WO2008145066A1

WO2008145066A1 - A software loading method, communication network system and equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2008145066A1
Application number: PCT/CN2008/071125
Authority: WO
Inventors: Donghong Peng
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co, . Ltd.
Priority date: 2007-05-31
Filing date: 2008-05-28
Publication date: 2008-12-04
Also published as: CN101056207A

Abstract

A software loading method for a communication equipment is provided, which includes that: the communication equipment searches the network for a downloading point available for downloading its required software; when there are multiple downloading points, the different parts of the software are downloaded simultaneously from the multiple downloading points respectively; the downloaded multiple parts of the software are combined into the required software; the communication equipment provides a software loading service with respect to the downloaded parts of the software, and adds itself as a downloading point into the multiple downloading points. A communication network is also provided. With the invention, the burden of the server could be reduced, and the defect of the bandwidth bottleneck could be overcome.

Description

Software loading method, communication network system and device

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication device software loading method, a communication network system and a device based on P2P (Peer to Peer). Background technique

Providing the required software entities for device software initialization, software upgrades, and resolution of device bugs is an important maintainable feature of communication devices. A common method of software loading is to transfer an external software entity to the inside of the device through an external interface (such as the serial port, network port, etc. provided by the device). Existing communication device software loading generally draws serial port mode and files

Transfer Protocol, FTP) Two ways to load.

In the traditional network environment and operation and maintenance mode, the above loading method can meet the maintenance requirements of communication equipment. With the rapid development of the communication industry, software upgrades and patching of equipment provided by equipment suppliers have become an important part of operation and maintenance. On the premise that the operator requires equipment software upgrade and patching to ensure stability, higher speed requirements are required. Software upgrades for a large number of devices on the network are required. Patching must be completed quickly and cannot affect the customer's business. Software loading affects communication. A very important factor in the software software upgrade time. The software loading of high-volume devices in a short period of time becomes a critical path for upgrading software and patching. After the software is loaded, all devices can be upgraded in parallel. .

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of loading software through a centralized FTP/TFTP server in accordance with the prior art. This solution is mainly applied to upgrade and patch existing online running devices. The operator deploys a centralized FTP/TFTP server. The online device downloads the software entity that needs to be updated through the maintenance and management network of the device to the FTP/TFTP server. Before running the device upgrade on the network, the operator puts the software entity that needs to be upgraded into the specified directory of the FTP/TFTP server. Then, the operator customizes a certain policy on the NMS, and sends an upgrade command to the device in batches. After receiving the upgrade command, the device starts to perform the upgrade operation and takes the initiative to Download the software entity on the FTP/TFTP server.

However, since FTP/TFTP is a centralized mode, the processing power of the FTP/TFTP server itself and the bandwidth of the FTP/TFTP server to the maintenance network 1 become the bottleneck of the system software loading. For example, when a network management system (NMS) issues a batch upgrade command, thousands of devices cannot simultaneously download software entities from FTP/TFTP, and must be batched in batches. This becomes a bottleneck for batch upgrades. .

Another common way is to load in a single point mode. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a single point mode loading software according to the prior art. During the upgrade, the operator operator carries the PC (usually the operator with the laptop) to each maintenance point, connects the PC directly to the device, and starts an FTP/TFTP service on the PC, which needs to be loaded. The file is placed in the specified directory. Then log in to the communication device and perform a load operation, and the communication device downloads the required software entity from the PC. In this way, the operator must go to the equipment site and load the software through the local serial port or the local maintenance network port provided by the device. It is obviously less efficient than the above maintenance method, and the labor cost is higher. The software loading operation of this technical solution requires manual intervention by the operator. Compared with the technical solution 1, there is no centralized management of the NMS, and there is no centralized FTP/TFTP server.

In the process of implementing the present invention, the inventors found that the following disadvantages exist in the prior art: The traditional serial port mode and the TFTP/FTP mode technical solution respectively have FTP/TFTP server and bandwidth bottleneck defects, and no automation software loading is implemented. Summary of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a software loading method, a communication network system, and a device, which can solve server and bandwidth bottleneck defects.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a software loading method for a communication device is provided, including: the communication device searches for a download point in the network that can download software required by itself; when multiple download points are used, multiple The download point separately downloads different parts of the software; the downloaded partial software is combined into the required software; the communication device provides a software loading service for some downloaded software, and adds itself as a download point to multiple download points. In an embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a communication network system, comprising: at least two communication devices, wherein the communication device is configured to download software from a download point in a communication network system, and provide the downloaded part of the software The software loads the service and adds itself as a download point to the download point; the file server, which serves as the first download point to provide the software load service.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a communication device is further provided, including: a searching module, configured to search, in the communication network system, the download point that can download the software;

a downloading module, configured to download different parts of the software from a plurality of the download points at the same time;

And a combination module, configured to combine the downloaded portions of the software into the software. In the above embodiment, since the various portions of the software are simultaneously downloaded through a plurality of download points, the burden on the server is alleviated, and the bandwidth bottleneck defect is overcome.

