Centralized service for awakening a computing device

• US 9,164,567 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Miller, Gregory S., Glass, Adam B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Eric
• Application Number:
  US12/955,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20110072288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 713/323
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing and interacting with a centralized wake service. A server-side wake service is provided that is operable to allow applications to subscribe to the wake service. The wake service receives a wake request directed to a particular computing device from a particular one of the applications. The wake request is forwarded from the wake service to a client-side communication service on the particular computing device if forwarding is determined to be appropriate. When the client-side communication service on the particular computing device receives the wake request while in a reduced power mode, the computing device wakes up and an appropriate response is determined.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one memory and at least one processor that are respectively configured to store and execute instructions, including instructions for performing operations, the operations including;

providing a communication service that transmits details, via the Internet, to a remote computing device of a plurality of remote computing devices, the details including an indication of how to communicate a wake request to the computing device via the Internet to wake the computing device from the reduced power mode and an indication of conditions for which the wake request is to be communicated to the computing device;

receiving the wake request, via the Internet, when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode, the wake request originating from a network application executing in at least one of the plurality of remote computing devices;

waking the computing device from the reduced power mode in response to the received wake request; and

determining an appropriate response to the received wake request based on analyzing one or more policies.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending a notification indicating current connection details as the computing device enters the reduced power mode.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending the appropriate response, after successfully waking from the reduced power mode in response to receiving the wake request and determining the appropriate response.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the details regarding how to wake the computing device when the computing device is in a reduced power mode include at least one of user contact preferences, availability information, security settings, policy settings, or current state information.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing state information in response to receiving a communication for obtaining the state information.

6. The computing device of claim 5, wherein the state information includes power settings.

7. The computing device of claim 5, wherein the state information includes user administrative configuration information.

8. The computing device of claim 5, wherein the state information includes system connectivity information.

9. A computing device comprising:

means for providing details to a remote second computing device, via a wide area network (“

WAN”

) having a plurality of remote second computing devices connected thereto, regarding how to communicate a wake request to the computing device via the WAN to wake the computing device from a reduced power mode, the details including one or more policies indicating when the computing device is to be awakened and when the computing device is not to be awakened;

means for receiving the wake request, via the WAN, and waking the computing device when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode, the wake request originating from a network application executing in at least one of the plurality of remote second computing devices; and

means for determining an appropriate response to the received wake request based on analyzing the one or more policies.

10. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising:

means for sending a notification indicating current connection details as the computing device enters the reduced power mode.

11. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising:

means for sending the appropriate response, after successfully waking from the reduced power mode in response to receiving the wake request.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the details regarding how to wake the computing device when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode include user contact preferences.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the details regarding how to wake the computing device when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode include availability information.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the details regarding how to wake the computing device when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode include current state information.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the current state information includes user administrative configuration information.

16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the current state information includes system connectivity information.

17. A machine-implemented method comprising:

providing, by a communication service on a computing device, details to a remote computing device, via a wide area network (“

WAN”

) having a plurality of remote computing devices connected thereto, the details including an indication of how to communicate a wake request to the computing device via the WAN to wake the computing device from a reduced power mode and an indication of conditions for which the wake request is to be communicated to the computing device;

receiving, by the computing device, the wake request via the WAN when the computing device is operating in the reduced power mode, the wake request originating from a network application executing in at least one of the plurality of remote computing devices; and

determining, by the computing device, an appropriate response to the received wake request upon receiving the wake request.

18. The machine-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising

waking the computing device from the reduced power mode upon receiving of the wake request.

19. The machine-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising

sending, by the computing device, the appropriate response, after successfully waking from the reduced power mode in response to receiving the wake request and determining the appropriate response.

20. The machine-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising

providing, by the computing device, state information in response to receiving a communication for obtaining the state information.