WO2009116694A1

WO2009116694A1 - Terminal device and server for remote diagnosis for communication terminal and method thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2009116694A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/001585
Authority: WO
Inventors: Min-Gyu Han; Chung-Il Lee; Hyoungsuk Kim
Original assignee: Min-Gyu Han; Chung-Il Lee; Hyoungsuk Kim
Priority date: 2008-03-20
Filing date: 2008-03-21
Publication date: 2009-09-24
Also published as: KR20090100681A; KR101065355B1

Abstract

A terminal device for remote diagnosis on a communication terminal, a device management (DM) server, and a method for the remote diagnosis are provided. The DM server includes: an object storage unit storing a terminal diagnostic object; a transmission unit transmitting, to the terminal, the terminal diagnostic object; a receiving unit receiving terminal diagnostic result data using the object; and a diagnostic result analysis unit analyzing a diagnostic result based on the received terminal diagnostic result data.

Description

TERMINAL DEVICE AND SERVER FOR REMOTE DIAGNOSIS FOR COMMUNICATION TERMINAL AND METHOD THEREOF

Technical Field The present invention relates to a terminal device for a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for diagnosis, monitoring, and remote testing using remote management of a mobile communication terminal.

Background Art

Currently, a human being manually tests a mobile communication terminal before the mobile communication terminal is released in the market, and it is not easy to find out what kind of problems exist in the mobile communication terminal after the mobile communication terminal is released in the market. Also, after a problem is found in the mobile communication terminal, there are burdens of costs and time in applying a correction for the mobile communication terminal.

In the case a human being manually tests a large number of functions of the mobile communication terminal, it takes quite some time for a human being to manually test a mobile communication terminal and there may be errors due to mistakes of an examiner, thereby hindering a new mobile communication terminal to be released at a proper time in the market. Also, with regard to already released mobile communication terminals, it is actually impossible to test certain items, the certain test items being difficult to test before being released in the market. Specifically, tests at various environments users are facing are possible after mobile communication terminals are released in the market, however, except for a case when users inquire the problems to a customer center, there is extreme limitation to report the problems occurring after mobile communication terminals are released in the market since to report the problems are rare.

Therefore, an apparatus and a method which can automatically diagnose, monitor, and test various functions of a mobile communication terminal and can properly deal with failures occurring in the mobile communication terminal after the mobile communication is released in the market is required.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Goals The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for remote diagnosis of a mobile terminal which can reduce a rate of a diagnostic failure due to mistakes of an examiner by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing the mobile terminal from a remote area.

The present invention also provides an apparatus and a method for remote diagnosis of a mobile terminal which can reduce physical labor costs and times by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing the mobile terminal from a remote area.

The present invention also provides an apparatus and a method for remote diagnosis of a mobile terminal which can test the mobile terminal in user environments, which change after the mobile terminal is released in the market, by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing a mobile terminal from a remote area.

The present invention also provides an apparatus and a method for a remote diagnosis on a mobile terminal which can immediately repair a failure occurring in the mobile terminal by automatically diagnosing the failure and dealing with the failure according to the diagnostic result.

Technical solutions

According to the present invention, there is provided a device management

(DM) server including: A terminal device for remote diagnosis on a communication terminal, a device management (DM) server, and a method for the remote diagnosis are provided. The DM server includes: an object storage unit storing a terminal diagnostic object; a transmission unit transmitting, to the terminal, the terminal diagnostic object; a receiving unit receiving terminal diagnostic result data using the object; and a diagnostic result analysis unit analyzing a diagnostic result based on the received terminal diagnostic result data.

In an aspect of the present invention, the object storage unit includes: at least one of a monitoring function monitoring a status of the terminal, and a test function testing a specific function of the terminal.

In an aspect of the present invention, the test function includes: at least one of a device test function testing a status of each device of the terminal, a network test function testing an operational status of a network function of the terminal, a service test function testing at least one of a short message service (SMS) and a multi message service (MMS), and a customer care test function diagnosing the terminal via a customer center.

