JP2007042082A - Diagnostic system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a terminal system capable of determining faults or troubles relating to part of hardware and of immediately determining any faults or troubles. <P>SOLUTION: A diagnostic system is provided with: the terminal system which has a processor, an application, and diagnostic software, automatically diagnoses a self-system with the diagnostic software, and self-recovers when the self-system has an abnormality; and a diagnostic server capable of connecting with the terminal system through a network and arranged in a remote site. The diagnostic system performs: diagnostic processing in which a trouble occurring in the terminal system is detected by the diagnostic software installed in the terminal system, diagnostic processing of the terminal system is dynamically performed, and diagnostic data is obtained; diagnostic report creation processing for creating a diagnostic report based on the diagnostic data obtained by the diagnostic processing; and diagnostic report transmission processing for transmitting the created diagnostic report to the diagnostic server through a communication means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a diagnostic system that includes a terminal system and a diagnostic server and diagnoses a failure of software that operates on the terminal system.
The present invention also relates to a recovery system that automatically recovers when a software failure is detected on a terminal system.

As mobile phones become more widespread, mobile phones are required not only to have a simple call function but also to be equipped with various functions such as a television image reception function. On the other hand, the cycle for introducing new models of mobile phones tends to be shortened, and the development period is required to be shortened. Therefore, there is a high risk of bugs occurring on the mobile phone software.
Normally, when a failure occurs in a mobile phone, first, the user himself calls the customer service of the mobile phone carrier for support. However, if the failure is caused by a bug in the embedded software, the failure cannot be recovered by telephone communication between the user and the customer service representative. Eventually, telephone support was unable to recover from the failure, and the mobile phone had to be brought to customer service.

  If you can replace the embedded software of the mobile phone within the customer service, it is possible to recover from the failure on the spot. However, the replacement maintenance of the embedded software usually requires a high level of expertise. In most cases, however, the cause is not relayed to the support organization in the mobile phone manufacturer without investigating the cause of the failure. Mobile phone manufacturers must first accurately reproduce the faults that occur in mobile phones, and then identify the bugs embedded in the embedded software. This task is not always easy, and it may take time to identify and eliminate embedded software bugs.

  On the other hand, the case where a user feels that a failure has occurred in a mobile phone and brings it into customer service is not necessarily the case where there is a bug in the embedded software of the mobile phone. For example, the mobile phone may be set incorrectly due to a user's mistaken operation, or some functions of the mobile phone may become unusable due to insufficient memory capacity. Furthermore, there may be a case where a mobile phone without any obstacle is brought into customer support due to a user's misunderstanding. Since customer support does not have a simple and easy-to-use inspection tool, it may be easily replaced with a new mobile phone without sufficient inspection. In this case, the cost for replacement is often borne by the manufacturer, causing unnecessary damage to the manufacturer.

  In the prior art, Patent Document 1 discloses a mobile phone repair service support method that immediately and accurately determines the state of a mobile phone brought into the customer support of a mobile phone operator and quickly repairs and restores the mobile phone. Method is known. In the method of Patent Document 1, a maintenance information storage area for storing maintenance information is secured in the storage unit, the maintenance information is written and stored in the maintenance information storage area, and maintenance of the storage unit of the mobile phone is performed within the customer support. In this method, maintenance information is read from the information storage area, displayed on the display unit, and notified to support personnel.

JP 2004-194247 A

As described above, since mobile phones are equipped with various functions other than the telephone call function, failures that actually occur are often caused by software. However, since only the maintenance information is recorded in the method described in Patent Document 1, it can be used only for the determination of a failure or malfunction related to some hardware. For this reason, the prior art of Patent Document 1 is insufficient as a customer support service.
In addition, the method described in Patent Document 1 is premised on bringing into customer support, and if there is a bug in the software, failures occur one after another in the same model mobile phone, and many mobile phones It is assumed that it is brought into customer support at once, and confusion may occur in customer support.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention is capable of determining and diagnosing all faults and malfunctions of mobile devices in real time as well as determining malfunctions and malfunctions related to some hardware, and further, faults occurring in mobile phones. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless device system capable of automatically recovering data.

To achieve the above object, a wireless device system of the present invention comprises a processor, an application, and diagnostic software, and automatically diagnoses the self system by the diagnostic software and self-recovers when there is an abnormality in the self system. And a diagnostic server placed at a remote location that can be connected to the terminal system through a network.
In order to achieve the above object, a wireless device system of the present invention is placed in a terminal system including a processor, a memory, communication means, and an application, and in a remote place that can communicate with the terminal system via the communication means. In a diagnostic system comprising a diagnostic server,
With the diagnostic software installed in the terminal system,
Detecting the occurrence of a malfunction in the terminal system, dynamically executing diagnostic processing of the terminal system, and obtaining diagnostic data;
A diagnostic report creating process for creating a diagnostic report based on the diagnostic data obtained by the diagnostic process;
A diagnostic report transmission process is performed in which the created diagnostic report is sent to the diagnostic server via the communication means.

