US 6,397,385 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for in service software upgrade for expandable telecommunications system

AssigneeExcel Switching Corporation

InventorBarry Kravitz

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Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for upgrading software, or a portion thereof, on a continuously running system, while the system is operating. A base set of software is built which contains a reserved memory area in its memory architecture. Upgrade source files are built into the reserved memory area. The upgrade images are extracted out and converted into loadable upgrade images. A header indicates where the upgrade is to be downloaded in the system and also identifies the location in the reserved memory area at which the upgrade is to be stored in the relevant component of the system. The upgrade is downloaded into the respective reserved memory area in the memory storage devices in the respective components in the system. The downloads can be performed while the system is operating because the reserved memory area does not contain live code. The upgrades are activated or deactivated using a jump instruction sequence.

In a telecommunications system, comprising a plurality of interconnected nodes for performing telecommunications switching and other voice and data processing services, the nodes being interconnected by an inter-nodal network, and a host being connected in communicating relationship with at least one of the nodes, each node having at least one processing card containing a microprocessor with an associated memory storage device, the microprocessor in the processing card running software for controlling certain functions of the card and of the node as a whole, each node also including a plurality of line cards and function cards for performing call processing functions and call connections, a method of upgrading software in at least one of the cards in a node, while the telecommunications system remains active, the method including the steps of:

(A) making a base build of a software application program for operation of said telecommunication system, as a base load image;
(B) within said base build, establishing a reserved memory area in the memory storage device locations of each card in said telecommunications system for future upgrades;
(C) downloading said base load image from said host to said memory storage devices in cards in said telecommunications system;
(D) generating a software upgrade, by producing upgrade source code and making an upgrade build including sets of upgrade information destined for certain predetermined targeted cards in nodes in the system, and including as addresses for said sets of upgrade information the reserved memory areas set aside when said base build was produced;
(E) rebuilding said base load now including said software upgrades and compiling and linking said rebuilt base load for proper address resolution;
(F) extracting said software upgrade source code from said rebuilt base build to generate upgrade images, and including information in said upgrade images about the targeted card to which a particular portion of the software upgrade is to be downloaded;
(G) downloading said upgrade images from said host to said reserved memory segments in targeted cards;
(H) activating desired sets of upgrade information now resident on selected ones of said processing cards, line cards and function cards, whereby a software upgrade is effected in the system while the system continues to operate.

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Abstract

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