Application Controller for Quality-of-Service Configuration of a Telecommunication Device Radio

• US 20130258966A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Tapia, Pablo, Shah, Mehul, Ionescu, Alexandru Catalin
• Granted Patent: US 9,596,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

An application controller of a telecommunication device to determine, for a packet flow of an application, a quality-of-service rule associated with the application is described herein. The application controller then configures a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the telecommunication device with a quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule and provides a packet of the packet flow for transmission to a remote recipient via the configured data bearer.

Claims

1. A telecommunication device comprising:

a processor;

a wireless communication stack;

an application configured to be operated by the processor to send and receive packets of a packet flow;

an application controller configured to be operated by the processor to determine, for the packet flow, a quality-of-service rule associated with the application and to configure a data bearer for the packet flow with a quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule; and

a radio interface layer configured to be operated by the processor to implement the data bearer and to use the data bearer to transmit, via the wireless communication stack, a packet of the packet flow to a remote recipient.

2. The telecommunication device of claim 1, further comprising an operating system having radio interface layer extensions, the radio interface layer extensions enabling the application controller to perform the configuring of the data bearer.

3. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the application controller is part of the application, is part of an operating system, or is a layer that is between the application and the operating system or is between the operating system and the radio interface layer.

4. The telecommunication device of claim 1, further comprising a set of quality-of-service rules that is received from or updated by a network operator or a service provider, the set of quality-of-service rules including the quality-of-service rule.

5. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the radio interface layer is further configured to utilize the data bearer for incoming packets from the remote recipient that are associated with the packet flow.

6. A method comprising:

determining for a packet flow of an application, by a telecommunication device, a quality-of-service rule associated with the application;

configuring, by the telecommunication device, a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the telecommunication device with a quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule; and

transmitting, by the telecommunication device, via the data bearer, a packet of the packet flow in accordance with the quality-of-service.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving another packet of another packet flow from the application, determining that another data bearer has already been configured for the other packet flow, and providing other packet to the other data bearer for transmission.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining and configuring are performed by a quality-of-service application controller of the telecommunication device.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining comprises retrieving the quality-of-service rule from a set of quality-of-service rules based on an application identifier associated with the application.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving the set of quality-of-service rules or an update to the set of quality-of-service rules from a network operator or service provider.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the application identifier includes one or more of an internet protocol (IP) address, a communication protocol, a source port, a destination port, an application name, a signature, or a website name.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the quality-of-service rule specifies at least one of a priority or a minimum bit rate.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the quality-of-service rule specifies different qualities-of-service for uplink and downlink communications of packets of the packet flow.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuring is further based at least in part on one or more user quality-of-service preferences.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuring comprises configuring the data bearer with a first quality-of-service for a time period and with a second quality-of-service at the expiration of the time period.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the quality-of-service rule belongs one of a plurality of sets of quality-of-service rules respectively associated with a plurality of subscription levels.

17. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving another packet of another packet flow of another application, determining that the other application is not associated with a quality-of-service rule, and configured another data bearer with a default quality-of-service.

18. One or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to program a telecommunication device to perform operations comprising:

determining for a packet flow of an application a quality-of-service rule associated with the application;

configuring a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the telecommunication device with a quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule; and

transmitting, via the data bearer, a packet of the packet flow in accordance with the quality-of-service.

19. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 18, wherein the determining comprises retrieving the quality-of-service rule from a set of quality-of-service rules based on an application identifier associated with the application.

20. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 18, wherein the quality-of-service rule specifies at least one of a priority or a minimum bit rate.