With the above configuration, by providing a diagnostic function in the terminal system, diagnostic processing can be executed on the terminal system side and transmitted to the diagnostic server in the form of a diagnostic report that summarizes the diagnostic results.
Compared to conventional methods that send log data of the terminal system to the diagnostic server and perform all diagnostics on the diagnostic server, not only the faults and malfunctions of some hardware but also the real-time judgment of all faults and malfunctions of mobile devices Can be used for judgment and diagnosis. Also, regarding the data capacity transmitted from the terminal system, compared to the conventional method in which all log data is transmitted, the diagnosis report has a small capacity centered on the diagnosis results, and therefore the resource load is small.
If recovery software is installed in the terminal system, there is a greater possibility that the terminal system will automatically recover by itself, and there is no need for the user to contact customer support as in the past, and no need to bring it to the manufacturer's repair desk. .

  The terminal system is assumed to be a system with small system resources, but can be applied to various systems. For example, the present invention can be applied to various devices such as wireless mobile systems such as mobile phones, intelligent home appliances, robots, cars (car navigation systems), and machine tools on production lines.

Next, a device for facilitating understanding of the diagnosis processing / recovery processing of the wireless device will be described. It is a technique to personify wireless devices.
The wireless device is anthropomorphic and a series of diagnostic processing and recovery processing is executed for a failure as a disease. For example, the observation process step, the examination process step, and the diagnosis process step are provided as the diagnosis process step, and the treatment process step is provided as the restoration process step, and the personification is performed in a total of four steps.

  The observation processing step is a processing step of observing the state of the wireless device and determining that all are normal states are healthy and some are not normal states are poor. For example, each time an embedded application calls a function, data such as function arguments and return values are recorded as a system log, and the recorded data is analyzed to determine whether the wireless device is in a healthy or unwell state. It includes the step of judging.

  In the inspection processing step, if it is determined that the condition is poor in the observation processing step, the inspection processing step inspects whether or not there is actually a failure at the location where the failure may have occurred, and the failure actually occurs This is a processing step in which a disease state is detected by detecting a health condition, and a health condition is determined if no fault is actually detected. For example, it includes a step of determining a disease state and a disease occurrence location by checking various parameters related to a resource at a location where a failure may occur.

  The examination processing step is a processing step for collecting data necessary for failure recovery processing when it is determined that the disease is in the examination processing step. For example, it comprises a learning step of analyzing diagnostic data used in the past recovery process and collecting diagnostic data necessary for the recovery process for the location where the failure occurred.

  The treatment processing step is a processing step for treating a portion determined to be in a disease state by using the restoration processing for the embedded application by the restoration software as a treatment. For example, it includes steps of a system reset process (injection therapy) and a diagnostic result report creation process (medical chart recording).

  Next, the application level diagnostic software provides real-time data for various data including time stamp data, log level data, vendor information data, module status data, operation status data, object status data, and memory dump data when a failure occurs in the wireless device. It includes a collection processing step. For example, if the failure that occurred in the wireless device is a system crash or system freeze, it has a processing step that dumps the memory data required for investigating the cause of the crash or freeze from the memory using the interrupt method. To do.

  In addition, in the application level restoration software, a device for anthropomorphizing the wireless device can be introduced. The application level restoration processing is anthropomorphicized as a treatment processing step, and the application level restoration processing for the embedded application by the application level restoration software is treated as a treatment, and treatment is performed on the portion determined to be in a disease state. For example, it includes steps of a system reconfiguration process (surgical treatment), a system reset process (injection therapy), and a diagnostic result report creation process (medical chart recording).

The diagnostic system of the present invention records data necessary for self-diagnosis in real time in the terminal system, including various data of time stamp, log level, vendor, module, operation, and object status at the time of recording. It is preferable to provide log data collecting means.
In addition, the diagnostic system of the present invention includes stack, hip and register data in the terminal system. When the system crashes or freezes, the memory data required for investigating the cause of the crash or freeze is interrupted. It is preferable to provide a memory data (memory dump) collecting means at the time of system crash and freezing.
In addition, the diagnosis system of the present invention includes data on system characteristics (functions, modules, easily occurring abnormalities and places where abnormalities are likely to occur), and data on system health status in terminal systems, and is necessary for diagnosis by self-learning. It is preferable to provide diagnostic knowledge learning means for accumulating information and knowledge.

