WO2009125142A1

WO2009125142A1 - Management of the execution of an application

Info

Publication number: WO2009125142A1
Application number: PCT/FR2009/050523
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nicolas Bellardie; Idy Watt
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2008-03-31
Filing date: 2009-03-30
Publication date: 2009-10-15

Abstract

The invention relates to the management of the execution of an application. The method comprises the following steps: a step of reception of a first request and of a second request that emanate from at least one terminal, the requests being able to request the execution of an application; a step of execution of the application following the reception of the first request, a step of transmission of the result of the execution to said at least one terminal having initiated the first and the second request.

Description

Managing the execution of an application Technical field

The invention relates to the management of the execution of an application in a telecommunication network. The invention applies particularly to the management of an application capable of providing a location of a device.

State of the art

Remember that an application is a program written for a specific use.

Many localization services have emerged in recent years. For example, in the field of monitoring mobile equipment, applications give the possibility, on request, to obtain a location of a device during its movement.

The request in question comes from a terminal wishing to locate the mobile equipment. This request is received by a data processing device, such as a server, hosting the location application. The application is then executed and transmits the result of the execution, namely the location of the equipment, to the terminal that initiated the request. This same process is performed each time the localization application is run.

The process is complicated when the application requires, during its execution, with a device, the realization of an object. The object can be for example obtaining the location of the equipment. In this case, the request is received by the data processing device. The application is then executed and a second request is directed to the equipment to obtain its location. The equipment provides its location to the server which in turn provides the location to the terminal that initiated the request. Again, this same process is performed each time the localization application is run. The inventors have found that two requests having the same object, for example the location of the same equipment, were treated separately by the server. This double processing results in a considerable bandwidth consumption on the network and an excessive consumption of the physical and / or software resources present on the server and on the equipment to be located.

The invention proposes a solution that does not have the disadvantages of the state of the art.

The invention

For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a method for managing the execution of an application, characterized in that it comprises

a step of receiving a first request and a second request from at least one terminal, the requests being able to require the execution of an application,

a step of execution of the application following the reception of the first request,

a first step of transmitting the result of the execution to said at least one terminal having initiated the first and the second request.

Thus, when several requests have the same object, a link is established between these requests to execute the application only a limited number of times. For example, if a first request and a second request have the same object, the application will only be executed once and the resulting result is provided not only to the terminal having initiated the first request but also to the initiating terminal. the second request. The method of the invention thus avoids executing an application several times when several requests have the same object. The invention therefore makes it possible to considerably reduce the use of resources in the server. In addition, when the application requires the realization of an object from a device, the device receives only one request from the application and only achieves a limited number of times, at best only once, the object on behalf of a plurality of requests having the same object. The invention thus reduces the number of requests from the server to a device to be located and the number of responses from the equipment to the application. As a result, in addition to the aforementioned advantages, there is reduced bandwidth usage between the server and the equipment and a reduction in the use of resources in the equipment.

Note that the order of reception of the first request and the second request is indifferent.

Also note that the number of queries is not limited to two but extends to an indeterminate number of queries.

According to a first variant of the method, the step of receiving the second request is followed by a verification step that a first request having the same object has been received, and that the execution of the application is in progress, if so, the step of transmitting the result is preceded by a step of waiting for the end of the execution of the application. This variant is interesting when the two requests are received successively. If we consider that the second request is received after the first request, and that the application is running when the second request is received, then the waiting time of the result for the second terminal is reduced to the time remaining necessary to obtaining the result. Also, if the result is about to be provided when the second request is received, the transmission of the result to the second terminal can be almost immediate, providing the user of the second terminal receiving the result, satisfaction with the speed of obtaining the result.

According to a second variant, the method is characterized in that the first request and the second request require a result at respective predetermined instants, said first instants and second instants respectively, and in that the choice of the moments of obtaining the relative result the second request corresponds to the first moments. This second variant offers a freedom as to the choice of the execution times of the application when more than two requests associated with respective instants are received.

According to a third variant, the requests require a result periodically according to a first period and a second period, said periods being integer multiples between them. In this case, the transmission of the result is carried out with a period corresponding to the choice in the first period (Pl) or the second period (P2). Like the second variant, this third variant provides a freedom as to the choice of the moments of transmission of the results.

