Method And Apparatus Of Smart Power Management For Mobile Communication Terminals Using Power Thresholds

• US 20120210325A1
• Filed: 02/10/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: de Lind van Wijngaarden, Adriaan J., Nithi, Nachi K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,374,787 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0258 controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method is provided for use in a mobile communication terminal configured to support a plurality of applications, wherein each application is executed by performing one or more tasks. The method includes, in response to a scheduling request from an application, obtaining an indication of power supply condition at a requested run-time of at least one of the tasks. The method further includes obtaining a prediction of a rate of energy usage by the task at the requested run-time, estimating, from the predicted rate of energy usage, a total amount of energy needed to complete the task, and making a scheduling decision for the task. The scheduling decision comprises making a selection from a group of two or more alternative dispositions for the task. The selection is made according to a criterion that relates the run-time power-supply condition to the predicted rate of energy usage by the task and to the estimate of total energy needed to complete the task.

Claims

1. In a mobile communication terminal configured to support a plurality of applications, wherein each application is executed by performing one or more tasks, a method comprising:

(a) in response to a scheduling request from an application, obtaining an indication of power supply condition at a requested run-time of at least one of the tasks;

(b) obtaining a prediction of a rate of energy usage by the task at the requested run-time;

(c) estimating, from the predicted rate of energy usage, a total amount of energy needed to complete the task; and

(d) making a scheduling decision for the task, wherein the scheduling decision comprises making a selection from a group of two or more alternative dispositions for the task, and wherein the selection is made according to a criterion that relates the run-time power-supply condition to the predicted rate of energy usage by the task and to the estimate of total energy needed to complete the task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated total energy needed to complete the task is at least partly based on information retrieved from an application profile stored in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicated power supply condition comprises an estimate of remaining discharge capacity, and wherein the selection criterion is based on whether the estimated remaining discharge capability exceeds, by at least a threshold amount, the estimated total energy needed to complete the task.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least some applications have different respective priority levels, and wherein the threshold amount depends on the priority level of the application to which the task belongs.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the method further comprises determining whether the application making a scheduling request has a critical priority level;

the steps of obtaining an indication of power supply condition, obtaining a prediction of a rate of energy usage, and making a scheduling decision are performed on condition that the priority level is not critical; and

if the priority level is critical, the task is scheduled unconditionally.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein scheduling decisions are made for a plurality of tasks, and wherein for at least one priority level, tasks are scheduled for execution irrespective of any criterion that relates the run-time power-supply condition to the predicted rate of energy usage by the task.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein tasks are scheduled for execution irrespective of any said criterion if the priority level is at least one of:

an indication that the task is critical, and a user-configured override indication.

8. A mobile communication terminal, comprising:

a battery;

a source of information about the condition of the battery;

a first module configured to obtain an indication of the battery condition from the battery information source in response to a request from an application to schedule a task;

a source of information about the rates of energy usage by tasks associated with one or more applications;

a second module configured to obtain, from the energy-usage information source;

a prediction of a rate of energy usage by the task at a requested run-time for the task, and further configured to estimate a total amount of energy needed to complete the task; and

a task-scheduling module configured to select from a group of two or more alternative dispositions for the task, wherein the selection is made according to a criterion that relates the run-time battery condition to the predicted rate of energy usage by the task and to the estimate of total energy needed to complete the task.

9. The mobile communication terminal of claim 8, further comprising an application profile database stored in a digital memory, and wherein the energy-usage prediction model is configured to retrieve information from the application profile database on which to base the estimate of total energy needed to complete the task.

10. The mobile communication terminal of claim 9, wherein the application profile database includes indications of different priority levels for different applications.

11. The mobile communication terminal of claim 10, wherein task-scheduling module is further configured such that the selection criterion is dependent on the priority level of the application making the scheduling request.

12. The mobile communication terminal of claim 11, wherein the task scheduling module is further configured to schedule any task that belongs to an application having a critical priority level.

13. The mobile communication terminal of claim 11, wherein:

the indication of run-time battery condition includes an estimate of remaining discharge capacity;

the task-scheduling module is further configured such that the selection criterion depends on whether said estimated capacity exceeds the estimated total energy needed to complete the task by at least a threshold amount; and

the threshold amount depends on the priority level of the application making the scheduling request.

14. The mobile communication terminal of claim 10, further comprising a task-selection module configured to decide whether to forward the task to the task-scheduling module, wherein the forwarding decision depends on the indication of battery condition and on the priority level of the application making the scheduling request.

15. The mobile communication terminal of claim 14, wherein the task selection module is further configured to forward, to the task-scheduling module, any task that belongs to an application having a critical priority level.

16. The mobile communication terminal of claim 14, wherein:

the indication of run-time battery condition includes an estimate of remaining discharge capacity;

the task-selection module is further configured such that the forwarding decision depends on whether said estimated capacity exceeds the estimated total energy needed to complete the task by at least a threshold amount; and

the threshold amount depends on the priority level of the application making the scheduling request.

17. In a mobile communication terminal powered by a battery and configured to support a plurality of applications, wherein each application is executed by performing one or more tasks, a method comprising:

(a) in response to a scheduling request from an application, obtaining an indication of remaining useful discharge capacity of the battery at a requested run-time of at least one of the tasks;

(b) obtaining an indication of whether or not the task is critical; and

(c) making a scheduling decision for the task, wherein;

the making of a scheduling decision comprises selecting from a group of two or more alternative dispositions for the task including at least one disposition that results in the task being disallowed and at least one disposition that results in the task being executed; and

the selecting step is performed such that for indications that the remaining useful discharge capacity is within a specified range, a disposition that results in the task being executed is available if the task is indicated as critical, but is otherwise unavailable.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the range is below a specified threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising obtaining a value for the specified threshold that pertains to the requested task.