Classifications

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  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
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  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
  • G06F9/54—Interprogram communication
  • G06F9/542—Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F21/00—Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
  • G06F21/50—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
  • G06F21/52—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
  • G06F21/53—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
  • G06F9/54—Interprogram communication
  • G06F9/547—Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
  • G06F9/455—Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• • G—PHYSICS
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  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
  • G06F9/455—Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
  • G06F9/45533—Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
  • G06F9/455—Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
  • G06F9/45504—Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
  • G06F9/48—Program initiating; Program switching, e.g. by interrupt
  • G06F9/4806—Task transfer initiation or dispatching
  • G06F9/4843—Task transfer initiation or dispatching by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
  • G06F9/485—Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution

Definitions

• Such applications often involve background processing, such as long- running, computationally intensive processes.
• an application may seek to monitor hardware components of the device for a particular type of event, such as an incoming call on a mobile phone.
• other responsibilities of the application may be undesirably delayed; e.g., computationally intensive processing may preempt the handling of graphical user interface (GUI) messages, and may cause the application to present reduced interactivity or performance.
• GUI graphical user interface
• the application may invoke one or more worker processes within the virtual environment.
• the "web workers" model provided in recent versions of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) enables applications to request the web browser to initiate separate worker processes within the web browser, thus achieving background processing on behalf of the application in a secured and performant manner.
• HTML Hypertext Markup Language
• the "web workers" model typically couples the life cycle of the web worker to the life cycle of the web application; i.e., when the web application is suspended or terminated (such as by closing the page hosting the web application), the web worker is also terminated.
• the worker processes may also be terminated upon termination of the virtual environment hosting the worker process (e.g., closing the web browser), and/or upon restarting the computing environment of the device (e.g., suspending or rebooting the operating system of the device).
• associating the life cycle of the worker process with the life cycle of the application and/or virtual environment may be desirable. However, in other scenarios, it may be desirable to enable the worker process to persist after such events, and/or to persist through device events such as a reboot of the operating system.
• the device may execute the worker process outside of the virtual environment.
• the device may refrain from terminating the worker process, thus separating the life cycle of the worker process from the life cycle of the application.
• the worker process may also be configured to persist through potentially interrupting events arising outside of the virtual environment, such as a fault in the process hosting the worker process or an operating system reboot.
• the application executing within the virtual environment may be notified (optionally re-initiating the application if it is not currently executing) in order to fulfill the handling of the execution event achieved by the worker process.
• an execution event e.g., completing a complex computational process or detecting a particular type of device event
• the application executing within the virtual environment may be notified (optionally re-initiating the application if it is not currently executing) in order to fulfill the handling of the execution event achieved by the worker process.
• FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring an execution of a worker process on behalf of a web application within a web browser.
• FIG. 2 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring an execution of a worker process on behalf of an application in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary method of configuring a device to fulfilling requests of client applications related to local events in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• Fig. 4 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for fulfilling requests of client applications related to local events in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to embody one or more of the provisions set forth herein.
• Fig. 6 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring a worker process of an application executing on a device within device mesh, wherein the worker process may attempt to communicate with a server of the application, another server, and a remote process of another device in the device mesh, in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario demonstrating an execution of a persistent worker process on behalf of an application executing within a virtual environment in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computing environment wherein one or more of the provisions set forth herein may be implemented.
• a web browser may provide a standardized platform for executing device-independent code, such as JavaScript and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) content.
• a Java virtual machine may provide a bridge between a generalized computing device and the native capabilities of the device on behalf of a Java application (e.g., translating generalized memory allocation requests to the memory model of the device).
• code designed for the native environment of a first device may be executed on a second, completely device through an emulator that provides a simulation of the first device within the second device.
• untrusted code may be executed within a "sandbox" or an artificial machine, such that malicious operations may be isolated to the artificial machine, and the effects of the untrusted code on the artificial device may be evaluated by the device without risk of damage to the device.
• GUI graphical user interface
• Such applications may also involve extensive background processing that may be performed in a more relaxed manner, such as long-running computations, maintenance tasks to be performed during idle moments, and monitoring events of the device.
• virtual environments and applications may provide techniques such as preemptive multitasking, wherein the application may designate priorities for respective tasks.
• techniques may not be completely adequate for scheduling the variety of processing tasks involved in an application.