The choice offered in the second variant and the third variant may be pre-established according to pre-recorded preferences. These preferences thus avoid the step of sending a proposal followed by a step of response to the proposal and the processing of the response, and thus accelerates the realization of the object, for example obtaining the location of the equipment.

According to a fourth variant, the application interrogates a piece of equipment during its execution for the realization of the object, and in that the equipment transmits the answer to the interrogation according to the chosen instants. According to this variant, the management of the sending of the answers to the interrogation according to the chosen moments is carried out by the equipment. The server receiving the responses is unloaded from this management. The consumption of resources is therefore greatly reduced in the server. This feature is important when the server processes multiple queries at the same time.

According to a fifth variant, the application interrogates a device during its execution for the realization of the object, and if the instants are periods, said periods being multiples of each other, the equipment transmits the response to the interrogation with a period corresponding to the smallest period chosen between the first and the second period. In this way, the number of replies is reduced because the same answer may concern the first request and the second request. Upon receipt of replies, the application is then responsible for transmitting the results to the terminals according to the periods relating to the two requests, respectively. In addition to the advantages associated with the fourth variant, this sixth variant reduces the consumption of resources in the equipment.

According to a sixth variant, the application requires from an equipment the realization of the object. According to this sixth variant, the equipment realizes the object and transmits the object made to said predetermined moments corresponding to the first request and the second request. The equipment realizes the object at best only once. Thus, if the object is obtaining the location of the equipment, then, according to this sixth variant, the equipment calculates its location only once, thereby reducing the consumption of resources in the equipment.

According to a seventh variant, a request requires obtaining results for a time limited in time. In this case, when this limit is reached, the application readjusts the instants of obtaining the result according to the remaining requests. This feature allows an update of the times of obtaining the results in order to adapt the frequency of sending the results to times associated with the queries for which the application is still running.

According to a material aspect, the invention relates to a data processing device, characterized in that it comprises

means for receiving a first request and a second request from at least one terminal, the requests being able to require the execution of an application,

means for executing the application following receipt of the first request,

means for transmitting the result of execution to said at least one terminal having initiated the first and the second request. Other variants of the device can be envisaged. These variants are corollaries to the variants described above relative to the process.

With reference to the first variant, the device comprises means for verifying that a first request having the same object has been received, and delaying means able to wait for the end of the execution of the application.

With reference to the second and third variants, the device comprises means for deciding the choice of the moments of obtaining the result relative to the first or the second request.

With reference to the fourth, fifth and sixth variants, the device comprises means for interrogating equipment (EQP) for producing the object. The equipment comprises means for transmitting the response to the interrogation according to the chosen times. The equipment also includes means for deciding the instant of transmission of the response.

With reference to the seventh variant, the device comprises means for readjusting the instants of obtaining the results as a function of the remaining requests.

According to another material aspect, the invention relates to equipment characterized in that it comprises a device as defined above.

The invention also relates to the computer program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor performs the following steps:

an execution step of the application following the reception of the first request, a first step of transmitting the result of the execution to said at least one terminal having initiated the first and the second request.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The figures:

Figure 1 shows a computer system in which the invention can be implemented.

FIG. 2 represents a view illustrating an exchange of data highlighting the particular management of the execution of a location application according to the invention.

Detailed description of an exemplary embodiment illustrating the invention

FIG. 1 represents a SYS system comprising a first data processing device, illustrated in our example by a server

SRV, including an APP application able to require a location of an EQP equipment. In our example this equipment EQP is a mobile equipment.

In our example, the APP application is a program written for a use dedicated to localization; more precisely this application is able to be executed on request, and to request from the equipment EQP or any other device of the network, the realization of an object. In our example, the object is obtaining the location of the EQP equipment.

In our example, requests REQ1 and REQ2 come from a first terminal T1 and a second terminal T2, respectively. The invention is not limited to this example. Another variant could have consisted of initiating two or more requests from the same terminal or from different terminals. On the other hand, the number of queries is not limited to two queries, but extends to an indeterminate number of queries.

In our example, the equipment has means capable of obtaining its own location. These means are for example GPS-based physical and software resources (Global Positioning System) capable of calculating the distance separating the EQP equipment and several satellites, inter alia using the satellite signals received by the equipment. In our example, the information needed to calculate the position of the satellites is measured regularly by GPS resources, allowing the equipment to know its location.

