SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENHANCING MOBILE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AT A PROXY SERVER ASSOCIATED WITH OR RESIDING ON A MOBILE CARRIER FOR ALIGNING TRAFFIC IN THE MOBILE NETWORK

• US 20150023160A1
• Filed: 10/09/2013
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seven Networks LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Seven Networks Inc
• Inventors: Alisawi, Rami
• Granted Patent: US 10,250,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0221 power availability or consumption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for enhancing mobile traffic management at a proxy server or component associated with or residing on a mobile carrier or mobile operator side for aligning traffic in the mobile network are disclosed. The proxy server, in some embodiments, can align requests initiated by one or more third-party servers or application servers with a radio state of a mobile device to reduce a number of network connection. The proxy server can align the requests by delaying the requests such that the requests that were delayed can be transferred to the mobile device over a single connection between the mobile device and a mobile network.

Claims

1. A system for aligning requests in a mobile network to enhance mobile traffic management, comprising:

a proxy server that is associated with a mobile operator, and configured to;

align the requests initiated by third-party servers with a radio state of a mobile device to reduce a number of network connections,

wherein the requests are aligned by delaying the requests;

transfer the requests that were delayed to the mobile device over a single connection between the mobile device and the mobile network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein traffic management policies determine how long the requests are delayed.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the traffic management policies include an operator policy and a mobile device policy, where a proxy server residing on a host server distributes the mobile device policy to the mobile device and the operator policy to a component associated with the mobile operator for enforcement.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio state of the mobile device is promoted to a connected state or a high power state by a local proxy on the mobile device or the proxy server associated with the mobile operator in the mobile network to transfer the requests that were delayed to the mobile device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the proxy server associated with the mobile operator transfers the requests that were delayed to the mobile device during a period of time when the radio state of the mobile device is connected, wherein the radio state of the mobile device is promoted to connected from idle in response to an activity on the mobile device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the proxy server associated with the mobile operator transfers the requests that were delayed to the mobile device during a period of time when the radio state of the mobile device is connected, wherein the radio state of the mobile device is promoted to connected from idle in response to the network proxy intercepting a high priority request from a third-party server.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the requests are asynchronously initiated by the third-party servers.

8. A method for enhancing mobile traffic management at a proxy server associated with and residing on a mobile operator side, comprising:

delaying traffic initiated by an application server associated with a mobile application on a mobile device based on traffic category;

in response to detecting a radio state promotion on the mobile device, transferring the traffic that was delayed from the proxy server on the mobile operator side to the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the radio state promotion includes promotion of a radio on the mobile device from an idle state to a connected state or from a low power state to a high power state.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the traffic category includes user-interactive traffic and non-user-interactive traffic, wherein the non-user-interactive traffic is delayed at the proxy server.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the non-user-interactive traffic includes transmission protocol messages.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the traffic category includes urgent and non-urgent traffic, wherein the non-urgent traffic is delayed at the proxy server.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving high priority or time critical traffic from an application server directed to a mobile application on the mobile device; and

in response, causing a radio state promotion on the mobile device to transfer the high priority or time critical traffic along with the traffic that was delayed from the proxy server to the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the proxy server detects the radio state promotion on the mobile device from real time information provided by the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the proxy server detects the radio state promotion on the mobile device from detection of traffic from the mobile device directed to one or more application servers.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the proxy server detects the radio state promotion on the mobile device based on information from a radio access network.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

blocking traffic relating to a socket closure to prevent the socket closure from causing a radio state promotion on the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein the traffic that was delayed includes data packets relating to socket creation, wherein the traffic was delayed to align transmission of the traffic to the radio state promotion on the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein the radio state promotion on the mobile device occurs in accordance with a pre-configured interval agreed between the mobile device and the proxy server.

20. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for mobile traffic management, the method comprising:

delaying traffic initiated by an application server associated with a mobile application on a mobile device at a proxy server associated with an operator of a mobile network based on traffic category;

in response to detecting a radio state promotion on the mobile device, transferring the traffic that was delayed from the proxy server to the mobile device.

