JP2013142910A - Operation stabilization method, operation stabilization program, and operation stabilization device for smartphone - Google Patents

Abstract

An operation stabilization method is provided in which an application executed on a smartphone can continuously operate stably by maintaining normal operation on the smartphone itself.
A method executed by stabilization software stored in a smartphone on which various applications are executed, the behavior of the application executed by the smartphone being monitored, and the monitoring is performed by an application executed by the smartphone. The log information about the behavior of the application is periodically added to the non-volatile storage area in the smartphone, and the information about the behavior of the application registered in advance is periodically checked. When the behavior is different from the behavior registered in the smartphone by the application itself, the application is restarted to realize stable operation of the application.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

The present invention provides stable operation of an application in a situation where application software (hereinafter simply referred to as an application) that operates on a smartphone or tablet terminal (hereinafter simply referred to as a smartphone) is continuously operated for a long time. The present invention relates to an operation stabilization method, an operation stabilization program, and an operation stabilization apparatus for securing.
The stable operation of the application means that the application starts even if there is a user operation or a request from another system for the application in a few months in an environment where the application is continuously operating for several days or months or more. As with immediately after, indicates a state in which the application can return a response.

  In recent years, a wide variety of applications can be installed on smartphones. In addition, smartphones have the feature that various functions can be realized by extending the functions with installed applications. With this extensibility, for example, POS terminals used in remote monitoring and retailing of networks (hereinafter simply referred to as NW), which are currently being serviced with devices developed exclusively for exclusive use, can be used with smartphones and apps. Substituting can be considered.

According to the use example of the smartphone described above, the application needs to operate stably to the same extent as the dedicated terminal or to the extent that it can withstand the use of the use example. However, there is a problem that it is very difficult to stably operate the application due to a problem of the smartphone operation system (OS) itself, a problem of the application, or the like.
In Non-Patent Document 1, version upgrades are repeated based on changes in the number of reported bugs in Android (trademark of Google Inc.), one of the most frequently used operation systems in smartphones. It has been reported that defects in the OS itself tend to increase. Therefore, it has been recognized that it is difficult to completely eliminate the defects of the OS.

  Non-Patent Document 2 discloses a procedure for detecting freezes, self-reboot, crashes, and hangs that occur on a smartphone.

Amiya K. Maji, et al., "Characterizing Failures in Mobile OSes: A Case Study with Android and Symbian," Proc. Of ISSRE 2010, 21th IEEE International Conference. Marcello Cinque, "Enabling On-Line Dependability Assessment of Android Smart Phones," Proc. Of DSN-W 2011, 41st IEEE / IFIP International Conference

However, in the technology described in Non-Patent Document 2, the system only detects that a malfunction event has occurred on the smartphone, and at the malfunction event, the smartphone user operates the smartphone and presses the power button for a long time. It is necessary to turn on / off the power and remove / insert the battery.
Therefore, as in the case of the above-described usage example, an administrator who can operate a smartphone is not always near the smartphone when installed at a target site for remote monitoring or as an alternative to an existing POS terminal. Since the user cannot expect operations such as power on / off, there is a problem that it is difficult to use the technique described in Non-Patent Document 2.

  Considering these situations, the smartphone's OS itself and applications may freeze and suddenly, suddenly, self-reboot, crashes, or hangs on an irregular basis. (A failure event occurs) Therefore, on the premise of the occurrence of the failure event, it is necessary to realize a mechanism that allows the application to continue to provide functions even after the occurrence of the failure event.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and an application that is executed on a smartphone by maintaining normal operation on the smartphone itself on the premise of occurrence of freeze, self-restart, crash, or hang in the smartphone. It is an object of the present invention to provide an operation stabilization method, an operation stabilization program, and an operation stabilization device that enable continuous stable operation.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with an operation stabilization program (stabilization software) for the smartphone to execute the smartphone operation stabilization method of the present invention in advance in a scene where the application is continuously operated on the smartphone. Assumes that. The normal behavior of the app is monitored by the stabilization software. If the behavior is not the normal behavior specified by the app itself, the app is restarted to realize stable continuous operation.
Further, the stabilization software periodically monitors the stable operation of the smartphone itself, and even when the operation of the smartphone itself is determined to be unstable, the smartphone is restarted to realize stable continuous operation.

  That is, the operation stabilization method for a smartphone according to claim 1 is a method executed by stabilization software stored in a smartphone on which various applications are executed, and the operation for monitoring the behavior of the application executed by the smartphone When the behavior of the application is different from the behavior registered in advance in the stabilization software by the application itself, a stable operation of the application is provided by providing a restart procedure for restarting the application. It is characterized by realizing.