The SRV server includes RCP receiving means capable

to receive requests, in particular requests REQ1 and REQ2, from terminals T1 and T2;

- to receive RPS responses from the EQP equipment.

The server also comprises EMT transmission means capable of

issue REQ requests to the EQP equipment,

- Issue the result from the execution of the application to at least one terminal.

The EQP equipment, the terminals T1 and T2, the server SRV are, in general, data processing devices including a processor capable of processing information. The equipment as well as the terminals can be fixed or mobile, that is to say indifferently a personal computer, a mobile phone, a personal assistant PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), etc.

In our example, the network that separates devices from the network is the Internet. The method of the invention will be illustrated with reference to FIG. 2 on which are represented four vertical axes associated respectively with the equipment EQP, the server SRV, the first terminal T1 and the second terminal T2. Arrow lines connecting two axes indicate that data is exchanged between the two axes in question, the arrow indicating the direction of the exchange.

In the following, it is assumed that a first request REQ1 is sent from the first terminal T1 and a second request REQ2 is issued from the second terminal T2 and it is also assumed that when the second request REQ2 is received by the server SRV , the first REQ1 query is still running.

The process steps are as follows.

During a first step ET1, a user of the first terminal initiates a first request REQ1 for the purpose of locating the equipment EQP.

In a second step ET2, the server SRV receives the first request REQ1 and checks whether a request having the same object is running. In our example, it is assumed that at this stage of the process no query with the same object is running.

In a third step ET3, the APP application is executed and the server queries the EQP equipment to obtain its location.

During a fourth step ET4, a user of the second terminal T2 initiates a second request REQ2 for the purpose of locating the equipment EQP.

In a fifth step ET5, the server SRV receives the second request REQ2 and the application APP finds that a request, in this case the first request REQ1, is running and has the same object as the second REQ2 request. In a sixth step ET6, the equipment EQP provides an RPS response namely its location to the server SRV.

In a seventh step ET7, the SRV server receives the location.

During an eighth step ET8, the server SRV transmits the result RES of the execution of the APP application, namely the location received in the fifth step ET5, both at the first terminal T1 and at the second terminal T2.

In our example, when the application finds that a request having the same object as the second request is being executed, a waiting step is implemented so as to wait for the result corresponding to the first request, to know the location of the EQP equipment. On receiving the location of the equipment in the seventh step ET7, in response to the first request, the location is transmitted from the server to both the first terminal T1 and the second terminal T2.

It is thus clear that the location of the equipment, obtained by means of a single execution of the APP application, is transmitted to the two terminals T1 and T2.

According to a first variant, the first request REQ1 and the second request REQ2 require a result RES at respective predetermined times, said first instant and second instant respectively. In this case, the requests require obtaining the location at several times so as to locate the equipment when moving. According to this variant, a proposal for modifying the instants is transmitted to one or other of the terminals T1 and T2. For example, if the first terminal and the second terminal require results every two minutes and every three minutes, respectively, it may be wise to propose to the second terminal T2 to receive results every two minutes instead of three minutes, or conversely at the first terminal to receive every three minutes instead of two minutes. This change proposal results in a reduction in the number of executions of the APP application. According to a second variant, the two requests REQ1 and REQ2 from the terminals require a result RES periodically according to a first period P1 and a second period P2. If the periods relating to the two requests are integer multiples between them, the EQP equipment transmits its location periodically with a period corresponding to the smallest period between the first and the second period. The APP application is then responsible for transmitting the location of the equipment to the terminals periodically according to the periods provided for each request, namely the periods T1 and T2. For example, if the first request R1 requires a result RES according to a period P1, for example every 5 minutes, and the second request according to a second period P2, for example every 10 minutes, P1 and P2 being integer multiples between them , the equipment transmits its location every 5 minutes, the application providing the result RES, in this case the location of the equipment, to the various terminals according to the periods defined in each request, namely every 5 minutes for the first terminal T1 and every 10 minutes for the second terminal T2. This second variant reduces the bandwidth used between the equipment and the server. In addition, this variant is transparent for a user of a terminal.

