QUEUEING MECHANISM FOR CLIENT-SIDE NETWORK TRAFFIC TO REDUCE RADIO POWER CONSUMPTION ON MOBILE CLIENTS

• US 20150282086A1
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Maruti, Demirhan, Erkut
• Granted Patent: US 9,420,537 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments described herein relate generally to delaying the transmission of a plurality of data packets. A device may enter a packet-delay mode based on an absence of detected user activity and an idle state of a radio. In the packet-delay mode, the device may queue data packets in a buffer so that transmission of those data packets is delayed. The buffered data packets may be released and transmitted upon the occurrence of a predetermined event, such as detection of user activity, exceedance of a buffer threshold, or expiration of a countdown timer. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus to be included in a user equipment (“

UE”

), the apparatus comprising;

processing circuitry to;

determine that a display of the UE is in a deactivated state;

determine that the UE is in a low-power state based on the determination that the display is in the deactivated state;

retain a plurality of data packets for upload transmission over a network based on the determination that the UE is in the low-power state;

detect an occurrence of a predetermined event; and

release the plurality of data packets based on the detected occurrence of the predetermined event; and

radio circuitry, communicatively coupled with the processing circuitry, to transmit the released plurality of data packets over the network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is to:

determine that the radio circuitry of the UE is in an idle state; and

determine that the UE is in the low-power state based on the determination that the radio circuitry is in the idle state.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is to generate the plurality of data packets based on at least one request from an application associated with the UE.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is to retain the plurality of data packets as a queue in a buffer.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predetermined event is an activation of a display of the UE, reception of a downlink data packet by the UE, expiration of a timer associated with the retention of the plurality of data packets, or exceedance of a predetermined threshold associated with a buffer for storage of the plurality of data packets.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a timer associated with the retention of the plurality of data packets, the timer to be set with a value that is provided as input to the UE,

wherein the predetermined event is an expiration of the timer.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further to:

apply a timestamp to each data packet of the plurality of data packets;

compare a respective timestamp of a respective data packet to a predetermined time value; and

discard the respective data packet based on the comparison of the respective timestamp to the predetermined time value.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further to:

compare a first data packet of the plurality of data packets to a second data packet for detection of duplicate data packets; and

discard the second data packet based on the comparison of the first data packet and the second data packet.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further to detect a reset of a connection associated with the UE, and to discard the plurality of data packets in response to the detection of the reset of the connection.

10. An apparatus to be included in a user equipment (“

UE”

), the apparatus comprising;

a traffic shaping module, including shaping logic to;

determine that radio circuitry of the UE is in an idle state;

queue a plurality of data packets for transmission over a network based on the determination that the radio circuitry is in the idle state;

release the plurality of data packets based on a predetermined event associated with the UE; and

a buffer, communicatively coupled with the traffic shaping module, to queue the plurality of data packets.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is to release the plurality of data packets from the buffer.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is further to detect an absence of interaction with the UE, and to queue the plurality of data packets further based on the detection of the absence of interaction with the UE.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is to detect the absence of the interaction with the UE based on an off state of a display of the device, an absence of input at a microphone associated with the UE, an absence of tactile input received by the UE, or an absence of output by a speaker associated with the UE.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein, before the traffic shaping module logic is to queue the plurality of data packets, the plurality of data packets are generated at a transmission control protocol of the internet protocol (“

TCP/IP”

) stack of the UE based on one or more requests from an application layer of the UE.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the predetermined event is based on a state of a display of the UE, a state of the radio of the UE, a timer of the UE associated with the queue, and a threshold associated with a buffer for storage of the plurality of data packets.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein a duration of the timer associated with the queue of is configurable.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is further to associate a timestamp with a first data packet of the plurality of data packets, and to discard the first data packet based on the timestamp associated with the first data packet.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is further to discard a first data packet that duplicates an existing data packet in the plurality of data packets so that duplicate data is not transmitted by the communications circuitry.

19. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the traffic shaping module logic is further to detect a change to a connection for the transmission of the data packets, and to discard the plurality of data packets in response to the detection of the change to the connection.

20. A method to be performed in a user equipment (“

UE”

), the method comprising;

determining that the UE is in a packet-delay mode;

buffering, for at least a predetermined period of time, a plurality of data packets intended for transmission over a network based on the determining that the UE is in the packet-delay mode; and

releasing the plurality of buffered data packets for transmission over the network based on an expiration of the predetermined period of time.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

packetizing data into the plurality of data packets for transmission over the network.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the determining that the UE is in the packet-delay mode comprises:

determining that a display of the UE is off; and

determining that a radio of the UE is in an idle state.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a value for the predetermined period of time; and

setting a countdown timer to the received value, wherein expiration of the countdown timer indicates the expiration of the predetermined period of time.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

detecting a change to a connection for the transmission of the data packets, and

discarding the plurality of data packets in response to the detection of the change to the connection.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

associating a timestamp with a first data packet of the plurality of data packets;

discarding the first data packet where the timestamp associated with the first data packet exceeds a predetermined time threshold.