Managing metering for distributed IoT applications

• US 10,205,600 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2015
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Persson, Per, Angelsmark, Ola, Persson, Joakim
• Primary Examiner(s): Mundur, Padma
• Application Number:
  US14/905,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20170257223A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,197 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1435 volume-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1496 involving discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/35 Pay as you go
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to methods of metering, and in particular to methods of metering activities of applications in distributed networks. More particular, the disclosure concerns a method for metering the operation of distributed Internet of Things, IoT devices. This disclosure relates to a method for metering activities of an application in a data processing system, wherein said data processing system comprises resource nodes configured to perform activities executed as actors in the respective resource nodes; and wherein the actors are controlled by one or more runtimes in the data processing system. The method comprises tracing, by a runtime, information related to activities executed by actors controlled by the runtime, and metering, by the runtime, the operation of the application based on the part of the traced information, which is related to activities of actors being used by the metered application. Furthermore, the disclosure relates to corresponding apparatuses and computer programs.

Claims

1. A method for metering activities of a metered application that is one of a plurality of applications in a data processing system, wherein said data processing system comprises resource nodes configured to perform activities for any one of the plurality of applications, the method comprising:

executing activities as actors in respective ones of the resource nodes, wherein the actors are fired as a result of execution by any one or more of the applications including the metered application, and wherein the actors are controlled by one or more runtimes in the data processing system;

tracing, by the one or more runtimes, information related to the activities executed by the actors controlled by the one or more runtimes;

generating metadata for the traced information, wherein the metadata includes, for each firing of an actor, an application identifier (ID) of the application to which the fired actor belonged at the time of firing; and

metering, by the runtime, the operation of the metered application based on the part of the traced information that is shown by the application ID in the metadata to be related to activities of actors being used by the metered application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

executing one or more activities in one or more actors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

reporting, the information related to activities executed by actors controlled by the runtime, to a runtime manager.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information defines which activities have been executed and the number of times that the activities have been executed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of time, location or external conditions related to the activities, and the size of the data transferred between the runtime and the respective actor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the functionality executed by the actors involve operation on data and/or utilization of resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the functionality executed by the actors is encapsulated and wherein the runtime is configured to handle encapsulated functionality.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the runtime runs in a resource node, a gateway, or in a network node in the data processing system, or a cloud server.

9. A method, performed in a runtime manager, of metering the operation of a metered application that is one of a plurality of applications, the method comprising:

receiving, from one or more runtimes, traced information about activities of actors controlled by the respective runtime, wherein the actors are fired as a result of execution by any one or more of the metered application and at least one other one of the applications;

receiving, from the one or more runtimes, metadata for the traced information, wherein the metadata is associated with the activities of actors that were fired as a result of execution by the metered application and by the at least one other one of the applications, wherein the metadata includes, for each firing of an actor, an application identifier (ID) of the application to which the fired actor belonged at the time of firing; and

metering the operation of the metered application based on the part of the received information that is shown by the application ID in the metadata to be related to activity of actors that are used by the metered application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the information defines the number of times that the activities have been executed.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of time, location or external conditions related to the activities.

12. An apparatus configured for metering activities of a metered application that is one of a plurality of applications in a data processing system, wherein said data processing system comprises resource nodes configured to perform activities for any one of the plurality of applications, the apparatus comprising:

one or more memories comprising computer readable code; and

one or more processors in response to execution of the computer readable code, using a programming model comprising actors executing activities in the resource nodes and one or more runtimes for controlling the actors, being configured to;

execute activities as actors in respective ones of the resource nodes, wherein the actors are fired as a result of execution by any one or more of the applications including the metered application;

trace, by the one or more runtimes, information related to the activities executed by the actors controlled by the one or more runtimes;

generate metadata for the traced information, wherein the metadata includes, for each firing of an actor, an application identifier (ID) of the application to which the fired actor belonged at the time of firing; and

meter, by the runtime, the operation of the metered application based on the part of the traced information that is shown by the application ID in the metadata to be related to activities of actors being used by the metered application; and

generate metadata associated with the activities.

13. A runtime manager configured for metering the operation of a metered application that is one of a plurality of applications in a data processing system, wherein said data processing system comprises resource nodes configured to perform activities for any one of the plurality of applications, the runtime manager comprising:

one or more nontransitory memories comprising computer readable code; and

one or more processors that, in response to execution of the computer readable code, use a programming model comprising actors executing activities in the resource nodes and one or more runtimes for controlling the actors, being configured to;

receive, from one or more runtimes, traced information about activities of actors controlled by the respective runtime, wherein the actors are fired as a result of execution by any one or more of the metered application and at least one other one of the applications;

receive, from the one or more runtimes, metadata for the traced information, wherein the metadata is associated with the activities of actors that were fired as a result of execution by the metered application and by the at least one other one of the applications, wherein the metadata includes, for each firing of an actor, an application identifier (ID) of the application to which the fired actor belonged at the time of firing; and

meter the operation of the metered application based on the part of the received information that is shown by the application ID in the metadata to be related to activity of actors that are used by the metered application.

14. A nontransitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer program code which, when executed in an apparatus, causes the apparatus to execute a method for metering activities of a metered application that is one of a plurality of applications in a data processing system, wherein said data processing system comprises resource nodes configured to perform activities for any one of the plurality of applications, the method comprising:

executing activities as actors in respective ones of the resource nodes, wherein the actors are fired as a result of execution by any one or more of the applications including the metered application, and wherein the actors are controlled by one or more runtimes in the data processing system;

tracing, by the one or more runtimes, information related to the activities executed by the actors controlled by the one or more runtimes;

generating metadata for the traced information, wherein the metadata includes, for each firing of an actor, an application identifier (ID) of the application to which the fired actor belonged at the time of firing; and

metering, by the runtime, the operation of the metered application based on the part of the traced information that is shown by the application ID in the metadata to be related to activities of actors being used by the metered application.