Download prioritization

• US 10,367,879 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Issued: 07/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: d'Herbemont, Pierre, Laborie, Alexandre, Fadel, Rony, Patard de la Vieuville, Amaury
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shitayewoldetadik, Berhanu
• Application Number:
  US15/275,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20170359404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 709219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that downloads an object from a cloud service provider is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device receives a download request for the object from a process running on a device. The device further determines a priority hint associated with the process for the download request. In addition, the device starts a download process using the download request and the priority hint. Furthermore, the device determines a change in the priority hint of the process during the download. The device additionally changes a characteristic of the download process in response to the change in the priority hint. The device further stores the object.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium containing

executable program instructions which when executed by a device cause the device to perform a method comprising:

receiving, from one or more processes running on the device, a plurality of download requests, wherein each download request corresponds to a request for a respective object;

determining a priority hint associated with a process running on the device;

scheduling, based on at least the priority hint associated with the process, a download request from the plurality of download requests;

based on the scheduling of the download request, starting a download process using the scheduled download request to download an object corresponding to the download request;

determining that a change has occurred in the priority hint during the download process;

based on determining that the change occurred, changing a characteristic of the download process; and

storing the object corresponding to the download process.

2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the priority hint is derived from a characteristic of the process.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the priority hint is high if the process is a process that submits the download request to view contents of the object.

4. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the priority hint is medium if the process is a process that submits the download request in response to a user indication to download the object to the device.

5. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the priority hint is low if the process is a background process.

6. The machine-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the process is selected from the group consisting of a synchronization service and a backup service.

7. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the synchronization service synchronizes files is selected from the group of photos, music, applications, contacts, calendar entries, and files.

8. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the download process can be staggered with another download process.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the download process downloads the object concurrently with another object downloaded with the other download process.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the download process can be staggered with another download process.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the download process download the object concurrently with another object downloaded with the other download process.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

batching a set of download requests from the plurality of download requests, wherein the set of download requests each has a priority hint that is lower than a higher priority hint than another one of the plurality of download requests.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, from one or more processes running on the device, a plurality of download requests wherein each download request corresponds to a request for a respective object;

determining a priority hint associated with a process running on the device;

scheduling, based on at least the priority hint associated with the process, a download request from the plurality of download requests;

based on the scheduling of the download request, starting a download process using the scheduled download request to download an object corresponding to the download request;

determining that a change has occurred in the priority hint during the download process;

based on determining that the change occurred, changing a characteristic of the download process; and

storing the object corresponding to the download process.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the priority hint is derived from a characteristic of the process.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the priority hint is high if the process is a process that submits the download request to view contents of the object.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the priority hint is medium if the process is a process that submits the download request in response to a user indication to download the object to the device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein if the process is a background process.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the process is selected from the group consisting of a synchronization service and a backup service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the synchronization service synchronizes files is selected from the group of photos, music, applications, contacts, calendar entries, and files.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium

containing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing device cause the device to perform a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of download requests for the plurality of objects, wherein each of the plurality of download requests has a priority hint derived from a process that submitted that download request;

scheduling, based on at least the priority hint associated with the process, a download request from the plurality of download requests;

based on the scheduling of the download request, starting a download process using the scheduled download request to download an object corresponding to the download request;

determining that a change has occurred in the priority hint during the download process;

based on determining that the change occurred, changing a characteristic of the download process;

receiving a new download request for an object different from the plurality of objects; and

canceling the scheduled download request if the new download request has a priority hint that is greater than the priority hint for the one of the plurality of download requests.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising:

releasing resources associated with the one of the plurality of download requests.