Patent Abstract:
A wireless communication device for accessing a wireless network and downloading a software upgrade file. The wireless communication device comprises: i) a CPU for controlling wireless communications with the wireless network; ii) a first memory associated with the first CPU; iii) a CPU for executing at least one end-user application on the wireless communication device; and iv) a second memory associated with the second CPU. The first CPU downloads the software upgrade file from the wireless network and stores the downloaded software upgrade file in the second memory for subsequent execution. The first CPU and the second COU share resources in order to carry out software upgrades for either or both CPUs.

Full Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention is directed generally to wireless communication systems and, more specifically, to an apparatus and method for upgrading the software in a dual processor wireless communication device.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    In order to increase the wireless market to the greatest extent possible, wireless service providers and wireless equipment manufacturers constantly seek new ways to make wireless equipment and services as convenient, user-friendly, and affordable as possible. To that end, wireless service providers and the manufacturers of wireless mobile stations, such as cell phones, and fixed (or stationary) wireless terminals, frequently work together to streamline procedures for enrolling and equipping new subscribers and for improving the services and equipment of existing subscribers.  
           [0003]    One important aspect of these efforts involves over-the-air (OTA) provisioning and upgrading of wireless mobile stations, such as cell phones, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless hand-held computers, two-way pagers, and the like, as well as fixed wireless terminals. OTA provisioning is a relatively new feature that enables a new subscriber who purchases a new cell phone (or other wireless device) to set up a new account with a wireless service provider and to configure the new cell phone for operation. The OTA provisioning procedure is mostly automated and often does not require the new subscriber to visit a cell phone service center. Typically, the new subscriber removes the new cell phone from its box, calls a special purpose telephone number (given in the instructions), and performs an interactive provisioning procedure with an automated agent or a human service representative.  
           [0004]    The over-the-air (OTA) upgrading of a wireless device also is a relatively new procedure that enables a subscriber to download and install upgraded software containing patches, bug fixes, and newer versions of the software, including the operating system, stored in the wireless device. The wireless service provider or the mobile station manufacturer, or both, may provide the upgraded software.  
           [0005]    It has long been possible to download and to install software upgrades for a personal computer (PC) via the Internet. However, this process is considerably more complicated in a mobile station. A personal computer has far more resources available to perform a software upgrade, including dynamically linked libraries (DLLs), a memory management unit (MMU), and a large random access memory (RAM) space. A conventional PC software upgrade may be partitioned and downloaded to a personal computer as a group of shared objects.  
           [0006]    In contrast, a wireless mobile station (e.g., a cell phone) typically has far fewer resources available than a PC. Mobile stations lack a memory management unit and code is not executed from RAM. Code is executed out of a Flash memory (or other non-volatile (NV) memory) that acts as a read-only memory (ROM). The Flash memory generally cannot be written to, it can only be re-programmed with great difficulty. These resource limitations greatly complicate OTA software upgrade operations in wireless mobile stations.  
           [0007]    Additionally, OTA software upgrade procedures became more complicated with the appearance in the cellular market of cell phones containing two central processing units. For example, Samsung® is delivering dual central processing unit (CPU) phones in Korea. In a dual CPU mobile station, a main (or primary) CPU executes the radio frequency (RF) communication functions and call processing operations of the mobile station. The main CPU also may be referred to as the modem CPU. A slave (or secondary) CPU executes user interface (UI) functions and end-user applications on the wireless mobile station. These user applications may include a word processing application, a calendar application, a video game, an e-mail application, and the like. The slave PCU may also be referred to as the multimedia CPU. In this manner, the software that runs on a conventional wireless communication device is split into two parts in a dual CPU mobile station. Currently, there is no OTA upgrade procedure that addresses the upgrading problems that are peculiar to a dual CPU wireless communication device.  
