Title of Invention	CAMPAIGN FOR DOWNLOADING DATA INTO PORTABLE COMMUNICATING OBJECTS
Abstract	The downloading of data from a server into one (Cn) of the portable communicating objects (Cl CN), such as chip cards or mobile terminals, over a radiocommunications network involves: a preprocessing of data (PRET) in the server into at least one data message intended for the communicating object; a sending (E) of the data message from the server to the communicating object; a reception (R) by the server of an acknowledgement of reception by the communicating object, and; a post-processing of data (POST) in the server contingent on the acknowledgement of reception. The pre-processings of data (P1) and post-processings of data (P3) concerning the communicating objects are respectively executed before and after sending the data message and receiving the acknowledgements of reception (P2) concerning the communicating objects. The server communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the sending and receiving of messages.

Title of Invention

CAMPAIGN FOR DOWNLOADING DATA INTO PORTABLE COMMUNICATING OBJECTS

Abstract

The downloading of data from a server into one (Cn) of the portable communicating objects (Cl CN), such as chip cards or mobile terminals, over a radiocommunications network involves: a preprocessing of data (PRET) in the server into at least one data message intended for the communicating object; a sending (E) of the data message from the server to the communicating object; a reception (R) by the server of an acknowledgement of reception by the communicating object, and; a post-processing of data (POST) in the server contingent on the acknowledgement of reception. The pre-processings of data (P1) and post-processings of data (P3) concerning the communicating objects are respectively executed before and after sending the data message and receiving the acknowledgements of reception (P2) concerning the communicating objects. The server communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the sending and receiving of messages.

