Method for reducing inter-process communication latency

• US 8,726,287 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Magnolia Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Clevenger, Brian Duane
• Primary Examiner(s): Kawsar, Abdullah Al
• Assistant Examiner(s): TEETS, BRADLEY A
• Application Number:
  US13/294,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20120291038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

A method for handling a system call in an operating system executed by a processor is disclosed. The message comprises steps of receiving the system call to a called process from a calling process; if the system call is a synchronous system call and if a priority of the calling process is higher than a priority of the called process, increasing the priority of the called process to be at least the priority of the calling process; and switching context to the called process.

Claims

1. A method for handling a system call in an operating system executed by a processor, the method comprising steps of:

receiving the system call to a called process from a calling process;

determining from content of the system call if the system call is a synchronous system call;

if the system call is a synchronous system call and if a priority of the calling process is higher than a priority of the called process, increasing the priority of the called process to be at least the priority of the calling process;

switching context to the called process;

sending a response from the called process to the calling process after the called process has handled the system call;

restoring the priority of the called process after the called process has handled the system call; and

switching context back to the calling process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the system call includes a header section and a payload section and the step of determining from the content of the system call comprising a step of checking a flag in the header section.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of determining if the priority of the calling process is higher than the priority of the called process.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein message routing between the calling and called processes is performed in a kernel of the operating system.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium structured to store instructions executable by a processor, the instructions when executed causing a processor to handle a system call in an operating system, including:

receiving the system call to a called process from a calling process;

determining from content of the system call if the system call is a synchronous system call;

if the system call is a synchronous system call and if a priority of the calling process is higher than a priority of the called process, increasing the priority of the called process to be at least the priority of the calling process;

switching context to the called process;

sending a response from the called process to the calling process after the called process has handled the system call;

restoring the priority of the called process after the called process has handled the system call; and

switching context back to the calling process.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the system call includes a header section and a payload section and to determine from the content of the system call comprises checking a flag in the header section.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executed further causes the processor to determine if the priority of the calling process is higher than the priority of the called process.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein message routing between the calling and called processes is performed in a kernel of the operating system.