Method and Apparatus for Data Offloading

• US 20110317571A1
• Filed: 09/24/2010
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Kokkinen, Heikki, Rinne, Mika, Kekki, Sami
• Granted Patent: US 8,824,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/08 Load balancing or load distribution transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises receiving data dependent offloading parameters at a mobile device, measuring data amount usage of the mobile device, comparing the measured data amount usage to the received data dependent offloading parameters, and determining whether to attempt offloading of data from the mobile device to a complementary network based on the comparison.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a communications interface for receiving data dependent offloading parameters at a mobile device;

a data counter in the mobile device for measuring data usage of the mobile device; and

an offload selection function in the mobile device for comparing the received data dependent offloading parameters to the measured data usage and for determining whether to attempt offloading of data from the mobile device to a complementary network based on the comparison.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the offload selection function further comprises:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, compare the received data dependent offloading parameters to the measured data usage and determine whether to attempt offloading of data from the mobile device to a complementary network based on the comparison.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data counter further comprises a traffic profiler which measures at least one of the following:

amount of data, data rate, traffic flow, service type, application, or port type.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters further comprise data thresholds and wherein the method further comprises setting offload triggers based on the data thresholds.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters are downloaded or uploaded to the mobile device as Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) parameters.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data counter can be configured for measuring data amount usage for a specific time period and wherein the offload selection function can further determine whether to attempt to offload based on data dependent offloading parameters for the specific time period.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a switch for switching on an interface at the mobile device for communicating with the complementary network if it is determined to attempt to offload.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving data dependent offloading parameters at a mobile device;

measuring data usage of the mobile device;

comparing the measured data usage to the received data dependent offloading parameters; and

determining whether to attempt offloading of data from the mobile device to a complementary network based on the comparison.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters further comprise data thresholds and wherein the method further comprises setting offload triggers based on the data thresholds.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters are downloaded or uploaded to the mobile device as Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) parameters.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein measuring data usage further comprises measuring data amount usage for a specific time period and wherein determining whether to attempt to offload is made based on data dependent offloading parameters for the specific time period.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising if it is determined to attempt to offload, switching on an interface at the mobile device for communicating with the complementary network and scanning for the complementary network.

13. The method of claim 8, measuring data usage further comprises one of:

measuring amount of data, data rate, traffic flow, service type, application, or port type.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising setting offloading triggers based on the received data dependent offloading parameters.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising:

code for receiving data dependent offloading parameters at a mobile device;

code for measuring data usage of the mobile device;

code for comparing the measured data usage to the received data dependent offloading parameters; and

code for determining whether to attempt offloading of data from the mobile device to a complementary network based on the comparison.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters further comprise data thresholds and wherein the method further comprises setting offload triggers based on the data thresholds.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the received data dependent offloading parameters are downloaded or uploaded to the mobile device as Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) parameters.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the code for measuring data usage further comprises code for measuring data amount usage for a specific time period and wherein the code for determining whether to attempt to offload is made based on data dependent offloading parameters for the specific time period.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the code for measuring data usage further comprises code for one of:

measuring amount of data, data rate, traffic flow, service type, application, or port type further comprising code for switching on an interface at the mobile device for communicating with the complementary network and scanning for the complementary network if it is determined to attempt to offload.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising code for setting offloading triggers based on the received data dependent offloading parameters.