TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR MEASURING DATA USAGE

• US 20120163232A1
• Filed: 10/03/2011
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Inventors: YOO, Jung Im
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,039 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/253
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1417 Advice of charge with threshold, e.g. user indicating maximum cost
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1435 volume-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0022 for transferring data sessions between adjacent core network technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

In a mobile terminal and method, the mobile terminal and method calculate a usage amount of data for each application executed in the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes: a communication unit to communicate to a server; a recognition unit to recognize an application sending a data communication connection request; a calculation unit to calculate a usage amount of data communicated by the application sending the data communication connection request; and a control unit to control the mobile terminal based on the calculation and of data usage for the application.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a communication unit to communicate data to and from a server of a communication service provider;

a recognition unit to recognize a first application and a second application that communicate data via the communication unit;

a calculation unit for calculating a usage amount of data communicated to and from the server for the first application; and

a control unit to control the mobile terminal based on the usage amount of data for the first application.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication service provider provides data communication according to a wireless standard comprising one of:

WCDMA, HSDPA, CDMA2000, Wibro, WiMax, LTE, and LTE-Advanced.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit to display the usage amount of data for the first application.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control unit blocks the first application from data communication if the usage amount of data for the first application exceeds an upper limit.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control unit determines whether a current location of the mobile terminal is in range of a Wi-Fi network if the usage amount of data for the first application exceeds an upper limit.

6. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control unit connects to the Wi-Fi network if the current location of the mobile terminal is in range of the Wi-Fi network.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising:

an analyzing unit to analyze a feature of data of the first application,

wherein the calculating unit calculates a usage amount of data according to the feature of data, and

the control unit controls the mobile terminal based on the usage amount of data according to the analyzed feature.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the analyzing unit analyzes the feature as synchronization data, necessary data or advertising data used for the first application.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the control unit determines a packet of data is synchronization data, if the packet is transmitted at specific time intervals or transmitted if the first application is operating in a background.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the control unit determines a packet of data is necessary data, if the packet is transmitted and the first application is operating in a foreground.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the control unit filters URL information or file format information to determine if a packet of data is advertising data.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein, if a ratio of the usage amount of data for advertising data to the usage amount of total data for the first application is equal to or greater than a threshold value, the control unit determines that the first application is an advertising application.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 12, wherein the control unit blocks the first application from data communication, if the first application is the advertising application.

14. The mobile terminal according to claim 12, wherein the control unit stores a record of the advertising application in a database.

15. The mobile terminal according to claim 14, wherein the control unit displays a warning message or a pop-up window on the display unit, if the advertising application is executed.

16. The mobile terminal according to claim 14, wherein, if two applications transmit data communication connection requests at a same time, the control unit determines whether either application is an advertising application, and preferentially connects a non-advertising application before the advertising application.

17. The mobile terminal according to claim 14, wherein, the control unit blocks the first application from data communication, if a load of the control unit exceeds a threshold and the first application is an advertising application.

18. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the calculation unit to not calculate the usage amount of data if the application is a free-of-charge application.

19. A method for controlling a mobile terminal comprising:

sensing data communicated from the mobile terminal to and from a server of a communication service provider;

recognizing a first application and a second application that communicate data to and from the server;

calculating a usage amount of data for the first application; and

controlling the mobile terminal based on the usage amount of data.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the calculating occurs for a period from the first application requesting a connection to the server to the first application requesting disconnection to the server.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the communication service provider provides data communication according to a wireless standard comprising one of:

WCDMA, HSDPA, CDMA2000, Wibro, WiMax, LTE, and LTE-Advanced.

22. The method according to claim 19, further comprising displaying the usage amount of data of the first application.

23. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

determining if the usage amount of data exceeds an upper limit; and

blocking the first application from data communication if the usage amount exceeds an upper limit.

24. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

determining if the usage amount of data exceeds an upper limit; and

determining whether a current location of the mobile terminal is in range of a Wi-Fi network if the usage amount of data for the first application exceeds an upper limit; and

connecting to the Wi-Fi network if the current location of the mobile terminal is in range of the Wi-Fi network

25. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

analyzing a feature of data of the first application; and

controlling the mobile terminal based on the feature.

26. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

identifying the feature of data as synchronization data, necessary data, and advertising data used for each application; and

calculating a usage amount of data the first application.

27. The method according to claim 19, wherein calculating the usage amount of data further comprises:

excluding usage amount of data for a free-of-charge application.