           [0008]    Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for performing automatic software upgrades of wireless mobile stations and fixed wireless terminals that incorporate a dual CPU architecture.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication device capable of accessing a wireless network and downloading a software upgrade file therefrom. According to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the wireless communication device comprises: i) a first central processing unit (CPU) capable of controlling wireless communications with the wireless network; ii) a first memory associated with the first CPU; iii) a second central processing unit (CPU) capable of executing at least one end-user application on the wireless communication device; and iv) a second memory associated with the second CPU, wherein the first CPU downloads the software upgrade file from the wireless network and stores the downloaded software upgrade file in the second memory.  
           [0010]    According to one embodiment of the present invention, the first CPU is capable of executing a first upgrade agent program that replaces first existing code associated with a first existing software file in the first memory with first replacement code from the downloaded software upgrade file.  
           [0011]    According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first upgrade agent program is stored in the first memory.  
           [0012]    According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the downloaded software upgrade file is transferred from the second memory to the first memory by an interprocessor communication unit.  
           [0013]    According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the first CPU executes the first upgrade agent program after the downloaded software upgrade file is transferred into the first memory from the second memory.  
           [0014]    According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the first upgrade agent program is transferred from the second memory and stored in the first memory.  
           [0015]    According to a still further embodiment of the present invention, the second CPU is capable of executing a second upgrade agent program that replaces second existing code associated with a second existing software file in the second memory with second replacement code from the downloaded software upgrade file.  
           [0016]    According to a yet further embodiment of the present invention, the second upgrade agent program is stored in the second memory.  
           [0017]    In one embodiment of the present invention, the second upgrade agent program is transferred from the first memory and stored in the second memory.  
           [0018]    Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless network according to one embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary dual CPU mobile station in greater detail according to one embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 illustrates selected files in the memory associated with the primary CPU of the exemplary dual CPU mobile station according to one embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 illustrates selected files in the memory associated with the secondary CPU of the exemplary dual CPU mobile station according to one embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an over-the-air (OTA) software update procedure in the exemplary mobile station according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0025]    [0025]FIGS. 1 through 5, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present invention in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present invention may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication device.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary wireless network  100  according to one embodiment of the present invention. Wireless network  100  comprises a plurality of cell sites  121 - 123 , each containing one of the base stations, BS  101 , BS  102 , or BS  103 . Base stations  101 - 103  communicate with a plurality of mobile stations (MS)  111 - 114  over code division multiple access (CDMA) channels. Mobile stations  111 - 114  may be any suitable wireless devices, including conventional cellular radiotelephones, PCS handset devices, personal digital assistants, portable computers, or metering devices.  
         [0027]    However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to mobile devices. Other types of access terminals may be used, including fixed (i.e., stationary) wireless terminals. For the sake of simplicity, only mobile stations are shown and discussed hereafter. However, for the purposes of defining the scope of the claims of the present invention, the terms “mobile station,” “wireless communication device,” “wireless terminal,” and any other term used to denote a device that wirelessly communicates with a base station, should be construed broadly to include both mobile and stationary wireless access devices.  
         [0028]    Dotted lines show the approximate boundaries of the cell sites  121 - 123  in which base stations  101 - 103  are located. The cell sites are shown approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the cell sites may have other irregular shapes, depending on the cell configuration selected and natural and man-made obstructions.  
         [0029]    As is well known in the art, each one of cell sites  121 - 123  comprises a plurality of sectors (not shown), each sector being illuminated by a directional antenna coupled to the base station. The embodiment of FIG. 1 illustrates the base station in the center of the cell. Alternate embodiments position the directional antennas in corners of the sectors. The present invention is not limited to any particular cell site configuration.  
         [0030]    In one embodiment of the present invention, each one of BS  101 , BS  102 , and BS  103  comprises a base station controller (BSC) and one or more base transceiver subsystem(s) (BTS). Base station controllers and base transceiver subsystems are well known to those skilled in the art. A base station controller is a device that manages wireless communications resources, including the base transceiver subsystems, for specified cells within a wireless communications network. A base transceiver subsystem (BTS) comprises the RF transceivers, antennas, and other electrical equipment located in each cell site. This equipment may include air conditioning units, heating units, electrical power supplies, telephone line interfaces, and RF transmitters and RF receivers. For the purpose of simplicity and clarity in explaining the operation of the present invention, the base transceiver subsystem(s) in each of cells  121 ,  122 , and  123  and the base station controller (BSC) associated with each base transceiver subsystem (BTS) are collectively represented by BS  101 , BS  102  and BS  103 , respectively.  