Other features and advantages of the embodiments of the invention will be set forth in the description in the appended claims. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the <RTI DRAWINGS

The drawings are intended to provide a further understanding of the present invention, and are intended to be a part of the present invention, and the description of the present invention is not intended to limit the invention. In the drawing:

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of loading software through a centralized FTP/TFTP server in accordance with the prior art;

2 is a schematic diagram showing a single point mode loading software according to the prior art; FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a software loading method for a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram showing P2P technology downloading and assembling software according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a P2P technology communication network system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. detailed description

The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in conjunction with the embodiments.

3 shows a flow chart of a software loading method for a communication device, including the following steps, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention:

Step S10: The communication device searches for a download point in the network that can download the software required by itself;

Step S20: When the download point is multiple, download different parts of the software from multiple download points at the same time;

Step S30, combining the downloaded partial software into the required software;

Step S40: The communication device provides a software loading service for the downloaded part of the software, and adds itself as a download point to multiple download points.

In the above software loading method, the initialization step may also be included: The setting file server is the first download point that provides the software loading service, that is, as a seed point.

Simultaneously downloading different parts of the software from multiple download points may include: decomposing the software into multiple parts, each part having its own serial number identifier, and the plurality of download points respectively for downloading at least one of the multiple parts independently One part. Then combine the parts into software according to the serial number of each part.

The above technical solution is based on the principle of P2P technology, and the communication device can be formed into a peer-to-peer network.

Since the various parts of the software are simultaneously downloaded through multiple download points, the burden on the server is alleviated and the bandwidth bottleneck defect is overcome.

4 shows a schematic diagram of P2P technology download and assembly software in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. P2P technology actually decomposes the software that needs to be loaded into different P2P unit packages. These units are packaged in the network and can be separately transmitted according to the P2P protocol. When a device downloads a P2P unit package, the device is announced. I can use it as a seed, other equipment It is possible to download the P2P unit package that it has from this device, so if a software has 3 P2P unit packages. At a certain time, there are 3 different P2P unit packages on the three devices A, B, and C. At this time, the fourth device D can download three different P2P unit packages from the three devices, and assemble them. A software that needs to be downloaded, the device needs to have a P2P source to implement P2P download. The software that needs to be downloaded on the P2P source is composed of multiple P2P unit packages. When the device starts to perform the download operation, it first goes to the P2P source. Download the software unit package information, and then search for the seed point through the P2P protocol on the network, and download the P2P packet unit from the seed point respectively.

According to the above software loading method, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication network system, including: at least two communication devices, wherein the communication device is configured to download software from a download point in a communication network system, and download the software from the download point in the communication network system. The software provides a software loading service that adds itself as a download point to the download point; the file server, which serves as the first download point to provide software loading services.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a P2P technology communication network system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the P2P technology is used to improve the download performance of the communication device software.

The principle of P2P technology is actually to use all the communication devices running on the network as peer-to-peer network units. These network units are both servers and clients. Each device downloads a part of the software entity and then exchanges between the communication devices. These pieces of software, in order to achieve the purpose of the communication device to obtain the entire software entity. When one of the communication devices acquires a file, it can serve as a server, provide downloading of the slice for other communication devices, and find download points of other slices on the network.

Use Figure 5 to illustrate the application of P2P technology in communication equipment. First, "Communication Device 1" under "Gateway 1" receives the software load command and starts to find the download point that can be downloaded. At this time, only "P2P seed point (such as FTP) /TFTP server)" As the download point, "Communication Device 1" uses "FTP/TFTP Server" as the download point 1 to start downloading, and also needs to detect whether there are other download points that can be used. At this time, another communication device under "Gateway 1" also receives the download command to download the same software. This device also looks for a download point that can be downloaded. At this time, the online device finds that the download point that can be downloaded should include "FTP". /TFTP server" and "communication device 1" two download points, now this The device starts to download the software carrier that needs to be downloaded from the two machines at the same time. When other devices need to download, they also need to find the download point that can be downloaded, and then download the downloaded device from multiple communication devices. Software entity.