The proposals relating to the first variant and the second variant may be replaced by pre-established preferences previously recorded. These preferences are for example defined by users of terminals that allow the reception of query results at higher or lower frequencies. These prerecorded preferences thus avoid the step of sending a proposal followed by a response step to the proposal and the processing of the response, and thus accelerates obtaining the location of the EQP equipment.

Note that, in our example, the device illustrated by means of a server is distinct from the equipment; however this device could be an integral part of the EQP equipment. When the equipment is separate from the server, the management of the transmission times of the RPS responses for the equipment and RES results for the server can be performed by the equipment or the server, respectively.

In the preceding embodiment, the server SRV is responsible for managing the choice of the period to be used for transmitting the location to the terminals T1 and T2. The sending frequency of the location by the equipment is unchanged.

Other variants may be envisaged for managing the choice of the transmission periods of the location to the terminals T1 and T2. According to a first variant, the server SRV transmits to the equipment the chosen period with which the equipment will transmit its location. According to a second variant, the server transmits the two periods P1 and P2 to the EQP equipment. The REQl and REQ2 requests having the same object, namely obtaining the location of the equipment, the latter calculates its location once and transmits it according to the periods corresponding to the periods defined in the requests REQ1 and REQ2. The following management steps:

the step of receiving (ET2, ET5) a first request (REQ1) and a second request (REQ2) coming from at least one terminal (T1, T2), the requests being able to request the execution of the application (APP),

the execution step (ET3) of the application following receipt of the first request (REQ1),

the step of transmitting (ET8) the result of execution to said at least one terminal (T1, T2) having initiated the first and the second request,

can be performed either on the SRV server or the EQP equipment.

In our example, a query may require obtaining results for a time limited in time. When this limit is reached, the application readjusts the moments of transmission of the results according to the remaining requests. For example, if the two periods T1 and T2 were respectively 5 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively, and the transmission of the results related to the first request has ceased, then the period chosen to transmit the location again is that corresponding to the highest period ie 10 minutes. In this way, the bandwidth used on the network is reduced. This rehabilitation concerns the equipment or the server that must follow this rehabilitation take into account the new period for sending a response and a result, respectively.

Rehabilitation can also be done

by interrogating the terminals and obtaining in return a choice of transmission time to use;

- or based on pre-established preferences.

Claims

claims

1. Method for managing the execution of an application (APP), characterized in that it comprises

a step of receiving (ET2, ET5) a first request (REQ1) and a second request (REQ2) originating from at least one terminal

(T1, T2), the requests being able to require the execution of the application (APP),

an execution step (ET3) of the application following receipt of the first request (REQ1),

a transmission step (ET8) of the result of execution to said at least one terminal (T1, T2) having initiated the first and the second request.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the receiving step (ET4) of the second request is followed by a verification step (ET5) that a first request (REQ1) having the same object has been received. , and that the execution of the application (APP) is in progress, if so, the step of transmission (ET8) of the result is preceded by a step of waiting for the end of the execution of the 'application.

3. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the first request (REQ1) and the second request (REQ2) require a result at respective predetermined times, said first moments and second instants respectively, and in that the choice of times of obtaining the result relative to the second request corresponds to the first moments.

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the predetermined moments are periodic, respectively a first period

(Pl) and a second period (P2), said periods being integer multiples between them, and in that the transmission of the result is carried out with a period corresponding to the choice at the first period (P1) or at the second period (P2 ).

5. Method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the application interrogates a device (EQP) during its execution for the realization of the object, and in that the equipment (EQP) transmits the response to the interrogation according to the chosen moments.

6. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that the application (APP) queries an equipment (EQP) during its execution for the realization of the object, and if the instants are periods, the equipment (EQP) transmits the answer to the query with a period corresponding to the smallest period selected between the first (Pl) and the second period (P2).

7. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that a request requires obtaining results for a time limited in time, and in that when this limit is reached, the application readjusts the moments of obtaining the results. depending on the remaining queries.

8. Data processing device (SRV), characterized in that it comprises

means for receiving a first request (REQ1) and a second request (REQ2) from at least one terminal (T1, T2), the requests being able to require the execution of an application (APP )

means for executing the application following receipt of the first request (REQ1),

means for transmitting the result (RES) of the execution to said at least one terminal (T1, T2) having initiated the first and the second request.

A computer program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the method steps defined in one of claims 1 to 6.