KR20100038947A - Method for upgrading software and broadcasting system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A software upgrade method and a broadcast system are provided to upgrade software without the purchase of additional media, thereby reducing inconvenience in software upgrade. CONSTITUTION: According to a first protocol, an external server(130) transmits first software. An external resource(120) downloads the first software transmitted from the external server in a pre-allocated storage area. According to a second protocol, a broadcast receiver(110) mounts the storage area of the external resource. The broadcast receiver downloads the first software from the mounted storage area. The broadcast receiver upgrades second software.

Description

Method for upgrading software and broadcasting system

The present invention relates to a software upgrade method and a broadcast system, and more particularly, to a method and a broadcast system for upgrading software downloaded for upgrading from an external server without an additional medium in a broadcast receiver.

Currently, broadcast receivers use a method of upgrading software using a medium such as a universal serial bus (USB) or a memory card. This is a method in which a user copies software to be upgraded to the above medium from an external server and moves the copied software back to the broadcast receiver to perform the upgrade.

However, according to the above-described scheme, the user is inconvenient to have an additional medium for upgrading the software.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is to provide a method and a broadcast system for upgrading the software without having an additional medium.

One embodiment of the software upgrade method according to the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of: mounting a storage area of the external resource in which the first software is stored; Downloading the stored first software according to a predetermined protocol from a storage area of the mounted external resource; And upgrading the second software according to the downloaded first software.

In this case, the software upgrade method may include extracting version information of the first software and version information of the second software; The method may further include determining whether to upgrade by comparing the extracted version information of the first software and the second software.

In the step of determining whether to upgrade, if the version information of the first software is the same version or the previous version of the version information of the second software, it may be determined as an upgrade.

In addition, the predefined specific protocol may include at least one of NFS and CIFS.

An embodiment of a broadcast system according to the present invention includes an external server transmitting first software according to a first protocol; An external resource for downloading the first software transmitted from the external server to a previously allocated storage area; And a broadcast receiver which mounts the storage area of the external resource according to a second protocol, downloads first software from the mounted storage area, and upgrades the second software. .

In this case, the second protocol may include a network file system or a CIFS protocol.

And a repeater for transmitting first software from the external resource to the broadcast receiver.

The broadcast receiver may further include: a controller configured to mount a storage area of the external resource and to download the first software from the mounted storage area; And a storage unit for downloading and storing the first software.

The controller may control to extract version information of the first software from the mounted storage area and to extract version information of second software related to the first software previously stored in the storage.

The controller may compare the extracted first software with version information of the second software and determine whether to download the first software.

The controller may determine to download the first software if the version information of the first software is older than or not the same as the version information of the second software.

The apparatus may further include an external input receiver configured to receive an external input related to whether the second software is upgraded.

Therefore, according to the software upgrade method and broadcast system according to the present invention, there is an effect that can upgrade the software without having an additional medium.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, an embodiment including the technical idea of the present invention for solving the above problems in detail. Here, the configuration and operation of the present invention shown in the drawings and described in connection with it will be described as an example for explaining the technical idea of the present invention, whereby the technical idea of the present invention and its core Configuration and operation are not limited.

In addition, the terms used below have been selected as widely used general terms as possible in consideration of the functions in the present invention, but may vary according to the intention or custom of the person skilled in the art or the emergence of new technologies. In addition, in certain cases, there is also a term arbitrarily selected by the applicant, in which case the meaning will be described in detail in the description of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the terms used in the present invention should be defined and referenced based on the meanings of the terms and the contents throughout the present invention, rather than simply the names of the terms.

Hereinafter, a method and a broadcast system for upgrading software according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a broadcast system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a broadcasting system according to the present invention includes a broadcasting receiver 110, an external resource 120, and an external server 130. do.

The broadcast receiver 110 includes a digital television receiver (IPTV) or an Internet Protocol TeleVision (IPTV) receiver including a network function.

The external resource 120 includes a home server, a personal computer (PC), a laptop, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and the like to perform network functions. Common name for communication equipment.

Here, the broadcast receiver 110 and the external resource 120 may be a plurality each, may form a home network (home network).

The external server 130 collectively refers to at least one or more servers providing software for upgrade. Here, the software includes, for example, firmware (firmware) for the broadcast receiver 110. In addition, the external server 130 may be, for example, a server provided by a manufacturer who manufactures the broadcast receiver 110.

