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.

1 . A system for automated reprogramming of software radios in a safe manner, said system comprising of a quarantine space for carrying out a plurality of signature evaluations of a downloaded component in an exclusive environment, a V-Zone subsystem for validating said downloaded component in said quarantine space, and an M-Zone subsystem for validating said downloaded component in Main Subsystem.  
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said V-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform IXB signature verification based on a plurality of internal functions (Fi) of said downloaded component and a plurality of use-cases (Ui) related to said downloaded component, wherein said IXB signature verification is based on given <U,F,C>(gi) and generated, by executing said downloaded component in said quarantine space, <U,F,C>(qj), and comprises of: computing sum of absolute difference (SAD) between Cgi and Cqi for a use-case Ui such that Fgj=Fqj over a plurality of functions (N) associated with said use-case Ugi, comparing said SAD with N times a pre-defined threshold (SThreshold), and returning OK if said SAD is less than said N times SThreshold.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said V-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform EXB signature verification based on a plurality of external functions (Fi) of said downloaded component and a plurality of use-cases (Ui) related to said downloaded component, wherein said EXB signature verification is based on given <U,F,C>(gi) and generated, by executing said downloaded component in said quarantine space, <U,F,C>(qj), and comprises of: computing sum of absolute difference (SAD) between Cgi and Cqi for a use-case Ugi such that Fgi=Fqi over a plurality of functions (N) associated with said use-case Ugi, comparing said SAD with N times a pre-defined threshold (SThreshold), and returning OK if said SAD is less than said N times SThreshold.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said V-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform XMU signature verification based on an internal function (F) of said downloaded component and a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said XMU signature verification is based on given <<Mg 1 ,Cg 1 >, . . . , <Mgi,Cgi>, . . . , <Mgn,Cgn>> wherein Mgi is the memory allocations and Cgi is the number memory allocation requests during the ith invocation of said F, and generated <<Mq 1 ,Cq 1 >, . . . , <Mqi,Cqi>, . . . , <Mqn,Cqn>> wherein Mqi is the memory allocations and Cqi is the number of memory allocations requests during ith invocation of said F in said quarantine space, and comprising of: computing sum (S 1 ) of Mgi over 1<=i<=N, computing sum (Cg) of Cgi over 1<=i<=N, computing sum (S 2 ) of Mqi over 1<=i<=N, computing sum (Cq) of Cqi over 1<=i<=N, computing absolute difference (AD) between S 1  and S 2 , comparing AD with N times a pre-defined threshold (SThreshold), and returning OK if AD less than N times SThreshold and Cg=Cq.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said V-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform XPU signature verification based on an internal function (F) of said downloaded component and a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said XPU signature verification is based on given <Tg 1 , Tg 2 , . . . , Tgi, . . . , Tgn> wherein Tgi is the execution time of F with respect to said use-case U during ith invocation, and generated <Tq 1 , Tq 2 , . . . , Tqi, . . . , Tqn> wherein Tqi is the execution time of said F in said quarantine space with respect to said use-case U during ith invocation, and comprising of: computing sum (S 1 ) of Tgi over 1<=i<=N, computing sum (S 2 ) of Tqi over 1<=i<=N, computing absolute difference (AD) between S 1  and S 2 , comparing AD with N times a pre-defined threshold (SThreshold), and returning OK if AD less than N times SThreshold.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said V-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform XPU signature verification based on an internal function (F) of said downloaded component and a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said XPU signature verification is based on given X=<X 1 , . . . , Xi, . . . , Xn> wherein Xi is the execution time of F with respect to said use-case U during the ith invocation, and generated Y=<Y 1  . . . , Yi, . . . , Yn> wherein Yi is the execution time of said F in said quarantine space with respect to said use-case U during ith invocation with respect to said use-case U, and comprising of: determining a plurality of mappings such that each Map from X to Y is such that Xi/Map(Xi) for each i (1<=i<=n) is within a pre-defined threshold from any Xj/Map(Xj), determining of Ei={t 1 , . . . , tj, . . . } wherein tj=Xj/Mapi(Xj) wherein Mapi is the ith mapping of said plurality of mappings, computation of mean ei based on elements of Ei, determination of Gf as a set of {e 1 , . . . , ei, . . . }, and returning OK if Gf is non-null.