Patent ID: 7350207

Claim:
A method for providing downloadable software to a target element, comprising: providing a data unit having a payload and a data trailer; storing a software program in the payload; storing at least one software compatibility tag in the data trailer, each software compatibility tag containing at least one software compatibility tag rule associated with the software compatibility tag, and each software compatibility tag containing information specific to the software program in the payload; transmitting the data unit to a target element, the target element having information specific to at least one element located at the target element, and the target element having means for evaluating the software compatibility tag rule; automatically evaluating, at the target element, the software compatibility tag rule; determining, responsive to the rule-evaluating, whether to install the payload at the target element wherein the data trailer includes a plurality of elements selected from a class which includes part number data, at least one software compatibility tag, override data, trailer version number of trailer, number of compatibility tags, version number of payload, payload checksum, and payload and trailer checksum; reliability checking exclusively the data in the payload, and reliability checking the data unit as a whole; and wherein the software compatibility tag contains at least one of; rule evaluation data, software compatibility tag rule data, part number information of the software program, and part number version information of the software program.