If all the upgrades have been completed (Y in S28a), the process ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, in a configuration in which there are a plurality of active CPU boards 2 and a single standby CPU board 2, the cost of the entire system can be increased while maintaining a non-stop state. The version can be upgraded without any changes. In addition, it is not necessary to notify the user who performs communication via the wireless communication gateway 10 of a temporary suspension of the system due to version upgrade, and from this viewpoint, a great reduction in man-hours can be realized. In the above embodiment, the software update of one wireless communication gateway is described. However, even when there are a plurality of wireless communication gateways, the software update of the wireless communication gateway can be performed in the same manner.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of these components, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the summary of the present embodiment is summarized as follows.
The present embodiment includes a wireless communication gateway configured to include a plurality of active CPU boards and a standby CPU board, an application server that manages software of each system in the wireless communication gateway, and the wireless communication The present invention relates to a method for updating the software in a wireless communication system including a gateway and a management device (EMS) that manages the application server.
In this method, the management apparatus acquires the latest version of the file existing in the application server and the software version set in the wireless communication gateway, compares the versions, and whether or not updating is necessary. A version check step for determining whether or not the update is required in the version check step, and the management device instructs the one of the CPU boards of the wireless communication gateway to be in a standby state. After the transition instruction step and the management device confirms that one of the CPU boards is in a standby state, the latest version software is downloaded from the application server and updated to the wireless communication gateway. Update instruction process to instruct and the update instruction Based confirm the completion of update software of the CPU board, comprising When update complete is confirmed, the restart process to instruct the restart of the CPU board software is updated, the.
In addition, the management apparatus includes a version notification step of notifying an operator when the acquired software version is old.
In addition, the management apparatus includes a state change notifying step of notifying the operator that the update operation has been completed in response to a notification that the management software has changed to an active state.
In addition, the management apparatus includes a switchover instruction step of notifying the switchover CPU board of the switchover. This switchover is an operation in which the operation state of the active system or the standby system is switched over before the software is updated, and then switched over again after the update is completed.

2 CPU board 6 Wide area Ethernet network 8 EMS
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Wireless communication gateway 11 Wireless transmission line 14 Version upgrade server 23 GW software 24 O & M application 25 Redundant application 200 Redundant configuration system # 01- # 04 1st-4th CPU board

Claims (1)

A wireless communication gateway configured to include a plurality of active CPU boards and a standby CPU board, an application server that manages software of each system in the wireless communication gateway, the wireless communication gateway, and the application server A method of updating the software in a wireless communication system comprising:
The management device acquires the latest version of the file existing in the application server and the version of software set in the wireless communication gateway, compares the versions, and determines whether or not updating is necessary. Version checking process,
A standby transition instruction step for instructing the management device to place one of the CPU boards of the wireless communication gateway in a standby state when it is determined that an update is necessary in the version confirmation step;
An update instruction step for instructing the wireless communication gateway to download and update the latest version of software from the application server after the management device confirms that one of the CPU boards is in a standby state. When,
The management device confirms the completion of the software update of the CPU board based on the update instruction, and when the update completion is confirmed, a restarting step for instructing the restart of the CPU board with the updated software;
A method for updating software in a wireless communication system.

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