Mobile application migration to cloud computing platform

• US 9,462,022 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Nextbit Systems, Inc. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Moss, Tom, Bornstein, Daniel R., Fleming, Michael K., Quan, Justin, Tong, Linda
• Primary Examiner(s): Joshi, Suraj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mesa, Joel
• Application Number:
  US14/043,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20140101237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 702/03, 709/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/174 Redundancy elimination performed by the file system management of the data involved in backup or backup restore using de-duplication of the data G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Technology is disclosed herein for migrating at least portions of computer applications to a server. According to at least one embodiment, a computing device identifies a service component of a computer application executed at the computing device. The service component does not directly interact with a user of the computing device. The computing device transfers an instance of the service component to a server so that the service component can be executed at the server. The computing device then receives from the server a result message generated by the instance of the service component executed at the server. The computing device feeds the result message to a user interface component of the computer application via a procedure call such that the user interface component retrieves the result message as if it were generated by an instance of the service component executed at the computing device.

Claims

1. A method for executing computer applications at a server, comprising:

identifying, at a computing device, a service component of a computer application executed at the computing device, wherein the service component runs at a background of an operating system of the computing device;

transferring, from the computing device to a server, an instance of the service component if the server does not have the instance of the service component;

receiving, from the server, a result message generated by the instance of the service component executed at the server;

feeding, at the computing device, a content of the result message to another component of the computer application via a procedure call such that the other component retrieves the content of the result message as if it was generated by an instance of the service component executed at the computing device;

wherein the service component and a user interface component of the computer application execute at the computing device as two threads belonging to a process of the computer application; and

determining an optimization factor for the service component of the computer application executing at the server;

wherein when the optimization factor is less than a predetermined value, sending, from the computing device to the server, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the service component at the server;

executing the service component of the computer application at the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the other component is a user interface component of the computer application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service component does not directly interact with a user of the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

stopping executing the service component at the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, from the computing device to the server, data on which the service component has been operating.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting content of the result message to the user of computing device, by the user interface component via an output device of the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the procedure call is a remote procedure call (RPC) generated by an operating system of the computing device that is targeting to a thread of the user interface component.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the service component is configured to handle a CPU intensive task, a GPU intensive task, a memory intensive task, a power intensive task, or a data input/output intensive task.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the service component is configured to execute at the computing device as a background thread managed by an operating system of the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, from the computing device to the server, a message indicating that the computing device is switching the user interface component of the computer application to a foreground of an operating system of the computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving, from the server, data generated by the instance of the service component executing at the server before the instance of the server component is stopped.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the optimization factor depends on a CPU resource, a GPU resource, a memory resource, a power, a data input/output amount, or a completion time needed for the instance of the background component to continue executing at the server.

13. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

an operating system including a migration module having instructions which, when executed by the processor, monitor a computer application executed at the computing device, and identify a background thread and a foreground thread of the computer application;

a networking interface configured to transfer to a server data necessary for executing an instance of the background thread at the server, and to receive from the server result data generated by the instance of the background thread executed at the server;

an output device configured to present content of the result data via a user interface generated by the foreground thread;

wherein the foreground thread generates the user interface based on the result data as if the result data was generated by an instance of the background thread executed at the computing device; and

determining an optimization factor for a service component of the computer application executing at the server;

wherein when the optimization factor is less than a predetermined value, sending, from the computing device to the server, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the service component at the server;

executing the service component of the computer application at the computing device.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the migration module is further configured to notify the foreground thread of the result data via an inter-thread communication as if an instance of the background thread executed at the computing device initiates the inter-thread communication.

15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the background thread is configured to generate data for the foreground thread, and the foreground thread is configured to allow for user interface to interact with a user of the computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the networking interface is further configured to synchronize between data on which the foreground thread operates at the computing device and data on which the background thread operates at the server.

17. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the background thread is configured to handle a computing task without sending data to or receiving data from the output device of the computing device.

18. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the migration module is further configured to determine whether a workload of the computing device is reduced by executing the instance of the background thread on the server.

19. A server for executing computer applications designed for computing devices, comprising:

a processor;

a networking interface configured to communicate with at least one computing device; and

an application monitoring module configured to, when executed by the process, monitor a computer application executing at the computing device, and to identify a service component of the computer application handling a computing task which does not need to, but can if necessary, receive input data from or send output data from any I/O device of the computing device;

wherein the networking interface is further configured to retrieve from the computing device an instance of the service component or data sufficient for the server to carry out the same functionality of the service component;

wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instance of the service component at the server;

wherein the networking interface is further configured to synchronize data generated by the instance of the service component executing at the server with data on which a user interaction component of the computer application executing at the computing device operates;

wherein the service component and a user interaction component of the computer application execute at the computing device as two threads belonging to a process of the computer application; and

determining an optimization factor for the service component of the computer application executing at the server;

wherein when the optimization factor is less than a predetermined value, sending, from the computing device to the server, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the service component at the server;

executing the service component of the computer application at the computing device.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the application monitoring module is further configured to instruct the computing device to transfer an instance of the service component to the server and to stop executing the service component at the computing device.

21. The server of claim 19, wherein the networking interface synchronizes data of the computer application between the server and computing device, in response to a signal from the computing device indicating that the computing device switches the computer application to a foreground of an operating system of the computing device.

22. The server of claim 19, wherein the application monitor module is further configured to determine whether a workload of the computing device is reduced by migrating the instance of the service component to the server.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein when the workload of the computing device is not reduced, the application monitor module is further configured to stop executing the instance of the service component at the server, and the networking interface is further configured to instruct the computing device to execute the service component at the computing device.