Systems and algorithm for interfacing with a virtualized computing service over a network using a lightweight client

• US 9,183,025 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Vilke, Stephen D., Badger, Peter, Roncadin, Dan, Willis, Rudy, Selvidge, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Won, Michael Y
• Application Number:
  US14/579,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20150106814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 709/217, 709/222, 709/228, 709/237, 709/246
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/163 Interprocessor communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

Systems and algorithm for providing a service to a client includes defining a virtual infrastructure in which a plurality of virtual machines are running on a virtualization layer with at least one of the virtual machine executing an image processor algorithm. The image processor algorithm is configured to access framebuffer data of a specific virtual machine that includes the service to be controlled, process the framebuffer data to generate image data packets with contextual information by scanning the framebuffer data to discern the image of the virtual machine display, evaluate the framebuffer data to identify contiguous areas of activity, extract data related to the contiguous areas of activity and package the extracted data into image data packets. The image data packets are transmitted to the client for presenting on a display device of the client.

Claims

1. A method for providing a service to a client over a network, the method being performed by one or more processors configured to provide one or more virtual machines configured to run on a virtualization layer, and comprising:

accessing framebuffer data of a specific virtual machine that includes the service to be controlled, from a predetermined location of virtual memory available through the virtualization layer, the framebuffer data defining graphical output representing an image associated with a virtual machine display of the specific virtual machine;

scanning the framebuffer data of the specific virtual machine to discern the image associated with the virtual machine display of the specific virtual machine and one or more changes in the framebuffer data of the specific virtual machine;

evaluating the framebuffer data including the one or more changes to identify contiguous areas of activity, the framebuffer data associated with the contiguous areas of activity defining one or more frames of data;

acquiring data related to the contiguous areas of activity;

packaging the acquired data associated with the contiguous areas of activity to generate image data packets; and

transmitting the image data packets of the specific virtual machine to the client for displaying on a display device associated with the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising evaluating the framebuffer data to identify changes to one or more pixels of the framebuffer data, wherein the changes to the one or more pixels represent activity in non-contiguous areas of the framebuffer data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a connection request from the client for accessing and controlling the service available at the specific virtual machine; and

interrogating the connection request to identify the specific virtual machine that provides the service, wherein the service is a virtualized computer service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the contiguous areas of activity relate to one or more characteristics of the framebuffer data.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

tracking presence and location of contiguous areas of activity associated with a specific characteristic within the framebuffer data; and

ignoring areas of non-activity for the specific characteristic within the framebuffer data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein tracking the presence and location of contiguous areas of activity associated with the specific characteristic is based on tuning one or more parameters.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

tracking presence and location of contiguous areas of activity for a plurality of characteristics; and

ignoring areas of non-activity for the respective ones of the characteristics of the framebuffer data.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein evaluating the framebuffer data comprises:

evaluating portions of the framebuffer data to identify the contiguous areas of activity associated with the one or more characteristics of the framebuffer data and to generate one or more mini-frames of data for each portion; and

assembling the one or more mini-frames of data from different portions to define the one or more frames of data that are contiguous.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each mini-frame of data identifies contiguous areas of activity for a specific characteristic within a specific portion of the framebuffer data.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

obtaining differences related to one or more characteristics of the framebuffer data in areas adjacent to the contiguous areas of activity of the framebuffer data, the differences being related to each of the characteristics for determining levels of activity for the respective characteristic within the contiguous areas of activity.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

tracking the levels of activity related to each of the characteristics within the contiguous areas of activity of framebuffer data, over time, to determine likelihood of persistence of the activity for the respective characteristics within the contiguous areas of activity, the likelihood of persistence being used for generating frames of data for transmission.