21. The medium of claim 20, wherein the radio state promotion includes promotion of a radio on the mobile device from an idle state to a connected state or from a low power state to a high power state.

22. The medium of claim 20, wherein the traffic category includes user-interactive traffic and non-user-interactive traffic, wherein the non-user-interactive traffic is delayed at the proxy server.

23. The medium of claim 20, wherein the traffic category includes urgent and non-urgent traffic, wherein the non-urgent traffic is delayed at the proxy server.

24. The medium of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving high priority or time critical traffic from an application server directed to a mobile application on the mobile device; and

in response, causing a radio state promotion on the mobile device to transfer the high priority or time critical traffic along with the traffic that was delayed from the proxy server to the mobile device.

25. The medium of claim 20, wherein the proxy server detects the radio state promotion on the mobile device from at least one of:

real time information provided by the mobile device, traffic from the mobile device directed to one or more application servers or information from the mobile network.

26. The medium of claim 20, further comprising:

blocking traffic relating to a socket closure to prevent the socket closure from causing a radio state promotion on the mobile device.

27. The medium of claim 20, wherein the radio state promotion on the mobile device occurs in accordance with a pre-configured interval agreed between the mobile device and the proxy server.

28. A method for enhancing mobile traffic management at a proxy server associated with or residing on a mobile carrier network, comprising:

receiving state information via a radio-aware control channel between a local proxy on the mobile device and the proxy server;

responsive to the state information, adjusting alignment of traffic initiated from application servers associated with mobile applications on the mobile device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the state information includes information relating to device state, application state or user activity.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the device state information includes screen on or off status of the mobile device.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the application state information includes whether an application is on the foreground or the background, whether bandwidth heavy application is in the foreground or applications that are running in the foreground or background.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the user activity information indicates whether or not a user is interacting with the mobile device.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein adjusting alignment of the traffic initiated from the application servers includes expediting or delaying transfer of the traffic from the proxy server to the mobile device.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein adjusting alignment of the traffic initiated from the application servers includes modifying a data transmission interval.

35. A system for enhancing mobile traffic management at a proxy server associated with or residing on a mobile carrier network, comprising:

means for receiving state information relating to a mobile device;

means for adjusting alignment of traffic initiated from an application server associated with a mobile application on the mobile device based on the state information.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the state information includes information relating to device state, application state or user activity.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the device state information includes screen on or off status of the mobile device.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the application state information includes whether an application is on the foreground or the background, whether a bandwidth heavy application is in the foreground or applications that are running in the foreground or background.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein the user activity information indicates whether or not a user is interacting with the mobile device.

40. The system of claim 35, wherein adjusting alignment of the traffic initiated from the application server includes expediting or delaying transfer of the traffic from the proxy server to the mobile device.

41. The method of claim 35, wherein adjusting alignment of the traffic initiated from the application server includes modifying a data transmission interval.

42. A system for enhancing mobile traffic management, comprising:

a first communication link comprising a first socket associated with an application on a mobile device at one end and a second socket associated with a local proxy on the mobile device on the other end;

wherein timeouts associated with the first or second sockets are controllable by the local proxy on the mobile device to delay transmission of traffic from the application to a mobile network.

43. The system of claim 42, further comprising:

a second communication link comprising a third socket associated with the local proxy on the mobile device at another end and a fourth socket associated with a proxy server integrated with the mobile network;

wherein a timeout associated with the third socket is controllable by the local proxy and a timeout associated with the fourth socket is controllable by the proxy server to align transmission of traffic from the mobile device to one or more application servers with transmission of traffic to the mobile device from one or one more application servers.

44. The system of claim 43, further comprising:

a third communication link comprising a fifth socket associated with the proxy server integrated with the mobile operator network at one end and a sixth socket associated with a third-party server associated with the application on the mobile device;

wherein a timeout of the fifth socket is controlled by the proxy server integrated with the mobile network.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the proxy server integrated with the mobile network maintains the third communication link by providing a cached response to prevent closure of the sixth socket associated with the third-party server.

46. The system of claim 44, wherein the proxy server integrated with the mobile operator network terminates the third communication link without activating a radio on the mobile device by blocking a data packet from the sixth socket.