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 6  further comprises of a procedure to perform XPU verification based on a plurality of internal functions (F 1 , . . . , Fi, . . . , Fn) of said downloaded component and a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said XPU verification is based on Gfi={efi 1 , . . . } with 1<=i<=n, and comprising of: determination of an element ei in Gfi 1<=i<=n such that any absolute difference (ADij) between ei and ej in Gfj, for any 1<=j<=n is less than a pre-defined threshold (Threshold) and returning OK if ADij<Threshold for any 1<=i,j<=n.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said M-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform NXPU signature verification based on a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said NXPU signature verification is based on given <C 1 , . . . , Ci, . . . , Cn> wherein Ci=<Ci 1 , Ci 2 , . . . > wherein Cij is the normalized jth sample related to CPU utilization related to said U during the ith execution of said downloaded component and C 1 ′ is the associated NXPU template, and generated D=<D 1 , . . . , Di, . . . , Dn> wherein Di=<Di 1 , Di 2 , . . . > wherein Dij is the normalized jth sample related to CPU utilization related to said U during the ith execution of said downloaded component in said Main Subsystem, and comprising of: arranging D in non-decreasing order of execution time resulting in D′=<D 1 ′, . . . , Di′, . . . , Dn′>, time-warping and reducing two elements of D′ in a successive manner starting from D 1 ′ resulting in D 1 ′, warping C 1 ′ and D 1 ′ to determine a path of least error, summing (S) the least error components based on said path of least error, and returning OK if S is less than a pre-defined threshold, wherein said time-warping and reduction of two elements, D 1 ′=<D 11 , D 12 , . . . , D 1   x > and D 2 ′=<D 21 , D 22 , . . . , D 2   y > comprises of: warping D 1 ′ and D 2 ′ to determine a path of minimum error, determining mapping between D 1 ′ and D 2 ′ using said path of minimum error wherein <D 1   j , W 1 > is mapped onto <D 2   k , W 2 > wherein W 1  and W 2  are windows starting at D 1   j  and D 2   k  respectively, stretching D 1   j  (D 1   j ′) to W 2  by interpolation, and computing D 3   j  by point-wise averaging of D 1   j ′ and D 2   k  if W 1 <W 2 , stretching D 2   k  (D 2   k ′) to W 1  and computing point-wise averaging of D 1   j  and D 2   k ′ if W 2 <W 1 , and replacing D 1   j  of D 1 ′ by D 3   j.    
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said M-Zone subsystem comprises of a procedure to perform NXMU signature verification based on a use-case (U) related to said downloaded component, wherein said NXMU signature verification is based on given <C 1 , . . . , Ci, . . . , Cn> wherein Ci=<Ci 1 , Ci 2 , . . . > wherein Cij is the normalized jth sample related to memory utilization related to U during the ith execution of said downloaded component and C 1 ′ is the associated NXMU template, and generated D=<D 1 , . . . , Di, . . . , Dn> wherein Di=<Di 1 , Di 2 , . . . > wherein Dij is the normalized jth sample related to memory utilization related to U during the ith execution of said downloaded component in said Main Subsystem, and comprising of: arranging D in non-decreasing order of execution time resulting in D′=<D 1 ′, . . . , Di′, . . . Dn′>, time-warping and reducing two elements of D′ in a successive manner starting from D 1 ′ resulting in D 1 ′, warping C 1 ′ and D 1 ′ to determine a path of least error, summing (S) the least error components based on said path of least error, and returning OK if S is less than a pre-defined threshold, wherein said time-warping and reduction of two elements, D 1 ′=<D 11 , D 12 , . . . , D 1   x > and D 2 ′=<D 21 , D 22 , . . . , D 2   y > comprises of warping D 1 ′ and D 2 ′ to determine a path of minimum error, determining mapping between D 1 ′ and D 2 ′ using said path of minimum error wherein <D 1   j , W 1 > is mapped onto <D 2   k , W 2 >, wherein W 1  and W 2  are windows starting at D 1   j  and D 2   k  respectively, stretching D 1   j  (D 1   j ′) to W 2  by interpolation, and computing D 3   j  by point-wise averaging of D 1   j ′ and D 2   k  if W 1 <W 2 , stretching D 2   k  (D 2   k ′) to W 1  and computing point-wise averaging of D 1   j  and D 2   k ′ if W 2 <W 1 , and replacing D 1   j  of D 1 ′ by D 3   j.