Full Text	1 5 10 A campaign for downloading data into portable communicating objects The present invention relates to downloading data 15 from a server into portable communicating objects through a radiocommunications network. In particular, the communicating objects are smart cards, such as Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, inserted into mobile terminals of the radiocommunications network. 20 The data download server or "Over The Air (OTA) card administration platform" has software that enables the operator managing the radiocommunications network to keep control over the smart cards in the mobile terminals and to modify the contents of said cards. 25 Such operations which are performed at the initiative of the operator (push mode) concern, for example, downloading a file into predetermined cards of the fleet managed by the operator, or downloading or deleting a determined application, or indeed modifying 30 data in a file or a determined application in cards managed by the operator. 2 The data to be downloaded into the smart cards is often transmitted through a short message server. A plurality of short messages are often necessary in order to download an application or a file. 5 The invention relates more particularly to a campaign for downloading data for the purpose of massively updating user cards, even though the OTA data download server can effect individual downloading into a single user card. 10 In a first example, such individual downloading relates to a unique personal file that is intended for roaming users who travel abroad frequently and that contains more than about ten identifiers of preferred networks managed by operators with whom the operator of 15 the network managing the cards has entered into contracts. The preferred network identifier file is unique and is to be downloaded into numerous predetermined cards so that the users of those cards can use it when they travel abroad. 20 For this first example, the operator currently has two possibilities for downloading the file from the OTA server. In a first possibility, the operator decides to download the file individually, as and when such a file becomes necessary, i.e. the first time an 25 interested user goes roaming, and so on, one after another, for all of the users who go roaming. In a "campaign mode" second possibility, the server sends the preferred network identifier file in a single campaign to the cards whose users have taken out a 30 subscription to a roaming option. 3 In campaign mode, the number of users targeted can be as high as several hundreds of thousands or millions. In a second example, individual downloading 5 relates to a unique file of names and telephone numbers of sales representatives of a firm to be downloaded into the cards of the users employed in the firm. In a third example, individual downloading relates to an application facilitating management of 10 the phonebooks of telephone numbers in the SIM cards. The application enables a user to back up his or her entire phonebook in a predetermined server managed by the operator every time the user records a new telephone number in his or her card; 15 In the third example, three possibilities are offered. After seeing a television commercial, the user calls the call center of the operator during the day in order to ask for the application to be downloaded into his or her SIM card. This operation is 20 an individual operation triggered in the OTA server by the operator in customer care mode. In a second possibility, the user takes the initiative of ordering downloads (pull mode) by consulting the operator's site himself or herself from his or her mobile terminal so 25 as to trigger downloading of the application into the SIM card. This downloading is also an individual operation controlled in the OTA server by the user in the Self Care mode. In a third possibility, the operator triggers an operation for downloading in 30 campaign mode to more than one million targeted users so that the OTA server administrates the downloading of the application into the one million SIM cards. 4 It appears that campaign mode has technical complexity that is considerably greater than the technical complexity of individual mode since campaign mode consists in repeating the individual operations 5 for a very large number of cards, while complying with constraints concerning short message rate and campaign length, and also concerning monitoring the progress of the campaign. Since the download campaign is very long, an 10 operator always seeks to reduce the time for which a card is locked during the campaign in order not to prevent access for too long to the card for individual operations triggered, in particular, by the user of the card. Therefore, the number of campaigns and their 15 lengths are fundamental elements that are imposed on operation of the OTA download server. In accompanying Figure 1, elements of data processing phases for downloading predetermined data into N user smart cards Cl to CN in mobile terminals 20 from the OTA download server are indicated in the form of blocks, each of which comprises three elements of processing. Each block concerns downloading, via a short message, into a respective smart card Cn, where n is such that 1 ≤ n ≤ N. A first element of processing 25 PRE relates to pre-processing data to be formatted into a data message to be transmitted to the smart card Cn. The second element of processing T/R extends from transmission by the server of the formatted data message to reception by the server of the 30 acknowledgment transmitted by the smart card Cn. The third element of processing is post-processing POST during which the server analyzes the received 5 5 acknowledgement and stores any data contained in the acknowledgement so as to record said data in a database in correspondence with a number of the smart card Cn. At the beginning of the campaign, the server 5 successively transmits prepared messages of formatted data to the first cards Cl, C2, C3, ... targeted by the campaign, and immediately analyzes the acknowledgement of each of the messages of data transmitted in this way. Since an acknowledgement implicitly indicates 10 that the mobile terminal of the user is in a state to receive and to process a previously transmitted data message, the server transmits another prepared message of formatted data after the post-processing POST of an acknowledgement that has just been transmitted by the 15 user card. A succession of two sets, each comprising three elements of processing, is indicated relative to the cards Cl and C3 in Figure 1. The campaign ends when all of the expected acknowledgements of the transmitted data messages have 20 been processed. However, certain acknowledgements will never be transmitted by user cards when mobile terminals including them are not connected to the radiocommunications network during the campaign, or, in particular, when the short message server and/or when 25 the radiocommunications network has/have lost one or more messages of formatted data whose destination is a smart card. The last block in Figure 1 is associated with a last card Cd which can be any card targeted by the campaign, and, a priori, different from the card 30 CN. As a result of the process of the elements of processing during the campaign, the length of the 6 campaign depends on the number of messages of formatted data and thus on the number of short messages to be transmitted and on the number of smart cards targeted during the campaign. The length of time of the 5 campaign offered through the short message server thus depends on the length of time of the three elements of processing PRE, T/R, and POST and on how the blocks of three elements of processing shown in Figure 1 follow on from one another for downloading into each card. 10 The download suffer from the drawback of requiring a long campaign length because they depend on a plurality of successive sets of three elements of processing for each targeted card. Under such conditions, the short message server is busy for a very 15 long time and lacks availability for transmitting and receiving short messages interchanged between the users and short messages for other campaigns. In addition, the download server has to manage a plurality of types of processing at the same time, 20 which slows its execution speed down and therefore increases the length of the campaign. For a predetermined rate of short messages offered by the short message server to the download server, and with the servers having equal execution performance, the 25 download server cannot achieve that rate because of the correlation of the intermediate transmit/receive T/R processing with the pre-processing PRE and the post- processing POST for each data message during the campaign. 30 An object of the invention is to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks of the organization of the elements of processing in the download server during a 7 campaign in order to load a larger number of cards for a given campaign length and in order to use the download server more efficiently for the various elements of processing. 5 In order to achieve that object, a method for downloading data from a server into portable communicating objects through a radiocommunications network, the downloading of data relating to a communicating object comprising data pre-processing in 10 the server means for pre-processing data into at least one data message whose destination is the communicating object, transmission of the data message from the server means to the communicating object, and reception by the server means of an acknowledgment transmitted by 15 the communicating object, and data post-processing in the server depending on the acknowledgement, is characterized in that the data pre-processing phases and the data post-processing phases relating to the communicating objects are executed respectively before 20 and after the transmissions of data messages and the reception of acknowledgements relating to the communicating objects, and the server means communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the transmissions of message data and during the 25 receptions of acknowledgements. In other words, the server means do not communicate with the radiocommunications network during the data pre-processing and data post-processing relating to the communicating objects. 30 In practice, the data messages and the acknowledgements can, be respectively transmitted and received by the server means through a communications 8 gateway, such as, for example, a short message server, during at least one predetermined time range and with a maximum rate dependent on operation of the communications gateway. 5 In accordance with the invention, all of the data pre-processing elements are executed during a pre- processing phase without the server means communicating with the radiocommunications network. By grouping together the pre-processing elements, the server means 10 make optimum use of their resources because they are constrained to execute the same type of processing element. The same applies to the data post-processing elements that are executed together during a post- processing phase during which the server means are not 15 communicating with the radiocommunications network. During the post-processing, the database included in the server means and used for recording, in particular, updated images of the contents of the communicating objects, such as smart cards, has its resources managed 20 much better than when the server means have to execute pre-processing and post-processing at the same time as data transmissions/receptions. Advantageously, this technological break with the prior art enables the resources of the server means to 25 devote themselves entirely to transmitting and receiving data while the server means are communicating with the radiocommunications network, e.g. through a communications gateway such as a short message server. The ranges of hours imposed by operation of the 30 communications gateway are occupied solely by communications in the server means, i.e. by transmitting formatted data messages and by receiving 9 cknowledgements. For a given time range, the number of data messages transmitted using the method for downloading of the invention is much higher, and the speed of operation of the server means is thus better 5 adapted to the rate offered by the short message server during each time range. Conversely, for a given number of data messages, the necessary resources of the server means are reduced by the method for downloading of the invention. Therefore, for the same length of campaign, 10 and for the same amount of resources in the server means, the invention downloads to a higher number of cards than prior art methods do. The operator of the radiocommunications network also reduces the time spent monitoring the progress of the campaign. 15 Preparing data in advance during the pre- processing phase offers the possibility of optimizing the data pre-processing. According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention, the data pre- processing relating to communicating objects that have 20 at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only before the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements. This characteristic optimizes the use of the resources of the server means and therefore optimizes the length of 25 time taken by the data pre-processing. With the same concern to optimize the resources of the server means, the length of time of the post- processing phase can be reduced by seeking common characteristics of the communicating objects. In which 30 case, the data post-processing relating to communicating objects that have at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only 10 10 after the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements. Thus the decorrelation of the three elements of processing in accordance with the invention and 5 therefore the gathering together of the three types of processing elements into three distinct phases, and the factorization of certain operations by batches of cards during the pre-processing and post-processing phases optimize the speed of processing of the server means 10 and facilitate an increase in the rate of the data to be transmitted during a campaign of predetermined length. Conversely, for a given campaign length, the amount of resources required of the server means of the invention is smaller than the amount of resources 15 necessary for the prior art. The present invention also provides a download server for downloading data into portable communicating objects of mobile terminals through a radiocommunications network. According to the 20 invention, the download server includes a pre- processing module for pre-processing data into data messages whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating objects while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network, a 25 transmit-receive module for transmitting the data messages to communicating objects and for receiving acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating objects through the radiocommunications network in response to the data messages, and a post-processing 30 module for post-processing data in the server depending on the received acknowledgements while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network. 