Component-based control structure for wireless communication

Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C556S467000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06263213

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile computing systems and particularly to the control application of the soft and hardware components building the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile computing systems are made up of a number of mobile devices (MD) which might be connected to a network through different means of communication like wired or wireless networks. Mobile devices might be specialized devices like a mobile telephone or a small computing device with limited capabilities like a notebook. The mobile devices are supported through specialized applications which perform dedicated tasks on behalf of and in conjunction with the mobile device.
The method for controlling the operation of the mobile devices, i.e. the control application, must satisfy severe conditions with respect to dynamic configuration, adaptation and flexibility. These conditions and requirements origin from several sources. The power management for the used small devices requires the observation of the battery power and the flexible adaptation of all system components. The small set of available system resources (like storage space, main memory, processing power and communication bandwidth) require the dynamic configuration and adaptation of the running software and control. The interaction with the mobile environment and the user requires several parallel and independent threads of execution which enhances the complexity of configuration, adaptation and management of said components. Therefore, a way to control the mobile device and its operation in an efficient way is desirable.
Since the invention of the programming language SIMULA in 1967 object-oriented programming has been used to build flexible and modular applications. In object-oriented programming a program is built out of small objects which offer a set of methods to the other object which can be invoked. This set of methods is called the interface of the object. The interface of the object comprises all commands to control the object. Since the mid-eighties the object-oriented approach was extended to component-based programming. In component-based programming programs are assembled from small independent software components. An example for such a component-based programming is e.g. Microsoft OLE, OpenDoc and JAVA Beans. Usually, the software components support two different sets of interfaces: The first interface is a generic interface which supports the assembly of the components to build a running application. The second set of interfaces comprises specific interfaces which relate to the particular task to be performed by the corresponding component.
From EP-A-365 115 an object identifier generator for distributed computer systems is known. Thereby the nodes, as well as the connected devices and associated processes, data bases, and other objects, must be uniquely labeled or named such that the object can be positively identified throughout the entire distributed system.
From EP-A-483 037 an object-oriented programming system including a storage means, a data processor and an application operating on said data processor is known, wherein an object in said storage means defines a data structure, said object having at least one attribute containing data and an associated method for performing an action on said object in response to a message from said application.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The problem at the base of the present invention is to provide an efficient application for the control of technical components of a mobile computing device.
The central idea to solve the above-mentioned problem is to provide a component-based control application structure with dynamic configuration capabilities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, therefore a method for controlling a node of a mobile communications network is provided, wherein a control application a mobile communications device is structured in components of a predetermined configuration, wherein the predetermined configuration depends on the current task to be performed by the mobile communications device. Each component corresponds to an active object responsible for a specific operation of the mobile communications device. Each component is provided with its own execution thread. Each component is furthermore provided with a method interface comprising different commands for the control of the operation of the respective component. The predetermined configuration of the control application is changed dynamically depending on the current task to be performed by the mobile communications device.
The control application can be structured in a tree-like configuration.
A component can be provided with an identifier identifying the component and the role of the component in the configuration.
Every command to be emitted can be provided with the identifier of the target component, such that the components can connect dynamically with each other.
An emitted command can first be transmitted upwardly in the tree-like configuration to at least one level above the emitting component and then be transmitted downwards to all components in the tree-like configuration of the control application.
An emitted command can at first be transmitted upwardly in the tree-like configuration up to the root component of the tree-like configuration and then be transmitted downwards to all components and the tree-like configuration of the control application.
To start the control application, a start command can be sent to each component. The program line arguments can be forwarded as parameters to each component. A thread of execution can be assigned to at least one component. The assigned thread can be started and the components can be stopped by a stop command at the end of a life cycle.
A query command can be provided to query whether a component has been stopped or not.
A halt command can be provided to stop the execution of a thread of an assigned component.
A stopped execution of a thread of a component can be restarted by a resumed command.
A bind command can be provided to request a pointer to a specific component with a specific identifier.
The leaves of the tree-like configuration of the control application can represent the technical elements of the mobile communications device.
An abstract factory can transmit a create configuration command to a concrete factory, wherein the abstract factory contains an abstract, platform independent method and the concrete factory implements the abstract method of the abstract factory by creating the actual configuration of the control application depending on the platform used.
According to the present invention the above-mentioned controlling methods can be used to control a portable mobile device, a base station or a network server of a mobile communication network.
According to the present invention furthermore a mobile communications device is provided, which comprises control means for executing a control application as stated above.
Further features, details and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following description of embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 6134454 (2000-10-01), Foladare et al.
patent: 6192259 (2001-02-01), Hayashi
patent: WO 95/02217 (1995-01-01), None
Katsumi Maruyama: “Object-Oriented Switching Software Technology” IEICE Transactions on Communication, vol. E75-B, No. 10, Oct. 1, 1992, pp. 957-968, XP000324829.
Kentaro Shimizu Et Al: “Hierarchical Objects Groups in Distributed Operating Systems” Jun. 13, 1988, International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, San Jose, Jun. 13-17, 1988, pp. 18-24, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers XP000092920.
Arnold E C Et Al: “Object Oriented Switching System Architectures and Software Development Processes” Proceedings of the National Communications Forum, vol. 44, Oct. 8, 1990, pp. 795-802, XP000225068.

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