Partial resume for operating system modules

• US 9,811,374 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2016
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Dmitry, Malchev, Iliyan Batanov, Burke, Dave
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Dong
• Application Number:
  US15/277,687
• Time in Patent Office: 406 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computing device may receive a data packet. The computing device may be operating a plurality of kernel-space software modules that are in a suspended state, and the computing device may also be operating a plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state. It may be determined that the data packet is of a particular packet type. Data packets of the particular packet type may be consumed by any of a particular subset of the kernel-space software modules. While the user-space software modules remain in the suspended state, the computing device may further (i) transition at least some kernel-space software modules to a non-suspended state, (ii) consume, by a particular one of the non-suspended kernel-space software modules, the data packet, and (iii) transition the non-suspended kernel-space software modules to the suspended state.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a data packet, wherein the computing device is operating a plurality of kernel-space software modules that are in a suspended state, and wherein the computing device is also operating a plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

in response to determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state, transitioning a subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to a non-suspended state;

consuming, by the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules, the data packet; and

transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules to the suspended state, wherein transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules to the suspended state is in response to determining, by way of calls to a plurality of callback functions pre-registered by the non-suspended kernel-space software modules, that the non-suspended kernel-space software modules can be transitioned to the suspended state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transitioning the subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to the non-suspended state comprises transitioning only kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules that process the data packet to the non-suspended state.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules comprise a network interface driver module and a network protocol module.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data packet is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet, and the network protocol module is a TCP module.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of callback functions return an indication of whether a non-suspended software module is ready to be suspended once again.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein software modules in the suspended state use less power of the computing device than software modules in the non-suspended state.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the kernel-space software modules include kernel-space subsystems that are executed by kernel space threads of execution.

8. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a data packet, wherein the computing device is operating a plurality of kernel-space software modules that are in a suspended state, and wherein the computing device is also operating a plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

in response to determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state, transitioning a subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to a non-suspended state;

consuming, by the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules, the data packet; and

transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules to the suspended state, wherein transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules to the suspended state is in response to determining, by way of calls to a plurality of callback functions pre-registered by the non-suspended kernel-space software modules, that the non-suspended kernel-space software modules can be transitioned to the suspended state.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein transitioning the subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to the non-suspended state comprises transitioning only kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules that process the data packet to the non-suspended state.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules comprise a network interface driver module and a network protocol module.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the data packet is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet, and the network protocol module is a TCP module.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of callback functions return an indication of whether a non-suspended software module is ready to be suspended once again.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein software modules in the suspended state use less power of the computing device than software modules in the non-suspended state.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the kernel-space software modules include kernel-space subsystems that are executed by kernel space threads of execution.

15. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

memory; and

program instructions, stored in the memory, that upon execution by the processor cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving a data packet, wherein the computing device is operating a plurality of kernel-space software modules that are in a suspended state, and wherein the computing device is also operating a plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state;

in response to determining that the data packet is to be consumed by a particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state, transitioning a subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to a non-suspended state;

consuming, by the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules, the data packet; and

transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules to the suspended state, wherein transitioning the non-suspended kernel-space software modules to the suspended state is in response to determining, by way of calls to a plurality of callback functions pre-registered by the non-suspended kernel-space software modules, that the non-suspended kernel-space software modules can be transitioned to the suspended state.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein transitioning the subset of the plurality of kernel-space software modules and at least the particular one of the plurality of user-space software modules to the non-suspended state comprises transitioning only kernel-space software modules and user-space software modules that process the data packet to the non-suspended state.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of callback functions return an indication of whether a non-suspended software module is ready to be suspended once again.