Constrained execution of background application code on mobile devices

• US 9,060,196 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Torr, Peter John, Gbadegesin, Abolade, Burke, Shawn P., Vasu, Vijayendra Gopalrao, Fuller, Jason William, Ramig, Randal J., Gandhi, Kunal R., Raastroem, Jorge I., Miller, Darin, Selcuk, Alper, Kurtzman, Timothy Michael, Jiang, Rachel
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Camquy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kamran, Mehran
• Application Number:
  US13/162,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20120210326A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/439 Processing of audio elementary streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The subject disclosure is directed towards a technology by which background application code (e.g., provided by third-party developers) runs on a mobile device in a way that is constrained with respect to resource usage. A resource manager processes a resource reservation request for background code, to determine whether the requested resources meet constraint criteria for that type of background code. If the criteria are met and the resources are available, the resources are reserved, whereby the background code is ensured priority access to its reserved resources. As a result, a properly coded background application that executes within its constraints will not experience glitches or other problems (e.g., unexpected termination) and thereby provide a good user experience.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method performed at least in part on at least one processor, comprising:

receiving, from an application, a reservation request that requests device resources for background code;

determining prior to scheduling the reservation request whether policy criteria is met for the reservation request, including that sufficient resources are available to ensure that the background code is able to have priority use of the device resources being requested, wherein said determining comprises determining for at least some of the device resources whether those requested device resources are within constraint limits for a type of background code corresponding to the reservation request, and if not, failing the reservation request or revising requirements of the requested device resources;

if the policy criteria is met, reserving the device resources for use by the background code to allow the background code to run as background code and use the device resources, wherein a request for an additional resource is denied for the background code while running the background code; and

managing a lifecycle of the background code, including launching a background agent corresponding to at least part of the background code into an active state in which the background agent executes, and moving the background agent between an inactive state, in which the background agent does not execute, and the active state, wherein the background agent executes the background code after the application is closed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the background agent is independent from the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the reservation request comprises receiving a request corresponding to CPU and memory resource quotas.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the policy criteria is met for the reservation request further comprises determining for at least one resource whether that resource is allowed to be used by the background code.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, reserving the device resources for a system code and a foreground code.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the policy criteria include data corresponding to a CPU usage limit or a memory allocation limit, or both, for the type of background code associated with the reservation request.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the policy criteria include data corresponding to a network bandwidth limit or a non-volatile storage I/O limit, or both, for the type of background code associated with the reservation request.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the resources include at least one of CPU, memory, network bandwidth, non-volatile storage bandwidth, a screen display, a device microphone, a device camera, a device accelerometer, a device gyroscope, a device GPS mechanism, or any combination of CPU, memory, network bandwidth, non-volatile storage bandwidth, a screen display, a device microphone, a device camera, a device accelerometer, a device gyroscope, or a device GPS mechanism.

9. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

memory;

at least one processor;

the at least one processor and memory configured to execute a resource manager, the resource manager configured to constrain resource usage by running background code, including by evaluating policy criteria and resource availability against a resource reservation request, received from an application, to determine whether to reserve requested resources for the background code; and

if the policy criteria is met and the resources are available, the resource manager reserving the resources for the background code and indicating that the reservation request is successful, and if not, the resource manager failing the resource reservation request or revising requirements of the requested resources; and

further wherein the resource manager denies a request for an additional resource for the background code while running the background code; and

an application instance manager configured to manage a lifecycle of the background code, including launching a background agent corresponding to at least part of the background code into an active state in which the background agent executes, and moving at least part of the background code between an active state in which the background code executes and an inactive state in which the background code does not execute, wherein the background agent executes the background code after the application is closed.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the application instance manager is further configured to launch an instance of the background code for execution when the reservation request is successful.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the policy criteria include data corresponding to a CPU usage limit or a memory allocation limit, or both, for the type of background code associated with the resource reservation request.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the policy criteria include data corresponding to a network bandwidth limit or a non-volatile storage I/O limit, or both, for the type of background code associated with the resource reservation request.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the policy criteria include data identifying which device resources are allowed access or denied access, or both, for the type of background code associated with the resource reservation request.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the resource manager reserves resources for system code, foreground code and background code, the resources including at least one of CPU, memory, network bandwidth, non-volatile storage bandwidth, a screen display, a device microphone, a device camera, a device accelerometer, a device gyroscope, a device GPS mechanism, or any combination of CPU, memory, network bandwidth, non-volatile storage bandwidth, a screen display, a device microphone, a device camera, a device accelerometer, a device gyroscope, a device GPS mechanism.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the resource manager is further configured to ensure that the background agent has a highest priority access to the resources within its own bounding box.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

receiving, from an application, a reservation request that requests device resources for background code;

determining prior to scheduling the reservation request whether policy criteria is met for the reservation request, including that sufficient resources are available to ensure that the background code is able to have priority use of the device resources being requested, wherein said determining comprises determining for at least some of the device resources whether those requested device resources are within constraint limits for a type of background code corresponding to the reservation request, and if not, failing the reservation request or revising requirements of the requested device resources;

if the policy criteria is met, reserving the device resources for use by the background code to allow the background code to run as background code and use the device resources, wherein a request for an additional resource is denied for the background code while running the background code; and

managing a lifecycle of the background code, including launching a background agent corresponding to at least part of the background code into an active state in which the background agent executes, and moving the background agent between an inactive state, in which the background agent does not execute, and the active state, wherein the background agent executes the background code after the application is closed.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 16 wherein the background agent communicates with a system service to perform at least one background task.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 16 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, suspending or terminating the background agent.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 16 wherein determining whether the policy criteria is met for the reservation request further comprises determining for at least one resource whether that resource is allowed to be used by the background code.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 16 wherein the application comprises at least one of a media playback application, a location tracking application, a data syncing application, a VoIP calling application, or a turn-by-turn directions application.