  According to the wireless device system of the present invention, the diagnosis function and the recovery function are distributed to the wireless device itself and the remote server so that the wireless device can perform the diagnosis / recovery by itself and quickly and automatically. In addition to realizing recovery, the resource load on the wireless device can be reduced by performing application level diagnosis / recovery in cooperation with the wireless device and the remote server. On the other hand, for a failure at a level that cannot be recovered by the recovery process, a remote application level recovery service can be received via the wireless network.

In addition, according to the wireless device system of the present invention, the application level diagnosis software is activated when necessary, so it is unnecessary in a state where no failure has occurred or in a state where basic level diagnosis / recovery processing is possible. No burden on wireless device resources.
In addition, according to the wireless device system of the present invention, since all data related to diagnosis and recovery can be centrally managed by the remote server, failure diagnosis data and recovery results common to many wireless devices can be shared on the remote server. It becomes possible to do.
If a method of anthropomorphizing a wireless device is introduced, it will be easier to grasp the diagnostic processing / recovery processing of the wireless device.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described specifically by way of examples. The present invention is not limited to these examples.
The diagnosis system is assumed to be a system with small system resources, but can be applied to various systems. For example, the present invention can be applied to various devices such as wireless mobile systems such as mobile phones, intelligent home appliances, robots, cars (car navigation systems), and machine tools on production lines.
In the following description, the terminal system is not limited to a wireless device such as a mobile phone. However, the following description will be made assuming a wireless device such as a mobile phone.

Embodiment

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system capable of realizing a mobile device diagnosis and recovery method according to the present invention.

  In the diagnostic system shown in FIG. 1, the wireless device 01 is equipped with a diagnosis / recovery function, observes the health status of the device, diagnoses when the system becomes ill, performs necessary measures, and normalizes the system. To recover. When making a diagnosis, necessary diagnosis information can be obtained from the diagnosis database 03 via the wireless network 04 to the diagnosis server 02.

  The diagnosis result is reported to the diagnosis server 02 through the wireless network 04 and registered in the diagnosis database 03 as a diagnosis report. This diagnostic report can be viewed from the operator's customer support. The customer support of the operator checks this diagnostic report, and finds a solution based on the information described in the diagnostic report for a case that the wireless device does not solve. If it is a software bug, report the bug to the manufacturer and request a bug fix.

  After receiving a bug correction request, the manufacturer obtains detailed diagnostic information data from the diagnostic database via the network, investigates the cause of the bug, identifies the bug location, and corrects the software bug.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for diagnosis / recovery of a wireless device. In the example shown in FIG. 2, first, the health of the system is always grasped by observation 05, and the disease of the system is caught. If a disease in the system is recognized, more detailed data is examined for that disease in test 06 to identify the location of the disease and collect diagnostic data. In some cases, in this inspection stage, a dedicated inspection program is run on the identified diseased place to collect test data. Next, at the diagnosis 07, the collected diagnostic data is analyzed to elucidate the cause of the disease. Finally, in treatment 08, treatment of the disease is undertaken for the identified cause of the disease.

  Examples of how to treat system illnesses include rebooting the system (injecting), modifying system parameters and adjusting process execution priority, partially correcting or reconfiguring system settings (surgery), and reporting software bug fixes. (Prescription).

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a diagnosis example. FIG. 3 shows the contents of diagnosis for each diagnosis example divided into disease 11, cause 12 and treatment 13. In the first example, 14 illnesses with insufficient memory can be found as a result of diagnosing 15 that does not release memory after use, and the system reboot 16 can be used to cure the illness with insufficient memory. System is restored.

  In the second example shown in FIG. 3, for a illness of 17 in which the key does not work well, the diagnosis result is that the event that the key was pressed cannot be picked 18, By adjusting the execution priority of the process that picks up the event and performing the process priority adjustment 19 so that the process is immediately executed when the key is pressed, the key comes to be heard the next time the key is pressed.

  In the third example shown in FIG. 3, regarding the illness 20 that cannot be sent by email, which often annoys the user, the system checks the mail related parameters and finds that the mail setting is strange 21, and the setting is normal. The mail can be sent after the mail setting correction 22 process of returning to "." The normal value of the mail setting is used if it is stored locally, otherwise it is obtained from the diagnostic server and used.