According to the present invention, there is provided a terminal device including: a DM client transmitting/receiving, with a device management server, a terminal diagnostic object or terminal diagnostic result data; and a DM agent diagnosing a failure occurring in the terminal using the terminal diagnostic object, and reporting the diagnostic result to the DM client.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal including: downloading a terminal diagnostic object from a terminal management server; diagnosing the terminal using the downloaded object and generating a diagnostic result data; and transmitting the diagnostic result data to the device management server.

In an aspect of the present invention, the method for the remote diagnosis on the terminal further includes: analyzing the diagnostic result data; and transmitting a failure processing object to the terminal when a failure is detected through the analyzing.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce a diagnostic failure rate due to mistakes of an examiner by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing a mobile terminal from a remote area.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce physical labor costs and time by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing a mobile terminal from a remote area. According to the present invention, it is possible to test a terminal in changed user environments after the terminal is released in the market by automatically diagnosing, monitoring, and testing the terminal from a remote area. According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately and immediately repair a failure occurring in a terminal by automatically diagnosing the failure and dealing with the failure according to the diagnostic result.

Brief Description of Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a device management (DM) server and a terminal device executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a device management server and a terminal device executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a device management server executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a terminal device executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal in detail according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal via a customer center according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. Exemplary embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a device management (DM) server 110 and a terminal device 120 executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the terminal device 120 of a user may connect to the DM server 110 via a wireless network to execute a remote diagnosis on the terminal, and may receive a terminal diagnostic object to diagnose the terminal device 120 from the DM server 110. In this instance, the terminal diagnostic object may be a monitoring function monitoring a status of the terminal device 120 or a test function testing a specific function of the terminal device 120. Specifically, for the terminal device 120 to download the monitoring function and the test function from the DM server 110, the terminal device 120 may connect to the DM server 110 and download a necessary function via a wireless network. In this instance, a diagnosis on the terminal device 120 may be executed using the downloaded function, and the diagnosis result may be transmitted to the DM server 110, thereby analyzing the diagnosis result.

That is, in the case a human being manually tests a large number of functions of each terminal device, it takes quite some time for a human being to manually test the large number of functions of each terminal device, thereby hindering a new terminal device being released at a proper time in the market. Therefore, it is possible to reduce a failure rate when diagnosing a terminal device and to immediately diagnose the terminal device by automatically diagnosing a terminal device from a remote area.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a device management (DM) server 220 and a terminal device 210 executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the terminal device 210 receives a terminal diagnostic object from the DM server 220, and may include a DM client 211 transmitting terminal diagnostic result data to the DM server 220 and a DM agent 212 diagnosing a failure in the terminal device 210 using the terminal diagnostic object.

The DM client 211 receives the terminal diagnostic object transmitted from the DM server 220 when the terminal device 210 connects to the DM server 220 to download a necessary terminal diagnostic object from the DM server 220. In this instance, the terminal diagnostic object received in the DM client 211 is transmitted to the DM agent 212 to diagnose the terminal. Also, diagnostic result data, received from the DM agent 212, is transmitted to the DM server 220. In this instance, communication between the DM client 211 and the DM server

220 may use a DM protocol.

The DM agent 212 may diagnose the terminal using the terminal diagnostic object transmitted from the DM client 211. In this instance, the terminal diagnostic object may be a monitoring function or a test function. That is, through the monitoring or test function, general statuses or specific events of the terminal may be monitored, and a status of each device and a network function may be tested. The DM agent 212 may generate diagnostic result data using the terminal diagnosis and transmit the generated diagnostic result data to the DM client 211.

Specifically, the failure in the terminal may be rapidly and easily repaired and an individual failure in the terminal may be rapidly dealt with by automatically diagnosing the failure and analyzing the diagnostic result data. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a device management (DM) server 300 executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the DM server 300 may include an object storage unit 330 storing a terminal diagnostic object to diagnose a terminal device 350, a transmission unit 320 transmitting the terminal diagnostic object to the terminal device 350, a receiving unit 310 receiving diagnostic result data, having diagnosed the terminal device 350 using the terminal diagnostic object, and a diagnostic result analysis unit 340 diagnosing a diagnostic result based on the received diagnostic result data.

