System and method for automated safe reprogramming of software radios

Abstract

The proposed system defines an automated safe reprogramming of software radios. The essence of software radios is to enhance or alter the functionality of a mobile terminal by using software. This means that the required software is downloaded onto a mobile terminal on the fly to meet the critical and necessary needs of the user. Lot of caution needs to be exercised while downloading the necessary software components on the fly. The proposed invention automates the validation and verification of the downloaded component by suggesting (a) a variety of signatures; (b) a means for defining multiple zones and verification of zone-specific signatures; (c) a means for computing the signatures of the downloaded component in the multiple zones; and (d) a means for verification of the downloaded component based on the signatures. The objective is to define the safeness of the downloaded component based on multiple signatures to be validated in different zones. In this way, the multiple validity requirements are tested in a systematic way and failure to meet any one of the requirements leads to the rejection of the downloaded component.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates generally to a method for reducing the risk of using a corrupted or damaged downloaded program. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for validating a downloaded program into a software radio using multiple signatures and a separate execution environment for validation. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Wireless terminal architecture is adopting the principles of Software Defined Radio. The main thrust in applying the principles of Software Defined Radio into the handset architecture is to utilize the potential that SDR offers in terms of universal multi-mode terminal functionality within a single reconfigurable platform. This is necessitated by the plethora of standards in Radio Access technologies in both the second and third generation of mobile communication systems. Also, the need to provide true global roaming seamlessly across network boundaries, getting access to services anytime anywhere without ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0029] Still another aspect of the invention is to use dynamic signatures to ensure that the downloaded component has not been infected either during packaging, transmission, or after unpacking. The twin objectives of the present invention is to provide as much protection as possible and at the same time to keep the process of generation and packaging of the signatures as simple as possible. The dynamic signatures are incorporated into the package to verify the dynamic behavior aspects such as internal and external function calls, and memory and CPU utilization.

Problems solved by technology

The possibility of the software modules corrupting the functionality of a reconfigurable software radio is very much a reality.

The integrity of the software modules in this case cannot be guaranteed since the nature and the contents in the device can undergo reconfiguration dynamically.

The said patent while addresses the issues related to monitoring and controlling the execution of the code but doesn't verify whether the behavior is as expected.

The method described in the said patent, however, doesn't make an attempt to ensure whether the generated data by the downloaded program is as expected; it only attempts to reduce the risk of damage to end user system resources due the execution of the downloaded program.

The focus of the said patent is content verification and verification for the appropriate license for the verified content and doesn't address the issues related to the verification of the behavior of the downloaded software product.

Again this method deals with the static characteristics of the software component and does not attempt to address the issue of dynamic behavior of the component.

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