Cross-environment communication using application space API

• US 8,726,294 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Original Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Inventors: Benedek, Laszlo Csaba, Chincisan, Octavian
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): SEYE, ABDOU K
• Application Number:
  US13/247,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

A mobile computing device with a mobile operating system and desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a shared kernel without virtualization. The mobile operating system provides a mobile user experience while the desktop operating system provides a full desktop user experience when the mobile computing device is docked to a secondary terminal environment. Applications of the desktop operating system communicate with applications and services of the mobile operating system through a cross-environment communication framework. The cross-environment communication framework may include application programming interfaces through which categories of applications can communicate across a multiple operating system computing environment through category-specific remote communication calls. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, in a first operating system and from a second application, a first remote method call of a first inter-process communication type directed to a first application running within the first operating system through a first inter-process communication channel, the second application running within a second operating system, the first and second operating systems running concurrently on a shared kernel, the first remote method call including a first data parcel, wherein the first remote method call is a synchronous remote method call;

translating, in the first operating system, the first remote method call into a second remote method call of a second inter-process communication type, the second remote method call including a second data parcel, wherein the second remote method call is an asynchronous remote method call, wherein the translating includes unparceling the first data parcel and reparceling data into the second data parcel; and

sending, by the first operating system, the second remote method call through a second inter-process communication channel to the first application,

wherein applications running within the first operating system communicate with each other through the shared kernel using the second inter-process communication channel, and

wherein applications running within the second operating system communicate with each other through the shared kernel using the first inter-process communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first remote method call is performed using a unix socket and the second remote method call is performed using the Binder IPC mechanism.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application is registered in the first operating system to receive the second remote method call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of translating is performed in a service of the first operating system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

instantiating, by the first application, a method of an application programming interface of the first operating system, the method implementing a sink for a predetermined remote communication request;

requesting, by the method of the application programming interface, an extended inter-process communication interface associated with the first inter-process communication channel;

instantiating, by the first operating system, the extended inter-process communication interface;

registering, by the first operating system, the extended inter-process communication interface to receive the predetermined remote communication requests directed to the first application;

receiving, by the first operating system, a request to instantiate a proxy for the predetermined remote communication request within the second application; and

passing, by the first operating system, a reference to the extended inter-process communication interface to the second application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined remote communication request is specific to a category of applications that includes the first and second applications.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the sink obtains a connected endpoint of an inter-process communication interface instantiated by a remote communication service of the first operating system.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the first operating system, a request to instantiate a second proxy for the predetermined remote communication request within a third application; and

passing, by the first operating system, the reference to the extended inter-process communication interface to the third application.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the registering of the extended inter-process communication interface by the first operating system includes associating the inter-process communication with a name key of the application.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the sink comprises a method of an application programming interface of the first operating system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the application programming interface is provided within an application space of the first operating system.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the application programming interface comprises classes of sinks, the classes of sinks associated with categories of applications.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the application programming interface comprises a java archive file.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the method of the application programming interface requests the extended inter-process communication interface from the remote communication service.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein a remote communication service of the first operating system registers the sink to receive an inter-process communication through the extended inter-process communication interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein upon registration by the remote communication service, the extended inter-process communication interface is pushed by the remote communication service.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operating system comprises an Android mobile operating system and the second operating system comprises a Linux operating system.