The receiving unit 310 and the transmission unit 320, with the terminal device 350, function to transmit/receive the terminal diagnostic object/terminal diagnostic result data. Here, the transmission unit 320 may further include a message transmission unit (not shown) transmitting a short message service (SMS) to the terminal device 350 and reporting a new function is updated when the new function to diagnose the terminal device 350 is updated. In this instance, communication with the terminal device 350 may be executed via a wireless network, and the communication may be executed using a DM protocol.

The object storage unit 330 stores a terminal diagnostic object for diagnosing the terminal device 350, and transmits the terminal diagnostic object to the transmission unit 320. The terminal diagnostic object is to diagnose the terminal device 350, as an exemplary embodiment, the terminal diagnostic object may be a monitoring function monitoring the terminal device 350 or a test function testing a specific function of the terminal device 350.

In this instance, the monitoring function may include one of a status monitoring function monitoring an operational status of the terminal and an event monitoring function monitoring whether a predetermined event is satisfied. The status monitoring function may execute at least one of CPU usage measurement, memory usage measurement, received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement, and battery level measurement. Also, the event monitoring function is to monitor whether a condition satisfies the predetermined event, and, as examples of a condition of an event occurrence, abnormal termination and power on/off are possible. The test function may include at least one of a device test function testing a status of each device of the terminal, a network test function testing an operational status of a network function of the terminal, a service test function testing at least one of a short message service (SMS) and a multi message service (MMS), and a customer care test function diagnosing the terminal via a customer center. As an example of each of the above test functions, the device test function may execute at least one of a camera test, a touch screen test, a vibration test, an audio test, a keypad input test, an external memory test, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection test, a Bluetooth device test, and international mobile equipment identity value (IMEI) extraction. The network test function may execute at least one of a ping test, and pilot channel extraction or uniform resource locator (URL) access time extraction.

The service test function may execute at least one of an SMS test and an MMS test.

The customer care test function may effectuate at least one of a start or pause of an application, a keypad event occurrence, a touch pad event occurrence, a screen shot, or a screen upload.

In this instance, each of the above functions for a terminal diagnosis is one of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments. Instead, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents. The diagnostic result analysis unit 340 may analyze a diagnostic result based on the diagnostic result data received in the receiving unit 310. In this instance, when there is a failure in the terminal as a result of the analysis, the occurred failure may be immediately dealt with. As an example, when it is verified that the failure has occurred due to a critical bug of a firmware of a previous version, a firmware of a new version is transmitted to the terminal device 350, thereby updating the firmware. Otherwise, when it is verified that the terminal device 350 is infected with a virus and a failure occurred in the terminal device 350 due to the virus, a vaccine program to remove the virus is transmitted to the terminal device 350 and the failure in the terminal device 350 may be repaired. Consequently, through this, a failure occurring in a terminal device may be accurately diagnosed and analyzed, thereby immediately and accurately dealing with the failure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a terminal device 400 executing a remote diagnosis on a communication terminal in detail according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the terminal device 400 may include a DM client 410 responsible for transmission/reception with a DM server 430 and a DM agent 420 diagnosing a failure occurring in a terminal.

The DM client 410 may include an object receiving unit 412 receiving a terminal diagnostic object from the DM server 430 and a diagnostic result transmission unit 411 transmitting terminal diagnostic result data to the DM server 430.

The object receiving unit 420 may receive the terminal diagnostic object to transmit the received terminal diagnostic object to the DM agent 420. The diagnostic result transmission unit 411 may receive the terminal diagnostic result data from the DM agent 420 to transmit the received terminal diagnostic result data to the DM server

430.