11 The invention also provides a computer program on an information medium, said computer program including program instructions adapted to implementing a method for the invention for downloading data from server 5 means into portable communicating objects through the radiocommunications network when said program is loaded and executed in the server means. According to the invention, the program includes pre-processing instructions for pre-processing data into data messages 10 whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating objects while the server means are not communicating with the radiocommunications network, transmit-receive instructions for transmitting the data messages to the communicating objects and for receiving 15 acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating objects through the radiocommunications network in response to the data messages, and post-processing instructions for post-processing data in the server means depending on the received acknowledgements while 20 the server means are not communicating with the radiocommunications network. Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention appear more clearly on reading the following description of various preferred embodiments 25 of the invention, given by way of non-limiting example and with reference to the corresponding accompanying drawings, in which: •Figure 1 is a timing diagram of elementary steps of a prior art method for downloading data into 30 smart cards, and is referred to above; •Figure 2 is a block diagram of telecommunications means connecting mobile terminals 12 including smart cards of an operator to a card administration server managed by the operator, for implementing the method for the invention for downloading data; 5 • Figure 3 is a timing diagram of the main steps of a method for the invention for downloading data; and • Figure 4 shows main fields of a message transmitted or received in a second implementation of the invention. 10 Figure 2 shows main means for downloading data into removable user smart cards Cl to CN that equip respective ones of the mobile radio terminals Tl to TN attached to a digital cellular radiocommunications network RR. The smart card Cn in the mobile terminal 15 Tn with n such that 1 ≤ n ≤ N, is of the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) type. For example, the smart card is a SIM card when the network RR is of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) type, or a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) when the 20 network RR is a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) type, of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) type. A card administration server SAC of the invention 25 is managed by the operator of the network RR and constitutes an OTA platform. In the implementation shown in Figure 2 to which reference is made below, the server SAC transmits messages of formatted data MD to the mobile terminals Tl to TN and receives messages of 30 acknowledgement AC transmitted by the mobile terminals Tl to TN, via a communications gateway such as a short message server or "Short Message Service Center" (SMSC) 13 SC. The server SC has an access gateway for communicating with the server SAC via a high-speed packet network RP, such as the Internet, or such as an intranet specific to the operator of the network RR. 5 Another access gateway of the short message server SC communicates with at least one switching center or exchange of the mobile service, often through an access network such as a packet network of the X.25 type or an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or an 10 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network. The data messages MD are transported in Internet Protocol (IP) packets by the server SAC, and they are formatted in the server SC into short messages SM transmitted to the mobile terminals; conversely, acknowledgement messages 15 AC are transmitted in short messages SM by a mobile terminal Tn, the destination of which messages is the server SAC, and said acknowledgement messages are routed by the server SC in the form of IP packets to the server SAC. 20 In a variant, the short message server SC is connected directly to or is incorporated in a switching center or exchange of the mobile service in the network RR. The invention is not limited to short messages SM 25 as vectors for carrying the data to be transmitted. The server SC can be a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message server for multimedia files and applications to be downloaded from the server SAC. In another implementation, the short message 30 server is replaced with an access network of the packet switching network type with mobility being managed and with access being by radio and that is a General Packet 14 Radio Service (GPRS) network, if the radiocommunications network RR is of the GSM type. A Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) of the GPRS network is connected to at least one base station controller of 5 the network RR. A Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of the GPRS network is connected to the packet network RP serving the server SAC. In a variant, if the radiocommunications network RR is of the UMTS type, or of the GSM type back-to-back 10 with a GPRS network, the messages MD and AC are interchanged between a mobile terminal Tn and the associated card Cn using the Bearer Independent Protocol (BIP) or the Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME) protocol. 15 As shown in Figure 2, the card administration server SAC is connected to a database BD including various parameters and characteristics of the cards managed by the operator of the radiocommunications network RR. 20 Each smart card Cn is associated with a table TCn in the database BD. The table TCn contains, in particular, initial characteristics which are related to the identity of the card Cn and to the type of the card and which are recorded in the database BD as soon 25 as the card is brought into service. These initial characteristics are, in particular, a serial number of the card, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the user of the card, and the telephone number of the Mobile Station ISDN (MSISDN) Number. The 30 type of the card Cn is defined in particular by an identifier of the type of the processor included in the card, the identifier of the manufacturer of the card, 15 15 the number of bits per word processed by the processor, the characteristics of the operating system and of the virtual machine that are implemented in the card, etc. Other characteristics specific to use of the card 5 and in particular of the user terminal Tn can also be recorded in the table TCn associated with the card Cn when the card is brought into service, and they can be modified during use of the card. Such other characteristics concern, in particular, the 10 subscription profile of the user of the card Cn, data that can be modified by the user or by the operator managing the card such as a phone and address book of telephone numbers and of email addresses, and, for example, a file of identifiers of Preferred Public Land 15 Mobile Networks (PPLMNs). The networks identified in the PPLMN file are managed by operators with whom the operator of the network RR to which the card Cn is attached has entered into agreements so that the user of the card Cn communicates through said networks when 20 the user is traveling through areas covered by said networks. The table TCn also contains one or more identifiers of applications that are downloaded when the smart card Cn is brought into service or that are 25 downloaded subsequently to the bringing into service of said card. For example, one application consists in modifying the file of PPLMN identifiers. In another example, the application consists in deleting an application from the card Cn or in downloading an 30 application into said card, e.g. for the purpose of facilitating management of the phonebook of telephone numbers in the card Cn by making it possible for the 16 user, every time said user records a new telephone number in the card, to back up his or her entire phonebook in a specific server managed by the operator so that the user can retrieve his or her backed-up 5 phonebook when he or she loses the card Cn or changes cards. Another application can serve to modify parameters in an application that has already been downloaded into the card Cn; e.g. the parameters to be modified are an update of prices of credit re-load and 10 of call units when the user is a subscriber to a pre- paid account. The table TCn also contains parameters specific to administration of the card Cn. These administration parameters are, in particular, an indicator of access 15 of the card Cn that gives information about operation of the card Cn during one of three data download method phases PI, P2, and P3 that are defined below, and a synchronization word or "synchronization counter" transmitted in a formatted data message MD by the 20 server SAC, and whose destination is the card Cn. The database BD also contains one or more campaign tables TCA that are assigned to respective ones of campaigns. Each campaign table includes a list of the MSISDN telephone numbers and of the.addresses of 25 the tables associated with the cards targeted by the campaign, which cards are assumed below to be the N cards Cl to CN, and the hours during which the campaign is to be conducted. The data base BD can be incorporated into the 30 card administration server SAC, or it can be independent in the form of a database management server that is connected to the server SAC via a packet 17 network such as the network RP, i.e. via the Internet or via an intranet network specific to the operator of the network RR. As shown in detail in Figure 2, the card 5 administration server SAC has three software modules MA, M2, and M3 for executing respective ones of the three main phases Pi, P2, and P3 of the invention for downloading of the data, under the control of a manager module GE that manages the various operations during 10 the downloading, as in the timing diagram shown in Figure 3 and described below. The invention thus relates not only to a method for downloading data that is implemented in server means such as the administration server SAC and the 15 database BD, but also to an implementation of steps of the method for downloading data into portable communicating objects such as smart cards or mobile terminals, the steps being determined by the instructions of a data download program incorporated in 20 the server means SAC-BD. The method for the invention is then implemented when the program is loaded into a computer, such as the server means SAC-BD, whose operation is then controlled by execution of the program. The invention thus applies to a computer 25 program that is recorded on or in any medium or means or circuit for storing information, based on any programming language, e.g. a high-level language such as Java, and compiled in executable codes that are adapted to implementing the method for the invention in 30 the computer such as the server means SAC-BD. It is assumed that a predetermined time range and a predetermined rate for short messages SM are made 18 available in the short message server SC for the campaign that is to be launched by the operator of the radiocommunications network RR managing the short message server SC. The predetermined time range is, 5 for example, a daytime range from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. five days a week, in order to receive the larger number of acknowledgement messages from the users who are available during said time range, compared with a nighttime time range. In a variant, the time range is 10 24 hours a day for a predetermined period. As shown in Figure 3, the campaign is subdivided into three phases PI, P2, and P3, only the "transmit/receive" intermediate phase P2 taking place during the predetermined time range so as to use that 15 time range for message transmission and reception only. Therefore, in the invention, the data pre- processing phase PI and the data post-processing phase P3 are performed respectively before and after the transmissions of data messages MD and the receptions 20 acknowledgement messages AC for all of the smart cards Cl to CN to which messages are to be transmitted during the predetermined time range. The card administration server SAC thus does not communicate with the short message server SC during the phases PI and P3 and thus 25 does not have access to the radiocommunications network RR during those phases. By way of example, the number N of smart cards to be reached during a campaign can be in the range several hundreds of thousands to a few million. The 30 number of short messages to be transmitted to a card can be as high as a few tens, which corresponds to several million or to several tens of millions of short 19 messages to be transmitted during the campaign. The predetermined rate of short messages SM can vary in the range about ten short messages per second to about more than one thousand short messages per second, a short 5 message comprising at the most 140 eight-bit bytes. The manager GE initializes the campaign by starting with the pre-processing phase Pi and activates the pre-processing module Ml. The pre-processing consists essentially in formatting the data to be 10 transmitted into data messages MD. As shown in Figure 4, a data message MD whose destination is the smart card Cn is made up of two portions: namely a header ES that is specific to the card Cn and a field CHD of data that can be at least 15 partially common to a plurality of smart cards targeted by the campaign. The header ES typically comprises a few eight-bit bytes and, in particular contains security parameters specific to the card Cn, such as signatures, e.g. 20 authentication signatures, and/or encryption elements, the suffix of the MSISDN telephone number corresponding to the card Cn, and a synchronization word. All of these items of data are read from the table TCn associated with the card Cn in the database BD so as to 25 include them in the header ES of the data message. After the header ES has been generated, data items to be downloaded into the card Cn, which data items are of variable length, are often fragmented into data fields CHD. Each data field CHD has a variable 30 length indicated in the header ES. The data fields contain data specific to the campaign, such as data for updating a phonebook or an address book, or a list of 20 20 preferred radiocommunications network identifiers, or such as instructions of an application to be downloaded. The generated header ES and each data field CHD 5 are concatenated into a data message MD to be transmitted, which data message is optionally encrypted as a function of a key that is personal to the card Cn. The data message MD is packeted into an IP message whose header EIP contains the address of the server SAC 10 as source, the address of the server SC as destination, the length of the IP packet, etc. The module Ml formats the data firstly for the first card Cl, then successively for the cards C2 to CN. The packets IP (MD) constructed in this way are stored in a buffer 15 memory of the First In First Out (FIFO) type of the server SAC pending transmission of them during the next phase P2. Certain types of data pre-processing PRE relating to cards having at least one common characteristic 20 preferably have a common portion executed once only during the phase Pi preceding message transmission during phase P2. Thus, during phase PI, the manager module GE sorts the cards Cl to CN targeted by the campaign as a function of common characteristics that 25 it can read from the tables TCI to TCN. Such common characteristics can depend, in particular on the type of the card, and thus on the identifier of the manufacturer of the card, and on the type of user and thus, in particular, on the user profile. 