Battery virtualization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018307292-A1
Application number	US-201715495096-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 24, 2017
Priority date	Apr 24, 2017
Publication date	Oct 25, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of controlling a computing device including a physical battery and at least one group of applications executable on hardware resources of the computing device, each group including one or more applications. The method comprises controlling each group of applications based on a state of a respective virtual battery associated each group of applications, each virtual battery having a respective virtual capacity corresponding to a defined portion of a capacity of the physical battery and a respective virtual battery reserve representing an amount of energy that is available for use by the group of applications associated with the virtual battery.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method of controlling a computing device including a physical battery and at least one group of applications, each group of applications including one or more applications executable on hardware resources of the computing device, the method comprising:
controlling each group of applications based on a state of a respective virtual battery associated each group of applications, each virtual battery having a respective virtual capacity corresponding to a defined portion of a capacity of the physical battery and a respective virtual battery reserve representing an amount of energy that is available for use by the group of applications associated with the virtual battery.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising instantiating a virtual battery manager associated with each group of applications, the virtual battery manager being configured to control the respective group of applications based on the state of the respective virtual battery.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each group of applications is executed in a respective virtual machine.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein each virtual machine is associated with a virtual battery manager configured to control the respective group of applications based on the state of the respective virtual battery.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is calculated based on any one or more of:
an estimated battery utilization of the respective group of applications; a priority of the respective group of applications; and a user input.

6 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is fixed during a runtime of the respective group of applications.

7 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is variable during a runtime of the respective group of applications.

8 . The method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising calculating an updated virtual capacity of the given virtual battery during a runtime of the respective group of applications.

9 . The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the updated virtual capacity is calculated based on an actual battery utilization of the respective group of applications.

10 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein controlling each group of applications based on a state of the respective virtual battery comprises:
detecting a low-battery state of a particular virtual battery, and in response to detection of the low battery state, performing any one or more of:
shutting down one or more applications of the respective group of applications associated with the particular virtual battery; and
restricting access, by one or more applications of the respective group of applications associated with the particular virtual battery, to hardware resources of the computing device.

11 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein detecting the low battery state comprises:
calculating an estimate of the battery utilization of the respective group of applications; and decreasing a value of the respective virtual battery reserve of the particular virtual battery based on the calculated estimate of the battery utilization.

12 . The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein detecting the state of a particular virtual battery further comprises increasing the virtual battery reserve of the particular virtual battery when the energy currently stored in the physical battery is increasing.

13 . The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein increasing the energy remaining in the particular virtual battery is based on any one or more of:
a rate at which the energy currently stored in the physical battery is increasing; the virtual capacity of the particular virtual battery; a priority of the respective group of applications associated with the particular virtual battery; and a user input.

14 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein detecting a low-battery state of the particular virtual battery comprises any one or more of:
detecting that the virtual battery reserve of the particular virtual battery is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold; and detecting that the virtual battery reserve of the particular virtual battery is predicted to fall below the predetermined threshold within a defined future period of time.

15 . A computing device comprising:
a physical battery having a defined battery capacity; hardware resources comprising a memory and processor; at least one group of applications, resident within the memory, each group of applications including one or more applications executable on the hardware resources; and a virtual battery manager, resident within the memory and when instantiated by the processor on the hardware resources, configured to control each group of applications based on a state of the respective virtual battery associated each group of applications, each virtual battery having a respective virtual capacity corresponding to a defined portion of a capacity of the physical battery and a respective virtual battery reserve representing an amount of energy that is available for use by the group of applications associated with the virtual battery.

16 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein each group of applications is executed in a respective virtual machine.

17 . The computing device as claimed in claim 16 , wherein each virtual machine is associated with a virtual battery manager configured to control the respective group of applications based on the state of the respective virtual battery.

18 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is calculated based on any one or more of:
an estimated battery utilization of the respective group of applications; a priority of the respective group of applications; and a user input.

19 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is fixed during a runtime of the respective group of applications.

20 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the virtual capacity of a given virtual battery is variable during a runtime of the respective group of applications.

21 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the virtual battery manager is configured to control each group of applications by:
detecting a low-battery state of the respective virtual battery, and in response to detection of the low battery state, performing any one or more of:
shutting down one or more applications of the respective group of applications associated with the virtual battery; and
restricting access, by one or more applications of the respective group of applications associated with the virtual battery, to the hardware resources.

22 . The computing device as claimed in claim 15 , wherein detecting the low battery state comprises:
calculating an estimate of the battery utilization of the respective group of applications; and decreasing a value of the respective virtual battery reserve of the particular virtual battery based on the calculated estimate of the battery utilization.

23 . The computing device as claimed in claim 22 , wherein detecting the state of the respective virtual battery further comprises increasing the virtual battery reserve of the respective virtual battery when the energy currently stored in the physi

Assignees

• Mayer Michael
• Akhavain Mohammadi Mehdi Arashmid
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Mayer Michael
• Akhavain Mohammadi Mehdi Arashmid

Classifications

• H02J7/82

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title

• G06F1/3265

  Power saving in display device · CPC title

• G06F1/329

  by task scheduling · CPC title

• H02J9/005

  using a power saving mode (for copiers G03G15/5004) · CPC title

• G06F1/3296

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title