System, method and computer program product for connecting roaming mobile devices to a virtual device platform

• US 9,380,523 B1
• Filed: 01/22/2014
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hypori Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hypori Inc.
• Inventors: Mijar, Sanjay, Achanta, Phani, Marston, Justin P., Vetter, Brian J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Danh
• Application Number:
  US14/160,904
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 455/432.1, 455/550.1, 455/456.5, 455/418
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/065 involving selection of the user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/00 Network topologies

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products that enable efficient roaming of virtual mobile devices. In one embodiment, multiple PoP locations having a set of common master images are maintained. A communication from a mobile device received at a central facility identifies a user, a location and a type of the mobile device. The central facility determines performance measures for the PoP locations and identifies a preferred PoP location in response to the communication. If the preferred PoP location has available capacity, the central facility directs the preferred PoP location to provision resources and instantiate a virtual device from a selected master image corresponding to the mobile device. If the preferred PoP location persistently stores a user data volume for the user, the virtual device is attached to the stored user data volume. Otherwise, data is transferred from the user'"'"'s data volume to a cache attached to the virtual device.

Claims

1. A method for enabling efficient roaming of mobile devices that interact with corresponding virtual devices over a network, the method comprising:

maintaining multiple point-of-presence (PoP) servers at multiple different physical PoP locations, wherein each PoP location of the multiple PoP locations locally stores a common set of virtual device master images, wherein each of the virtual device master images includes an operating system for a corresponding virtual device;

a master control facility receiving a communication from a mobile device that identifies a user of the mobile device, a location of the mobile device, and a type of the mobile device;

determining a performance measure for each PoP location of the PoP locations connected to the master control facility over the network;

the master control facility identifying a preferred PoP location of the PoP locations that has a preferred performance measure in relation to other PoP locations of the PoP locations;

selecting a virtual device master image that matches the type of the mobile device from the common set of virtual device master images locally stored on the preferred PoP location;

a PoP server at the preferred PoP location instantiating a virtual device on the preferred PoP location using the selected virtual device master image of the virtual device master images;

and

the PoP server executing the instantiated virtual device on the preferred PoP location using user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device, the user data persistently stored at a home PoP location.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a change involving the mobile device, determining a new PoP location of the PoP locations that can better serve the mobile device; and

transitioning the mobile device to correspond with a new virtual device executing on the new PoP location.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preferred PoP location and the home PoP location are different.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

the master control facility retrieving the user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device from the home PoP location and communicating the user data to the preferred PoP location.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

the preferred PoP location storing the user data locally in a transient storage.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

the preferred PoP location discarding the user data when a connection between the mobile device and the instantiated virtual device is discontinued.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the performance measure comprises a physical distance to the mobile device, network connectivity, network performance, network latency, a security requirement, graphics processing capability, compute capability, or a combination thereof.

8. A computer program product for enabling efficient roaming of mobile devices that interact with corresponding virtual devices over a network, the computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

at a master control facility, receiving a communication from a mobile device that identifies a user of the mobile device, a location of the mobile device, and a type of the mobile device;

determining a performance measure for each point-of-presence (PoP) location of multiple PoP locations connected to the master control facility over the network, each PoP location of the multiple PoP locations locally stores a common set of virtual device master images, wherein each of the virtual device master images includes an operating system for a corresponding virtual device;

identifying a preferred PoP location of the PoP locations that has a preferred performance measure in relation to other PoP locations of the PoP locations;

selecting a virtual device master image that matches the type of the mobile device from the common set of virtual device master images locally stored on the preferred PoP location;

instantiating a virtual device on the preferred PoP location using the selected virtual device master image of the virtual device master images; and

executing the instantiated virtual device on the preferred PoP location using user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device, the user data persistently stored at a home PoP location.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

responsive to a change involving the mobile device, determining a new PoP location of the PoP locations that can better serve the mobile device; and

transitioning the mobile device to correspond with a new virtual device executing on the new PoP location.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the preferred PoP location and the home PoP location are different.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

retrieving the user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device from the home PoP location and communicating the user data to the preferred PoP location.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

storing the user data locally in a transient storage at the preferred PoP location.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

discarding the user data when a connection between the mobile device and the instantiated virtual device is discontinued.

14. A system for enabling efficient roaming of mobile devices that interact with corresponding virtual devices over a network, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform;

at a master control facility, receiving a communication from a mobile device that identifies a user of the mobile device, a location of the mobile device, and a type of the mobile device;

determining a performance measure for each point-of-presence (PoP) location of multiple PoP locations connected to the master control facility over the network, each PoP location of the multiple PoP locations locally stores a common set of virtual device master images, wherein each of the virtual device master images includes an operating system for a corresponding virtual device;

identifying a preferred PoP location of the PoP locations that has a preferred performance measure in relation to other PoP locations of the PoP locations;

selecting a virtual device master image that matches the type of the mobile device from the common set of virtual device master images locally stored on the preferred PoP location;

instantiating a virtual device on the preferred PoP location using the selected virtual device master image of the virtual device master images; and

executing the instantiated virtual device on the preferred PoP location using user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device, the user data persistently stored at a home PoP location.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

responsive to a change involving the mobile device, determining a new PoP location of the PoP locations that can better serve the mobile device; and

transitioning the mobile device to correspond with a new virtual device executing on the new PoP location.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the preferred PoP location and the home PoP location are different.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

retrieving the user data associated with the identified user of the mobile device from the home PoP location and communicating the user data to the preferred PoP location.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

storing the user data locally in a transient storage at the preferred PoP location.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores further instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

discarding the user data when a connection between the mobile device and the instantiated virtual device is discontinued.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the performance measure comprises a physical distance to the mobile device, network connectivity, network performance, network latency, a security requirement, graphics processing capability, compute capability, or a combination thereof.