• it may not be possible or efficient to preempt some types of background processing (e.g., background processing involving an exclusive locking of a resource) in order to handle foreground processing.
• background processing e.g., background processing involving an exclusive locking of a resource
• the interruption of such background processing may result in a failure to detect such device events.
• the virtual environment may utilize the concurrent processing capabilities of the computing environment (e.g., a more sophisticated preemptive scheduler provided by the operating system) and/or the computational hardware of the device (e.g., concurrent execution of the worker process and application thread on different processors in a multiprocessor device, or on different cores of a multicore processor).
• the execution of the worker process within the same virtual environment as the application may provide advantages in security (e.g., applying the same security policy to the worker process as to the application) and/or efficiency (e.g., enabling a tight coupling of the application and the worker process as peers within the virtual environment).
• FIG. 1 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario 100 featuring a device 104 of a user 106 presenting a computing environment 108 (e.g., an operating system) comprising a virtual environment 1 10 (e.g., a web browser).
• the device 104 may communicate with one or more servers 102 (e.g., a webserver) and may retrieve one or more applications 1 12 to be executed on behalf of the user 106 (e.g., web applications embedded in web pages requested by the user 106).
• the device 104 may therefore initiate execution of the application 1 12 within the virtual environment 1 10.
• the virtual environment 1 10 may be configured to enable the application 1 12 to request the execution of a worker process 1 14, such as a background maintenance task that is to be performed on behalf of the application 1 12 but without interrupting the execution of foreground processing by the application 1 12.
• a worker process 1 14 such as a background maintenance task that is to be performed on behalf of the application 1 12 but without interrupting the execution of foreground processing by the application 1 12.
• the environment 1 10 may therefore initiate execution of the worker process 1 14 within the virtual environment 1 10 alongside the application 1 12.
• the worker process 1 14 may request to be notified of various device events 1 16, such as incoming calls or messages received through a mobile communication device such as a phone.
• the device 104 may apply some device event monitoring 1 18 within the computing environment 108, and upon detecting a device event 1 16, may deliver a device event notification 120 to the worker process 1 14 within the virtual environment 1 10.
• the device 104 may enable the application 1 12 to invoke worker processes 1 14 within the virtual environment 1 10 to achieve various types of background processing without interrupting the foreground processing of the application 1 12.
• the model illustrated in the exemplary scenario 100 of Fig. 1 accurately describes the "web workers" model presented in recent versions of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), wherein JavaScript scripts may invoke background processing in a "web worker” process that is executed within the web browser alongside the script.
• HTML Hypertext Markup Language
• the worker process 1 14 may comprise a long-running process that the user 106 may wish to complete, but the user 106 may not wish to retain the application 1 12 within the virtual environment 1 10 (e.g., the user 106 may intentionally or inadvertently navigate away from a web page hosting a web application, thus causing the termination of web workers associated with the web application).
• the user 106 may wish the worker process 1 14 to persist indefinitely, such as a handler for particular types of device events 1 16 arising on the device 104 (e.g., a notification process to notify the user 106 upon receipt of a text message or incoming phone call).
• the worker process 1 14 may be desirable to enable the worker process 1 14 not only to persist after suspension or termination of the application 1 12, but also after suspension or termination of the virtual environment 1 10 (e.g., after the user 106 entirely terminates a web browser), and/or after interruption of the computing environment 108 (e.g., after rebooting or otherwise restarting the device 104).
• models that strictly involve the coupling of the life cycle of the worker process 1 14 with the life cycle of the application 1 12 may be incapable of providing such persistent and resilient worker processes 1 14.
• the device 104 may execute the worker process 1 14 on behalf of the application 1 12 but outside of the virtual environment 1 10.
• the device 104 may refrain from terminating one or more worker processes 1 14 associated with the application 1 12. In this manner, the device 104 may enable the execution of persistent worker processes 1 14 that continue serving the computational processing of the application 1 12 even while the application 1 12 is not currently executing.
• Fig. 2 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario 200 featuring an exemplary application of the techniques presented herein.
• the device 104 again comprises a computing environment 108 including a virtual environment 1 10 wherein an application 1 12 received from a server 102 may be executed (e.g., a web application received from a webserver and executing within a web browser).
• the application 1 12 may request some background processing, and the virtual environment 1 10 may comply by initiating a worker process 1 14 on behalf of the application 1 12.