30 For example, when the module Ml is to establish a command to be transmitted in the data fields CHD of messages MD, the command is established once only for 21 all of the cards coming from the same manufacturer and having the same processor. Such pre-processing is validated or invalidated for all of the cards in question. Compared with prior art techniques, grouping 5 identical pre-processing or identical portions of pre- processing together in common pre-processing advantageously reduces the time for which the server SAC operates and thus makes it available for other tasks. 10 In another example, determined message formatting is common to all of the messages MD in which the length of the data field is identical and in which the security characteristics inserted into the header and required for that formatting satisfy predetermined 15 conditions. In yet another example, when the campaign aims to change a portion of contents in the cards, the database BD prepares data to be transmitted for cards targeted by the campaign in an operation that is identical for 20 all of the cards that present the same subscription profile; this pre-processing is executed only once per profile for all of the cards having common profile characteristics so as to re-use the result obtained with the first card for the following cards. 25 The transmit/receive phase P2 is executed by the module M2 via a communications interface IC included in the server SAC, throughout the time range imposed by the operator managing the short message server SC. In Figure 3, the transmit/receive block T/R extends from 30 the beginning of transmission of a message of formatted data IP (MD) by the server SAC until the end of reception in the server SAC of an acknowledgement 22 transmitted by the smart card Cn in response to the message IP (MD). Under the control of the manager GE, the transmit/receive module M2 transmits the messages IP 5 (MD) prepared during the preceding pre-processing phase PI to the short message server SC, by starting by transmitting the first messages relating to the first cards, and then by giving priority to transmitting the messages relating to the cards for which the 10 acknowledgement messages AC relating to previously transmitted data messages have been received by the module M2. For example, as shown in Figure 3, the first messages relating to the cards Cl to C(n+1) are transmitted, then a second message relating to the 15 second card C2 is transmitted after receiving the first acknowledgement message relating to the card C2. The transmit/receive phase P2 can be finished when an acknowledgement message AC corresponding to the last data message MD prepared during the phase PI is 20 received, or naturally when the time allocated by the operator for the phase P2 expires. As indicated in Figure 3, said last message can relate to any targeted card Cd of the campaign. In practice, the time that elapses between the beginning of transmission E of a 25 data message MD and the end of reception R of an acknowledgement message AC, which time is illustrated by the length of a T/R block in Figure 3, varies as a function of the availabilities of the networks RP and RR and of the server SC through which the messages 30 pass, and, above all, as a function of the state of the mobile terminal containing the smart card that is the destination of the data message. The mobile terminal 23 can be on standby, or busy, or switched off, or outside the network coverage. The length of a T/R phase element is, in practice, limited to a few tens of minutes, and the module M2 reiterates transmission of a 5 data message MD for which it has not received an acknowledgement AC a plurality of times, e.g. two or three times. Each time that the module M2 has not received an acknowledgement message in reply to a data message, the module M2 re-transmits the data messages 10 whose destination is the card in question starting from the first message. After a plurality of attempts that are spaced apart in time to various extents have been made to transmit a data message to a card Cn and have failed, the module M2 permanently abandons transmission 15 of the data messages MD for the card Cn in question. The packets IP(AC) transmitted by the short message server SC are unpacketed into acknowledgement messages that are optionally encrypted AC by the communications interface IC. The optionally encrypted 20 acknowledgement messages AC are stored as they are received in a buffer memory of the server SAC, pending post-processing P3 by the module M3. Each acknowledgement message AC has a format similar to the format shown in Figure A and is made up of a header ES 25 that is specific to the associated card and that relates to security and synchronization, and of a data field CHD. Once the last acknowledgement message AC is received, or, at the latest, on expiry of the time 30 range allocated to the server SAC, the transmit/receive phase P2 is considered to be finished and is followed by the post-processing phase P3. 24 During the post-processing phase P3, the post- processing module M3 reads from the buffer memory and analyzes the optionally decrypted acknowledgement messages AC that were delivered by the smart cards Cl 5 to CN through the mobile terminals Tl to TN and through the short message server SC in response to respective ones of the formatted data messages MD. For example, an acknowledgement message AC acknowledges downloading of data or of instructions from an application into the 10 associated card, or acknowledges execution of a command that has succeeded or that has failed in the associated card. The module M3 updates and analyzes the synchronization words (Sync) and the "images" of the 15 contents of the cards Cl to CN in the tables TCI to TCN of the database BD, in response to the acknowledgement messages relating to the cards. The contents of the card Cn in the table TCn are updated by the module M3 when all of the data messages concerning said updating 20 have been acknowledged by messages AC so that the contents of the table TCn reflect the contents of the card Cn and are thus the image of said contents of the card. In a manner similar to the manner of the pre- 25 processing phase PI, the module M3 executes data post- processing POST relating to batches of cards, each batch of cards resulting from prior sorting of the cards, and relating to cards having one or more common characteristics. Therefore, the post-processing module 30 M3 executes once only a common portion of data pre- processing relating to smart cards that have at least one common characteristic. For example, all of the 25 25 cards that have a portion of their subscription profiles in common have a portion of their contents that is updated in their respective tables TCI to TCN after a common preparation of the updating of the 5 profile during the pre-processing phase PI. Although the downloading method is described with reference to three phases PI, P2 and P3 that are completely separate as shown in Figure 3, pre- processing and post-processing phases can be mixed. 10 For example when a plurality of ranges of hours are provided for a campaign, the card administration server SAC executes the post-processing phase P3 relating to analyzing the acknowledgement messages AC received during the immediately preceding phase PI so as to 15 format data to be transmitted during a following transmit/receive phase P2. The invention is not limited to downloading data into smart cards of the UICC type. A smart card into which data is to be downloaded can also be a card 20 included in a laptop computer connected to a mobile terminal, or a credit card, or any other additional card included in a mobile terminal. In other variants, the invention applies to other portable communicating electronic objects, such as communicating Personal 25 Digital Assistants (PDAs). The invention applies even to mobile terminals targeted by a campaign for which the data to be downloaded can concern a game to be recorded in the non volatile memories of the Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) type of the mobile terminals. 26 CLAIMS 1- A method for downloading data from server means (SAC, BD) into portable communicating objects (Cl 5 - CN) through a radiocommunications network (RR); The downloading of data relating to a communicating object (Cn) comprising data pre- processing (PRE) in the server means for pre-processing data into at least one data message (MD) whose 10 destination is the communicating object, transmission (T) of the data message from the server means to the communicating object, and reception (R) by the server means of an acknowledgment (AC) transmitted by the communicating object, and data post-processing (POST) 15 in the server depending on the acknowledgement; said method being characterized in that the data pre-processing phases (PI) and the data post-processing phases (P3) relating to the communicating objects (Cl - CN) are executed respectively before and after the 20 transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements (P2) relating to the communicating objects, and the server means (SAC, BD) communicates with the radiocommunications network (RR) only during the transmissions of message data and during the 25 receptions of acknowledgements (P2). 2- A method according to claim 1, according to which the data pre-processing (PI) relating to communicating objects that have at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only 30 before the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements (P2). 27 3- A method according to claim 1 or 2, according to which the data post-processing (P3) relating to communicating objects that have at least one common characteristic has a common portion executed once only 5 after the transmissions of data messages and the receptions of acknowledgements (P2). 4- A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,according to which the data pre-processing (PI) relating to a communicating object (Cn) also includes 10 reading security parameters specific to the communicating object (Cn) from a database (BD) associated with the server means (SAC, BD) , generating a data message header (ES) including the security parameters that have been read, fragmenting the data to 15 be downloaded into data fields (CHD) and concatenating each data field with the generated header (ES) into a data message to be transmitted. 5- A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,according to which the data post-processing (P3) 20 relating to a communicating object (Cn) also includes analyzing acknowledgements (AC) delivered by the communicating object, updating a synchronization count as a function of the number of acknowledgements analyzed, and updating an image of the contents of the 25 communicating object in a data base (BD) associated with the server means (SAC, BD). 6- A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,according to which the data messages (MD) and the acknowledgements (AC) are respectively transmitted and 30 received by the server means (SAC, BD) through a communications gateway (SC) during at least one predetermined time range (P2) and with a maximum rate 28 dependent on the operation of the communications gateway. 7- A download server (SAC) for downloading data into portable communicating objects (Cl - CN) of mobile 5 terminals (Tl - TN) through a radiocommunications network (RR), said download server being characterized in that it includes a pre-processing module (Ml) for pre-processing data into data messages whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating 10 objects (Cl - CN) while the server is not communicating with the radiocommunications network (RR), a transmit- receive module (M2) for transmitting the data messages to communicating objects and for receiving acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating 15 objects through the radiocommunications network (RR) in response to the data messages, and a post-processing module (M3) for post-processing data in the server depending on the received acknowledgements while the server is not communicating with the 20 radiocommunications network (RR). 8- A server according to claim 7, characterized in that the communicating objects are removable user smart cards (Cl - CN) of mobile terminals (Tl - TN). 9. A server according to claim 7, characterized 25 in that the communicating objects are mobile terminals (Tl - TN). 10 - A computer program on an information medium, said computer program including program instructions adapted to implementing a method for downloading data 30 from server means (SAC, BD) into portable communicating objects (Cl - CN) through a radiocommunications network (RR) when said program is loaded and executed in the 29 server means, said program being characterized in that it includes pre-processing instructions (Ml) for pre- processing data into data messages whose destinations are respective ones of the communicating objects (Cl - 5 CN) while the server means are not communicating with the radiocommunications network (RR), transmit-receive instructions (M2) for transmitting the data messages to the communicating objects and for receiving acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating 10 objects through the radiocommunications network (RR) in response to the data messages, and post-processing instructions (M3) for post-processing data in the server means depending on the received acknowledgements while the server means are not communicating with the 15 radiocommunications network. The downloading of data from a server into one (Cn) of the portable communicating objects (Cl CN), such as chip cards or mobile terminals, over a radiocommunications network involves: a preprocessing of data (PRET) in the server into at least one data message intended for the communicating object; a sending (E) of the data message from the server to the communicating object; a reception (R) by the server of an acknowledgement of reception by the communicating object, and; a post-processing of data (POST) in the server contingent on the acknowledgement of reception. The pre-processings of data (P1) and post-processings of data (P3) concerning the communicating objects are respectively executed before and after sending the data message and receiving the acknowledgements of reception (P2) concerning the communicating objects. The server communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the sending and receiving of messages.

