Mecanism to upgrade system capability without affecting service

摘要

A method of upgrading system capability of a communications network device comprises:
initiating a transfer of at least one first set of system capability instructions from a first memory to a target processor while the communications network device is operating;
determining if a header line of a first frame transferred from the first memory is valid;
if it is valid, completing the transfer;
determining if the transfer was completed within a specified time frame; and
if not, transferring at least one second set of system capability instructions
from a second memory to the target processor;
if the header line of the first frame is not valid:
ceasing the transfer of the at least one first set of instructions;
transferring the at least one second set of instructions from the second memory;
determining if the transfer of the at least one second set of instructions was completed within the specified time frame; and
if not, halting operation of the host card until a known good version of system capability instructions is loaded into the target processor.