MOBILE DEVICE-BASED BANDWIDTH THROTTLING

• US 20120108200A1
• Filed: 10/27/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Rubin, Andrew E., Greenwalt, Robert J. III
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,250 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/405
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/535 based on resource usage policies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for implementing mobile device-based bandwidth throttling. In one aspect, a method includes receiving policy from a wireless carrier that specifies one or more data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over a wireless carrier network during a predetermined period of time, determining an amount of data that has been transferred by the mobile device over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined period of time, determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds, and throttling the bandwidth of a mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the mobile device, a policy from a wireless carrier that specifies one or more data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over a wireless carrier network during a predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, an amount of data that has been transferred by the mobile device over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds; and

throttling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying, by the mobile device, representations of the one or more data usage thresholds and the amount.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount is within a predetermined range of one or more of the data usage thresholds; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the amount is within the predetermined range.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount is trending to exceed one or more of the data usage thresholds within the predetermined period of time; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the amount is trending to exceed the one or more data usage thresholds.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, by the mobile device, a first value representing a percentage of one or more of the data usage thresholds that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, a second value representing a percentage of the predetermined period of time that has elapsed;

determining, by the mobile device, that the first value is outside of a predetermined range from the second value; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the first value is outside of a predetermined range from the second value.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the first value exceeds a predetermined third value,

wherein the warning is only displayed after determining that the first value is outside of the predetermined range from the second value, and that the first value exceeds the predetermined third value.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, by the mobile device, that the predetermined period of time has elapsed; and

unthrottling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the policy comprises a Fair Access Policy for the wireless carrier; and

one or more of the data usage thresholds comprises a bandwidth cap.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the mobile device, an updated policy from the wireless carrier that specifies one or more increased data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined time;

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount does not exceed one or more of the increased data usage thresholds; and

unthrottling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount does not exceed one or more of the increased data usage thresholds.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying, by the mobile device, a control that allows a user of the mobile device to purchase the updated policy; and

determining, by the mobile device, that the user has selected the control,

wherein the updated policy is received based on determining that the user has selected the control.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting that the mobile device has been booted, that a subscriber identity module (SIM) card associated with the mobile device has been changed, or that a second, different predetermined period of time has elapsed;

wherein the amount is determined based on detecting that the mobile device has been booted, that the SIM card associated with the mobile device has been changed, or that the second predetermined period of time has elapsed.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the amount further comprises:

determining a first amount representing an amount of data that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time while the mobile device is roaming;

determining a second amount representing an amount of data that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time while the mobile device is not roaming; and

establishing the second amount as the amount.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the amount further comprises:

determining a first amount representing an amount of data that has been communicated by the mobile device through a wide-area network connection during the predetermined period of time;

determining a second amount representing an amount of data that has been communicated by the mobile device through a local area network data connection during the predetermined period of time; and

establishing the first amount as the amount.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein throttling the bandwidth further comprises:

delaying the transmission of data from the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the data usage thresholds comprise a first data usage threshold and a second data usage threshold; and

throttling the bandwidth further comprises;

throttling the bandwidth to a first extent based on determining that the amount exceeds the first data usage threshold, and

throttling the bandwidth to a second, different extent based on determining that the amount exceeds the second data usage threshold.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network is throttled to a non-zero rate of data transfer.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, a policy from a wireless carrier that specifies one or more data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over a wireless carrier network during a predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, an amount of data that has been transferred by the mobile device over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds; and

throttling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising:

displaying, by the mobile device, representations of the one or more data usage thresholds and the amount.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising:

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount is within a predetermined range of one or more of the data usage thresholds; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the amount is within the predetermined range.

20. The method of claim 17, comprising:

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount is trending to exceed one or more of the data usage thresholds within the predetermined period of time; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the amount is trending to exceed the one or more data usage thresholds.

21. The method of claim 17, comprising:

determining, by the mobile device, a first value representing a percentage of one or more of the data usage thresholds that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time;

determining, by the mobile device, a second value representing a percentage of the predetermined period of time that has elapsed;

determining, by the mobile device, that the first value is outside of a predetermined range from the second value; and

displaying, by the mobile device, a warning based on determining that the first value is outside of a predetermined range from the second value.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising:

determining that the first value exceeds a predetermined third value,

wherein the warning is only displayed after determining that the first value is outside of the predetermined range from the second value, and that the first value exceeds the predetermined third value.

23. The method of claim 17, comprising:

determining, by the mobile device, that the predetermined period of time has elapsed; and

unthrottling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the policy comprises a Fair Access Policy for the wireless carrier; and

one or more of the data usage thresholds comprises a bandwidth cap.

25. The method of claim 17, comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, an updated policy from the wireless carrier that specifies one or more increased data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined time;

determining, by the mobile device, that the amount does not exceed one or more of the increased data usage thresholds; and

unthrottling, by the mobile device, the bandwidth of the mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount does not exceed one or more of the increased data usage thresholds.

26. The method of claim 25, comprising:

displaying, by the mobile device, a control that allows a user of the mobile device to purchase the updated policy; and

determining, by the mobile device, that the user has selected the control,

wherein the updated policy is received based on determining that the user has selected the control.

27. The method of claim 17, comprising:

detecting that the mobile device has been booted, that a subscriber identity module (SIM) card associated with the mobile device has been changed, or that a second, different predetermined period of time has elapsed;

wherein the amount is determined based on detecting that the mobile device has been booted, that the SIM card associated with the mobile device has been changed, or that the second predetermined period of time has elapsed.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the amount further comprises:

determining a first amount representing an amount of data that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time while the mobile device is roaming;

determining a second amount representing an amount of data that has been used by the mobile device during the predetermined period of time while the mobile device is not roaming; and

establishing the second amount as the amount.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the amount further comprises:

determining a first amount representing an amount of data that has been communicated by the mobile device through a wide-area network connection during the predetermined period of time;

determining a second amount representing an amount of data that has been communicated by the mobile device through a local area network data connection during the predetermined period of time; and

establishing the first amount as the amount.

30. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that if executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving policy from a wireless carrier that specifies one or more data usage thresholds allotted by the wireless carrier for data transferred over a wireless carrier network during a predetermined period of time;

determining an amount of data that has been transferred by the mobile device over the wireless carrier network during the predetermined period of time;

determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds; and

throttling the bandwidth of a mobile device over the wireless carrier network based on determining that the amount exceeds one or more of the data usage thresholds.