Full Text

1
5
10
A campaign for downloading data into portable
communicating objects
The present invention relates to downloading data
15 from a server into portable communicating objects
through a radiocommunications network. In particular,
the communicating objects are smart cards, such as
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, inserted into
mobile terminals of the radiocommunications network.
20 The data download server or "Over The Air (OTA)
card administration platform" has software that enables
the operator managing the radiocommunications network
to keep control over the smart cards in the mobile
terminals and to modify the contents of said cards.
25 Such operations which are performed at the initiative
of the operator (push mode) concern, for example,
downloading a file into predetermined cards of the
fleet managed by the operator, or downloading or
deleting a determined application, or indeed modifying
30 data in a file or a determined application in cards
managed by the operator.

2
The data to be downloaded into the smart cards is
often transmitted through a short message server. A
plurality of short messages are often necessary in
order to download an application or a file.
5 The invention relates more particularly to a
campaign for downloading data for the purpose of
massively updating user cards, even though the OTA data
download server can effect individual downloading into
a single user card.
10 In a first example, such individual downloading
relates to a unique personal file that is intended for
roaming users who travel abroad frequently and that
contains more than about ten identifiers of preferred
networks managed by operators with whom the operator of
15 the network managing the cards has entered into
contracts. The preferred network identifier file is
unique and is to be downloaded into numerous
predetermined cards so that the users of those cards
can use it when they travel abroad.
20 For this first example, the operator currently
has two possibilities for downloading the file from the
OTA server. In a first possibility, the operator
decides to download the file individually, as and when
such a file becomes necessary, i.e. the first time an
25 interested user goes roaming, and so on, one after
another, for all of the users who go roaming. In a
"campaign mode" second possibility, the server sends
the preferred network identifier file in a single
campaign to the cards whose users have taken out a
30 subscription to a roaming option.

3
In campaign mode, the number of users targeted
can be as high as several hundreds of thousands or
millions.
In a second example, individual downloading
5 relates to a unique file of names and telephone numbers
of sales representatives of a firm to be downloaded
into the cards of the users employed in the firm.
In a third example, individual downloading
relates to an application facilitating management of
10 the phonebooks of telephone numbers in the SIM cards.
The application enables a user to back up his or her
entire phonebook in a predetermined server managed by
the operator every time the user records a new
telephone number in his or her card;
15 In the third example, three possibilities are
offered. After seeing a television commercial, the
user calls the call center of the operator during the
day in order to ask for the application to be
downloaded into his or her SIM card. This operation is
20 an individual operation triggered in the OTA server by
the operator in customer care mode. In a second
possibility, the user takes the initiative of ordering
downloads (pull mode) by consulting the operator's site
himself or herself from his or her mobile terminal so
25 as to trigger downloading of the application into the
SIM card. This downloading is also an individual
operation controlled in the OTA server by the user in
the Self Care mode. In a third possibility, the
operator triggers an operation for downloading in
30 campaign mode to more than one million targeted users
so that the OTA server administrates the downloading of
the application into the one million SIM cards.

4
It appears that campaign mode has technical
complexity that is considerably greater than the
technical complexity of individual mode since campaign
mode consists in repeating the individual operations
5 for a very large number of cards, while complying with
constraints concerning short message rate and campaign
length, and also concerning monitoring the progress of
the campaign.
Since the download campaign is very long, an
10 operator always seeks to reduce the time for which a
card is locked during the campaign in order not to
prevent access for too long to the card for individual
operations triggered, in particular, by the user of the
card. Therefore, the number of campaigns and their
15 lengths are fundamental elements that are imposed on
operation of the OTA download server.
In accompanying Figure 1, elements of data
processing phases for downloading predetermined data
into N user smart cards Cl to CN in mobile terminals
20 from the OTA download server are indicated in the form
of blocks, each of which comprises three elements of
processing. Each block concerns downloading, via a
short message, into a respective smart card Cn, where n
is such that 1 ≤ n ≤ N. A first element of processing
25 PRE relates to pre-processing data to be formatted into
a data message to be transmitted to the smart card Cn.
The second element of processing T/R extends from
transmission by the server of the formatted data
message to reception by the server of the
30 acknowledgment transmitted by the smart card Cn. The
third element of processing is post-processing POST
during which the server analyzes the received

5 5
acknowledgement and stores any data contained in the
acknowledgement so as to record said data in a database
in correspondence with a number of the smart card Cn.
At the beginning of the campaign, the server
5 successively transmits prepared messages of formatted
data to the first cards Cl, C2, C3, ... targeted by the
campaign, and immediately analyzes the acknowledgement
of each of the messages of data transmitted in this
way. Since an acknowledgement implicitly indicates
10 that the mobile terminal of the user is in a state to
receive and to process a previously transmitted data
message, the server transmits another prepared message
of formatted data after the post-processing POST of an
acknowledgement that has just been transmitted by the
15 user card. A succession of two sets, each comprising
three elements of processing, is indicated relative to
the cards Cl and C3 in Figure 1.
The campaign ends when all of the expected
acknowledgements of the transmitted data messages have
20 been processed. However, certain acknowledgements will
never be transmitted by user cards when mobile
terminals including them are not connected to the
radiocommunications network during the campaign, or, in
particular, when the short message server and/or when
25 the radiocommunications network has/have lost one or
more messages of formatted data whose destination is a
smart card. The last block in Figure 1 is associated
with a last card Cd which can be any card targeted by
the campaign, and, a priori, different from the card
30 CN.
As a result of the process of the elements of
processing during the campaign, the length of the

6
campaign depends on the number of messages of formatted
data and thus on the number of short messages to be
transmitted and on the number of smart cards targeted
during the campaign. The length of time of the
5 campaign offered through the short message server thus
depends on the length of time of the three elements of
processing PRE, T/R, and POST and on how the blocks of
three elements of processing shown in Figure 1 follow
on from one another for downloading into each card.
10 The download suffer from the drawback of
requiring a long campaign length because they depend on
a plurality of successive sets of three elements of
processing for each targeted card. Under such
conditions, the short message server is busy for a very
15 long time and lacks availability for transmitting and
receiving short messages interchanged between the users
and short messages for other campaigns.
In addition, the download server has to manage a
plurality of types of processing at the same time,
20 which slows its execution speed down and therefore
increases the length of the campaign. For a
predetermined rate of short messages offered by the
short message server to the download server, and with
the servers having equal execution performance, the
25 download server cannot achieve that rate because of the
correlation of the intermediate transmit/receive T/R
processing with the pre-processing PRE and the post-
processing POST for each data message during the
campaign.
30 An object of the invention is to remedy the
above-mentioned drawbacks of the organization of the
elements of processing in the download server during a

7
campaign in order to load a larger number of cards for
a given campaign length and in order to use the
download server more efficiently for the various
elements of processing.
5 In order to achieve that object, a method for
downloading data from a server into portable
communicating objects through a radiocommunications
network, the downloading of data relating to a
communicating object comprising data pre-processing in
10 the server means for pre-processing data into at least
one data message whose destination is the communicating
object, transmission of the data message from the
server means to the communicating object, and reception
by the server means of an acknowledgment transmitted by
15 the communicating object, and data post-processing in
the server depending on the acknowledgement, is
characterized in that the data pre-processing phases
and the data post-processing phases relating to the
communicating objects are executed respectively before
20 and after the transmissions of data messages and the
reception of acknowledgements relating to the
communicating objects, and the server means
communicates with the radiocommunications network only
during the transmissions of message data and during the
25 receptions of acknowledgements.
In other words, the server means do not
communicate with the radiocommunications network during
the data pre-processing and data post-processing
relating to the communicating objects.
30 In practice, the data messages and the
acknowledgements can, be respectively transmitted and
received by the server means through a communications

8
gateway, such as, for example, a short message server,
during at least one predetermined time range and with a
maximum rate dependent on operation of the
communications gateway.
5 In accordance with the invention, all of the data
pre-processing elements are executed during a pre-
processing phase without the server means communicating
with the radiocommunications network. By grouping
together the pre-processing elements, the server means
10 make optimum use of their resources because they are
constrained to execute the same type of processing
element. The same applies to the data post-processing
elements that are executed together during a post-
processing phase during which the server means are not
15 communicating with the radiocommunications network.
During the post-processing, the database included in
the server means and used for recording, in particular,
updated images of the contents of the communicating
objects, such as smart cards, has its resources managed
20 much better than when the server means have to execute
pre-processing and post-processing at the same time as
data transmissions/receptions.
Advantageously, this technological break with the
prior art enables the resources of the server means to
25 devote themselves entirely to transmitting and
receiving data while the server means are communicating
with the radiocommunications network, e.g. through a
communications gateway such as a short message server.
The ranges of hours imposed by operation of the
30 communications gateway are occupied solely by
communications in the server means, i.e. by
transmitting formatted data messages and by receiving

9
cknowledgements. For a given time range, the number
of data messages transmitted using the method for
downloading of the invention is much higher, and the
speed of operation of the server means is thus better
5 adapted to the rate offered by the short message server
during each time range. Conversely, for a given number
of data messages, the necessary resources of the server
means are reduced by the method for downloading of the
invention. Therefore, for the same length of campaign,
10 and for the same amount of resources in the server
means, the invention downloads to a higher number of
cards than prior art methods do. The operator of the
radiocommunications network also reduces the time spent
monitoring the progress of the campaign.
15 Preparing data in advance during the pre-
processing phase offers the possibility of optimizing
the data pre-processing. According to an advantageous
characteristic of the invention, the data pre-
processing relating to communicating objects that have
20 at least one common characteristic has a common portion
executed once only before the transmissions of data
messages and the receptions of acknowledgements. This
characteristic optimizes the use of the resources of
the server means and therefore optimizes the length of
25 time taken by the data pre-processing.
With the same concern to optimize the resources
of the server means, the length of time of the post-
processing phase can be reduced by seeking common
characteristics of the communicating objects. In which
30 case, the data post-processing relating to
communicating objects that have at least one common
characteristic has a common portion executed once only