The broadcast system according to the present invention described above may further include a remote controller 111 capable of transmitting and receiving data with the broadcast receiver 110 remotely or wirelessly. In relation to the present invention, the user may upgrade the software by controlling the broadcast receiver 110 through a remote controller 111 remotely or wirelessly.

The broadcast receiver 110 may be directly connected by wire or wirelessly according to the external resource 120 and a standard protocol (first protocol), or may be connected through a repeater (not shown). Here, the repeater performs a function of relaying data transmission and reception between the broadcast receiver 110 and the external resource 120. In addition, as a standard protocol, for example, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.15.4, WiFi, Ethernet, WCDMA and GPS communication schemes can be used.

The external resource 120 downloads the software to be upgraded from the external server 130 and transmits the downloaded software to the broadcast receiver 110.

As described above, in the related art, after downloading the software from the external server 130 from the external resource 120, the software is transmitted to the broadcast receiver 110 through a USB or a memory card.

However, in the present invention, the external resource 120 may have a specific storage area or memory area allocated for software downloaded from the external server 130. That is, the external resource 120 may allocate a storage area for software for upgrading the broadcast receiver 110. In addition, the allocated storage area of the external resource 120 may be set as a shared directory.

The external resource 120 allows the broadcast receiver 110 to mount the downloaded software in the allocated storage area. Here, the broadcast receiver 110 may mount and use a storage area allocated to the external resource 120 through a specific protocol (second protocol). In this case, the specific protocol may include, for example, a protocol such as a network file system (NFS) or a common internet file system (CIFS).

Thus, according to the present invention, there is no need for an additional medium such as a conventional universal serial bus (USB) or a memory card. That is, the broadcast receiver 110 may use various storage devices of other devices connected through a network according to the type of its operating system (OS) to mount the storage space allocated to the external resource 120. Any one of the protocols can be selected and used, modified or newly implemented.

In the above, the network file system (NFS) is a distributed file sharing system software for sharing a file or a file system in another external resource connected to an information communication network such as a local area network, or an external device. The purpose is to share files that are distributed on the external resources of different environments or operating system (OS). Therefore, the file system on the second external resource on which the network file system (NFS) is mounted can be accessed as a file (local file) on the first external resource, and there is no need to manipulate the file after file transfer. It is also possible to use files from other systems without having to worry about where the files are stored. However, in the case of connection with a system having a different code system, additional work such as code conversion may be required.

CIFS is also a protocol that allows programs to make requests for files or services on remote external resources over the Internet. A client program makes a request to a server program that is typically located on another external resource, such as requesting access to a file on a server computer or sending a message to the program. The server then responds to the request.

The broadcast receiver 110 mounts a storage area allocated to the external resource 120 and finally performs a software upgrade. Here, the mount process is CIFS in connection with the second protocol described above, for example, CIFS includes the Samba Client function of the Linux Kernel. Therefore, when the broadcast receiver 110 having a network function utilizes the corresponding function or port a commercial module, the broadcast receiver 110 can access a file system of a PC using another operating system. It can be done through it.

Looking at the software upgrade process in more detail, first, the broadcast receiver 110 should determine whether to upgrade the software stored in the external resource 120. Here, the determination can be made in a variety of ways. For example, the broadcast receiver 110 may be configured to automatically download and upgrade all software downloaded from the external server 130 according to the setting. Alternatively, the user may decide whether to upgrade manually. Although it may be determined by the method as described above, hereinafter using version information will be described as an embodiment.

That is, the broadcast receiver 110 mounts the storage area allocated by the external resource 120 and extracts version information of the stored software (first software). The version information of the extracted first software is received by the broadcast receiver 110 through a connected network. In order to determine whether to upgrade using the received version information of the first software, version information of the software (second software) provided in relation to the first software is extracted to the broadcast receiver.

Then, the version information of each extracted first software is compared with the version information of the second software, and finally, whether to upgrade the corresponding software is determined. That is, if the version information of the first software is newer than the version information of the second software already provided in the broadcast receiver, it will be decided to upgrade. Otherwise, the first software stored in the external resource 120 is ignored or deleted. You can also request. However, this is an example for determining whether to upgrade, and it is not necessarily upgraded to the latest one. In other words, the determination may vary depending on other conditions.