  In response to the problem of communication failure that often frustrates users, clear information should be shown to the user, whether it is a system illness or radio waves are not reaching. In the fourth example shown in FIG. 3, for the communication failure 23, the cause of the weak radio wave 24 can be immediately understood by using the diagnostic method of the present invention. In this case, the user moves to a place where radio waves are good, and the feeling of irritation disappears.

  Often there is a software bug (disease) called a system crash on a wireless device. The current situation is that it is difficult to reproduce the system crash, and it is difficult to find the cause of the crash. In the fifth example shown in FIG. 3, when this system crash 26 occurs, if the diagnostic method of the present invention is used, the cause of 27 crashes, for example, a NULL pointer, can be found, and the crash occurs. You can also identify where you did. Based on this result, a bug fix report 28 on the software is sent to the diagnosis server, and the manufacturer can immediately cure the bug.

  There is also often a software bug (disease) called system freeze on wireless devices. Like a system crash, it is difficult to reproduce a system freeze, and it is difficult to find the cause of the freeze. In the sixth example shown in FIG. 3, when this system freeze 29 occurs, if the diagnostic method of the present invention is used, for example, the cause of 30 freezes that are an infinite loop can be found, and the freeze occurs. You can also identify where you did. Based on this result, a bug fix report 31 on the software is sent to the diagnosis server, and the manufacturer can immediately cure the bug.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of implementing the above diagnosis / recovery function. In the example shown in FIG. 4, a diagnosis engine 35, a diagnosis application 36, diagnosis information 37, and a communication unit 38 are mounted on a wireless device that functions for diagnosis / recovery of the present invention.

  A diagnostic engine resides in the system as a primary physician and monitors the health of the system. Data to be monitored includes system parameters, system logs, and system health data. The diagnostic engine determines whether the system is ill based on system health data. If it recognizes that the system is ill, it starts a diagnostic application.

  The diagnostic application treats a disease recognized as a specialist treating the disease in the system. First, in order to investigate the cause of the disease, a detailed examination is performed. As a test, the relevant system parameters and system logs are examined to collect information data necessary for treatment, for example, information on a function that identifies where the disease occurred. If necessary, prepare test data, run the test program, narrow down the place where the disease occurred, and collect diagnostic data that identifies the cause of the disease, such as the NULL pointer that caused the system crash. The diagnostic data acquired by the examination is stored in the diagnostic information 37.

  A diagnostic application can identify the location of the disease and the cause of the disease through testing, take corrective action and restore the system. Response measures are determined by specialist knowledge and experience. For example, if you run out of memory, reboot the system to release all the unreleased memory and solve the problem. When the system freezes, if you find that the cause is an infinite loop, record the identified location in a diagnostic report and report it to the manufacturer, and the manufacturer will immediately fix the software bug.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the diagnostic information stored in the storage area of the wireless device. Information necessary for diagnosis of the wireless device includes a system parameter 40, a system log 41, and system health data 42. By the above examination, when the system becomes ill, diagnostic data 43 for identifying the location and cause of the illness is created from these information data.

  FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a system crash diagnosis embodiment described in the previous embodiments. In order to collect information at the time of a system crash, a diagnostic program can be incorporated into the interrupt processing function. This diagnostic program dumps memory data required for diagnosis and stores it in flash. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the memory dump 47 is performed by the interrupt processing function call 46 after the system crash 45, and the location and cause of the crash are clarified by the dump data analysis 49 after the system reboot 48.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a diagnosis example of system freeze described in the previous examples. In order to collect information when the system freezes, a diagnostic program can be incorporated into the interrupt processing function. This diagnostic program dumps memory data required for diagnosis and stores it in flash. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the interrupt processing function call 52 and the memory dump 53 are performed by the watchdog timer operation 51 after the occurrence of the system freeze 50, and the location and cause of the freeze by the dump data analysis 55 after the system reboot 54. Is elucidated.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of system log implementation. System logs are generated from anywhere in the system and are output in time order. Since the amount of logs is large and contains a lot of information that is not necessary for diagnosis, it is difficult to use it for diagnosis as it is. In the example shown in FIG. 8, first, the generated log 60 is classified 61, log data that is not necessary for diagnosis is ignored, and only necessary log data is registered 62 in the database DB 63. Log data in the database can be searched by keywords such as health level, status, module, parameter, event, log time. When a disease in the system is recognized, the log data registered in the database is searched 64, analysis 65 is performed on the data, and diagnostic data 66 is created.

