TRANSPORT PROTOCOL LAYER OPTIMIZATION FOR MANAGING SIGNALING AND POWER CONSUMPTION

• US 20150016261A1
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Published: 01/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seven Networks LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: Seven Networks Inc
• Inventors: Backholm, Ari, Luna, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,973,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for optimizing signaling in a mobile network and conserving battery resources based on transport protocol layer such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer optimization techniques are disclosed. A distributed proxy system, in various embodiments, can implement one or more optimization techniques including deferring TCP socket closures or closing network sockets with TCP RST instead of TCP FIN to save on signaling in the wireless (e.g., mobile network) and conserve battery resources. In some embodiments, the disclosed system can implement various methods to prevent or reduce number of TCP and/or application level retries, and thereby reduce signaling in the wireless network and conserve battery resources. In other embodiments, the distributed proxy system can multiplex all TCP sockets in a mobile device through a single socket to reduce TCP/IP overhead and thus conserve device and network resources.

Claims

1. A method of delaying requests to close connections to reduce signaling in a mobile network, comprising:

receiving a first request from a first mobile application on a mobile device to close a connection between the first mobile application and an application server associated with the first mobile application, wherein the first request is received while a radio of the mobile device is turned off;

delaying the first request to close the connection until a second request which causes a radio connection to be established to the mobile network is received from a second mobile application on the mobile device; and

sending both the first request to close the connection and the second request to the mobile network using the radio connection to reduce signaling in the mobile network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second requests are received and sent by a local proxy on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request to close the connection is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) FIN or a TCP RST.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request to close the connection is a TCP RST.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second request is a request that is unrelated to closing a connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second request is a request for data initiated by a user of the mobile device.

7. A mobile device, comprising:

a local proxy in communication with a mobile application and a network stack, configured to;

detect a request from the mobile application on the mobile device to close a network connection over a mobile network with an application server;

detect that the mobile network is unreliable; and

cause the network stack to utilize a second mechanism instead of a first mechanism in closing the network connection when the mobile network is unreliable so as to prevent additional signaling in the mobile network.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the mobile network is unreliable when the mobile network is one of congested, inoperative, or non-responsive.

9. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the network stack is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) stack and wherein the second mechanism closes the network connection using a TCP RST and the first mechanism is configured to close a network connection using a TCP FIN.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein closing the network connection using the TCP RST avoids the need for the application server to send an acknowledgement and prevents the network stack from retrying to close the network connection if a prior attempt failed.

11. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein a source of the additional signaling includes at least one of the network stack or a change in a radio state of the mobile device from an idle state to a connected state.

12. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the local proxy is further configured to:

respond to the request from the mobile application to close the network connection in accordance with the first mechanism.

13. A mobile device, comprising:

a local proxy in communication with a mobile application and a network stack, configured to;

detect at least one attempt from the mobile application on the mobile device to establish a network connection over a mobile network with an application server;

detect at least one condition; and

in response to detecting the at least one condition, prevent the network stack from making further attempts to establish the network connection to prevent additional signaling in the mobile network.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the at least one condition includes the mobile application timing out.

15. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the at least one condition includes unavailability of the application server.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the local proxy is further configured to:

provide a response to the mobile application to prevent the network stack from retrying to establish the network connection.

17. A method for multiplexing requests from multiple mobile applications through a single Transport Control Protocol (TCP) socket for signaling and resource optimization in a mobile network, comprising:

receiving by a local proxy on a mobile device a first data transfer request from a first mobile application;

receiving by the local proxy on the mobile device a second data transfer request from a second mobile application;

opening a TCP socket to a proxy server to establish a network connection with the proxy server; and

multiplexing the first and second data transfer requests sent from the first and second mobile applications through the same TCP socket to the proxy server.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving responses to the first and second data transfer requests multiplexed through the same TCP socket;

de-multiplexing the received responses to extract a first response to the first data transfer request and a second response to the second data transfer request; and

providing the first and second responses to the first and second mobile applications respectively.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein using the same TCP socket for the first and second mobile applications reduces an overhead for opening and closing the TCP socket.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a request from the first mobile application to close the TCP socket using a FIN message; and

in response to the request, providing an acknowledgement to the FIN message (FIN-ACK) to the first mobile application, while keeping the TCP socket open.