Android Services & Local IPC:

The Activator Pattern (Part 1)

Douglas C. Schmidt
[email protected]
www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt

Professor of Computer Science

Institute for Software
Integrated Systems

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Learning Objectives in this Part of the Module

• Understand the Activator pattern

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www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Activator.pdf
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Challenge: Minimizing Resource Utilization

Context

• Resource constrained & highly Small Memory Device

dynamic environments
• Random-access memory (RAM)
is a valuable resource in any
software environment

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Challenge: Minimizing Resource Utilization

Context

• Resource constrained & highly Small Memory Device

dynamic environments
• Random-access memory (RAM)
is a valuable resource in any
software environment
• It's even more valuable on a
mobile OS like Android where
physical memory is often
constrained

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Challenge: Processing a Long-Running Action

Problem
• It‘s not feasible to have all App Small Memory Device
Service implementations running
all the time since this ties up end-
system resources unnecessarily

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developer.android.com/training/articles/memory.html has more info
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Challenge: Processing a Long-Running Action

Solution
• Apply the Activator pattern ActivityManagerService
bindService()
to activate & deactivate Client 1
ServiceMap
Android Services
automatically mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser
• If your app needs a Service
to perform work in the 2 Process.start()
background, don’t keep it
3
running unless it's actively someMethodCall()
performing a job
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Challenge: Processing a Long-Running Action

Solution
• Apply the Activator pattern ActivityManagerService
bindService()
to activate & deactivate Client 1
ServiceMap
Android Services
automatically mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser
• If your app needs a Service
to perform work in the 2 Process.start()
background, don’t keep it
3
running unless it's actively someMethodCall()
performing a job
4 Service
• Be careful to never leak
your Service by failing to stop
it when its work is done

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developer.android.com/training/articles/memory.html#Services has more info
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Intent
• Activator automates scalable on-demand activation & deactivation of
service execution contexts to run services accessed by many clients
without consuming excessive resources

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www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Activator.pdf has more info
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Applicability
• When services in a system should only consume resources when they
are accessed actively by clients

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Applicability
• When services in a system should only consume resources when they
are accessed actively by clients
• When clients should be shielded from where services are located, how
they are deployed onto hosts or processes, & how their lifecycle is
managed

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

Activity

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

Intent

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

Context

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

Activity
Manager
Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants
ServiceMap

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

Linux Process

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Structure & Participants

IntentService

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Dynamics The Client uses the Activator
to get service access

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Dynamics

When incoming requests arrive, the Activator looks up

whether a target object is already active & if the object is
not running it activates the Service Execution Context

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Dynamics

An Activator can activate & passivate a

Service running in a server after each
method call, each transaction, etc

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Dynamics The Activation Table
stores associations
between services &
their physical location

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Dynamics

A Service implements a specific type of

functionality that it provides to clients
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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
+ More effective resource bindService()

utilization Client 1
ServiceMap
• Servers can be spawned mServicesByNamePerUser
“on-demand,” thereby mServicesByIntentPerUser
minimizing resource
utilization until clients 2 Process.start()
actually require them 3
someMethodCall()
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
+ More effective resource bindService()

utilization Client 1
ServiceMap
+ Coarse-grained concurrency mServicesByNamePerUser

• By spawning server mServicesByIntentPerUser

processes to run on
multi-core/CPU computers 2 Process.start()

3
someMethodCall()
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
+ More effective resource bindService()

utilization Client 1
ServiceMap
+ Coarse-grained concurrency mServicesByNamePerUser

+ Modularity, testability, & mServicesByIntentPerUser

reusability
2 Process.start()
• Application modularity &
reusability is improved by 3
someMethodCall()
decoupling server 4 Service
implementations from
the manner in which the
servers are activated

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
– Lack of determinism & bindService()

ordering dependencies Client 1

ServiceMap
• Hard to determine or mServicesByNamePerUser
analyze the behavior of mServicesByIntentPerUser
an app until its components
are activated at runtime 2 Process.start()

3
someMethodCall()
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
– Lack of determinism & bindService()

ordering dependencies Client 1

ServiceMap
– Reduced security & reliability mServicesByNamePerUser

• An application that uses mServicesByIntentPerUser

Activator may be less
secure or reliable than 2 Process.start()

an equivalent statically- 3
configured application
someMethodCall()
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Consequences
ActivityManagerService
– Lack of determinism & bindService()

ordering dependencies Client 1

ServiceMap
– Reduced security & reliability mServicesByNamePerUser

– Increased run-time overhead & mServicesByIntentPerUser

infrastructure complexity
2 Process.start()
• By adding levels of abstraction
& indirection when activating 3
someMethodCall()
& executing components 4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server” Internal Internal Internal
service service service
• Internal services are fixed at
static link time
• e.g., ECHO & DAYTIME

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server” Internal Internal Internal
service service service
• Internal services are fixed at
static link time
• External services can be
dynamically reconfigured
• e.g., FTP, TELNET, & HTTP

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See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inetd for more on Inetd
Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server”
• CORBA Implementation Repository

1. some_request

Client ImR (ringil:5000)

iiop://ringil:5000/poa_name/object_name 4. LOCATION_FORWARD
poa_name server.exe ringil:5500
iiop://ringil:5500/poa_name/object_name airplane_poa plane.exe ringil:4500

2. ping
3. is_running
2.1 start

5. some_request Server (ringil:5500)

6. some_response

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server”
• CORBA Implementation Repository
• Android ActivityManagerService

ActivityManagerService
bindService()
Client 1
ServiceMap
mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server”
• CORBA Implementation Repository
• Android ActivityManagerService

ActivityManagerService
bindService()
Client 1
ServiceMap
mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser

2 Process.start()

Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server”
• CORBA Implementation Repository
• Android ActivityManagerService

ActivityManagerService
bindService()
Client 1
ServiceMap
mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser

2 Process.start()

3
someMethodCall()
Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Activator POSA4 Design Pattern

Known Uses
• UNIX Inetd “super server”
• CORBA Implementation Repository
• Android ActivityManagerService

ActivityManagerService
bindService()
Client 1
ServiceMap
mServicesByNamePerUser

mServicesByIntentPerUser

2 Process.start()

3
someMethodCall()
4 Service

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Summary

• Activator frees clients from the responsibility of (re)activating the resources

they use
• It appears to them as if all resources were always (virtually) available

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Android Services & Local IPC Douglas C. Schmidt

Summary

• Activator frees clients from the responsibility of (re)activating the resources

they use
• Activator also ensures that (re)activating a resource incurs minimal overhead
because it maintains information about how to optimize this process
• e.g., an activator could reload the resource’s persistent state & reacquire
the needed computing resources in parallel, thereby speeding resource
initialization

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www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Activator.pdf has more info