• the worker process 1 14 may be executed outside of the virtual environment 1 10 by a worker process host 202, which may manage the life cycle and resource requests of the worker process 1 14
• the device worker process host 202 may refrain from terminating the worker process 1 14; i.e., the life cycle of the worker process 1 14 may be separated from and managed independently of the life cycle of the application 1 12.
• the worker process host 202 may also enable the worker process 1 14 to notify the application 1 12 upon the worker process 1 14 achieving an execution event.
• the background processing implemented by the worker process 1 14 may involve detecting a client device event 1 16, such as an incoming call from a mobile phone.
• the device may utilize some device event monitoring 1 18 to detect the device event 1 16 on behalf of the worker process 1 14, and may deliver a device event notification 120 to the worker process 1 14 upon detecting such a device event 1 16. Notably, this detection and delivery may be successfully completed while the worker process 1 14 is operating even if the application 1 12 is not currently executing (and, optionally, even if the virtual environment 1 10 is not executing on the device 104).
• the worker process host 202 may facilitate the worker process 1 14 to notify the application 1 12 of the device event 1 16 (e.g., if the application 1 12 and/or virtual environment 1 10 are not currently executing, the device 104 may reinitiate the application 1 12 and/or virtual environment 1 10, or may simply enqueue the device event notification 120 until such processes are later reinitiated by the user 106). In this manner, the device 104 achieves the persistent execution of the worker process 1 14 independently of the execution of the application 1 12.
• Fig. 3 presents a first exemplary embodiment of the techniques presented herein, illustrated as an exemplary method 300 of performing processing on behalf of applications 1 12 executing within a virtual environment 1 10 of a device 104.
• the exemplary method 300 may be implemented, e.g., as a set of instructions stored in a memory component of the device, such as a memory circuit, a platter of a hard disk drive, a solid-state storage device, or a magnetic or optical disc, and organized such that, when executed on a processor of the device, cause the device to operate according to the techniques presented herein.
• the exemplary method 300 begins at 302 and involves executing 304 the instructions on a processor of the device.
• these instructions may be configured to, upon receiving a request from an application 1 12 to execute a worker process 1 14 involving an execution event, initiate 306 execution of the worker process 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10.
• the instructions are also configured to, upon detecting termination of the application 1 12, refrain 308 from terminating the worker process 1 14.
• the instructions are also configured to, upon the worker process 1 14 achieving the execution event, notify 310 the application 1 12 of the execution event of the worker process 1 14. Having completed the processing on behalf of the application 1 12, the exemplary method 300 presents the execution of the worker process 1 14 on behalf of the application 1 12 in accordance with the techniques presented herein, and so ends at 312.
• FIG. 4 presents a second exemplary embodiment of the techniques presented herein, illustrated as an exemplary scenario 400 featuring an exemplary system 408 configured to perform processing on behalf of applications executing within a virtual environment 1 10 of a device 104.
• the exemplary system 408 may be implemented, e.g., as instructions stored in a memory component of the device 402 and configured to, when executed on a processor 404 of the device 402, cause the device 402 to operate according to the techniques presented herein.
• the exemplary system 408 comprises a virtual environment 1 10 within which at least one application 1 12 is executing on the device 104.
• the exemplary system 408 also comprises a worker host component 410 executing on the device 104 outside of the virtual environment 1 10, and configured to, upon receiving a request from an application 1 12 to execute a worker process 1 14 involving an execution event 406, initiate execution of the worker process 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10.
• the worker host component 410 is further configured to, upon detecting termination of the application 1 12, refrain from terminating the worker process 1 14; and upon the worker process 1 14 achieving the execution event 406, notify the application 1 12 of the execution event 406 of the worker process 1 14. In this manner, the exemplary system 408 achieves the execution of the worker process 1 14 on behalf of the application 1 12 executing within the virtual environment 1 10 of the device 402 in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to apply the techniques presented herein.
• Such computer-readable media may include, e.g., computer- readable storage media involving a tangible device, such as a memory
• semiconductor e.g., a semiconductor utilizing static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) technologies
• SRAM static random access memory
• DRAM dynamic random access memory
• SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
• a platter of a hard disk drive e.g., a flash memory device, or a magnetic or optical disc (such as a CD-R, DVD-R, or floppy disc)
• magnetic or optical disc such as a CD-R, DVD-R, or floppy disc
• Such computer-readable media may also include (as a class of technologies that are distinct from computer-readable storage media) various types of communications media, such as a signal that may be propagated through various physical phenomena (e.g., an electromagnetic signal, a sound wave signal, or an optical signal) and in various wired scenarios (e.g., via an Ethernet or fiber optic cable) and/or wireless scenarios (e.g., a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as WiFi, a personal area network (PAN) such as Bluetooth, or a cellular or radio network), and which encodes a set of computer- readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to implement the techniques presented herein.
