Regulating usage of computer resources

• US 7,099,943 B1
• Filed: 08/26/1999
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Tondering, Claus
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Avellino, Joseph E.
• Application Number:
  US09/384,932
• Time in Patent Office: 2,560 Days
• Field of Search: 709/100, 709/104, 709223-226, 709/102, 709227-235, 709217-219, 370235-2351, 718102-106
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method is described that can be used to regulate the usage of resources in a network system. A software tool can be used to regulate access to a system resource. The preferred method uses a software tool to enforce voluntary restraint on the uses of resources by competing processes. Further, the software tool can be used to request additional usage time for more important or sensitive processes requesting a specific resource. The preferred method can be used with a general computing environment or in an embedded system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

representing, by an aggregate current usage value, a total amount of a resource that is managed by software tool and is theoretically currently in use in the aggregate by a first process and a second process;

associating with the first process a first maximum value of the aggregate current usage value;

associating with the second process a second maximum value of the aggregate current usage value;

adjusting at least one of the first maximum value and the second maximum value;

decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time; and

in response to a request by one of the processes for additional use of the resource, allowing the process to make the requested additional use and increasing the aggregate current usage value by the amount of requested additional use to a new aggregate current usage value, and sending a message to a network address associated with the requesting process to notify the requesting process that additional use of the resource is allowed, provided that the new aggregate current usage value would not exceed the maximum value associated with that process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource comprises one of memory space and system processor time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is in an embedded computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is in a real-time networking environment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the software tool is modeled as a leaky bucket.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a priority of the resource; and

allocating the resource based on the priority of the resource.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating an available amount of credit by a difference between the maximum value and the aggregate current usage value.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time comprises decreasing the aggregate current usage value per unit of time by an estimated value of the resource that becomes available per unit of time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a priority of a process accessing the resource; and

allocating the resource based on the priority of the process.

10. The method of claim 1 in which decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time comprises decreasing the current usage value by a preset amount per unit of time.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising regulating use of the resource based on the decreasing of the aggregate current usage value so that the total amount of use of the resource does not exceed the preset amount per unit of time.

12. The method of claim 10 in which the preset amount represents an estimated amount of resource that becomes available per unit of time.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the requested additional use plus the aggregate current usage value would exceed the maximum value associated with the requesting process, waiting for a period of time until the aggregate current usage value decreases to below a level such that increasing the aggregate current usage value based on the amount of requested additional use would not exceed the maximum value associated with the requesting process.

14. The method of claim 1 in which the decreases of the aggregate current usage value is independent of the amount of use of the resource by the processes.

15. A method comprising:

in a network having resources that are accessed by a first device and a second device, for each resource, creating a software tool on each device that uses the resource to manage usage of the resource by the device; and

for each software tool that is used to manage a particular resource used by a particular device,

using an aggregate current usage value to represent a total amount of the particular resource that is managed by the software tool and is theoretically currently in use in the aggregate by both the first and the second devices,

associating with the first device a first maximum value of the aggregate current usage value,

associating with the second device a second maximum value of the aggregate current usage value,

adjusting at least one of the first maximum value and the second maximum value;

decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time, and

in response to a request by one of the devices for additional use of one of the resources, allowing the device to make the requested additional use and increasing the aggregate current usage value by the amount of requested additional use to a new aggregate current usage value, and sending a message to a network address associated with the requesting process to notify the requesting process that additional use of the resource is allowed, provided that the new aggregate current usage value would not exceed the maximum value associated with the requesting device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein creating the software tool comprises:

allocating a descriptor representative of the software tool for each of the plurality of devices accessing the resource managed by the software tool.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

decrementing the maximum value of the software tool in response to the use of the resource associated with the software tool by any device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising incrementing the maximum value to be equal to or more than a usage level requested by the device.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising overriding the maximum value to allow a device access to one of the plurality of resources.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing a device waiting to use the resource information on the amount of resource that is available based on a difference between the maximum value and the aggregate current usage value.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising sending a message to a network address associated with a device waiting to use the resource when the available amount of resource exceeds a specified usage level.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising destroying the software tool in response to a request from one of the devices.

23. The method of claim 15 in which different software tools on different devices that are associated with a common resource have different specified maximum values.

24. A machine accessible medium, which when accessed results in a machine performing operations comprising:

representing, by an aggregate current usage value, a total amount of a resource that is managed by a software tool and is theoretically currently in use by both a first device and a second device;

associating with the first device a first maximum value of the aggregate current usage value,

associating with the second device a second maximum value of the aggregate current usage value,

adjusting at least one of the first maximum value and the second maximum value;

decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time; and

in response to a request by one of the devices for additional use of the resource, allowing the device to make the requested additional use and increasing the aggregate current usage value by the amount of requested additional use to a new aggregate current usage value, and sending a message to a network address associated with the requesting process to notify the requesting process that additional use of the resource is allowed, provided that the new aggregate current usage value would not exceed the maximum value associated with the requesting device.

25. The machine accessible medium of claim 24, wherein the resource comprises one of memory space and system processor time.

26. The machine accessible medium of claim 24, wherein the software tool is modeled as a leaky bucket.

27. The machine accessible medium of claim 24, which when accessed results in the machine performing operations comprising adjusting the associated maximum value.

28. A network including a plurality of devices, comprising:

a plurality of resources running in the network; and

computer software, residing on a computer readable medium at each device accessing the plurality of resources to cause the device to perform the following operations;

representing, by an aggregate current usage value, a total amount of a resource that is managed by a software tool and is used by at least a first device and a second device;

associating with the first device a first maximum value of the aggregate current usage value;

associating with the second device a second maximum value of the aggregate current usage value;

decreasing the aggregate current usage value according to a function of time; and

adjusting at least one of the first maximum value and the second maximum value;

in response to a request by one of the first and second devices for additional use of the resource, allowing the device to make the requested additional use and increasing the aggregate current usage value by the amount of requested additional use to a new aggregate current usage value, and sending a message to a network address associated with the requesting process to notify the requesting process that additional use of the resource is allowed, provided that the new aggregate current usage value would not exceed the maximum value associated with the requesting device.

29. The network of claim 28, wherein the plurality of resources comprise memory space or system processor time.

30. The network of claim 28, wherein the network comprises an embedded computer system.

31. The network of claim 28, wherein the network operates in a real-time networking environment.