Aggregating recurrent schedules to optimize resource consumption

• US 8,230,436 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tran, Anh P., Moore, Lloyd Alfred, Guillory, Christopher Todd, Teegan, Hugh, Miller, John Mark, Sapek, Adam, Bentley, Keith C., Hattangady, Poonam Ganesh, Liu, Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huaracha, Willy W
• Application Number:
  US12/056,287
• Publication Number:
  US 20090183157A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 718/100, 718/102, 718/103, 718/104, 709/225, 709/226
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4893 taking into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Coalescing schedules that use a resource to extend battery life. Each of the schedules is defined to execute at a recurrent activation time within a defined tolerance. After receiving notification of an event, the schedules are accessed to identify the schedules that may be executed early based on their activation time and tolerance. The identified schedules are aggregated for execution.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components for conserving power for a mobile device, said components comprising:

an interface component for receiving notification of availability of a power-consuming resource on the mobile device;

a condition component for identifying a plurality of schedules stored in a memory area that consume the power-consuming resource during execution, each of said plurality of schedules having a recurrent activation time and a tolerance factor;

an aggregation component for selecting one or more of the identified plurality of schedules for which a difference between the recurrent activation time and a time of receipt of the notification by the interface component is within the tolerance factor;

a conservation component for executing the schedules selected by the aggregation component to use the power-consuming resource; and

a throttle component for limiting a quantity of schedules executed by the conservation component as a function of a predefined limit value.

2. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein the power-consuming resource comprises one or more of the following associated with a mobile device:

a radio frequency transmitter, a backlight, a processor, an audio amplifier, a global positioning system, a digital memory ready, a short-range wireless network adapter, an auxiliary processor, a vibration motor, a ringer, a camera, an accelerometer, and an ambient light sensor.

3. A method comprising:

receiving an event notification, said received event notification indicating that a resource associated with a computing device is available;

accessing a plurality of recurrent schedules, each of said plurality of recurrent schedules having a defined activation time and a tolerance factor associated therewith;

identifying one or more of the accessed schedules as a function of the received event notification, a current time, the defined activation time, and the tolerance factor of each of the accessed schedules;

limiting, as a function of a throttle limit, a quantity of the identified schedules to be activated; and

activating the limited quantity of the identified schedules to consume the available resource,

wherein identifying the one or more of the accessed schedules comprises identifying one or more of the accessed schedules for which a difference between the current time and the defined activation time is within the tolerance factor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein activating the identified schedules comprising executing one or more actions associated with the identified schedules.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of schedules has an interval duration between activation times, and further comprising defining a next activation time for each of the activated schedules based on the interval duration for the schedule.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein defining the next activation time comprises adding the interval duration for each of the schedules to the current time to define the next activation time for each of the schedules.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein a difference between the current time and the defined next activation time is less than the interval duration.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the one or more of the accessed schedules comprises:

calculating the difference between the current time and the defined activation time for each of the schedules;

comparing the calculated difference to the tolerance factor for the schedules; and

identifying one or more of the schedules based on said comparing.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the one or more of the accessed schedules comprises identifying one or more of the schedules that use the available resource.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein said receiving, said accessing, said identifying, and said activating are performed by a mobile device.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of schedules has at least one action associated therewith, and wherein activating the identified schedules comprises instructing a mobile device to perform the action associated with each of the identified schedules.

12. The method of claim 3, further comprising defining the throttling limit, and wherein activating the limited quantity of the identified schedules comprises activating a quantity of the identified schedules that is less than the defined throttling limit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identified schedules activate on a mobile device, and wherein defining the throttling limit comprises defining the throttling limit as a function of a consumption state of the resource on the mobile device.

14. A system comprising:

a memory area for storing a plurality of recurrent schedules, each of said plurality of recurrent schedules having a defined activation time, a tolerance factor, and an interval duration between activation times; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving the defined activation time, tolerance factor, and interval duration for each of the recurrent schedules;

storing the received activation time, tolerance factor, and interval duration in the memory area;

receiving notification of an event at a notification time, said received notification indicating that a resource associated with a computing device is available;

identifying one or more of the recurrent schedules to which the received notification applies and for which a difference between the defined activation time and the notification time is within the tolerance factor;

limiting, as a function of a predefined limit value, a quantity of the identified schedules to be activated;

aggregating the limited quantity of the identified schedules for activation; and

executing one or more actions associated with each of the aggregated schedules to consume the available resource.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the event comprises a boot of a mobile device, and wherein the processor is further configured to align the activation of the identified schedules to a common activation time.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory area and the processor are associated with a mobile device.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory area and the processor are associated with a device management server, and wherein the processor is configured to execute the one or more actions by instructing a mobile device to perform the execution of the actions associated with each of the aggregated schedules.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for identifying one or more of the plurality of recurrent schedules as a function of the received notification, the notification time, the defined activation time, and the tolerance factor of each of the plurality of schedules; and

means for aggregating the identified schedules for activation.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for aligning activation of the recurrent schedules.