         [0031]    BS  101 , BS  102  and BS  103  transfer voice and data signals between each other and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (not shown) via communication line  131  and mobile switching center MSC)  140 . BS  101 , BS  102  and BS  103  also transfer data signals, such as packet data, with the Internet (not shown) via communication line  131  and packet data server node (PDSN)  150 . Line  131  also provides the connection path to transfers control signals between MSC  140  and BS  101 , BS  102  and BS  103  used to establish connections for voice and data circuits between MSC  140  and BS  101 , BS  102  and BS  103 .  
         [0032]    Communication line  131  may be any suitable connection means, including a T1 line, a T3 line, a fiber optic link, a network packet data backbone connection, or any other type of data connection. Line  131  links each vocoder in the BSC with switch elements in MSC  140 . Those skilled in the art will recognize that the connections on line  131  may provide a transmission path for transmission of analog voice band signals, a digital path for transmission of voice signals in the pulse code modulated (PCM) format, a digital path for transmission of voice signals in an Internet Protocol (IP) format, a digital path for transmission of voice signals in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) format, or other suitable connection transmission protocol. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the connections on line  131  may provide a transmission path for transmission of analog or digital control signals in a suitable signaling protocol.  
         [0033]    MSC  140  is a switching device that provides services and coordination between the subscribers in a wireless network and external networks, such as the PSTN or Internet. MSC  140  is well known to those skilled in the art. In some embodiments of the present invention, communications line  131  may be several different data links where each data link couples one of BS  101 , BS  102 , or BS  103  to MSC  140 .  
         [0034]    In the exemplary wireless network  100 , MS  111  is located in cell site  121  and is in communication with BS  101 . MS  113  is located in cell site  122  and is in communication with BS  102 . MS  114  is located in cell site  123  and is in communication with BS  103 . MS  112  is also located close to the edge of cell site  123  and is moving in the direction of cell site  123 , as indicated by the direction arrow proximate MS  112 . At some point, as MS  112  moves into cell site  123  and out of cell site  121 , a hand-off will occur.  
         [0035]    As is well known, the hand-off procedure transfers control of a call from a first cell site to a second cell site. As MS  112  moves from cell  121  to cell  123 , MS  112  detects the pilot signal from BS  103  and sends a Pilot Strength Measurement Message to BS  101 . When the strength of the pilot transmitted by BS  103  and received and reported by MS  112  exceeds a threshold, BS  101  initiates a soft hand-off process by signaling the target BS  103  that a handoff is required as described in TIA/EIA IS-95 or TIA/EIA IS-2000.  
         [0036]    BS  103  and MS  112  proceed to negotiate establishment of a communications link in the CDMA channel. Following establishment of the communications link between BS  103  and MS  112 , MS  112  communicates with both BS  101  and BS  103  in a soft handoff mode. Those acquainted with the art will recognize that soft hand-off improves the performance on both forward (BS to MS) channel and reverse (MS to BS) channel links. When the signal from BS  101  falls below a predetermined signal strength threshold, MS  112  may then drop the link with BS  101  and only receive signals from BS  103 . The call is thereby seamlessly transferred from BS  101  to BS  103 . The above-described soft hand-off assumes the mobile station is in a voice or data call. An idle hand-off is the hand-off between cells sites of a mobile station that is communicating in the control or paging channel.  