  In the smartphone operation stabilization method according to claim 1, the operation monitoring procedure periodically adds log information about the behavior of the application executed by the smartphone to the nonvolatile storage area in the smartphone, and It is characterized in that it is executed by periodically checking whether or not it matches the registered information on the behavior of the application.

  Claim 3 is the operation stabilization method for a smartphone according to claim 2, wherein a request described in information registered in advance by the application itself is transmitted to an application executed by the smartphone, and the information registered by the application Is provided with a response monitoring procedure for confirming the presence or absence of a response, and when there is no response, the application is restarted.

  In a method for stabilizing operation of a smartphone according to claim 3, the stabilization software has a function of periodically monitoring the state of the stabilization software itself and the smartphone, and when an abnormality is detected, The stabilization software or the smart phone itself is restarted.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the method for stabilizing operation of a smartphone according to the third aspect, the stabilization software periodically monitors the state of the smartphone, and detects an abnormality from the state and time information. It is characterized by having a procedure for starting.

  A sixth aspect of the present invention is the smartphone operation stabilization method of the fifth aspect, further comprising a procedure for periodically restarting the smartphone itself regardless of the state of the smartphone.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an operation stabilization program that causes a computer to execute each procedure according to any one of the first to sixth aspects.

The eighth aspect of the present invention is an operation stabilization device constructed by storing stabilization software in a smartphone on which various applications are executed, and is characterized by having the following configuration.
An application interface unit that provides an interface for using the stabilization software for the application.
An application operation monitoring unit that acquires active application information about the application.
An application response monitoring unit that periodically transmits a request to the application, confirms a response content of a request registered in advance and a response content from the application, and restarts the application when there is no response.
A heartbeat unit that writes the state of the smartphone (periodic execution / restart detection / stop detection due to battery shortage) along with time information to a storage area periodically or when detecting power on / off of the smartphone.
A heartbeat monitoring application unit that is implemented in the stabilization software and restarts the application operation monitoring unit, the application response monitoring unit, and the heartbeat unit when an abnormality of the smartphone is detected from the state and time information.

  A ninth aspect of the present invention is the operation stabilizing device according to the eighth aspect, further comprising a periodic restart unit that periodically restarts the smartphone itself.

According to the present invention, application monitoring is performed for various applications executed on a smartphone, and the application is restarted when the behavior becomes other than normal behavior.
Moreover, about the various applications performed with a smart phone, the response monitoring which confirms the response from an application is performed, the stable operation | movement of an application is regularly monitored, and an application is restarted when there is no response.
Moreover, the operation | movement of various applications is stabilized by restarting regularly about smart phone itself.

  As a result, stable continuous operation of the application becomes possible, so it is realized with dedicated equipment because it requires stable continuous operation such as NW monitoring of remote unmanned bases and POS used in retail distribution business. You can use smartphones to replace existing services.

It is a software architecture schematic diagram of the operation stabilization apparatus constructed | stored by storing the program for implementing the operation | movement stabilization method of the smart phone of this invention in a smart phone. It is an example of the XML information input into the application interface part of an operation stabilization apparatus. FIG. 3 is a model diagram representing the XML information of FIG. 2 in a graph. This is an example of log obtained from Android (logcat output example). It is a model figure which shows the example of a graph which the application operation | movement monitoring part of an operation stabilization apparatus produces. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of an application operation | movement monitoring part. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of an application response monitoring part. It is a sample example of the information regarding the state of the smart phone which a heartbeat part generates. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a heartbeat part.

An example of an embodiment of the smartphone operation stabilization method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
Various applications for realizing various functions are installed in the smartphone, and the operation stabilization method of the present invention is intended for stable operation of various applications.
In this operation stabilization method, an operation stabilization program (stabilization software) is installed in the smartphone to construct the operation stabilization device 10 and the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 in the smartphone, and the smartphone itself stabilizes various applications. It is comprised so that operation | movement can be implement | achieved. The operation stabilization program (stabilization software) may be incorporated in the smartphone in advance.
In the following description, when a specific log or system architecture is illustrated, an example of the most popular Android OS is used.

  FIG. 1 shows a software architecture and an Android system architecture related to an operation stabilization apparatus constructed by installing an operation stabilization program (stabilization software). The smartphone includes an operating system 1 that constitutes system software, an application unit 2 that provides an application to a user, and a storage device 3 that stores the application itself, various settings, log information, and the like. The application unit 2 includes various functions. Application (A, B, C) that provides is stored.

