Patent ID: 7039674

Claim:
A program-changing method for a network comprising at least two nodes that each have a program, said network further comprising a network management system (NMS) coupled to a first node of the nodes, the method comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting, by the network management system (NMS), a new program data and a first control signal to said first node coupled to the network management system (NMS) disposed in the network separately from the nodes and configured to manage the changing of the programs of the nodes; (b) allocating a fixed region in a memory within said first node in response to the reception of the new program data, storing the received new program data in the allocated fixed region, and replacing the program of said first node coupled to the network management system (NMS) with the new program data responsive to the first control signal; (c) causing the network management system (NMS) to transmit to said first node a data-transmitting signal for transmitting the stored new program data to a second node, and transmitting, by the network management system (NMS), a second control signal to said second node for program-changing; and (d) in response to the data-transmitting signal, causing said first node to transmit the stored new program data thereof to said second node for program-changing.