The communication device may include: a searching module, configured to search for a download point of the downloadable software in the communication network system; and a downloading module, configured to download different parts of the software separately from the plurality of download points when the download point is multiple; A module for combining multiple pieces of downloaded software into software.

The above scheme fully utilizes the principle of P2P technology, effectively solves the performance bottleneck of the FTP/TFTP server and the bandwidth bottleneck problem in the figure, and can greatly improve the software carrier loading speed of the device.

From the above P2P technology principle, in fact, each communication device download is no longer the same as the original download method. All communication devices are not downloaded from the FTP/TFTP server, but are able to obtain all the downloaded information. The communication device is downloaded, so that the performance bottleneck of the download server is distributed to all communication devices. The path of the software carrier that the device needs to download is no longer a channel shared by all devices, but is downloaded simultaneously through multiple channels, thereby greatly Improve the speed of software loading.

In the existing networking mode, the device applies P2P technology to implement software entity loading, and the loading mode effectively improves the download speed of the communication device software entity, and at the same time circumvents the bottleneck of the FTP/TFTP; There is no need for the operator to deploy any additional servers.

From the above description, it can be seen that the above-described embodiments of the present invention achieve the following technical effects:

1. Solved the problem that the traditional software loading speed is affected by the FTP/TFTP server performance bottleneck and the server export bandwidth bottleneck in the communication network, which greatly improves the force port load speed of the equipment in the communication network.

2. It shortens the time for operators to upgrade devices in the communication network, saving operators the operation and maintenance costs.

3. Increased the possibility of successful loading. All communication devices in the prior art network are affected by the stability and performance of the centralized server. The distributed P2P loading method can be used. This dependence is greatly reduced.

Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present invention can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and of course, can also be through hardware, but in many cases, the former is a better implementation. the way. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, which is essential or contributes to the prior art, may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including a plurality of instructions for making a A computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) performs the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention.

The above is a description of specific embodiments of the present invention, and the method of the present invention can be appropriately modified in a specific implementation process to suit the specific needs of a specific situation. Therefore, it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the present invention are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

Claims

Rights request

A software loading method for a communication device, comprising: a communication device searching for a download point of a software required to download itself in a network;

When the number of download points is multiple, different parts of the software are separately downloaded from a plurality of the download points;

Combining the downloaded portions of the software into the software;

The communication device provides a software loading service to the downloaded portion of the software, and adds itself as a download point to a plurality of the download points.

2. The software loading method according to claim 1, further comprising an initialization step:

Set up the file server as the first download point to provide software loading services.

The software loading method of claim 1, wherein simultaneously downloading different parts of the software from the plurality of download points comprises:

The software is decomposed into a plurality of sections, each section having its own serial number identifier, and the plurality of download points are respectively used to independently download at least one of the plurality of sections.

The software loading method according to claim 3, wherein the combining the downloaded portions of the software into the software specifically comprises:

The plurality of sections are combined into the software in accordance with the serial number identification of each of the sections.

The software loading method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the plurality of communication devices form a peer-to-peer network unit with each other.

6. A communication network system, comprising:

At least two communication devices, wherein the communication device is configured to download the software from a download point in the communication network system, provide a software loading service to the downloaded portion of the software, and add itself as a download point In the download point;

A file server, used as the first download point to provide a software load service.

The communication network system according to claim 6, wherein the communication device comprises:

a finding module for finding in the communication network system that the software can be downloaded The download point;

And a combination module, configured to combine the downloaded portions of the software into the software.

8. The communication network system according to claim 7, wherein the software is decomposed into a plurality of parts, each part having its own serial number identifier, and the plurality of download points are respectively used to download the station independently. At least one of the plurality of parts is described.

The communication network according to claim 8, wherein the combination module is further configured to combine the plurality of parts into the software according to the serial number identifier of each part.

The communication network according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the plurality of communication devices form a peer-to-peer network unit with each other.

A communication device, comprising:

And a finding module, configured to find, in the communication network system, the download point that can download the software;

The communication device according to claim 11, wherein the combination module is further configured to combine the plurality of parts into the software according to the serial number identifier of each part.