  The operation stabilization apparatus 10 includes an application interface unit 11 that provides an interface for using various functions of the stabilization software, an application operation monitoring unit 12 that acquires information about an active application, and various applications. The app response monitoring unit 13 that periodically sends a request to check the content of the response from the app, the heartbeat unit 14 that writes the state of the smartphone together with the time information to the storage area, and whether the function of the stabilization software is operating A heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 that monitors the operation of the stabilization software itself, a communication interface unit 16 for notifying the administrator of the operation status of the function of the stabilization software, and a function of periodically restarting the smartphone itself It is comprised from each function part of the periodical restart part 17. FIG.

Hereinafter, the operation content of each functional unit will be described.
Application interface unit 11
All applications (various applications) that use the function of the stabilization software need to register the information of the various applications themselves in the software module that implements the function of the stabilization software via the application interface unit 11. The registration information includes information defining the behavior of the application during normal operation, the contents of the request transmitted by the function of the stabilization software, and the contents of the response by the application. Information that defines the behavior of the app during normal operation refers to what processing and screen display are executed when the app starts up, how the screen display transitions during normal operation, and each processing and screen display Indicates the timeout time.
The information that defines the behavior of the application during normal operation is described in, for example, an extensible XML format, and developers of various applications that use the function of the stabilization software can download the XML file when installing and starting the application. Implement the app to transfer to the software module that implements the function of the stabilization software. The stabilization software that has received the XML file executes the functions of the application operation monitoring unit 12 and the application response monitoring unit 13 based on the contents described in the XML. In addition to XML information, the application information may be information in other formats that can be read by software, such as a text format.

FIG. 2 shows a sample of XML information, and FIG. 3 shows a graphical representation of XML information.
In the XML information of FIG. 2, “Activity” means one screen that operates in the foreground, and “Service” means a process that operates in the background.
2 and 3, the application “SAMPLE APPLICATION” that uses the function of the stabilization software activates “sample service 1” 20 and “sample activity 1” 21 when the application is executed. It is indicated that “activity 2” 22 or “sample activity 3” 23 is executed. According to Android specifications, only one activity is executed in the foreground at a time.

  In addition, each Service and Activity returns a response “hello ack” 26 to the request message “hello” 25, and a timeout 27 and a retry count 28 for each response, and a timeout 24 for Service and Activity can be confirmed. After this timeout 24, if Activity or Service is executed, it is judged as abnormal.

・ Application operation monitoring unit 12
The application operation monitoring unit 12 acquires information on the currently active Service (group) and Activity in the foreground by monitoring a smartphone log or the like. Save active Services and Activities as a list.
Fig. 4 shows an example of smartphone log acquisition results (acquired using the Android logcat function). FIG. 4 shows how the Service and Activity are activated (activated by the onCreate () log 41) and the switching between Activity and Service (screen switching by the Intent log 42).

  The function of the application operation monitoring unit 12 monitors the log shown in FIG. 4 and graphs a service and activity being activated from a specific character string and an intent indicating its transition together with time information (FIG. 5). In log monitoring, Activity and Service start with onCreate and end with onDestroy according to the specifications of Android, so a graph is created by paying attention to the onCreate and onDestroy strings. In FIG. 5, by associating the same application with the process ID described in the log, it is possible to understand how the application is activated and the screen is changed.

A processing flow in the application operation monitoring unit 12 is shown in FIG. Only the normal operation sequence is described in the flowchart of FIG.
The application operation monitoring unit 12 performs timer execution for elapsed time measurement (step 61), and determines whether a specified time has elapsed after the timer execution (step 62).
When the specified time has elapsed, a graph (FIG. 5) showing how the application operates (screen transition) on Android is generated from the log (step 63).
Next, the generated graph (screen transition) is compared with the graph of FIG. 3 (XML file information of the application interface unit 11 shown in FIG. 2) registered in advance by the application (step 64).

Based on this comparison, whether the app has transitioned correctly (whether it has run on the Android device according to the transition registered in advance by the app) or whether the processing has been completed within the timeout period (starting each Service or Activity in Fig. 5) Whether or not the time-out time described in the XML illustrated in FIG. 2 has been exceeded is confirmed from the time (step 65).
If an abnormal behavior of the application is detected as a result of the confirmation, the application is restarted, and the log is notified to the server together with the restart result due to the occurrence of the abnormality of the application via the communication interface 16 (step 66).