For example, if a user prefers an older version than a newer version, he might decide not to upgrade. This is not by the broadcast receiver 110 itself making the final decision on whether to upgrade, but by user selection. Alternatively, if the external server 130 requests to force the upgrade, the determination step may be skipped.

If the broadcast receiver 110 determines to upgrade the first software stored in the external resource 120 through the above-described determination step, the broadcast receiver 110 downloads the corresponding software (first software) through the connected network and performs the upgrade. Here, the upgrade process of the downloaded software (first software) is copied to the storage area in the broadcast receiver 110 similarly to the existing method, and then the existing software (second software) is backed up. The first software copied to the storage area is written to the flash. In addition, transmission and reception of the first software between the external resource 120 and the broadcast receiver 110 may be performed through a repeater (not shown). In the above, the storage area includes, for example, random access memory (RAM) or read only memory (ROM).

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to upgrade the software without using an additional medium as in the prior art.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a broadcast receiver 110 according to the present invention. In this case, the broadcast receiver 110 of FIG. 2 is the same as the broadcast receiver 110 of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the broadcast receiver 110 includes a receiver 201, a demodulator 202, a demultiplexer 213, a decoder 203, an output 204, a controller 205, and a storage unit ( 206, an on-screen display (OSD) processing unit 207, a communication unit 208, and a control signal communication unit 209.

In the above, the interface of the communication unit 208 for data communication with the external resource 120 is an Ethernet module, a Bluetooth module, a short-range wireless Internet module, a portable Internet module, a home PNA module, an IEEE 1394 module, a PLC Module, a home RF module, an IrDA module, or the like. However, the interface of the communication unit 208 is not limited to the above-described example. For example, the communication unit 208 may be configured as an Ethernet module (LAD Card) to transmit and receive data with the external resource 120 by wire.

As another example, the communication unit 208 may be configured as a short range wireless Internet module (wireless LAN card) to transmit and receive data to and from the external resource 120 wirelessly. When the communication unit 208 is configured as a short range wireless Internet module (wireless LAN card), it is possible to connect to the external resource 120 through a repeater (not shown).

The external resource 120 provides the broadcast receiver 110 to mount a storage area where software such as firmware of the broadcast receiver 110 is downloaded. In relation to this, the broadcast receiver 100 may automatically activate a storage area of the external resource 120 to be mounted or may be activated by a user's selection.

Thus, if deactivated, no function related to software upgrade is performed. For example, if the software upgrade mode is disabled, the function will not be performed even if the mode and the associated run menu items are selected, and even if a command related to software upgrade is input through an input device such as a remote control, No upgrade is performed.

The receiver 201 may include one or more tuners, and may receive contents from at least one of terrestrial broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, and cable broadcasting through the tuner. . The tuner may be provided for each broadcast source, for example, terrestrial wave, cable, and satellite, or may be an integrated tuner. In addition, assuming that the tuner is a terrestrial broadcast tuner, at least one digital tuner and an analog tuner may be provided, respectively, or may be a digital / analog tuner. In the case of the terrestrial wave, the tuner tunes a terrestrial broadcast content transmitted through an antenna, that is, a broadcast signal of a channel selected by a user from among broadcast signals, and outputs it to the demodulator 202.

The demodulator 202 demodulates the input broadcast signal in the inverse of the modulation scheme.

The receiver 201 may receive content through an internet network. In addition, the receiver 201 may include one or more external input / output terminals, and may receive content from an external device through the receiver. The external input / output terminal may be, for example, an AV (AudioVideo) terminal, a component (component) terminal, an RGB terminal, a digital visual interface (DVI) terminal, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) I terminal, or the like. The AV terminal may be connected to a VCR (Video Cassette Recorder), an analog TV, etc., and a component terminal, an RGB terminal, and an HDMI terminal may be a DVD player (Digital Versatile Disc player), digital TV, satellite set top box, cable set top box, PC, etc. An external device can be connected.

The broadcast signal demodulated by the demodulator 202 is in the form of a transport stream and is output to the decoder 203.

