Interactive video distribution systems – Video distribution system with upstream communication – Receiver
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-02
2004-03-09
Miller, John (Department: 2614)
Interactive video distribution systems
Video distribution system with upstream communication
Receiver
C725S140000, C725S152000, C717S168000, C717S170000, C709S221000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06704933
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on application No. H11-026272 filed in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that manages the configuration of a plurality of programs, which are stored in an electrical appliance and provide functions of the electrical appliance. More particularly, the present invention relates to a program configuration management apparatus for downloading programs sent via a communication channel and revising programs in a communication terminal device using the downloaded programs.
2. Background Art
Programs installed in communication terminal devices, such as tuners used for digital satellite broadcasts and CATVs (Cable Televisions), are conventionally updated by downloading new versions of the programs sent via transmission channels in their entirety and completely replacing old versions in non-volatile memories, such as flash memories, of the communication terminal devices with the new versions. Old versions are not erased during the updating and are kept as recovery programs to guarantee the functioning of the communication terminal devices.
As the variety of communication services, such as satellite broadcasts and CATVs, has increased in recent years, so have the functions that communication terminal devices need to perform. As a result, the software installed in the communication terminal devices has also increased in size. Consequently, with the aforementioned conventional method where programs are updated by downloading entire new versions, it is only realistically possible for a communication terminal device to keep one previous version as a backup. Therefore, if a new version downloaded for a bug fix also contains bugs, the communication terminal device will be left with no fully functioning program.
Also, since the presence of bugs in only certain parts of a current version will necessitate the downloading of an entire new version, there is the problem that transmission channels are unnecessarily occupied by program downloads.
This problem could potentially be solved by dividing the programs required by the communication terminal devices into small units (modules) according to functions and updating programs in module units. However, when the number of modules becomes very large or the number of versions increases due to repeated program updates, there will be an explosive increase in the number of combinations of modules. As a result, checking whether each module combination is executable becomes an enormous burden. Also, when new versions downloaded into communication terminal devices contain bugs or are not fully compatible with other programs that have already been downloaded, the new versions hinder the functioning of the other programs that hitherto operated normally.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a program configuration management apparatus that is used for a communication terminal device, which downloads the entire new version of a program or each module of the new version and updates a current version with the downloaded new version or module. In view of the stated problems, the present program configuration management apparatus avoids the inconvenience that a defective downloaded version or module may hinder the functioning of other programs that hitherto operated properly.
The stated object is achieved by a program configuration management apparatus that is used for a communication terminal device and manages a configuration of programs for providing functions of the communication terminal device, the program configuration management apparatus including: a download unit for downloading a program via a communication channel; a program holding unit for holding the downloaded program as well as at least one previous version of the downloaded program; and a previous version reinstallation unit for receiving a previous version reinstallation designation for a specific program held in the program holding unit, invalidating a current version of the specific program, and validating a previous version of the specific program.
With this construction, the program configuration management apparatus of the present invention validates previous versions stored in the communication terminal device. Therefore, even if programs that are newly downloaded for version-up contain bugs, the program configuration management apparatus restores the state (program configuration) of the communication terminal device to the original state where the communication terminal device functioned properly. As a result, a situation where programs downloaded for version-up impair the functioning of the communication terminal device is avoided.
Here, the program holding unit may include: a program holding unit for holding each program downloaded by the download unit, and a management information holding unit for holding management information that shows a name, a version, and validity information for each program in the program holding unit, the validity information showing whether a program is valid or invalid, with programs whose validity information is valid being selected as execution objects, and the previous version reinstallation unit may include: a receiving unit for receiving a designation of a name of the specific program and a reinstallation target version of the specific program; and a reinstallation unit for validating a previous version of the specific program by changing the validity information of a certain version of the specific program, the certain version being a most recent version, out of the reinstallation target version and older versions of the specific program, in the program holding unit.
With this construction, when it is necessary to invalidate the current version of a program and validate another version of the program, it is enough to change validity information related to the versions. Therefore, an operation for invalidating the latest version of a program and validating a previous version is simplified.
Here, the program configuration management apparatus may further include a history information holding unit for holding history information giving a name, a version, a downloading date and time, and an invalidation date and time for each of the downloaded programs, the downloading date and time showing when a program was downloaded and the invalidation date and time showing when a program that has been invalidated was invalidated, where the management information also shows the names and versions of programs that have dependent relations with individual programs in the program holding unit, and the previous version reinstallation unit further includes: a related program reinstallation unit that identifies all programs which have dependent relations with the specific program by referring to the management information, and validates a suitable version of each identified program by referring to the history information, the suitable version of each identified program being the version that was downloaded at a latest time prior to the invalidation date and time of the version validated by the reinstallation unit.
With this construction, the program configuration management apparatus validates previous versions of a specified program and other programs having dependent relations with the specified program. In this manner, the program configuration management apparatus validates a program set where compatibilities between programs are maintained. Therefore, a situation where a reinstalled previous version impairs the functioning of other programs due to the incompatibilities between versions is avoided.
Here, the program configuration management apparatus may further include a test unit for performing a test execution on each downloaded program and writing only programs that pass the test execution into the program holding unit. With this construction, even if a newly downloaded program contains critical bugs, for instance, a worst case where the downloaded program renders the communication terminal dev
Mori Toshiya
Tanaka Akihiro
Ma Johnny
Masushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Miller John
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