Software Download to Radio Network Elements from NMS: New Method

Software download to Radio Network Elements (or NEs or base stations or Access points or xNBs) has been traditionally made using server-client method. Server being in Network Management System (NMS) and Base Station (or xNBs) acts as client in this case. Each client/network element downloads the same software image from server one by one. This puts a lot of stress on NMS when there are hundreds or thousands of network elements in the network and when the software image size of each of the network element is large. This paper proposes a new method to perform software download to the network elements in network. It uses peer-to-peer(P2P) distribution of software image to base stations where NMS server acts as Tracker, knowing topology, and clients as Seeders and Leechers, uploading and downloading pieces of software image. This, of course still requires software images to be downloaded to some of the base stations in traditional way since there are seeders in P2P network, and tracker needs to know topology to be able to place these initial seeders in optimal places. The communication between base stations can be enabled through X2 interface in case of LTE networks and Xn interface in case of 5G networks.