• WLAN wireless local area network
• PAN personal area network
• Bluetooth a cellular or radio network
• FIG. 5 An exemplary computer-readable medium that may be devised in these ways is illustrated in Fig. 5, wherein the implementation 500 comprises a computer-readable medium 502 (e.g., a CD-R, DVD-R, or a platter of a hard disk drive), on which is encoded computer-readable data 504.
• This computer-readable data 504 in turn comprises a set of computer instructions 506 configured to operate according to the principles set forth herein.
• the processor-executable instructions 506 may be configured to perform a method 508 of fulfilling requests of client applications 108 related to local events 105, such as the exemplary method 300 of Fig. 3.
• the processor-executable instructions 506 may be configured to implement a system for fulfilling requests of client applications 108 related to local events 206, such as the exemplary system 408 of Fig. 4.
• Some embodiments of this computer- readable medium may comprise a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a hard disk drive, an optical disc, or a flash memory device) that is configured to store processor-executable instructions configured in this manner.
• a computer-readable storage medium e.g., a hard disk drive, an optical disc, or a flash memory device
• Many such computer-readable media may be devised by those of ordinary skill in the art that are configured to operate in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
• a first aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the scenarios wherein such techniques may be utilized.
• the techniques presented herein may be utilized with many types of devices 402, such as servers, server farms, workstations, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, game consoles, and network appliances.
• devices 402 may also provide a variety of computing
• components such as wired or wireless communications devices; human input devices, such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, touch-sensitive displays, microphones, and gesture-based input components; automated input devices, such as still or motion cameras, global positioning service (GPS) devices, and other sensors; output devices such as displays and speakers; and communication devices, such as wired and/or wireless network components.
• human input devices such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, touch-sensitive displays, microphones, and gesture-based input components
• automated input devices such as still or motion cameras, global positioning service (GPS) devices, and other sensors
• output devices such as displays and speakers
• communication devices such as wired and/or wireless network components.
• servers 102 such as webservers, file servers, application servers, media servers, peer-to-peer sharing coordination servers, database servers, email servers, physical metric monitoring servers, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) automation servers.
• SCADA supervisory control and data acquisition
• the techniques presented herein may be utilized to service applications 1 12 executing in many types of virtual environments 1 10, such as a web browsers, a simulated and/or emulated virtual machine, a middleware platforms, and/or an isolation construct.
• the techniques presented herein may be utilized to service many types of applications 1 12, such as web applications written in various interpreted and/or compiled languages, file-sharing applications, media rendering applications, and data-driven client applications.
• the techniques presented herein may involve executing many types of worker processes 114 within many types of worker process hosts 202.
• the worker process 1 14 may comprise a JavaScript script executed according to the HTML 5 "web workers" model, but executed in a separate shell outside of the web browser hosting the application 1 12.
• the worker process 1 14 may comprise a partially or wholly compiled and natively executing application executing in a managed context (wherein the managing runtime comprises the worker process host 202) within the device 104.
• the worker process host 202 may comprise a local webserver configured to perform persistent background processing on behalf of applications 1 12 executing within a web browser on the same device.
• the worker process 1 14 may comprise a JavaScript script utilizing the Node.js server-side JavaScript environment.
• the worker process 1 14 may perform many types of background processing on behalf of the application 1 12, including long-running computational processes (and wherein the execution event comprises a completion of the computational process); a scheduling or timer process (and wherein the execution event comprises a timeout or elapsing of the timer); persistently available functionality, such as a daemon process (and wherein the execution event comprises an invocation of the functionality by another process executing on the device 104); and/or monitoring of various types of device events 1 16 (and wherein the execution event comprises a detected instance of the device event 116, such as a detection of user input from the user 106 of the device 104, or a hardware or software event arising within the computing environment 108, such as the receipt of an incoming call or message of a mobile phone device).