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of performing diagnosis through a network. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the diagnosis engine 70 sends a request 72 to the diagnosis server 71 when information on the wireless device side is insufficient for diagnosis. In addition to device information, the request includes information data (disease symptom) related to the disease of the system. In response to the received request, the diagnostic server looks at the symptoms of the disease, searches for diagnostic data necessary for the database and the corresponding diagnostic application, and sends the response 73 message to the diagnostic engine. As a communication system, there are OTA (Over-the-air) / SMS (Short message services) / DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequencies) 74. If there is a normal IP connection, data transmission is performed using OTA. If there is no IP connection, SMS is used. If SMS is not available, data transmission is performed using DTMF. In the case of SMS and DTMF, since only a small amount of data can be transmitted, limited data transmission such as communication settings and system parameters is performed. The DTMF method is an effective means that can be used when there is no problem in voice communication and can be used when communication is not possible.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a diagnostic system capable of realizing a wireless device diagnosis and recovery method according to the present invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the diagnosis / restoration procedure of a wireless device. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example which diagnoses a wireless device. It is a block diagram which shows an example which implements a diagnosis / restoration function in a wireless device. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the diagnostic information preserve | saved at the storage area of a wireless device. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of system crash diagnosis implementation. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of system freeze diagnosis implementation. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of system log implementation. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the diagnosis implementation through a network.

Explanation of symbols

01 Wireless devices (cell phones, portable terminals)
02 diagnostic server 03 diagnostic database 04 wireless network 35 diagnostic engine 36 diagnostic application 37 diagnostic information storage unit 38 communication unit 40 system parameter storage unit 41 system log storage unit 42 system health data storage unit 43 diagnostic data storage unit 70 diagnostic engine 71 diagnosis Server 72 Request message 73 Response message 74 Communication medium

Claims (11)

  A terminal system having a processor, application and diagnostic software, automatically diagnosing the self-system by the diagnostic software and self-recovering when there is an abnormality in the self-system; System comprising a diagnostic server. In a diagnostic system comprising a terminal system comprising a processor, a memory, a communication means and an application, and a diagnostic server located at a remote location capable of communicating with the terminal system via the communication means,
With the diagnostic software installed in the terminal system,
Detecting the occurrence of a malfunction in the terminal system, dynamically executing diagnostic processing of the terminal system, and obtaining diagnostic data;
A diagnostic report creating process for creating a diagnostic report based on the diagnostic data obtained by the diagnostic process;
A diagnostic system for executing diagnostic report transmission processing for transmitting the created diagnostic report to the diagnostic server via the communication means. The terminal system is anthropomorphic, and a series of the diagnostic processing steps are performed.
An observation processing step of observing the state of the terminal system, judging that all are normal and healthy, and some are not normal,
If it is determined in the observation processing step that the state of poor physical condition is present, check whether or not a failure has actually occurred at a location where a failure may have occurred, and detect the actual failure. If it is a disease state, in fact, if a failure occurrence is not detected, a test processing step for determining a health state,
The diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein when the disease state is determined in the inspection processing step, the diagnosis system is regarded as a diagnosis processing step for collecting data necessary for the recovery processing of the failure.   The observation processing step records data such as function arguments and return values as a system log each time the application calls a function and analyzes the recorded data to determine whether the terminal system is in a healthy state or in a poor physical condition. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, comprising a step of determining whether or not.   4. The examination processing step includes a step of determining the disease state and the disease occurrence location by checking various parameters related to a resource at a location where the failure may occur. The diagnostic system described in 1.   The diagnostic system according to claim 3, wherein the diagnostic processing step includes a learning step of analyzing diagnostic data used in past recovery processing and collecting diagnostic data necessary for the recovery processing for the failure occurrence location.   When the diagnostic processing step is incorporated as an interrupt function, and the failure occurring in the terminal system is a system crash or a system freeze, the memory data required for investigating the cause of the crash or the freeze is determined by the interrupt method. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, further comprising a processing step of dumping from the memory.   The diagnostic system according to claim 3, wherein the terminal system is anthropomorphic and the series of the recovery processing steps is regarded as a treatment processing step for performing treatment on the place where the recovery processing is determined to be the disease state.   The terminal system includes a log data collecting means for recording in real time data necessary for diagnosis of the self system, including various data of time stamp at the time of recording, log level, vendor, module, operation, and object state. Item 4. The diagnostic system according to Item 3.   Memory data at the time of system crash and freeze (memory dump) including data of stack, hip and register, and dumping memory data necessary for investigating the cause of crash or freeze when the system crashes or freezes 4. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, further comprising a collecting means. Diagnostic knowledge learning means that accumulates information and knowledge necessary for diagnosis through self-learning, including data on system characteristics (functions, modules, easy-to-occur abnormalities and places where abnormalities are likely to occur), and data on system health The diagnostic system according to claim 3 provided.

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