The decoder 203 includes an audio decoder and a video decoder, and decodes the broadcast signal output from the demodulator 202 or the broadcast signal reproduced through the demultiplexer 213. Decoded by an algorithm and output to the output unit 204. The demultiplexer 213 may divide the broadcast signal into an audio elementary stream (Audio ES) and a video element stream (Video ES), and output the broadcast signal to each decoder of the decoder 203.

In addition, when a plurality of programs are multiplexed on one channel, only a broadcast signal of a program selected by a user may be selected and divided into a video element stream (Video ES) and an audio element stream (Audio ES). If the demodulated broadcast signal includes a data stream or a system information stream, this is also separated from the demultiplexer 213 and transmitted to the corresponding block.

When the controller 205 is connected to the storage area of the external resource 120 through the communication unit 208, the controller 205 controls to download and upgrade the software in the connected storage area. The control unit 205 may use a variety of methods for performing the above control, but for the convenience of description, the control unit 205 will be described below using the version information as an example.

The controller 205 controls to extract version information of software (first software) in the storage area of the connected external resource 120. In addition, the control unit 205 controls to extract version information of the software (second software) related to the first software from the storage unit 206. Here, the version information of the first software and the second software may be extracted at the same time, and may be made with time and afterwards, but it is not important which one is extracted first.

The controller 205 compares the extracted first software and version information of the second software. The algorithm used for the comparison may be various, but for example, simply comparing the version information of which software is the latest version. Accordingly, the controller 205 may determine whether to upgrade the first software based on the comparison result. However, the above-described control process is one example, but is not limited thereto.

According to the above example, the control unit 205 determines that the version information of the first software is the same as or earlier than the version information of the second software provided therein, and it is not necessary to upgrade separately and ignores the first software ( discard) or a discard request to the external source 120. However, even in this case, for example, if there is a problem with the version provided in advance, if the previous version is required according to the request will be seen differently.

However, if the comparison result of the version information of the first software is more recent than the version information of the second software, the control unit 205 will control to perform a process for upgrading the software. That is, the controller 205 upgrades the first software according to the comparison result or according to a user's request or the setting of the broadcast receiver 110, and the like. And the like) can be read and output to the demultiplexer 213 or / and the decoder 203. That is, the controller 205 is controlled to be decoded by the algorithm required for the upgrade according to the type of the software to be upgraded.

In the above-described broadcast receiver 110 of FIG. 2, the parts related to the present invention have been described and illustrated, but the receiver 201, the demodulator 202, the demultiplexer 213, the decoder 203, and the like are provided. It will be apparent that the same functions as the other general broadcast receivers may be provided from the illustrated components. That is, the broadcast receiver 110 includes a digital television receiver or an IPTV receiver.

The control signal communication unit 209 is for communication with external input means in connection with the present invention. Here, the external input means will be described using the remote control 111 as an example. That is, the control signal communication unit 209 transmits and receives a control signal for controlling the remote control 111 or the broadcast receiver 110. Therefore, the controller 205 may control the software upgrade in the broadcast receiver 110 based on the control signal received through the control signal communication unit 209.

In addition, the control unit 209 generates a control signal in order to request specific information or a command from the user, and outputs the generated control signal through the control signal communication unit 209. In addition, the control signal communication unit 209 may output a control signal generated by the control unit 205 to the user through the OSD processing unit 207 and / or output unit 204 about a specific information or command. Alternatively, a message regarding a specific information or command may be output to the user through the OSD processing unit 207 and / or the output unit 204 without passing through the control signal communication unit 209.

In the above, the operation of the control unit 205 may be made of any one of hardware, firmware, middleware, software, or a combination thereof.

In addition, the control unit 205 may also play the role of the storage / playback control unit 206, in which case the storage / playback control unit 206 may be omitted.

The controller 205 and the storage / playback controller 206 may be implemented as one integrated module 210 using hardware and firmware.

As described above, the upgrade of the software may be performed automatically, or may be performed by the user's control.

3A to 3B illustrate examples of a user interface (UI) related to software upgrade under user control in relation to the present invention.

3A to 3B illustrate an example of configuring a UI according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3A, when a user selects a software item through the remote control 111, a sub-item accompanying the same is displayed. If a sub-item related to whether to upgrade (or update) is selected among the sub-items, the corresponding sub-item is output again. FIG. 3A illustrates an example of selecting whether to make the upgrade automatically or manually when setting whether to upgrade. As described above, the processes will be performed through the control unit 205 or the control signal communication unit 209 of the broadcast receiver 110.