• long-running computational processes and wherein the execution event comprises a completion of the computational process
• a scheduling or timer process and wherein the execution event comprises a timeout or elapsing of the timer
• persistently available functionality such as a
• the worker process 1 14 may apply many types of processing to such device events 1 16, such as reporting the device event 1 16 to the application 1 12, logging the occurrence of the device event 1 16, or applying additional logic during the handling of the device event 116. These and other scenarios may be compatible with and may advantageously utilize the techniques presented herein.
• a second aspect that may vary among embodiments of the techniques presented herein involves the manner of hosting the execution of the worker process 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10. That is, while the worker process 1 14 is received from the application 1 12 and executed outside of the virtual environment 1 10, it may be disadvantageous and/or difficult to allow the worker process 1 14 to execute outside of the virtual environment 1 10 without some type of process host, as this may result in the execution of arbitrary and untrusted code as a native process within the computing environment 108 of the device 104. Accordingly, although separated from the virtual environment 1 10, the execution of the worker process 1 14 may be attended by a worker host component 410 providing various types of hosting services to the worker process 1 14.
• a worker host component 410 may apply many forms of hosting to the worker process 1 14.
• the worker host component 410 may also provide a virtual environment 1 10 for the worker process 1 14, so long as the virtual environment 1 10 provided for the worker process 1 14 is separate from the virtual environment 1 10 provided for the application 1 12.
• the virtual environment 1 10 provided for the worker process 1 14 may be quite similar to the virtual environment 1 10 provided for the application 1 12 (e.g., both processes may execute within the context of a web browser), and the separation of the virtual environments 1 10 enables the persistence of the worker process 1 14 independent of the life cycle of the application 1 12 as provided herein.
• similarities between a first virtual environment 1 10 provided for the application 1 12 and a second (separate) virtual environment 1 10 provided for the worker process 1 14 may enable some conveniences and efficiencies; e.g., the same security policy applied to the application 1 12 may be applied to the worker process 1 14.
• web applications executing within a web browser are often restricted according to a cross-domain security policy, e.g., enabling the web application only to
• the worker host component 410 may restrict the execution of worker processes 1 14 according to the same cross-domain security policy applied to the web applications executing within the web browser and associated with the worker processes 1 14, e.g., restricting the worker processes 1 14 from communicating with any domains, servers, or devices outside of the domain that provided the application 1 12 to the device 104.
• the worker host component 410 may present a different execution model to the worker process 1 14 with different details. Such
• differences may be selected and/or designed in view of the different contexts of the application 1 12 (e.g., an execution environment suitable for ad hoc front-end code presenting a user interface) and the worker process 1 14 (e.g., an execution environment suitable for computationally complex, long-running processing without a user interface).
• the worker host component 410 may partially and/or wholly compile the worker process 1 14 before or during execution, thus providing more performant execution through the use of code optimization techniques, while the application 1 12 may be executed as an interpretable script.
• the worker host component 410 may schedule the execution of worker processes 1 14 within the computing environment 108 differently than the scheduling of the application 1 12 within the virtual environment 1 10.
• the worker process 1 14 may be scheduled as a long-running process particularly suitable for long stretches of comparatively uninterrupted processing during idle periods of the device 104, while the application 1 12 may be scheduled as a set of highly responsive but short-lived invocations of code, such as responses to user interface events.
• the worker process 1 14 may be provided a different set of application programming interfaces (APIs) than the application 1 12, e.g., lower- level hardware and network communication modules for the worker process 1 14 and user-interface-type modules for the application 1 12.
• APIs application programming interfaces
• the worker host component 410 may present a different security model than the virtual environment 1 10 of the application 1 12 (e.g., in view of the expanded capabilities of the worker process 1 14 executing outside of the virtual environment 1 10, the security processes the worker host component 410 may apply more rigorous code evaluation before and/or during execution to detect and block malicious operations).
• the security model of the worker process 1 14 may be more relaxed than for applications 1 12 executing within the virtual environment 1 10; e.g., because communication between the worker process 1 14 and other devices may be more closely scrutinized with an acceptable increase in communication latency, the worker process 1 14 may not be restricted according to the cross-domain security policy applied to the application 1 12.
• the worker host component 410 may, upon receiving a request to connect the remote process executing on the second device with the worker process, connect the remote process with the worker process 1 14.
• the expansion of functionality may reflect a higher level of trust in the worker process 1 14 than the application 1 12, and may be contingent upon user consent; e.g., the worker host component 410 may present to the user 106 an offer to initiate execution of the worker process 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10, and may initiate such execution only upon receiving an acceptance of the offer from the user 106.
