This thesis aims to design, implement, and cross-compare software capable of updating parts of a running system, without requiring a restart of the host application. Dynamic Software Updating (DSU) enables such runtime modifications. High-availability systems aim to remain continuously in service, which makes dynamic updates particularly valuable for applying changes with minimal service interruption in such systems. In academia, DSU has been explored in general-purpose computing where prior work largely focuses on abstract mechanisms rather than application-specific ones. In this work, we take an application-specific perspective, using DSU to update program functions within a running Radio Access Network (RAN) application.

The scientific novelty of this work lies in applying established DSU techniques to a uniquely constrained RAN application. Restructuring the application to support DSU introduced some pros and cons, prompting an investigation into how different DSU strategies affect downtime, performance, memory usage and system stability. By implementing four update solutions and evaluating them under conditions that resemble a worst-case packet transmission workload, the thesis quantifies the costs of enabling runtime updates in a high-availability RAN system.