         [0037]    Any or all of the mobile stations (including fixed wireless terminals) in wireless network  100  may be upgraded by means of an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade procedure that transfers new software to the mobile stations from a remote upgrade server. The remote upgrade server may be accessed via PDSN  150  or MSC  140 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the upgrade server may upgrade an existing software file (or target file) in a mobile station by transmitting a new image file that replaces the target file in its entirety. In an alternate embodiment, the remote server may transmit a delta file that is used to replace only selected portions of the target software file, rather than the entire target file. The mobile station executes a software algorithm that reads instructions and data from the delta file. The software algorithm modifies, for example, the existing operating system software to produce a new (or upgraded) version of the operating system software. In this advantageous embodiment, the mobile station downloads a small delta file over the air, rather than a large image file, thereby saving bandwidth.  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary dual central processing unit (CPU) mobile station  111  in greater detail according to one embodiment of the present invention. Mobile station  111  comprises central processing unit (CPU)  205 , user interface circuitry  210 , non-volatile (NV) memory  215 , and random access memory (RAM)  220 . Mobile station  111  also comprises central processing unit (CPU)  255 , radio frequency (RF) transceiver  260 , antenna  261 , read-only memory (ROM)  265 , and random access memory (RAM)  270 . Interprocessor communication (IPC) unit  230 , bus  235  and bus  240  provide communication between CPU  205  and CPU  255 .  
         [0039]    In the exemplary embodiment, CPU  255  is the main (or modem) CPU that controls wireless communications via RF transceiver  260 . ROM  265  and RAM  270  store programs and data used by main CPU  255 . ROM  265  may be a Flash memory or a similar non-volatile memory. CPU  205  is the slave (or multimedia) CPU that executes end-user applications in mobile station  111 . Non-volatile (NV) memory  215  and RAM  220  store programs and data used by slave CPU  205 . NV memory  215  may be, for example, a Flash memory. IPC unit  230  may comprise any conventional circuit that is capable of transferring data between main CPU  255  and slave CPU  215 , including, for example, a shared memory, a dual-port RAM, a FIFO, a serial bus, and the like.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 3 illustrates selected files in ROM  265  according to one embodiment of the present invention. Among other files, ROM  265  stores over-the-air (OTA) download program  305 , IPC control program  310 , downloaded upgrade file  315 , and upgrade agent program  320 . FIG. 4 illustrates selected files in NV memory  215  according to one embodiment of the present invention. Among other files, NV memory  215  stores IPC control program  410 , downloaded upgrade file  415  and upgrade agent program  420 .  
         [0041]    OTA download program  305  is the download control program executed by main CPU  255  in order to retrieve a software upgrade file from the remote server. Main CPU  255  stores the upgrade file (delta file or entire image file) in downloaded upgrade file  315 . Main CPU  255  executes IPC control program  310  in order to transfer the upgrade file to slave CPU  205  via IPC unit  230 . Slave CPU  205  stores the upgrade file (delta file or entire image file) in downloaded upgrade file  415 . Slave CPU  205  executes IPC control program  410  in order to transfer a saved upgrade file to main CPU  255  via IPC unit  230 .  
         [0042]    Slave CPU  205  hosts all applications (MMI, graphics, etc.) while main CPU  255  executes the bare protocol stack. Thus, slave CPU  205  normally will have larger memory resources (i.e., RAM  220 , NV memory  215 ) than main CPU  255  (e.g., ROM  265 , RAM  270 ). For example, main CPU  255  may use 2 Mb of RAM  270  and 4 Mb of NOR flash memory (ROM  265 ) for code storage. However, slave CPU  205  may use 16-32 Mb of SDRAM  270  and 32-64 Mb of NAND flash memory  215  (for code, data and file system). Therefore, the most advantageous method for performing OTA operation is for the downloaded software update file to be stored in NV memory  215  of slave CPU  205 .  
         [0043]    The software code executed by main CPU  255  is distinct from the software code executed by slave CPU  205 . Thus, an OTA operation for a dual CPU design may involve a software update for i) main CPU  255  only; ii) slave CPU  205  only; or iii) CPU  215  and CPU  255 . Slave CPU  205  executes upgrade agent program  320  in NV memory  215  in order to actually apply the software update file for slave CPU  205 . Main CPU  255  executes upgrade agent program  420  in ROM  265  in order to actually apply the software update file for main CPU  255 .  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 5 depicts flow diagram  500 , which illustrates an over-the-air (OTA) software update procedure in the exemplary mobile station according to one embodiment of the present invention. The OTA software update procedure consists of two distinct phases: a download phase and a patch application phase. The download phase retrieves and stores the software upgrade file. After the software upgrade file is stored in the correct memory, the patch application phase applies the software upgrade file.  