10 10
after the transmissions of data messages and the
receptions of acknowledgements.
Thus the decorrelation of the three elements of
processing in accordance with the invention and
5 therefore the gathering together of the three types of
processing elements into three distinct phases, and the
factorization of certain operations by batches of cards
during the pre-processing and post-processing phases
optimize the speed of processing of the server means
10 and facilitate an increase in the rate of the data to
be transmitted during a campaign of predetermined
length. Conversely, for a given campaign length, the
amount of resources required of the server means of the
invention is smaller than the amount of resources
15 necessary for the prior art.
The present invention also provides a download
server for downloading data into portable communicating
objects of mobile terminals through a
radiocommunications network. According to the
20 invention, the download server includes a pre-
processing module for pre-processing data into data
messages whose destinations are respective ones of the
communicating objects while the server is not
communicating with the radiocommunications network, a
25 transmit-receive module for transmitting the data
messages to communicating objects and for receiving
acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating
objects through the radiocommunications network in
response to the data messages, and a post-processing
30 module for post-processing data in the server depending
on the received acknowledgements while the server is
not communicating with the radiocommunications network.

11
The invention also provides a computer program on
an information medium, said computer program including
program instructions adapted to implementing a method
for the invention for downloading data from server
5 means into portable communicating objects through the
radiocommunications network when said program is loaded
and executed in the server means. According to the
invention, the program includes pre-processing
instructions for pre-processing data into data messages
10 whose destinations are respective ones of the
communicating objects while the server means are not
communicating with the radiocommunications network,
transmit-receive instructions for transmitting the data
messages to the communicating objects and for receiving
15 acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating
objects through the radiocommunications network in
response to the data messages, and post-processing
instructions for post-processing data in the server
means depending on the received acknowledgements while
20 the server means are not communicating with the
radiocommunications network.
Other characteristics and advantages of the
present invention appear more clearly on reading the
following description of various preferred embodiments
25 of the invention, given by way of non-limiting example
and with reference to the corresponding accompanying
drawings, in which:
•Figure 1 is a timing diagram of elementary
steps of a prior art method for downloading data into
30 smart cards, and is referred to above;
•Figure 2 is a block diagram of
telecommunications means connecting mobile terminals

12
including smart cards of an operator to a card
administration server managed by the operator, for
implementing the method for the invention for
downloading data;
5 • Figure 3 is a timing diagram of the main steps
of a method for the invention for downloading data; and
• Figure 4 shows main fields of a message
transmitted or received in a second implementation of
the invention.
10 Figure 2 shows main means for downloading data
into removable user smart cards Cl to CN that equip
respective ones of the mobile radio terminals Tl to TN
attached to a digital cellular radiocommunications
network RR. The smart card Cn in the mobile terminal
15 Tn with n such that 1 ≤ n ≤ N, is of the Universal
Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) type. For example, the
smart card is a SIM card when the network RR is of the
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) type, or
a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) when the
20 network RR is a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
network of the Third Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) type, of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS) type.
A card administration server SAC of the invention
25 is managed by the operator of the network RR and
constitutes an OTA platform. In the implementation
shown in Figure 2 to which reference is made below, the
server SAC transmits messages of formatted data MD to
the mobile terminals Tl to TN and receives messages of
30 acknowledgement AC transmitted by the mobile terminals
Tl to TN, via a communications gateway such as a short
message server or "Short Message Service Center" (SMSC)

13
SC. The server SC has an access gateway for
communicating with the server SAC via a high-speed
packet network RP, such as the Internet, or such as an
intranet specific to the operator of the network RR.
5 Another access gateway of the short message server SC
communicates with at least one switching center or
exchange of the mobile service, often through an access
network such as a packet network of the X.25 type or an
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or an
10 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network. The data
messages MD are transported in Internet Protocol (IP)
packets by the server SAC, and they are formatted in
the server SC into short messages SM transmitted to the
mobile terminals; conversely, acknowledgement messages
15 AC are transmitted in short messages SM by a mobile
terminal Tn, the destination of which messages is the
server SAC, and said acknowledgement messages are
routed by the server SC in the form of IP packets to
the server SAC.
20 In a variant, the short message server SC is
connected directly to or is incorporated in a switching
center or exchange of the mobile service in the network
RR.
The invention is not limited to short messages SM
25 as vectors for carrying the data to be transmitted.
The server SC can be a Multimedia Messaging Service
(MMS) message server for multimedia files and
applications to be downloaded from the server SAC.
In another implementation, the short message
30 server is replaced with an access network of the packet
switching network type with mobility being managed and
with access being by radio and that is a General Packet

14
Radio Service (GPRS) network, if the
radiocommunications network RR is of the GSM type. A
Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) of the GPRS network is
connected to at least one base station controller of
5 the network RR. A Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of
the GPRS network is connected to the packet network RP
serving the server SAC.
In a variant, if the radiocommunications network
RR is of the UMTS type, or of the GSM type back-to-back
10 with a GPRS network, the messages MD and AC are
interchanged between a mobile terminal Tn and the
associated card Cn using the Bearer Independent
Protocol (BIP) or the Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME)
protocol.
15 As shown in Figure 2, the card administration
server SAC is connected to a database BD including
various parameters and characteristics of the cards
managed by the operator of the radiocommunications
network RR.
20 Each smart card Cn is associated with a table TCn
in the database BD. The table TCn contains, in
particular, initial characteristics which are related
to the identity of the card Cn and to the type of the
card and which are recorded in the database BD as soon
25 as the card is brought into service. These initial
characteristics are, in particular, a serial number of
the card, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity
(IMSI) of the user of the card, and the telephone
number of the Mobile Station ISDN (MSISDN) Number. The
30 type of the card Cn is defined in particular by an
identifier of the type of the processor included in the
card, the identifier of the manufacturer of the card,

15 15
the number of bits per word processed by the processor,
the characteristics of the operating system and of the
virtual machine that are implemented in the card, etc.
Other characteristics specific to use of the card
5 and in particular of the user terminal Tn can also be
recorded in the table TCn associated with the card Cn
when the card is brought into service, and they can be
modified during use of the card. Such other
characteristics concern, in particular, the
10 subscription profile of the user of the card Cn, data
that can be modified by the user or by the operator
managing the card such as a phone and address book of
telephone numbers and of email addresses, and, for
example, a file of identifiers of Preferred Public Land
15 Mobile Networks (PPLMNs). The networks identified in
the PPLMN file are managed by operators with whom the
operator of the network RR to which the card Cn is
attached has entered into agreements so that the user
of the card Cn communicates through said networks when
20 the user is traveling through areas covered by said
networks.
The table TCn also contains one or more
identifiers of applications that are downloaded when
the smart card Cn is brought into service or that are
25 downloaded subsequently to the bringing into service of
said card. For example, one application consists in
modifying the file of PPLMN identifiers. In another
example, the application consists in deleting an
application from the card Cn or in downloading an
30 application into said card, e.g. for the purpose of
facilitating management of the phonebook of telephone
numbers in the card Cn by making it possible for the

16
user, every time said user records a new telephone
number in the card, to back up his or her entire
phonebook in a specific server managed by the operator
so that the user can retrieve his or her backed-up
5 phonebook when he or she loses the card Cn or changes
cards. Another application can serve to modify
parameters in an application that has already been
downloaded into the card Cn; e.g. the parameters to be
modified are an update of prices of credit re-load and
10 of call units when the user is a subscriber to a pre-
paid account.
The table TCn also contains parameters specific
to administration of the card Cn. These administration
parameters are, in particular, an indicator of access
15 of the card Cn that gives information about operation
of the card Cn during one of three data download method
phases PI, P2, and P3 that are defined below, and a
synchronization word or "synchronization counter"
transmitted in a formatted data message MD by the
20 server SAC, and whose destination is the card Cn.
The database BD also contains one or more
campaign tables TCA that are assigned to respective
ones of campaigns. Each campaign table includes a list
of the MSISDN telephone numbers and of the.addresses of
25 the tables associated with the cards targeted by the
campaign, which cards are assumed below to be the N
cards Cl to CN, and the hours during which the campaign
is to be conducted.
The data base BD can be incorporated into the
30 card administration server SAC, or it can be
independent in the form of a database management server
that is connected to the server SAC via a packet