• the user 106 may also be permitted to examine the worker processes 1 14 persisting after the termination of associated applications 1 12, and to alter the execution thereof (e.g., fulfilling requests by the user 106 to suspend and/or terminate the worker processes 1 14).
• the execution model provided for the worker process 1 14 may significantly differ from the execution model provided for the application 1 12.
• the worker host component 410 may comprise a managing runtime that enables managed execution of the worker process 1 14 (e.g., facilitating memory allocation and component access requests according to the architecture of the device 104).
• the worker host component 410 may comprise a local webserver that is deployed on the device 104 in the service of web applications also executing within a web browser of the device, and configured to executed worker processes 1 14 as local webserver processes.
• the worker host components 410 may be designed as JavaScript scripts targeting the Node.js server-side scripting module of a local webserver.
• the worker hot component 410 may provide a virtual machine, such as a Java virtual machine, that executes separately from the virtual environment 1 10 in order to separate the life cycle of the worker process 1 14 from the life cycle of the application 1 12.
• a virtual machine such as a Java virtual machine
• Many choices in the execution environment provided by the worker host component 410 to worker processes 1 14 may be available and compatible with the techniques presented herein.
• Fig. 6 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario 600 featuring several of the variations in the hosting of the worker process 1 14 by the worker host component 410 provided herein.
• a device 104 provides a virtual environment 1 10 executing an application 1 12, as well as a worker host component 410 executing a worker process 1 14 on behalf of the application 1 12 but outside of the virtual environment 1 10.
• the hosting of the worker process 1 14 may share similarities with the hosting of the application 1 12 within the virtual environment 1 10, such as a similar cross-domain restriction policy. For example, if the application 1 12 is first received from a server 102 providing a first service (e.g., a web application service) and the worker process 1 14 later initiates communication 610 with the same server 102, the worker host component 410 may permit the communication 610 with the server 102 providing the first service.
• a first service e.g., a web application service
• the worker host component 410 may block 616 the communication 612.
• the security policy applied to the worker process 1 14 may differ in the same or other respects from that applied to the application 1 12.
• the device 104 operates as part of a device mesh 602 comprising a set of devices 104 operated by the same user 106 in an interoperative manner, e.g., with extensive data sharing in order to provide a consistent and seamless user experience to the user 106 across multiple devices 104.
• the worker process 1 14 may be permitted to communicate 608 with a remote process 606 executing on a second device 604 within the device mesh 602, even if the application 1 12 is not permitted to communicate with remote processes 606 outside of the server 102 providing the application 1 12.
• a third aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques involves the persistence of the worker process 1 14. In addition to refraining from terminating the execution of the worker process 1 14 upon detecting the
• the techniques presented herein may utilize additional techniques to facilitate the persistence and resiliency of the worker process 1 14.
• the worker host component 410 may also enable the worker process 1 14 to persist despite termination not just of the application 1 12, but of the virtual environment 1 10 (e.g., not just persisting after the user 106 closes the web page hosting the application 1 12, but persisting after the web browser is entirely terminated and unloaded from memory).
• the device 104 may refrain from terminating the worker process 1 14 even upon terminating the virtual environment 1 10.
• the worker host component 410 may enable the worker process 1 14 to persist despite faults in the worker host component 410 (e.g., an exception, crash, or termination of the component managing the worker process 1 14). For example, the worker host component 410 may periodically record the list of executing worker processes 1 14 and the sources thereof. If a fault arises within the worker host component 410, the device 104 may terminate the worker host component 410, reinitiate execution of the worker host component within the computing environment of the device, and reinitiate execution of the worker processes 1 14 that were executing within the worker host component 410 at the time of the fault.
• the worker host component 410 may enable the worker process 1 14 to persist despite faults in the worker host component 410 (e.g., an exception, crash, or termination of the component managing the worker process 1 14). For example, the worker host component 410 may periodically record the list of executing worker processes 1 14 and the sources thereof. If a fault arises within the worker host component 410, the device 104 may terminate the worker host component 410,
• the worker host component 410 may even enable the worker process 1 14 to persist despite significant changes in the computing environment 108 of the device 104.
• the termination of the application 1 12 and/or virtual environment 1 10 may arise during the process of restarting the computing environment 108 of the device 104, such as a reboot.