-Application response monitoring unit 13
The application response monitoring unit 13 transmits a request to a running application and monitors a response to the request.
A processing flow in the application response monitoring unit 13 is shown in FIG. Only the sequence of normal operation is described in the flowchart of FIG.
The application response monitoring unit 13 performs an elapsed time measurement timer execution (step 71), and determines whether a specified time has elapsed after the timer execution (step 72).
When the specified time elapses, a request for the running application is generated from the list of running services and activities created from the log in the application operation monitoring unit 12 and the XML file registered from the application (FIG. 2), and activated. A request described in the XML file is transmitted to the service (group) and Activity in the middle (step 73).
In response to this request, it is confirmed whether the response described in the XML file is within the timeout time (step 74).
If the response from the application is not confirmed, the application is restarted, and the log is notified to the server together with the restart result via the communication interface 16 (step 75).

・ Heartbeat 14
An example of an information sample indicating the state of the smartphone generated by the heartbeat unit 14 and stored in the nonvolatile storage area is shown in FIG.
Figure 8 shows the date and time information (YYYY-MM-DD-hh: mm: ss: sss), when the smartphone runs regularly (ALIVE), when a device restart event is detected (REBOOT), and when the battery is low Information on which state is one of the three types at the time of stop detection by (LOWBT) is described.

A processing flow in the heartbeat unit 14 is shown in FIG. Only the normal operation sequence is described in the flowchart of FIG.
The heartbeat unit 14 performs timer execution of elapsed time measurement (step 91), and determines whether a specified time has elapsed after the timer execution (step 92).
Next, when an OS event related to periodic or power on / off is detected, a time stamp is given to the above three types of information indicating the state of the smartphone (step 93), and a nonvolatile storage area ( It is stored in the SD card or the like (step 94).

・ Heartbeat monitoring app 15
The stabilization software stores the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 in the application unit 2 as a function for monitoring the output content of the heartbeat unit 14. The operation of the stabilization software is periodically monitored by the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15, and the stabilization software (except for the heartbeat monitoring application unit) is restarted when an abnormality occurs. This maintains the normal operation of the stabilization software. The heartbeat monitoring application unit maintains normal operation by the application operation monitoring unit 12 and the application response monitoring unit 13. Therefore, as long as the function units of the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15, the application operation monitoring unit 12, the application response monitoring unit 13, and the heartbeat unit 14 do not stop abnormally at the same time, the operation continues while restarting.

  That is, the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 regularly monitors the state information (heartbeat) of the smartphone generated by the heartbeat unit 14 illustrated in FIG. 8 and should be described regularly from the time information. When a heartbeat abnormality is detected, the stabilization software (excluding the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15) is restarted to enable each functional unit (application operation in the operation stabilization device 10 in FIG. 1). The three processing units of the monitoring unit 12, the application response monitoring unit 13, and the heartbeat unit 14) are restarted.

  In addition, even after restarting the stabilization software (excluding the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15), if a heartbeat abnormality that should be regular is detected again, the smartphone (terminal) itself is in an abnormal state. And restart the terminal itself. At the time of restart, the server is notified of the restart result via the communication interface 16 together with a log.

  Also, when the smartphone starts up, check the heartbeat contents, and restart if REBOOT (when a device restart event is detected) or LOWBT (when a stop due to low battery power is detected) is not the latest heartbeat Event does not occur (unable to detect power supply restart that should be detected by the stabilization software). This means that the restart occurred abnormally, and the cause is unknown to the system administrator via the communication interface 16. Notify the server that a restart occurred.

Communication interface 16
When the application operation monitoring unit 12, the application response monitoring unit 13, and the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 restart the application or the terminal, the communication interface 16 notifies the system administrator or the like of the restart result and the log.

Regular restart unit 17
The periodic restart unit 17 has a function of periodically restarting the smartphone.

Abnormal behavior that falls for some reason during the execution of smartphones and apps, Freezes that the smartphone (terminal) becomes unresponsive, Self-reboots that the device restarts without permission, Hangs that various apps become unresponsive, Various apps suddenly It is classified into 4 types of crashes to finish.
When the above-described operation stabilization method is executed, all four types of abnormal states can be avoided by each functional unit. Hereinafter, how each functional unit contributes to avoiding four types of abnormal states will be described.