         [0045]    During routine operation, main CPU  255  runs the protocol stack of choice, such as CDMA, GSM, GPRS, EDGE or the like (process step  505 ). At some point, main CPU  255  contacts the remote update server (not shown) and downloads the software update file for slave CPU  205  or main CPU  255 . In either case, the download procedure is the same (process step  510 ). As soon as the first packet from the upgrade server is received, main CPU  255  extracts the size of the software update from the message header. For example, if the download protocol is HTTP, the size of the software update is available through the HTTP header Content-Length field. Main CPU  255  then sends the file size value to slave CPU  205  via IPC unit  230 . Main CPU  255  also notifies slave CPU  205  whether the target for updating is slave CPU  205  software or main CPU  255  software) (process step  515 ).  
         [0046]    When slave CPU  205  receives the file-size message, slave CPU  205  verifies whether there is sufficient space in the file system in NV memory  215  and/or RAM  220  and sends an appropriate response back to main CPU  255  (process step  520 ). Depending on the role of the software update, slave CPU  205  creates and reserves downloaded upgrade file  415  in the file system in NV memory  215  for storing the downloaded software. If main CPU  255  receives an “Insufficient Memory” notification message from slave CPU  205 , main CPU  255  may abort the OTA upgrade procedure or may prompt the user to delete unwanted files, thus making more memory available.  
         [0047]    If main CPU  255  receives a “Memory OK” notification message from slave CPU  205 , main CPU  205  sends subsequent downloaded data from wireless network  100  directly to slave CPU  205   205  (via IPC unit  230 ) to be saved in the memory (file-system) of the slave CPU  205 . Slave CPU  205  saves further received packets in the file space of downloaded upgrade file  415  reserved for this purpose (process step  525 ). When all of the upgrade software is received, main CPU  255  sends an “End” message to slave CPU  205 . When slave CPU  205  receives an End message via IPC unit  230 , slave CPU  205  flushes all temporary buffers and commits update software file to NV memory  215  (process step  530 ). Thus, the software update package for either main CPU  255  or slave CPU  205  is stored in NV memory  215  (i.e., file-system) of slave CPU  205 .  
         [0048]    During application of the software patch, the upgrade agent program needs a small amount of NV memory for bookkeeping purposes and fail-safe recovery. This additional NV memory may be in either main CPU  255  or in slave CPU  205 . If such temporary NV memory comes from the other CPU, then an IPC message is used to read/write to such temporary memory.  
         [0049]    In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, if main CPU  255  and slave CPU  205  execute the same instruction set (e.g., both are ARM CPUs or both are MIPS CPUs), then one instance of the software update agent program can be used by both CPUs. Assuming that update agent program  320  is stored in the NV memory (i.e., ROM  265 ) of the main CPU), main CPU  255  executes update agent program  320  and first applies the patch on the code for main CPU  255 . Next, CPU  255  transfers update agent program  320  via IPC unit  230  to slave CPU  205 . Slave CPU  205  then executes update agent program  320  and applies the software patch on the code for slave CPU  205 . It is noted that the common update agent program could have been stored initially on slave CPU  205 . In such a case, the procedure would first apply the upgraded software on slave CPU  205 , transfer update agent program  420  to main CPU  255 , and apply the upgraded software to main CPU  255 .  
         [0050]    In still another alternative embodiment, if the address space (hardware bus) of one CPU is accessible by the other CPU, it is possible for one CPU to access both NV memories and apply the patch from one place. In fact, the entire address space need not be shared between the two CPUs. Only the relevant NV memory needs to be shared. In such cases, it is advantageous to make the NV memory (i.e., ROM  265 ) of main CPU  255  accessible to slave CPU  205 , so that a single software update agent on slave CPU  205  can do the software patch to the code for both CPUs.  
         [0051]    Although the present invention has been described with an exemplary embodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that the present invention encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7