The DM agent 420 may include a terminal status diagnosis unit 422 diagnosing a status of the terminal device 400 using the received terminal diagnostic object and a diagnostic result generation unit 421 generating terminal diagnostic result data about the terminal device 400.

As an example, a ping test function testing a network function may be received from the DM server 430. In this instance, the object receiving unit 412 transmits the ping test function to the terminal status diagnosis unit 422 of the DM agent 420 to execute the received ping test function. Here, the terminal status diagnosis unit 422 diagnoses the network function of the terminal device 400 using the ping test . Also, a diagnosis result is transformed into a data type in the diagnostic result generation unit 421, is transmitted to the diagnostic result receiving unit 411, and the transmitted diagnosis result is transmitted to the DM server 430.

Consequently, a diagnostics function is received and is automatically diagnosed, and a result of the diagnosis is transmitted to a DM server, thereby immediately and aggressively dealing with a failure occurring in a terminal device. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in operation S510, a terminal diagnostic object is downloaded from a DM server. In this instance, communication with the DM server may be executed using a DM protocol. Also, the terminal diagnostic object may be a monitoring function or a test function, and may transmit function information regarding a newly added function to the terminal device via an SMS.

In operation S520, the terminal device is diagnosed using the downloaded terminal diagnostic object and diagnostic result data may be generated. The diagnosing on the terminal device may monitor a status of a terminal or test a specific function of the terminal.

In operation S530, the terminal diagnostic result data may be transmitted to the DM server. In this case, communication with the DM server may be executed using a DM protocol.

In operation S540, the DM server analyzes the diagnostic result data and deals with a result of the analysis. As an example, when there is a need to upgrade a firmware as the result of the analysis, a firmware may be transmitted to the terminal device and upgraded, and when there is a need to remove a virus using a vaccine program, a vaccine program may be transmitted to the terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal via a customer center according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, in operation S610, an inquiry regarding a failure in a terminal may be inquired to a customer center. The customer center may receive the inquiry regarding the failure in the terminal, and may verify whether there is a need to diagnose the failure.

In operation S620, a terminal failure diagnosis function may be received from a DM server. That is, when the customer center decides there is a need to diagnose the failure in the terminal, the customer center may transmit a necessary failure diagnosis function to a corresponding terminal.

In operation S630, the received terminal failure diagnosis function may be executed. Specifically, the failure diagnosis function received from the DM server is executed in the terminal, thereby diagnosing whether a failure occurs in the terminal. In operations S640 and S650, a screen of an execution result may be captured as a result of the execution of the failure diagnosis function, and the screen capture may be transmitted to the customer center. Specifically, the result of the execution of the failure diagnosis function may be outputted into a type which may be difficult understood in view of general users, and it may be difficult for the general user to deal with the failure, therefore the failure is transmitted to the customer center and the failure is understood in the customer center.

In operation S660, a failure in the terminal may be analyzed and dealt with. Specifically, the customer center may analyze whether a failure occurs in the terminal or what kind of failure occurs based on the transmitted captured screen, and may deal with the occurred failure.

That is, as described above, while a customer center receives a failure occurring in a terminal and deals with the failure, a failure occurring in a terminal may be more accurately and immediately dealt with by executing a diagnostic function via communication with the terminal, analyzing the result of the diagnosis, and dealing with the failure.

The remote diagnosis on a terminal according to the above-described exemplary embodiments may be recorded in computer-readable media including program instructions to implement various operations embodied by a computer. The media may also include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD ROM disks and DVD; magneto-optical media such as optical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, and the like. The media may also be a transmission medium such as optical or metallic lines, wave guides, and the like, including a carrier wave transmitting signals specifying the program instructions, data structures, and the like. Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter. The described hardware devices may be configured to act as one or more software modules in order to perform the operations of the above-described embodiments of the present invention. Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments. Instead, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A device management server, the server comprising: an object storage unit storing a terminal diagnostic object; a transmission unit transmitting, to the terminal, the terminal diagnostic object; a receiving unit receiving terminal diagnostic result data using the object; and a diagnostic result analysis unit analyzing a diagnostic result based on the received terminal diagnostic result data.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the object storage unit comprises at least one of a monitoring function monitoring a status of the terminal, and a test function testing a specific function of the terminal.

