A Model for Assured Software Download on Mobile Terminals

Over-the-air (OTA) software download is a key enabling technology for terminal reconfigurations. With increasing the number of network protocols, variety of software products with different software providers and new software threats, it becomes important to download and install assured software on the mobile terminals. Most of the related research works on downloading assured software, focus on software validation after download, and mainly on the terminal. In this paper, a model is proposed in which an assurance agency is exploited. This agency is responsible for performing software examination and validations. Unlike related work, examination and validation operations are centrally performed in the network before downloading the software. Based on a cost analysis, it is shown that the overhead of using the assurance agency in downloading scenario is acceptable.