For example, FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a UI on whether the corresponding software is upgraded by mounting the external resource 120 when the user requests a software upgrade automatically or manually.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an upgrade process of software in the broadcast system 100 according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, the technical spirit of the present invention will be described with reference to version information as an example for clarity and convenience of explanation, but is not limited thereto.

In this regard, the external server 130 will inform each broadcast receiver 110 about a software upgrade.

Then, the user downloads the software (first software) to be upgraded from the external server 130 to the pre-allocated storage area through the external resource 120.

The broadcast receiver 110 mounts the storage area of the external resource 120 from which the first software is downloaded (S401), and extracts version information of the first software to determine whether to upgrade (S402).

The broadcast receiver 110 extracts version information of the second software corresponding to the downloaded first software (S403). Here, the second software includes software provided and applied to the broadcast receiver 110.

The broadcast receiver 110 determines whether to upgrade the second software (S404). That is, the broadcast receiver 110 compares and determines the version information of the extracted first software and the second software. As described above, if the version information of the second software is the previous version or the same version compared to the version information of the first software, it may not be necessary to perform the upgrade. Therefore, in this case, the downloaded first software may be ignored or a deletion request may be made to the external resource 120.

However, if the version information of the first software is a newer version than the version information of the second software, the broadcast receiver 110 performs an operation for upgrading.

Therefore, the broadcast receiver 110 downloads the first software downloaded from the external resource 120 (S405). Then, the upgrade is performed using the downloaded first software (S406).

Here, in downloading the first software, the broadcast receiver 110 may perform a download according to a request-respond protocol with the external resource 120. In addition, the specific upgrade process uses the above-described information.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform the upgrade or update of the software, etc. without having a separate additional medium can solve the user's inconvenience.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the present invention is not limited to the specific scope of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Anyone skilled in the art can make various modifications, as well as such modifications are within the scope of the claims.

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a broadcast system according to the present invention;

2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a broadcast receiver configuration according to the present invention;

3A to 3B illustrate an embodiment of a UI for software upgrade under user control according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of an upgrade process of software in a broadcasting system according to the present invention.

* Description of the major signs in the drawings

110: broadcast receiver 120: external resources

130: external server

201: receiver 202: demodulator

203: decoding unit 204: output unit

205: control unit 206: storage unit

207: OSD processing unit 208: Communication unit

209: control signal communication unit 213: demultiplexer

Claims (12)

Mounting a storage area of an external resource stored by the first software; Downloading the stored first software according to a predetermined protocol from a storage area of the mounted external resource; And And upgrading the second software according to the downloaded first software. The method of claim 1, Extracting version information of the first software and version information of the second software; And comparing the extracted first software and version information of the second software to determine whether to upgrade. 3. The method of claim 2, In the step of determining whether to upgrade, And if it is determined that the version information of the first software is the same version as the version information of the second software or is not the previous version, the software upgrade method. The method of claim 3, The predetermined specific protocol includes at least one of NFS and CIFS. An external server transmitting the first software according to the first protocol; An external resource for downloading the first software transmitted from the external server to a previously allocated storage area; And A broadcast receiver that mounts the storage area of the external resource according to a second protocol, downloads the first software from the mounted storage area, and upgrades the second software; system. The method of claim 5, The second protocol includes a network file system or a CIFS protocol. The method of claim 5, And a repeater for transmitting first software from the external resource to the broadcast receiver. The method of claim 5, The broadcast receiver, A controller configured to mount a storage area of the external resource and to download the first software from the mounted storage area; And And a storage unit for downloading and storing the first software. The method of claim 8, The control unit, And extracting version information of the first software from the mounted storage area, and extracting version information of second software related to the first software previously stored in the storage unit. The method of claim 9, The control unit, And comparing version information of the extracted first software and second software to determine whether to download the first software. The method of claim 10, The control unit, In determining whether to download the, And if it is determined that the version information of the first software is earlier than or equal to the version information of the second software, the broadcasting system determines to download the first software. The method of claim 8, And an external input receiver configured to receive an external input related to whether the second software is upgraded.

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