• the device may reinitiate execution of the worker processes 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10.
• the device 104 may store the worker process 1 14 and may periodically record its state, such that, after restarting the computing environment 108, the device 104 may reinitate execution of the worker process 1 14 with a comparatively recent state.
• the device 104 may, after restarting the computing environment 108, request a second worker process 1 14 from the service (e.g., a worker process 1 14 configured to resume execution based on a recent observation or reporting of the state of the first worker process 1 14), and may, upon receiving the second worker process 1 14 from the service, execute the second worker process 1 14 outside of the virtual environment 1 10 of the device 104.
• a second worker process 1 14 e.g., a worker process 1 14 configured to resume execution based on a recent observation or reporting of the state of the first worker process 1 14
• Such persistence may even enable the worker process 1 14 to persist upon restarting or transitioning the computing environment 108 on a different device 104, e.g., upon transitioning the worker process 114 to a second device 104 within the device mesh 602 of the user 106.
• the resilience of the worker process 114 may be shared with the application 1 12.
• the worker host component 410 may, upon detecting a
• the worker processes 1 14 may, for example, notify the application 1 12 of any relevant device events 116 arising on the device 104 during the period of termination of the application 1 12.
• a fourth aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques involves the manner of notifying an application 112 upon an associated worker process 1 14 achieving an execution event 406.
• the notification of the application 1 12 may be achieved through many types of notification mechanisms.
• the worker host component 410 may simply log the execution event 406, and the application 112 may periodically examine the log of execution events 406 achieved by the worker process 1 14.
• the notification may be achieved through message-passing; e.g., the worker process 1 14 may generate an execution event notification 412 identifying and describing the execution event 406, and the virtual environment 1 10 may present the execution event notification 412 to the application 112.
• the notification may be achieved through a callback mechanism, wherein the application 112 indicates a memory location of code to be invoked upon the worker process 1 14 achieving the execution event 406.
• This code may comprise, e.g., a portion of the application 112 to be executed within the virtual environment 1 10; a portion of the worker process 1 14 to be executed by the worker host component 410; a function of the computing environment 108, such as an API call; or a separate code portion, such as a mobile agent, an abstract syntax tree, or a script.
• the resiliency of the worker process 1 14 may extend to the application 1 12 during the notification.
• the device 104 may reinitiate the application 1 12 in the virtual environment 1 10 as part of the notification process, e.g., by reloading a web page of a web application that created the web worker.
• the application 1 12 may be automatically presented to the user 106 as part of the notification process.
• the device 104 may raise the virtual environment 1 10 and/or the application 1 12 to a foreground presentation within the computing environment 108 (e.g., bringing the web browser to the foreground and switching to a tab containing the application 1 12).
• Fig. 7 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring a persistent and resilient worker process executing within a computing environment 108 of a device 104.
• a web browser 702 (comprising the virtual environment 1 10 within the computing environment 108) may receive an application 1 12 from a server 102, and may initiate execution of the application 1 12 within the web browser 702. This execution may involve a worker process 1 14 to provide some background processing, which the computing environment 108 may execute as a server process of a local webserver 704.
• the local webserver 704 may record the worker process 1 14, the server 102 comprising the source of the worker process 1 14 and application 1 12, and, periodically, the state of the worker process 1 14.
• a termination 708 of the web browser 702 may be initiated by the user 106 and/or the device 104, and such termination 708 may include terminating the application 1 12 executing within the web browser 702.
• the execution of the worker process 1 14 outside of the web browser 702 enables the worker process 1 14 to persist despite the termination 708 of the application 1 12 and the virtual environment 1 10.
• the computing environment 108 may also experience a termination 712 (e.g., during a reboot of the device 104).
• the computing environment 108 may be restarted.
• the restart may involve an automatic reinitiation of the local webserver 704, which may examine the recording of the worker processes 1 14 hosted by the local webserver 704 at the time of termination 712 of the computing environment 108.
• the local webserver 704 may then contact the server 102, and may receive 716 from the server 102 a second worker process 1 14 (e.g., an identical instance to the worker process 1 14 initiated at the first time point 700, or an altered worker process reflecting the state of the worker process 1 14 at the time of termination 712).
• the computing environment 108 may thus automatically reinitiate execution of the worker process 1 14 following a restart of the computing environment 108.
