Active geo-fence management

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a mobile device, a set of geo-fences;

maintaining a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences;

establishing and monitoring an envelope geo-fences that excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences;

detecting the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, wherein proximate to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within a predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence or the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location; and

in response to detecting the mobile device has moved to the new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, moving one or more geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

establishing and monitoring a new envelope geo-fence, the new envelope geo-fence excluding the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is defined by the union of one or more tiles of a location determination system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains all the active subset of geo-fences.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a minimum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a minimum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a maximum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a maximum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences that still excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining obtains geo-fences that are within a given distance of a first location of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining the mobile device has moved to a second location that is more than a given distance from the first location; and

in response to the determining, obtaining a new set of geo-fences that are within the given distance of the second location of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within the predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a mobile device, a set of geo-fences;

maintaining a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences;

establishing and monitoring an envelope geo-fence that is defined by a union of one or more tiles of a location determination system;

detecting the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, wherein proximate to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within a predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence or the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location; and

in response to detecting the mobile device has moved to the new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, moving one or more geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains the active subset of geo-fences and excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

establishing and monitoring a new envelope geo-fence that is defined by a union of one or more different tiles of the location determination system.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the new envelope geo-fence contains the new active subset of geo-fences and excludes the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within the predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location.

17. An apparatus comprising

a processor configured to execute instructions; and

a memory configured to store executable instructions for a client application, the client application to include:

a request process configured to a obtain a set of geo-fences from a server,

a geo-fence cache configured to store the set of geo-fences, and to maintain a first subset of the set of geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences, and a second subset of the set of geo-fences an inactive subset of geo-fences, and

an activation process configured to define an envelope geo-fence that excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences, and to move geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences based on changes in proximity of the mobile device to the envelope geo-fence to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the activation process is further configured to define a new envelope geo-fence, the new envelope geo-fence excluding the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains all the active subset of geo-fences.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a minimum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a minimum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences or a maximum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a maximum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences that still excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.