Discovery and mining of performance information of a device for anticipatorily sending updates to the device

• US 9,531,588 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Healy, Michael Joseph, Reus, Edward, Goertzel, Mario, Field, Scott, Dadzie, Joseph, Kays, David, Douceur, John, Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria
• Primary Examiner(s): Strange, Aaron
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, JAMES A
• Application Number:
  US13/329,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20130159500A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,838 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17 using an input/output type connection, e.g. channel, I/O port
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

The subject disclosure relates to techniques for monitoring contextual and performance information of a device for anticipatorily sending update information to the device. An interface component can receive, from the client, contextual information indicating an operating environment of the client and performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the client based on the operating environment, and send, based on correlation information, update information to the client. Further, a service component can to infer a relationship between the contextual information and the performance information to obtain the correlation information. In other embodiments, a client can populate a cache with portion(s) of the contextual information to obtain cached information, and send at least a portion of the cached information to a system including one or more aspects of the service component.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a service component of a first computing device, one or more of contextual information indicating one or more portions of an operating environment of a second computing device or user activity information indicating at least one present, past or inferred future user activity for a user of the second computing device;

receiving performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the second computing device in the operating environment;

correlating at least one of the contextual information or the user activity information with the performance information,

the correlating including receiving, by the service component of the first computing device which receives the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information, first information that is associated with one or more communications about at least one of one or more hardware issues or one or more software issues associated with at least one of the contextual information or the performance information; and

in response to correlating the at least one of the contextual information or the user activity information with the performance information, anticipatorily communicating configuration information to the second computing device, the configuration information based at least in part on an inference from a probability distribution over states in accordance with a classification scheme that maps an input attribute vector associated with an input to a confidence that the input belongs to a class, the configuration information including a recommendation to at least one of not update software of the second computing device, not update hardware of the second computing device, not update an operating system of the second computing device, or not update firmware of the second computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information comprises:

receiving the contextual information indicating a location of the second computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information further includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a consumption of memory that is associated with at least one of an operating system of the second computing device, software of the second computing device, or firmware of the second computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating an input or output bandwidth that is associated with at least one of hardware of the second computing device, software of the second computing device, an operating system of the second computing device, or firmware of the second computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a bandwidth of a network that is communicatively coupled to the second computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the performance information includes receiving, by a network based service, information indicating a latency that is associated with processing data via a network that is communicatively coupled to the second computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes inferring causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information based at least in part on the first information, the one or more communications including at least one of one or more searches or one or more queries performed by one or more third parties about the at least one of the one or more hardware issues or the one or more software issues associated with at least one of the contextual information or the performance information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

receiving other information indicating at least one of a configuration of hardware of a third computing device, a configuration of software of the third computing device, a configuration of an operating system of the third computing device, a configuration of firmware of the third computing device, or a performance of the third computing device; and

determining the configuration information based at least in part on the other information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

determining causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information; and

communicating at least a portion of the configuration information to a third computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating further includes:

receiving other information that is associated with at least one communication that is associated with a third computing device; and

determining causation of at least a portion of the performance information from one or more portions of the contextual information based at least in part on the other information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the anticipatorily communicating the configuration information to the second computing device further includes anticipatorily communicating a recommendation to utilize at least one of a network protocol or a communication protocol.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information comprises:

receiving the user activity information indicating the at least one present, past or inferred future user activity for the user of the second computing device;

wherein the correlating the at least one of the contextual information or the user activity information with the performance information comprises;

correlating the user activity information with the performance information,

the correlating including receiving, by the service component of the first computing device which receives the user activity information, the first information that is associated with the one or more communications about the at least one of the one or more hardware issues or the one or more software issues associated with the performance information; and

wherein the communicating the configuration information comprises;

in response to correlating the user activity information with the performance information, communicating the configuration information to the second computing device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information comprises:

receiving the contextual information indicating a pattern or series of files being selected via the second computing device; and

wherein the anticipatorily communicating the configuration information comprises;

anticipatorily communicating the configuration information indicating at least one of one or more updates or one or more software patches associated with the files to install in the second computing device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information comprises:

receiving the contextual information indicating a pattern or series of a type of at least one of software, application, operating system, or firmware being installed on the second computing device; and

wherein the anticipatorily communicating the configuration information comprises;

anticipatorily recommending that at least one of one or more updates or one or more software patches be made to the second computing device based at least in part on the type of the at least one of the software, the application, the operating system, or the firmware being installed on the second computing device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first information comprises:

receiving, by the service component of the first computing device which receives the one or more of the contextual information or the user activity information, the first information from one or more third parties, including at least one of one or more queries, one or more searches, or one or more messages from the one or more third parties, about the at least one of the one or more hardware issues or the one or more software issues associated with the at least one of the contextual information or the performance information.

16. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing device to perform operations, comprising:

storing, by the computing device, one or more of contextual information indicating one or more portions of an operating environment that is associated with at least a portion of the operations, user preference information indicating at least one user preference or user activity information indicating at least one present, past or inferred future user activity;

sending at least one of the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information and performance information that is associated with at least one operation of the operations being performed by the computing device to a service component; and

receiving, based at least in part on the at least one of the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information and the performance information, configuration information from the service component for configuring the computing device, the configuration information based at least in part on an inference from a probability distribution over states in accordance with a classification scheme that maps an input attribute vector associated with an input to a confidence that the input belongs to a class, the configuration information including at least one of a recommendation to not update software of the computing device, a recommendation to not update hardware of the computing device, a recommendation to not update an operating system of the computing device, or a recommendation to not update firmware of the computing device.

17. A system, comprising:

an interface component stored in a computable readable storage device configured to;

receive, from a client, one or more of contextual information indicating an operating environment of the client, user preference information indicating a user preference or user activity information indicating a present, past or inferred future user activity, and performance information that is associated with one or more operations being performed by the client based at least in part on the operating environment, and

send, based at least in part on correlation information, update information to the client, the update information including at least one of a recommendation to not update software of the client, a recommendation to not update hardware of the client, a recommendation to not update an operating system of the client, or a recommendation to not update firmware of the client; and

a service component configured to infer a relationship between at least one of the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information, and the performance information to obtain the correlation information, the relationship inferred from a probability distribution over states in accordance with a classification scheme that maps an input attribute vector associated with an input to a confidence that the input belongs to a class.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the performance information includes information indicating at least one of:

an operating system of the client;

or

a latency that is associated with the network that is communicatively coupled to the client.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the input includes at least one of one or more queries, one or more searches, or one or more messages by one or more third parties about at least one of one or more hardware issues or one or more software issues associated with at least one of the contextual information or the performance information.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving from clients, by a service component of a first computing device, one or more of contextual information indicating respective operating environments of the clients, user preference information indicating a user preference or user activity information indicating a present, past or inferred future user activity;

receiving performance information that is associated with respective operations being performed by the clients in the respective operating environments and storing the performance information in a data store;

in response to correlating at least one of the contextual information, the user preference information or the user activity information with the performance information utilizing the data store, inferring a recommended configuration of a specified client from a probability distribution over states in accordance with a classification scheme that maps an input attribute vector associated with an input to a confidence that the input belongs to a class; and

anticipatorily communicating the recommended configuration to the specified client, including at least one of recommending to not update software of the specified client, recommending to not update hardware of the specified client, recommending to not update an operating system of the specified client, or recommending to not update firmware of the specified client.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the inferring the recommended configuration comprises:

using knowledge about one or more spikes in one or more of third party searches, network queries, or messages associated with at least one of one or more hardware issues or one or more software issues to infer the recommended configuration of the specified client.