Cloud storage for mobile devices based on user-specified limits for different types of data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016192178-A1
Application number	US-201414584307-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 29, 2014
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Techniques described herein may enable users to manage the division of storage, for multiple applications and on a per-content type basis, between cloud storage and local storage. A mobile device may receive user preference information relating to storage limits, each of the storage limits being applicable to an aggregate amount of data, of a particular content type, and associated with a number of applications executed by the mobile device. The mobile device transfer data, to and from cloud storage, to enforce the storage limits included in the user preference information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A mobile device comprising processing circuitry to:
receive user preference information relating to local storage limits associated with a plurality of content types; receive a request to store a content item, the content item being associated with a particular content type of the plurality of content types; determine a total local storage amount for content items that are stored locally on the mobile device and that are associated with the particular content type, the total local storage amount corresponding to a storage requirement associated with a plurality of content items associated with a plurality of applications; determine, based on a local storage limit for the particular content type and based on the determined total local storage amount, whether local storage of the requested content would exceed the local storage limit for the particular content type; select, when the local storage of the requested content item is determined to exceed the local storage limit for the particular content type, one or more of the plurality of the content items to move to a remote storage server; and move the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items to the remote storage server.

2 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the selection of the one or more of the plurality of the content items includes preferentially selecting content items that have not been recently accessed.

3 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the selection of one or more of the plurality of the content items includes selecting the one or more of the plurality of the content items based on a determination of which of the one or more of the plurality of the content items is least likely to be subsequently read.

4 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the request to store the content item includes an explicit indication of the content type of the content item.

5 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein moving the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items to the remote storage server includes transmitting the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items, via a cellular wireless network, during periods of low load of a radio interface of the cellular wireless network.

6 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the request to store the content item is received by an Operating System (OS) layer component of the mobile device.

7 . The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of content types include: an audio content type, a photo content type, and a video content type.

8 . A method implemented by a mobile device, the method comprising:
receiving, by the mobile device, user preference information relating to local storage limits associated with a plurality of content types; receiving, from an application being executed by the mobile device, a request to store a content item, the content item being associated with a particular content type of the plurality of content types; determining, by the mobile device, a total local storage amount for content items that are stored locally on the mobile device and that are associated with the particular content type, the total local storage amount corresponding to a storage requirement associated with a plurality of content items associated with a plurality of applications; determining, by the mobile device, and based on a local storage limit for the particular content type and based on the determined total local storage amount, whether local storage of the requested content would exceed the local storage limit for the particular content type; selecting, by the mobile device and when the local storage of the requested content item is determined to exceed the local storage limit for the particular content type, one or more of the plurality of the content items to move to a remote storage server; and moving, by the mobile device, the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items to the remote storage server.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the selecting the one or more of the plurality of the content items includes preferentially selecting content items that have not been recently accessed.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the selecting the one or more of the plurality of the content items includes selecting the one or more of the plurality of the content items based on a determination of which of the one or more of the plurality of the content items is least likely to be subsequently read.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the request to store the content item includes an indication of the content type of the content item.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein moving the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items to the remote storage server includes transmitting the selected one or more of the plurality of the content items, via a cellular wireless network, during periods of low load of a radio interface of the cellular wireless network.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the request to store the content item is received by an Operating System (OS) layer component of the mobile device.

14 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of content types include at least one of:
an audio content type, a photo content type, or a video content type.

15 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a second request, from the application being executed by the mobile device, to read a particular content item; determining whether the particular content item is stored locally or at the remote storage server; reading the particular content item, from local storage, when the particular content item is determined to be stored locally; and reading the particular content item, from local storage, when the particular content item is determined to not be stored locally but to be stored at the remote storage server.

16 . A mobile device comprising processing circuitry to:
receive user preference information relating to storage limits, each of the storage limits being applicable to an aggregate amount of data, of a particular content type, and associated with a plurality of applications executed by the mobile device; schedule a transfer of data, of the particular content type, between local storage of the mobile device and cloud storage implemented remotely relative to the mobile device, the scheduling being based on the user preference information and based on the aggregate amount of data of the particular content type; and transfer the scheduled data, to and from the cloud storage service, to enforce the storage limits included in the user preference information.

17 . The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein scheduling the transfer of data includes scheduling the transfer of the data during periods of low network load.

18 . The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the processing circuitry is further to:
allocate storage of all data of the particular content type, between the local storage and the cloud storage, the allocation including preferentially recently accessed data locally.

19 . The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the processing circuitry is further to:
allocate storage of all data of the particular content type, between the local storage and the cloud storage, the allocation being based on one or more of: file size of content items; total storage space of the mobile device; last access of content items of a particular content type; last access by a particular application that created a particular content item; and known upcoming user events.

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Blong Devin
• Sharma Manish
• Flores Kevin
• Chaudhary Tushar
• Gupta Gaurav

Classifications

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04N21/4334

  Recording operations (recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27) · CPC title

• H04L67/1097 Primary

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04W8/20 Primary

  Transfer of user or subscriber data · CPC title