17
network such as the network RP, i.e. via the Internet
or via an intranet network specific to the operator of
the network RR.
As shown in detail in Figure 2, the card
5 administration server SAC has three software modules
MA, M2, and M3 for executing respective ones of the
three main phases Pi, P2, and P3 of the invention for
downloading of the data, under the control of a manager
module GE that manages the various operations during
10 the downloading, as in the timing diagram shown in
Figure 3 and described below.
The invention thus relates not only to a method
for downloading data that is implemented in server
means such as the administration server SAC and the
15 database BD, but also to an implementation of steps of
the method for downloading data into portable
communicating objects such as smart cards or mobile
terminals, the steps being determined by the
instructions of a data download program incorporated in
20 the server means SAC-BD. The method for the invention
is then implemented when the program is loaded into a
computer, such as the server means SAC-BD, whose
operation is then controlled by execution of the
program. The invention thus applies to a computer
25 program that is recorded on or in any medium or means
or circuit for storing information, based on any
programming language, e.g. a high-level language such
as Java, and compiled in executable codes that are
adapted to implementing the method for the invention in
30 the computer such as the server means SAC-BD.
It is assumed that a predetermined time range and
a predetermined rate for short messages SM are made

18
available in the short message server SC for the
campaign that is to be launched by the operator of the
radiocommunications network RR managing the short
message server SC. The predetermined time range is,
5 for example, a daytime range from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. five
days a week, in order to receive the larger number of
acknowledgement messages from the users who are
available during said time range, compared with a
nighttime time range. In a variant, the time range is
10 24 hours a day for a predetermined period.
As shown in Figure 3, the campaign is subdivided
into three phases PI, P2, and P3, only the
"transmit/receive" intermediate phase P2 taking place
during the predetermined time range so as to use that
15 time range for message transmission and reception only.
Therefore, in the invention, the data pre-
processing phase PI and the data post-processing phase
P3 are performed respectively before and after the
transmissions of data messages MD and the receptions
20 acknowledgement messages AC for all of the smart cards
Cl to CN to which messages are to be transmitted during
the predetermined time range. The card administration
server SAC thus does not communicate with the short
message server SC during the phases PI and P3 and thus
25 does not have access to the radiocommunications network
RR during those phases.
By way of example, the number N of smart cards to
be reached during a campaign can be in the range
several hundreds of thousands to a few million. The
30 number of short messages to be transmitted to a card
can be as high as a few tens, which corresponds to
several million or to several tens of millions of short

19
messages to be transmitted during the campaign. The
predetermined rate of short messages SM can vary in the
range about ten short messages per second to about more
than one thousand short messages per second, a short
5 message comprising at the most 140 eight-bit bytes.
The manager GE initializes the campaign by
starting with the pre-processing phase Pi and activates
the pre-processing module Ml. The pre-processing
consists essentially in formatting the data to be
10 transmitted into data messages MD.
As shown in Figure 4, a data message MD whose
destination is the smart card Cn is made up of two
portions: namely a header ES that is specific to the
card Cn and a field CHD of data that can be at least
15 partially common to a plurality of smart cards targeted
by the campaign.
The header ES typically comprises a few eight-bit
bytes and, in particular contains security parameters
specific to the card Cn, such as signatures, e.g.
20 authentication signatures, and/or encryption elements,
the suffix of the MSISDN telephone number corresponding
to the card Cn, and a synchronization word. All of
these items of data are read from the table TCn
associated with the card Cn in the database BD so as to
25 include them in the header ES of the data message.
After the header ES has been generated, data
items to be downloaded into the card Cn, which data
items are of variable length, are often fragmented into
data fields CHD. Each data field CHD has a variable
30 length indicated in the header ES. The data fields
contain data specific to the campaign, such as data for
updating a phonebook or an address book, or a list of

20 20
preferred radiocommunications network identifiers, or
such as instructions of an application to be
downloaded.
The generated header ES and each data field CHD
5 are concatenated into a data message MD to be
transmitted, which data message is optionally encrypted
as a function of a key that is personal to the card Cn.
The data message MD is packeted into an IP message
whose header EIP contains the address of the server SAC
10 as source, the address of the server SC as destination,
the length of the IP packet, etc. The module Ml
formats the data firstly for the first card Cl, then
successively for the cards C2 to CN. The packets IP
(MD) constructed in this way are stored in a buffer
15 memory of the First In First Out (FIFO) type of the
server SAC pending transmission of them during the next
phase P2.
Certain types of data pre-processing PRE relating
to cards having at least one common characteristic
20 preferably have a common portion executed once only
during the phase Pi preceding message transmission
during phase P2. Thus, during phase PI, the manager
module GE sorts the cards Cl to CN targeted by the
campaign as a function of common characteristics that
25 it can read from the tables TCI to TCN. Such common
characteristics can depend, in particular on the type
of the card, and thus on the identifier of the
manufacturer of the card, and on the type of user and
thus, in particular, on the user profile.
30 For example, when the module Ml is to establish a
command to be transmitted in the data fields CHD of
messages MD, the command is established once only for

21
all of the cards coming from the same manufacturer and
having the same processor. Such pre-processing is
validated or invalidated for all of the cards in
question. Compared with prior art techniques, grouping
5 identical pre-processing or identical portions of pre-
processing together in common pre-processing
advantageously reduces the time for which the server
SAC operates and thus makes it available for other
tasks.
10 In another example, determined message formatting
is common to all of the messages MD in which the length
of the data field is identical and in which the
security characteristics inserted into the header and
required for that formatting satisfy predetermined
15 conditions.
In yet another example, when the campaign aims to
change a portion of contents in the cards, the database
BD prepares data to be transmitted for cards targeted
by the campaign in an operation that is identical for
20 all of the cards that present the same subscription
profile; this pre-processing is executed only once per
profile for all of the cards having common profile
characteristics so as to re-use the result obtained
with the first card for the following cards.
25 The transmit/receive phase P2 is executed by the
module M2 via a communications interface IC included in
the server SAC, throughout the time range imposed by
the operator managing the short message server SC. In
Figure 3, the transmit/receive block T/R extends from
30 the beginning of transmission of a message of formatted
data IP (MD) by the server SAC until the end of
reception in the server SAC of an acknowledgement

22
transmitted by the smart card Cn in response to the
message IP (MD).
Under the control of the manager GE, the
transmit/receive module M2 transmits the messages IP
5 (MD) prepared during the preceding pre-processing phase
PI to the short message server SC, by starting by
transmitting the first messages relating to the first
cards, and then by giving priority to transmitting the
messages relating to the cards for which the
10 acknowledgement messages AC relating to previously
transmitted data messages have been received by the
module M2. For example, as shown in Figure 3, the
first messages relating to the cards Cl to C(n+1) are
transmitted, then a second message relating to the
15 second card C2 is transmitted after receiving the first
acknowledgement message relating to the card C2.
The transmit/receive phase P2 can be finished
when an acknowledgement message AC corresponding to the
last data message MD prepared during the phase PI is
20 received, or naturally when the time allocated by the
operator for the phase P2 expires. As indicated in
Figure 3, said last message can relate to any targeted
card Cd of the campaign. In practice, the time that
elapses between the beginning of transmission E of a
25 data message MD and the end of reception R of an
acknowledgement message AC, which time is illustrated
by the length of a T/R block in Figure 3, varies as a
function of the availabilities of the networks RP and
RR and of the server SC through which the messages
30 pass, and, above all, as a function of the state of the
mobile terminal containing the smart card that is the
destination of the data message. The mobile terminal

23
can be on standby, or busy, or switched off, or outside
the network coverage. The length of a T/R phase
element is, in practice, limited to a few tens of
minutes, and the module M2 reiterates transmission of a
5 data message MD for which it has not received an
acknowledgement AC a plurality of times, e.g. two or
three times. Each time that the module M2 has not
received an acknowledgement message in reply to a data
message, the module M2 re-transmits the data messages
10 whose destination is the card in question starting from
the first message. After a plurality of attempts that
are spaced apart in time to various extents have been
made to transmit a data message to a card Cn and have
failed, the module M2 permanently abandons transmission
15 of the data messages MD for the card Cn in question.
The packets IP(AC) transmitted by the short
message server SC are unpacketed into acknowledgement
messages that are optionally encrypted AC by the
communications interface IC. The optionally encrypted
20 acknowledgement messages AC are stored as they are
received in a buffer memory of the server SAC, pending
post-processing P3 by the module M3. Each
acknowledgement message AC has a format similar to the
format shown in Figure A and is made up of a header ES
25 that is specific to the associated card and that
relates to security and synchronization, and of a data
field CHD.
Once the last acknowledgement message AC is
received, or, at the latest, on expiry of the time
30 range allocated to the server SAC, the transmit/receive
phase P2 is considered to be finished and is followed
by the post-processing phase P3.

