DISCOVERY AND MINING OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION OF A DEVICE FOR ANTICIPATORILY SENDING UPDATES TO THE DEVICE

• US 20130159500A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Goertzel, Mario, Field, Scott, Kays, David, Douceur, John, Maria Meijer, Henricus Johannes, Reus, Edward, Healy, Michael Joseph, Dadzie, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,531,588 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17 using an input/output type connection, e.g. channel, I/O port
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

The subject disclosure relates to techniques for monitoring contextual and performance information of a device for anticipatorily sending update information to the device. An interface component can receive, from the client, contextual information indicating an operating environment of the client and performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the client based on the operating environment, and send, based on correlation information, update information to the client. Further, a service component can to infer a relationship between the contextual information and the performance information to obtain the correlation information. In other embodiments, a client can populate a cache with portion(s) of the contextual information to obtain cached information, and send at least a portion of the cached information to a system including one or more aspects of the service component.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a service component of a first computing device, at least one of contextual information indicating one or more portions of an operating environment of a second computing device, user preference information indicating at least one user preference or user activity information indicating at least one present, past or inferred future user activity;

receiving performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the second computing device in the operating environment; and

in response to correlating the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information with the performance information, communicating configuration information to the second computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the contextual information further includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a configuration of at least one of hardware of the second computing device or software of the second computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the contextual information further includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a location of the second computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the contextual information further includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a configuration of a network that is communicatively coupled to the second computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information further includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a consumption of memory that is associated with at least one of an operating system of the second computing device, software of the second computing device, or firmware of the second computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating an input or output bandwidth that is associated with at least one of hardware of the second computing device, software of the second computing device, an operating system of the second computing device, or firmware of the second computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a bandwidth of a network that is communicatively coupled to the second computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a latency that is associated with processing data via a network that is communicatively coupled to the second computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes inferring causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

receiving other information indicating at least one of a configuration of hardware of a third computing device, a configuration of software of the third computing device, a configuration of an operating system of the third computing device, a configuration of firmware of the third computing device, or a performance of the third computing device; and

determining the configuration information based on the other information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

determining causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information; and

communicating at least a portion of the configuration information to a third computing device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

receiving other information that is associated with at least one communication that is associated with a third computing device; and

determining causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information based on the other information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating the configuration information to the second computing device further includes communicating a recommendation to at least one of update software of the second computing device, update hardware of the second computing device, update an operating system of the second computing device, update firmware of the second computing device, not update the software, not update the hardware, not update the operating system, or not update the firmware.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating the configuration information to the second computing device further includes communicating a recommendation to utilize at least one of a network protocol or a communication protocol.

15. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing device to perform operations, comprising:

storing, by the computing device, contextual information indicating one or more portions of an operating environment that is associated with at least a portion of the operations, user preference information indicating at least one user preference or user activity information indicating at least one present, past or inferred future user activity;

sending the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information and performance information that is associated with at least one operation of the operations being performed by the computing device to a service component; and

receiving, based on the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information and the performance information, configuration information from the service component for configuring the computing device.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the storing the contextual information further includes populating a cache with at least a portion of the contextual information to obtain cached information, and wherein the sending the configuration information further includes sending at least a portion of the cached information to the service component.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

configuring at least one of software of the computing device or hardware of the computing device based on the configuration information.

18. A system, comprising:

an interface component stored in a computable readable storage medium configured to;

receive, from a client, contextual information indicating an operating environment of the client, user preference information indicating a user preference or user activity information indicating a present, past or inferred future user activity, and performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the client based on the operating environment, and

send, based on correlation information, update information to the client; and

a service component configured to infer a relationship between the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information, and the performance information to obtain the correlation information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the contextual information includes information indicating at least one of a configuration of at least one of hardware of the client or software of the client, a configuration of a network that is communicatively coupled to the client, or information indicating a location of the client;

and

wherein the configuration information includes information indicating at least one of a recommendation to at least one of update software of the client or update hardware of the client.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the performance information includes information indicating at least one of:

an operating system of the client;

a consumption of memory that is associated with execution, by the client, of at least one of the operating system, software, or firmware;

an input or output bandwidth that is associated with the execution;

a bandwidth of a network that is communicatively coupled to the client;

or

a latency that is associated with the network.

21. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a service component of a first computing device, contextual information from clients indicating respective operating environments of the clients and storing the contextual information in a data store, user preference information indicating a user preference or user activity information indicating a present, past or inferred future user activity;

receiving performance information that is associated with respective operations being performed by the clients in the respective operating environments and storing the performance information in the data store;

in response to correlating the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information with the performance information utilizing the data store, inferring a recommended configuration of a second computing device; and

communicating the recommended configuration to the second computing device.