Operating system management of network interface devices

• US 9,170,636 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gatta, Srinivas Raghu, Srinivasan, Kamalavasan, Ritz, Andrew J., Thaler, David G., Anipko, Dmitry A., Malysh, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Stoynov, Stefan
• Application Number:
  US14/314,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 489 Days
• 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: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3278 Power saving in modem or I/O interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/405 Physical details, e.g. power supply, mechanical construction or backplane of ATM switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9068 in the network interface card
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Operating system management of network interface devices is described. In one or more implementations, a determination is made by an operating system that network traffic associated with one or more applications of the computing device has completed. Responsive to the determination, a network interface device is caused to transition to a mode to reduce power consumption of the network interface device by the operating system.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

determining by a network broker module that network traffic associated with one or more applications of the computing device has completed; and

responsive to the determination, causing, by the network broker module, a network interface device to transition to a mode to reduce power consumption of the network interface device and maintain, by the network broker module, an Internet Protocol (IP) address while in the mode to reduce power consumption.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mode to reduce power consumption of the network interface device causes the network interface device to idle.

3. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising causing the network interface device to maintain connectivity with a wireless access point, by the network broker module, while in the mode to reduce power consumption.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the network interface device is configured to wake from the mode to reduce power consumption upon receipt of a pre-registered notification.

5. A method as described in claim 4, wherein the notification is a push notification received via a network by the network interface device.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the network broker module is responsible for communication between the one or more applications and the network interface device such that network traffic does not occur directly between the one or more applications and the network interface device.

7. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

making, by a network broker module, a network interface device available to one or more applications of the computing device when the network interface device is in a high power mode; and

making, by the network broker module, the network interface device unavailable to the one or more applications of the computing device when the network interface device is in a low power mode effective to batch network traffic received from the one or more applications.

8. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the making the network interface device unavailable to the one or more applications of the computing devices causes an indication to the one or more applications that an error has occurred.

9. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the network broker module causes the network interface device to maintain an Internet Protocol (IP) address while in the low power mode.

10. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the network broker module causes the network interface device to maintain connectivity with a wireless access point while in the low power mode.

11. A method as described in claim 7, further comprising making another network interface device available to the one or more applications while the network interface device is made unavailable.

12. A method as described in claim 11, further comprising routing data received from the one or more applications and specified for communication using the network interface device that is made unavailable to the other network interface device.

13. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the network interface device is configured to wake from the low power mode upon receipt of a pre-registered push notification.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the network traffic received from the one or more applications comprises communications sent by the one or more applications to maintain notification channels with a server based on one or more server timeout intervals.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that responsive to execution by the one or more processors cause a computing device to;

implement a network broker module configured to;

support a technique to restrict access by one or more applications of the computing device to a network interface device that is placed in a mode to reduce power consumption by maintaining an Internet Protocol (IP) address while in the mode to reduce power consumption and causing the network interface device to wake from the mode in response to receipt of a push notification.

16. A system as described in claim 15, wherein the push notification is received by the network interface device via a network.

17. A system as described in claim 15, wherein the network broker module is configured to cause the network interface device to transition to the mode in response to a determination that network traffic involved with the one or more applications has completed.

18. A system as described in claim 15, wherein the network broker module causes the network interface device to maintain connectivity with a wireless access point while in the mode.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the network broker module further comprises a wake pattern manager module, a network device manager module, and a keep alive manager module.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing device further comprises an operating system running separately from the network broker module.