Migrating functionality in virtualized mobile devices

• US 8,438,256 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2009
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rogel, Lawrence S., Devine, Scott W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Application Number:
  US12/492,633
• Publication Number:
  US 20100332635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,411 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/223, 379/114.28, 379/211.02, 455/419, 455/414.1, 717/171, 713/150, 713/155, 707/10, 718/1, 711/162
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention is a method of migrating functionality to a target virtualized mobile device including virtualization software that supports one or more virtual machines, the method including: (a) embodying the functionality in a virtual machine; and (b) migrating the virtual machine to the target virtualized mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of migrating a telephone functionality from a source mobile device to a target device, the method comprising:

storing a virtual machine embodying the telephone functionality on the source mobile device, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a set of peripheral devices for use in providing the telephone functionality;

receiving a telephone communication action initiated by the virtual machine with respect to an emulated peripheral device at a first virtualization software layer that emulates the set of peripheral devices and includes a first transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a set of physical devices on the source mobile device;

mapping, via the first transformer, the emulated peripheral device to a physical device of the source mobile device to have the telephone communication action performed by the physical device of the source mobile device; and

migrating the virtual machine to the target device, wherein a second virtualization software layer emulates the set of peripheral devices associated with the virtual machine and includes a second transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a second set of physical devices on the target device to allow the telephone functionality to be provided on the target device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the migrating comprises:

serializing the virtual machine embodying the telephone functionality; and

transferring the serialized virtualized machine to the target virtualized device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a SIM chip in the target device is programmed to receive calls at the target device using the migrated virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the migrating comprises emulating a SIM chip of the source mobile device at the target device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the migrating comprising requesting a service provider to redirect calls to the source mobile device to the target device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

migrating includes transferring the virtual machine from the source mobile device to an intermediary, and

the intermediary transfers the virtual machine to the target device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a message with a communications link to download the virtual machine to the source mobile device by entering a passcode associated with the telephone functionality.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the passcode is a telephone number corresponding to the telephone functionality.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the migrating occurs while the virtual machine is executing on the source mobile device, the method further comprising:

forwarding communications in progress at the start of the migrating to the target device while the migrating is in progress, wherein new communications bypass the source mobile device for the target device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the migrating occurs while the virtual machine is executing, the method further comprising:

causing virtualization software of the source mobile device to operate as a network address transformer (NAT) where the virtual machine has a first Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) address, but a second IP address and MAC address is presented to remote devices.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the migrating occurs while the virtual machine is executing, the method further comprising:

executing the telephone functionality in another virtual machine in the source mobile device, wherein the another virtual machine initiates an audio connection to the target device to transmit audio from a telephone call to the target virtualized device while the migrating is in progress.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the virtual machine is executing on the source mobile device and the target device simultaneously,

the telephone functionality in the source mobile device has a first telephone number, and

the telephone functionality in the target device has a second telephone number, wherein incoming telephone calls are forwarded to one of the source mobile device and the target device.

19. A method of claim 1, wherein

the first set of physical devices on the source mobile device are different from the second set of physical devices on the target device,

the second transformer allows the migrated virtual machine to provide the telephone functionality on the target device by mapping the set of peripheral devices to the second set of physical devices, and

a peripheral device in the set of peripheral devices is mapped to a first physical device in the source mobile device and mapped to a second physical device in the target device that is different to provide a same telephone functionality.

13. A source mobile device configured to migrate a telephone functionality from a source mobile device to a target device, the source mobile device comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors to be operable to;

store a virtual machine embodying the telephone functionality on the source mobile device, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a set of peripheral devices for use in providing the telephone functionality;

receive a telephone communication action initiated by the virtual machine with respect to an emulated peripheral device at a first virtualization software layer that emulates the set of peripheral devices and includes a first transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a set of physical devices on the source mobile device;

map, via the first transformer, the emulated peripheral device to a physical device of the source mobile device to have the telephone communication action performed by the physical device of the source mobile device; and

migrate the virtual machine to the target device, wherein a second virtualization software layer emulates the set of peripheral devices associated with the virtual machine and includes a second transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a second set of physical devices on the target device to allow the telephone functionality to be provided on the target device.

14. The source mobile device of claim 13, wherein migrate comprises:

serialize the virtual machine embodying the telephone functionality; and

transfer the serialized virtualized machine to the target virtualized device.

15. The source mobile device of claim 13, wherein a SIM chip in the target device is programmed to receive calls at the target device using the migrated virtual machine.

16. The source mobile device of claim 13, wherein the migration occurs while the virtual machine is executing on the source mobile device, the source mobile device further operable to:

forward communications in progress at the start of the migrating to the target device while the migration is in progress, wherein new communications bypass the source mobile device for the target device.

17. The source virtualized mobile device of claim 13, wherein the migration occurs while the virtual machine is executing, the source mobile device further operable to:

cause virtualization software of the source mobile device to operate as a network address transformer (NAT) where the virtual machine has a first Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) address, but a second IP address and MAC address is presented to remote devices.

20. The source mobile device of claim 13, wherein:

the first set of physical devices on the source mobile device are different from the second set of physical devices on the target device,

the second transformer allows the migrated virtual machine to provide the telephone functionality on the target device by mapping the set of peripheral devices to the second set of physical devices, and

a peripheral device in the set of peripheral devices is mapped to a first physical device in the source mobile device and mapped to a second physical device in the target device that is different to provide a same telephone functionality.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions configured to migrate a telephone functionality from a source mobile device to a target device, the instructions—

for controlling a computer system to be operable to;

store a virtual machine embodying the telephone functionality on the source mobile device, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a set of peripheral devices for use in providing the telephone functionality;

receive a telephone communication action initiated by the virtual machine with respect to an emulated peripheral device at a first virtualization software layer that emulates the set of peripheral devices and includes a first transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a set of physical devices on the source mobile device;

map, via the first transformer, the emulated peripheral device to a physical device of the source mobile device to have the telephone communication action performed by the physical device of the source mobile device; and

migrate the virtual machine to the target device, wherein a second virtualization software layer emulates the set of peripheral devices associated with the virtual machine and includes a second transformer that maps the set of peripheral devices to a second set of physical devices on the target device to allow the telephone functionality to be provided on the target device.