Apple Inc.

Michael Van Milligan

Joshua V Graessley

Cahya Adiansyah Masputra

Augustin Prats

Brian J Tucker

Jason C Conn

Rory L P McGuire

Scott James Forstall

Gregory B Novick

Gregory R Chapman

John Joseph Iarocci

Gordon J Freedman

Richard Warren Schreyer

Henry Graham Mason

Darren S Litzinger

Christopher Marcellino

Curtis Rothert

Charles Srisuwananukorn

David B Myszewski

Eric Albert

Joseph Sokol

Matthew G Waston

Thomas Brogan Duffy

Neil Gareth Crane

Damien Pascal Sorresso

Eric J Albert

Lucia Elena Ballard

Thomas Brogan Duffy, Jr

Joshua Graessley, Sr

Techniques for discovering and/or advertising services are described herein. A first bitmask is received from a remote device over a wireless network, the first bitmask having one or more bits that have a predetermined logical value. Each bit represents a particular service provided by the remote device. A logical operation is performed between the first bitmask and a second bitmask locally generated within a local device, where the second bitmask represents a service being searched by the local device. It is determined whether the remote device is potentially capable of providing the service being searched by the local device based on a result of the logical operation.

Efficient service discovery for peer-to-peer networking devices

Services for a personal electronic device are provided through which a form of background processing or multitasking is supported. The disclosed services permit user applications to take advantage of background processing without significant negative consequences to a user's experience of the foreground process or the personal electronic device's power resources. To effect the disclosed multitasking, one or more of a number of operational restrictions may be enforced. By way of example, inactive network applications (e.g., VOIP applications) may be placed in a suspended state until a message is received targeting the application (e.g., an incoming phone call or a heartbeat needed message). The user application may be placed into the background state to respond to the message and then returned to the non-active state (e.g., if the message was a heartbeat needed) message or to the foreground state if appropriate (e.g., the user elects to answer the incoming call).

Opportunistic multitasking of VOIP applications

The described embodiments include a system that configures a network interface. During operation, the system receives a signal from an operating system indicating that the network interface can be idled. The signal is sent from the operating system as soon as the operating system determines that a final route structure that depended on the network interface has expired and been deleted. The system then determines if an application has established a route that uses the network interface since the signal was sent from the operating system. If not, the system causes the network interface to be idled. Otherwise, the system leaves the network interface in a current operating state.

Method and apparatus for idling a network connection

The described embodiments provide a system that controls the operating state of a network interface. During operation, in response to receiving a request from an application to use the network interface for a route, the system creates a route structure for the route and increments a route reference counter in an interface data structure for the network interface. Upon subsequently determining that the application is no longer using the route, the system sets a route expiration timer in the route structure to a predetermined expiration time. When the route expiration timer expires, the system deletes the route structure and decrements the route reference counter in the interface data structure. When decrementing the route reference counter in the interface data structure causes the route reference counter to be equal to zero, the system sends a signal to a configuration application to inform the application that the network interface can be idled.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Michael Van Milligan