24
During the post-processing phase P3, the post-
processing module M3 reads from the buffer memory and
analyzes the optionally decrypted acknowledgement
messages AC that were delivered by the smart cards Cl
5 to CN through the mobile terminals Tl to TN and through
the short message server SC in response to respective
ones of the formatted data messages MD. For example,
an acknowledgement message AC acknowledges downloading
of data or of instructions from an application into the
10 associated card, or acknowledges execution of a command
that has succeeded or that has failed in the associated
card.
The module M3 updates and analyzes the
synchronization words (Sync) and the "images" of the
15 contents of the cards Cl to CN in the tables TCI to TCN
of the database BD, in response to the acknowledgement
messages relating to the cards. The contents of the
card Cn in the table TCn are updated by the module M3
when all of the data messages concerning said updating
20 have been acknowledged by messages AC so that the
contents of the table TCn reflect the contents of the
card Cn and are thus the image of said contents of the
card.
In a manner similar to the manner of the pre-
25 processing phase PI, the module M3 executes data post-
processing POST relating to batches of cards, each
batch of cards resulting from prior sorting of the
cards, and relating to cards having one or more common
characteristics. Therefore, the post-processing module
30 M3 executes once only a common portion of data pre-
processing relating to smart cards that have at least
one common characteristic. For example, all of the

25 25
cards that have a portion of their subscription
profiles in common have a portion of their contents
that is updated in their respective tables TCI to TCN
after a common preparation of the updating of the
5 profile during the pre-processing phase PI.
Although the downloading method is described with
reference to three phases PI, P2 and P3 that are
completely separate as shown in Figure 3, pre-
processing and post-processing phases can be mixed.
10 For example when a plurality of ranges of hours are
provided for a campaign, the card administration server
SAC executes the post-processing phase P3 relating to
analyzing the acknowledgement messages AC received
during the immediately preceding phase PI so as to
15 format data to be transmitted during a following
transmit/receive phase P2.
The invention is not limited to downloading data
into smart cards of the UICC type. A smart card into
which data is to be downloaded can also be a card
20 included in a laptop computer connected to a mobile
terminal, or a credit card, or any other additional
card included in a mobile terminal. In other variants,
the invention applies to other portable communicating
electronic objects, such as communicating Personal
25 Digital Assistants (PDAs). The invention applies even
to mobile terminals targeted by a campaign for which
the data to be downloaded can concern a game to be
recorded in the non volatile memories of the
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
(EEPROM) type of the mobile terminals.

26
CLAIMS
1- A method for downloading data from server
means (SAC, BD) into portable communicating objects (Cl
5 - CN) through a radiocommunications network (RR);
The downloading of data relating to a
communicating object (Cn) comprising data pre-
processing (PRE) in the server means for pre-processing
data into at least one data message (MD) whose
10 destination is the communicating object, transmission
(T) of the data message from the server means to the
communicating object, and reception (R) by the server
means of an acknowledgment (AC) transmitted by the
communicating object, and data post-processing (POST)
15 in the server depending on the acknowledgement;
said method being characterized in that the data
pre-processing phases (PI) and the data post-processing
phases (P3) relating to the communicating objects (Cl -
CN) are executed respectively before and after the
20 transmissions of data messages and the receptions of
acknowledgements (P2) relating to the communicating
objects, and the server means (SAC, BD) communicates
with the radiocommunications network (RR) only during
the transmissions of message data and during the
25 receptions of acknowledgements (P2).
2- A method according to claim 1, according to
which the data pre-processing (PI) relating to
communicating objects that have at least one common
characteristic has a common portion executed once only
30 before the transmissions of data messages and the
receptions of acknowledgements (P2).

27
3- A method according to claim 1 or 2, according
to which the data post-processing (P3) relating to
communicating objects that have at least one common
characteristic has a common portion executed once only
5 after the transmissions of data messages and the
receptions of acknowledgements (P2).
4- A method according to any one of claims 1 to
3,according to which the data pre-processing (PI)
relating to a communicating object (Cn) also includes
10 reading security parameters specific to the
communicating object (Cn) from a database (BD)
associated with the server means (SAC, BD) , generating
a data message header (ES) including the security
parameters that have been read, fragmenting the data to
15 be downloaded into data fields (CHD) and concatenating
each data field with the generated header (ES) into a
data message to be transmitted.
5- A method according to any one of claims 1 to
4,according to which the data post-processing (P3)
20 relating to a communicating object (Cn) also includes
analyzing acknowledgements (AC) delivered by the
communicating object, updating a synchronization count
as a function of the number of acknowledgements
analyzed, and updating an image of the contents of the
25 communicating object in a data base (BD) associated
with the server means (SAC, BD).
6- A method according to any one of claims 1 to
5,according to which the data messages (MD) and the
acknowledgements (AC) are respectively transmitted and
30 received by the server means (SAC, BD) through a
communications gateway (SC) during at least one
predetermined time range (P2) and with a maximum rate

28
dependent on the operation of the communications
gateway.
7- A download server (SAC) for downloading data
into portable communicating objects (Cl - CN) of mobile
5 terminals (Tl - TN) through a radiocommunications
network (RR), said download server being characterized
in that it includes a pre-processing module (Ml) for
pre-processing data into data messages whose
destinations are respective ones of the communicating
10 objects (Cl - CN) while the server is not communicating
with the radiocommunications network (RR), a transmit-
receive module (M2) for transmitting the data messages
to communicating objects and for receiving
acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating
15 objects through the radiocommunications network (RR) in
response to the data messages, and a post-processing
module (M3) for post-processing data in the server
depending on the received acknowledgements while the
server is not communicating with the
20 radiocommunications network (RR).
8- A server according to claim 7, characterized
in that the communicating objects are removable user
smart cards (Cl - CN) of mobile terminals (Tl - TN).
9. A server according to claim 7, characterized
25 in that the communicating objects are mobile terminals
(Tl - TN).
10 - A computer program on an information medium,
said computer program including program instructions
adapted to implementing a method for downloading data
30 from server means (SAC, BD) into portable communicating
objects (Cl - CN) through a radiocommunications network
(RR) when said program is loaded and executed in the

29
server means, said program being characterized in that
it includes pre-processing instructions (Ml) for pre-
processing data into data messages whose destinations
are respective ones of the communicating objects (Cl -
5 CN) while the server means are not communicating with
the radiocommunications network (RR), transmit-receive
instructions (M2) for transmitting the data messages to
the communicating objects and for receiving
acknowledgements transmitted by the communicating
10 objects through the radiocommunications network (RR) in
response to the data messages, and post-processing
instructions (M3) for post-processing data in the
server means depending on the received acknowledgements
while the server means are not communicating with the
15 radiocommunications network.

The downloading of data from a server into one (Cn) of the portable
communicating objects (Cl CN), such as chip cards or mobile terminals, over a radiocommunications network involves: a preprocessing of data (PRET) in the server
into at least one data message intended for the communicating object; a sending (E)
of the data message from the server to the communicating object; a reception (R) by
the server of an acknowledgement of reception by the communicating object, and;
a post-processing of data (POST) in the server contingent on the acknowledgement
of reception. The pre-processings of data (P1) and post-processings of data (P3)
concerning the communicating objects are respectively executed before and after
sending the data message and receiving the acknowledgements of reception (P2)
concerning the communicating objects. The server communicates with the radiocommunications network only during the sending and receiving of messages.

Documents:

http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/patentsearch/GrantedSearch/viewdoc.aspx?id=tpSSdVuJH1KUScXgte034Q==&loc=wDBSZCsAt7zoiVrqcFJsRw==

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Patent Number

270650

Indian Patent Application Number

1074/KOLNP/2007

PG Journal Number

02/2016

Publication Date

08-Jan-2016

Grant Date

06-Jan-2016

Date of Filing

27-Mar-2007

Name of Patentee

GEMALTO S.A.

Applicant Address

6RUEDELA VERRERlE-92190 MEUDON FRANCE

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	MARTINET, FREDERIC	7, BOULEVARD DE LA GERMAINE, F-13011 MARSEILLE, FRANCE
2	BOUSSOUKAIA, NADIR	RESIDENCE LES CEDRES DE PREVALAYE, 30, TRAV. DES 4 CHEMINS DE MONTOLIVET, F-13012 MARSEILLE, FRANCE
3	LOUBAUD, LAURENT	ROUTE DE MARTINA-LA VIEILLE EGLISE, F- 13590 MEYREUIL, FRANCE
4	PASCAL, GUILLAUME	13, AVENUE MISTRAL, F-13600 LA CI0TAT FRANCE

PCT International Classification Number

H04Q 7/32

PCT International Application Number

PCT/EP2005/053703

PCT International Filing date

2005-07-28

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	0410225	2004-09-27	France