The phenomenon Freezes can be dealt with as follows.
By periodically uploading the heartbeat to the server in the heartbeat unit 14, it is possible to detect the occurrence of Freezes when the heartbeat does not reach the server within a certain time.
The heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 can avoid the occurrence of Freezes by restarting the smartphone (terminal) when the heartbeat interval is abnormal.
The periodic restart unit 17 prevents the occurrence of Freezes by periodically restarting.

The phenomenon Self-reboots can be dealt with as follows.
The heartbeat unit 14 and the heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 can detect the restart by confirming the heartbeat. The heartbeat monitoring application unit 15 can also detect an abnormal restart without an event by confirming the heartbeat at the time of activation.

The phenomenon Hangs can be dealt with as follows.
The application operation monitoring unit 12 can detect the occurrence of Hangs by managing the timeout for each service and activity. If detected, restart various applications.
The application response monitoring unit 13 can send a request to the active applications (Service (s) and Activity) and detect the occurrence of Hangs based on the presence or absence of a response. If detected, restart various applications.

The phenomenon Crashes can be dealt with as follows.
The application operation monitoring unit 12 can detect the occurrence of crashes by constantly monitoring various applications that are running. If detected, restart various applications.

According to the above-described smartphone operation stabilization method and operation stabilization device, the smartphone (terminal) does not respond to Freezes, the terminal restarts itself, Self-reboots, various applications do not respond, Hangs, various applications It is possible to stabilize the operation of various applications by performing operations that prevent all four types of abnormal operations of Crashes that suddenly end.
As a result, since stable and continuous operation of various applications is possible, services such as remote monitoring that have been difficult to realize with conventional smartphones can be replaced with smartphones.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operating system, 2 ... Application part, 3 ... Memory | storage device, 10 ... Operation | movement stabilization apparatus, 11 ... Application interface part, 12 ... Application operation | movement monitoring part, 13 ... Application response monitoring part, 14 ... Heartbeat part, 15 ... Heartbeat monitoring application unit, 16 ... communication interface, 17 ... periodic restart unit.

Claims (9)

A method executed by stabilization software stored in a smartphone on which various applications are executed,
An operation monitoring procedure for monitoring the behavior of the application executed by the smartphone;
When the behavior of the application is different from the behavior registered in advance in the stabilization software by the application itself, by including a restart procedure for restarting the application,
A method for stabilizing operation of a smartphone, characterized by realizing stable operation of the application. The operation monitoring procedure includes:
Log information about the behavior of the application executed by the smartphone is periodically added to the nonvolatile storage area in the smartphone,
The smartphone operation stabilization method according to claim 1, wherein the smartphone operation stabilization method is executed by periodically confirming whether or not the application behavior information registered in advance is matched. A response monitoring procedure for sending a request described in information registered in advance by the application itself to the application executed by the smartphone and confirming the presence or absence of a response described in the information registered by the application, The method for stabilizing the operation of a smartphone according to claim 2, wherein the application is restarted when there is not. The stabilization software has a function of periodically monitoring the state of the stabilization software itself and the smartphone, and includes a procedure for restarting the stabilization software or the smartphone itself when an abnormality is detected. Item 5. A method for stabilizing the operation of a smartphone according to Item 3. The said stabilization software monitors the state of a smart phone regularly, and when the abnormality is detected from the said state and time information, the operation | movement stability of the smart phone of Claim 3 provided with the procedure which restarts the said smart phone Method.   The smartphone operation stabilization method according to claim 5, further comprising a procedure for periodically restarting the smartphone itself regardless of the state of the smartphone.   An operation stabilization program for causing a computer to execute each procedure according to any one of claims 1 to 6. An operation stabilization device constructed by storing stabilization software on a smartphone on which various applications are executed,
An application interface unit that provides an interface for using the stabilization software for the application;
An application behavior monitoring unit that acquires an application behavior during activation for the application, and that restarts the application when the application behavior is different from an application behavior registered in advance by the application itself;
An application response monitoring unit that periodically transmits a request to the application, confirms a response content of a request registered in advance, a response content from the application, and restarts the application when there is no response,
A heartbeat unit that writes the state of the smartphone (periodic execution / restart detection / stop detection due to battery shortage, etc.) to a storage area periodically or when detecting power on / off of the smartphone;
A heartbeat monitoring application unit that is implemented in the stabilization software and restarts the application operation monitoring unit, the application response monitoring unit, and the heartbeat unit when an abnormality of the smartphone is detected from the state and time information;
An operation stabilizing device characterized by comprising:   The operation stabilization apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a periodic restart unit that periodically restarts the smartphone itself.