• a device event 1 16 may arise within the computing environment 108 (e.g., an incoming call for the user 106). If the worker process 1 14 is associated with the device event 1 16 (e.g., as an execution event 406 of the worker process 1 14), the local webserver 704 may notify the worker process 1 14 of the device event 1 16. Additionally, the worker process 1 14 may notify 720 the application 1 12 of the device event 1 16. Moreover, if the
• the device 104 may reinitiate the web browser 702 and/or the application 1 12 (e.g., by reloading the page within the web browser 702), and, additionally, may bring the web browser 702 to a foreground presentation within the computing environment 108. In this manner, the device 104 may achieve resilient execution the worker process 1 14 that persists despite the termination of the application 1 12, the termination of the virtual environment 1 10, and even the restarting of the computing environment 108, through the application of the techniques presented herein.
• Fig. 8 and the following discussion provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment to implement embodiments of one or more of the provisions set forth herein.
• the operating environment of Fig. 8 is only one example of a suitable operating environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the operating environment.
• Example computing devices include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, mobile devices (such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), media players, and the like), multiprocessor systems, consumer electronics, mini computers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
• Computer readable instructions may be distributed via computer readable media (discussed below).
• Computer readable instructions may be implemented as program modules, such as functions, objects, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures, and the like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
• APIs Application Programming Interfaces
• Fig. 8 illustrates an example of a system 800 comprising a computing device 802 configured to implement one or more embodiments provided herein.
• computing device 802 includes at least one processing unit 806 and memory 808.
• memory 808 may be volatile (such as RAM, for example), nonvolatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc., for example) or some combination of the two. This configuration is illustrated in Fig. 8 by dashed line 804.
• device 802 may include additional features and/or functionality.
• device 802 may also include additional storage (e.g., removable and/or non-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic storage, optical storage, and the like.
• additional storage e.g., removable and/or non-removable
• storage 810 Such additional storage is illustrated in Fig. 8 by storage 810.
• computer readable instructions to implement one or more embodiments provided herein may be in storage 810.
• Storage 810 may also store other computer readable instructions to implement an operating system, an application program, and the like. Computer readable instructions may be loaded in memory 808 for execution by processing unit 806, for example.
• the term "computer readable media" as used herein includes computer storage media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions or other data. Memory 808 and storage 810 are examples of computer storage media.
• Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by device 802. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 802.
• Device 802 may also include communication connection(s) 816 that allows device 802 to communicate with other devices. Communication
• connection(s) 816 may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a Network Interface Card (NIC), an integrated network interface, a radio frequency
• Communication connection(s) 816 may include a wired connection or a wireless connection.
• Communication connection(s) 816 may transmit and/or receive communication media.
• Computer readable media may include communication media.
• Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions or other data in a “modulated data signal” such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media.
• modulated data signal may include a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
• Device 802 may include input device(s) 814 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, infrared cameras, video input devices, and/or any other input device.
• Output device(s) 812 such as one or more displays, speakers, printers, and/or any other output device may also be included in device 802.
• Input device(s) 814 and output device(s) 812 may be connected to device 802 via a wired connection, wireless connection, or any combination thereof.
• an input device or an output device from another computing device may be used as input device(s) 814 or output device(s) 812 for computing device 802.
• Components of computing device 802 may be connected by various interconnects, such as a bus.
• Such interconnects may include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), such as PCI Express, a Universal Serial Bus (USB), Firewire (IEEE 1394), an optical bus structure, and the like.
• PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
• USB Universal Serial Bus
• Firewire IEEE 1394
• optical bus structure an optical bus structure, and the like.
• components of computing device 802 may be interconnected by a network.
• memory 808 may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in different physical locations interconnected by a network.
• a computing device 820 accessible via network 818 may store computer readable instructions to implement one or more embodiments provided herein.
• Computing device 802 may access computing device 820 and download a part or all of the computer readable instructions for execution.
• computing device 802 may download pieces of the computer readable instructions, as needed, or some instructions may be executed at computing device 802 and some at computing device 820.
• a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer.
• an application running on a controller and the controller can be a component.
• One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
• the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter.
• article of manufacture as used herein is intended to
• one or more of the operations described may constitute computer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readable media, which if executed by a computing device, will cause the computing device to perform the operations described.
• the order in which some or all of the operations are described should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having the benefit of this description. Further, it will be
• the word "exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.
• the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, "X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then "X employs A or B" is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances.

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