Transmission of Status Updates Responsive to Status of Recipient Application

• US 20100262664A1
• Filed: 12/23/2009
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Brown, Michael, Klassen, Gerhard
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/323 Discarding or blocking control packets, e.g. ACK packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration

Abstract

Selecting and modifying the transmission rates and sizes of status update messages transmitted by a mobile communications device to a recipient application based on use of the updates by the recipient application improves resource utilization or accuracy. During one mode of operation, a mobile communications device transmits status messages using a conservative message transmission mode. This allows the mobile communications device to transmit a greater number of status updates for future processing by the recipient application while conserving resources. When the recipient application is actively processing status updates from the mobile communications device, the mobile communications device transmits the status messages using an accelerated message transmission mode with a different number of status updates in each status message and different delay between status messages, which may reduce delay or improve accuracy. Similarly, the mobile communications device may reduce the number of status updates transmitted by applying algorithm-based filters described herein based on the expected usage by the recipient application.

Claims

1. A method in a mobile communications device that transmits status messages to a recipient application, each status message including at least one status update, the method comprising:

transmitting status messages using a first message transmission mode; and

upon determining that the recipient application is actively processing status updates, transmitting status messages using a second message transmission mode, the second message transmission mode being different from the first message transmission mode.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon determining that the recipient application is no longer actively processing status updates; and

resuming transmitting status messages using the first message transmission mode.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

resuming transmitting status messages using the first message transmission mode after a period of time unless the mobile communications device makes a subsequent determination that the recipient application is actively processing status updates during the period of time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the mobile communications device is transmitting status messages using the second message transmission mode, the mobile communications device transmits the status messages with less delay than when the mobile communications device is transmitting status messages using the first message transmission mode.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that the recipient application is actively processing status updates comprises monitoring a database for a record in the database, wherein the record comprises an indication that the recipient application is actively processing status updates.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the record further comprises a duration specifying how long the mobile communications device should transmit status messages using the second message transmission mode.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

determining that said record was removed the database; and

resuming transmitting status messages using the first message transmission mode.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the record further comprises a timestamp indicating when the recipient application began actively processing status updates, the method further comprising:

and

comparing a current time on the mobile communications device with the timestamp, and if the difference between the current time and the timestamp is greater than a predetermined time period, ignoring the record for purposes of determining that the recipient application is actively processing status updates.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the database comprises a shared database in a networked server.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that the recipient application is actively processing status updates comprises:

receiving a request message from the recipient application comprising at least one of an indication that the recipient application is actively processing status updates or an explicit request to receive status messages using the second message transmission mode.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the request message further comprises a duration specifying how long the recipient application requests to received status messages using the second message transmission mode.

12. The method of claims 10 wherein the request message further comprises a timestamp indicating when the recipient application began actively processing status updates.

13. The method of claims 12 further comprising:

comparing a current time on the mobile communications device with the timestamp, and if the difference between the current time and the timestamp is greater than a predetermined time period, then ignoring the request message for purposes of determining that the recipient application is actively processing status updates.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein:

when the mobile communications device is transmitting status messages using the first transmission mode, each status message includes more than one status update; and

when the mobile communications device is transmitting status messages using the second message transmission mode, each status message includes one status update.

15. A mobile communications device, comprising:

a mode selector configured to determine whether a recipient application is actively processing status updates and to select a message transmission mode based on whether the recipient application is actively processing status updates; and

a message generator configured to generate status messages and to cause transmission of status messages from the mobile communications device to a recipient application using the selected message transmission mode.

16. The mobile communications device of claim 15, wherein the mode selector selects a second message transmission mode when the mode selector determines that the recipient application is actively processing status updates, and the mode selector selects a first message transmission mode when the mode selector determines that the recipient application is not actively processing status updates.

17. The mobile communications device of claim 15, wherein the mode selector comprises a component to observe a local database for a record in the database, the record comprising an indication that the recipient application is actively processing status updates.

18. The mobile communications device of claim 15, wherein the mode selector comprises a component to inspect a request message from the recipient application, the request message including an indication that the recipient application is actively processing status updates.

19. A recipient application for processing status updates from a mobile communications device, comprising:

a storage medium;

a database stored in the storage medium;

an output generator configured to generate an output based on information obtained from status updates; and

a status update processor configured to modify or add a data record in the database whenever the status update processor is processing status updates from a mobile communications device and sending information obtained from the status updates to the output generator, wherein the data record comprises an indication that the recipient application is actively processing status updates from the mobile communications device.

20. The recipient application of claim 19 wherein the data record further comprises a timestamp indicating when the status update processor began processing status updates from the mobile communications device.

21. The recipient application of claim 19 wherein the storage medium is located in a network server.

22. The recipient application of claim 19 wherein the status update processor comprises:

a collector component for receiving status updates from the mobile communications device and storing the received status updates in the database;

an output component for sending information obtained from the status updates to the output generator;

wherein the status update processor is configured to add the data record to the database whenever the output component is sending information obtained from the status updates to the output generator; and

wherein the status update processor is configured to remove the data record from the database whenever the output component is not sending information obtained from the status updates to the output generator.