3. The server of claim 2, wherein the monitoring function comprises at least one of a status monitoring function monitoring an operational status of the terminal, and an event monitoring function monitoring whether a predetermined event is satisfied.

4. The server of claim 2, wherein the test function comprises at least one of a device test function testing a status of each device of the terminal, a network test function testing an operational status of a network function of the terminal, a service test function testing at least one of a short message service (SMS) and a multi message service (MMS), and a customer care test function diagnosing the terminal via a customer center.

5. The server of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting of the terminal diagnostic obj ect and the receiving of the terminal diagnostic result data use a device management (DM) protocol.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic result analysis unit further comprises: a failure processing unit processing a failure occurring in the terminal based on the analysis of the diagnostic result.

7. A terminal device, comprising: a DM client transmitting/receiving, with a device management server, a terminal diagnostic object or terminal diagnostic result data; and a DM agent diagnosing a failure occurring in the terminal using the terminal diagnostic object, and reporting the diagnostic result to the DM client.

8. The terminal device of claim 7, wherein the DM client comprises: an object receiving unit receiving the terminal diagnostic object from the device management server, and transmitting the received terminal diagnostic object to the DM agent; and a diagnostic result transmission unit receiving a terminal diagnostic result data from the DM agent, and transmitting the received terminal diagnostic result data to the device management server.

9. The terminal device of claim 7, wherein the DM agent comprises: a terminal status diagnosis unit diagnosing a status of the terminal using the received terminal diagnostic object; and a diagnostic result generation unit generating the terminal diagnostic result data regarding the terminal.

10. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the terminal status diagnosis unit diagnosing the status of the terminal using the received terminal diagnostic object executes at least one of terminal monitoring and a specific function test.

11. The terminal device of claim 10, wherein the terminal detailed function test executes at least one of a device test testing a status of each device of the terminal, a network test testing operational status of a network function of the terminal, a service test testing at least one of an SMS and an MMS of the terminal, and a customer care test testing the terminal via a customer center.

12. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the diagnostic result generation unit generating the terminal diagnostic result data on the terminal further comprises: a transmission result reporting unit transmitting the terminal diagnostic result data to a DM client.

13. A method for a remote diagnosis on a terminal, the method comprising: downloading a terminal diagnostic object from a terminal management server; diagnosing the terminal using the downloaded object and generating a diagnostic result data; and transmitting the diagnostic result data to the device management server.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: analyzing the diagnostic result data; and transmitting a failure processing object to the terminal when a failure is detected through the analyzing.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the failure processing object comprises at least one of an updated terminal firmware and a failure recovery application.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the terminal diagnostic object comprises at least one of a monitoring function monitoring a status of the terminal and a test function testing detailed function of the terminal.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the monitoring function comprises at least one of a status monitoring function monitoring an operational status of the terminal and an event monitoring function monitoring whether a predetermined event is satisfied.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the test function comprises at least one of a device test function testing a status of each device of the terminal, a network test function testing an operational status of network function of the terminal, a service test function testing at least one of a short message service (SMS) and a multi message service (MMS), and a customer care test function diagnosing the terminal via a customer center.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the device test function executes at least one of a camera test, a touch screen test, a vibration test, an audio test, a keypad input test, an external memory test, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection test, a Bluetooth device test, and international mobile equipment identity value (IMEI) extraction.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the network test function executes at least one of a ping test, pilot channel extraction, and uniform resource locator (URL) access time extraction.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the test function executes at least one of an SMS test and an MMS test.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the customer care test function effectuates at least one of a start or pause of an application, a keypad event occurrence, a touch pad event occurrence, a screen shot, or a screen upload.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the downloading of the terminal diagnostic object and the transmitting of the diagnostic result data use a DM protocol.

24. At least one computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for implementing the method of any one of claims 13 through 23.