Adaptive Crowdsourced Keep-Alive Interval Determination

• US 20150124698A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jain, Ravi, Mokhnatkina, Maria N., Thiagarajan, Balaji, Thyagarajan, Lakahmi
• Granted Patent: US 9,743,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections

Abstract

A system and method of determining a keep-alive interval for a network access point (AP) employs adaptive learning and crowd sourced data building to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of mobile device connectivity. In particular, in addition to allowing group accessed storage of resolved keep-alive intervals for specific APs, the disclosed principles provide a mechanism for resolving the keep-alive interval for any AP upon first encounter, allowing devices to maintain connectivity during a session without consuming bandwidth unnecessarily by sending superfluous keep-alive messages.

Claims

1. A method of connecting from a mobile device to the internet via an access point (AP), the AP supporting a time out of any connection that is idle for longer than a keep-alive interval, the keep-alive interval being initially unknown to the mobile device, the method comprising:

detecting that the mobile device is within range of the AP;

connecting from the mobile device to the AP, and via the AP, to an entity on the internet;

determining whether data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored, and if so, obtaining the stored keep-alive data, and otherwise adaptively determining the keep-alive interval by sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval to the AP until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein determining whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored includes searching a local memory on the mobile device for data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein determining whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored includes querying a remote database for data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

4. The method in accordance with claim 2, further comprising storing the resolved keep-alive interval in local memory if the local memory does not contain data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

5. The method in accordance with claim 3, further comprising storing the resolved keep-alive interval on the remote database if the remote database does not contain data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein adaptively determining the keep-alive interval from the AP further comprises sending one or more keep-alive messages at a first interval, and if a time out condition does not occur with the first interval, decrementing the first interval until a time out condition does occur.

7. The method in accordance with claim 6, further comprising decrementing the first interval until a time out condition does not occur if a time out condition occurred with the first interval.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the interval used immediately prior to occurrence of the time out condition.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the last interval used.

10. A mobile device for connecting to the internet via a WiFi AP comprising:

a WiFi communications module for wirelessly communicating between the mobile device and the WiFi AP;

a local memory; and

a processor configured to detect that the mobile device is within range of the AP, connect from the mobile device to the AP, determine whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored, and if so, obtain the stored keep-alive data, and otherwise adaptively determine the keep-alive interval by sending keep-alive messages to the AP at a variable interval until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved.

11. The mobile device in accordance with claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored by searching the memory on the mobile device for data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

12. The mobile device in accordance with claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored by querying a remote database for data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

13. The mobile device in accordance with claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to store the resolved keep-alive interval in local memory if the local memory does not contain data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP, and wherein to store the resolved keep-alive interval on the remote database if the remote database does not contain data indicating the keep-alive interval of the AP.

14. The mobile device in accordance with claim 10, wherein adaptively determining the keep-alive interval from the AP further comprises:

sending one or more keep-alive messages at a first interval, and if a time out condition does not occur with the first interval, incrementing the first interval until a time out condition does occur; and

decrementing the first interval until a time out condition does not occur if a time out condition occurred with the first interval.

15. The mobile device according to claim 14, further comprising setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the interval used immediately prior to occurrence of the time out condition if a time out condition did not occur with the first interval.

16. The mobile device according to claim 16, further comprising setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the last interval used if a time out condition did occur with the first interval.

17. A method of determining a keep-alive interval of a WiFi AP from a mobile device, the method comprising:

querying a memory location for the keep-alive interval of the AP; and

obtaining the keep-alive interval of the AP from the memory location if the memory location contains the keep-alive interval of the AP, and otherwise;

adaptively determining the keep-alive interval by sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval from the mobile device to the AP until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved; and

storing the resolved keep-alive interval at the memory location.

18. The method in accordance with claim 17, wherein the memory location includes one or both of a memory local to the mobile device and a memory remote from the mobile device.

19. The method in accordance with claim 17, wherein adaptively determining the keep-alive interval by sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval includes sending one or more keep-alive messages at a first interval, and if a time out condition does not occur with the first interval, decrementing the first interval until a time out condition does occur, and incrementing the first interval until a time out condition does not occur if a time out condition occurred with the first interval.

20. The method in accordance with claim 17, further comprising setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the interval used immediately prior to occurrence of the time out condition if a time out condition did not occur with the first interval, and setting the resolved keep-alive interval equal to the last interval used if a time out condition did occur with the first interval.