Addressing of software downloads to reconfigurable terminals in UMTS

Over-the-air software download is a key enabler for many aspects related to the reconfiguration of terminals based on software-defined radio (SDR). Different mechanisms for advertising the availability of software enhancements to a group of SDR terminals in universal mobile telecommunication system networks are evaluated. In order to exploit efficiencies in terms of transmission and processing, addressing strategies that allow the subsequent download to be performed in a multicast fashion are considered. A novel scheme for advertising software to only those terminals that are targeted by the download is introduced. On the basis of cost analysis, it is shown that the proposed scheme performs favourably compared with other viable schemes for performing software upgrade announcements