Apparatus and methods for determining voice and/or data processing performance of a wireless device

• US 8,023,937 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2005
• Issued: 09/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Cassett, Tia Manning, Hwang, Jihyun, Yip, Eric Chi Chung, Fok, Kenny
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar; Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): Magloire; Vladimir
• Application Number:
  US11/251,298
• Publication Number:
  US 20060198359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,167 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.1, 455/67.11, 455/423, 455/425
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, processors and computer readable media for determining the voice and/or data processing performance or capability of a wireless device. Embodiments include a wireless device having a computer platform with a processing engine operable to generate a plurality of performance data during voice and/or data processing activities on the wireless device. The wireless device further includes a voice/data performance module operable to collect selected ones of the plurality of performance data associated with a predetermined voice and/or data processing capability of the wireless device. The embodiments may also include an apparatus operable to receive the collected performance data and to generate a performance report characterizing a voice and/or data processing performance or capability of the wireless device.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining a processing performance of a wireless device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

transmit a voice/data performance module to the wireless device over a wireless network;

generate a data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

receive collected performance data of the wireless device over the wireless network, collected based on a data collection configuration and further based on execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device;

analyze the collected performance data to determine at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device;

generate a new device configuration operable to change the at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device; and

transmit the new device configuration to the wireless device over the wireless network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the performance data further comprises performance data that is selected from the group consisting of data relating to voice call application performance, data call application performance, voice over internet protocol (“

VoIP”

) application performance, text messaging application performance, video application performance, multimedia application performance, internet protocol (“

IP”

) services performance, protocol processing performance, troubleshooting diagnosis, and configuration evaluation.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the performance data further comprises at least one of voice call information, data call information, application level protocol data, data link layer protocol data, data associated with troubleshooting, data associated with a utility, and Ping utility-related information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an analysis engine executable by the processor to generate a performance report comprising the at least one data processing characteristic.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising a voice/data processing standard, and wherein the analysis engine is operable to compare the collected performance data to the voice/data processing standard to generate the performance report.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an optimization module having an optimization algorithm executable by the processor to generate the new device configuration.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the data collection configuration including a predetermined test to perform on the wireless device in order to generate the collected performance data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the predetermined test comprises a simulated input from a wireless network component.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the data collection configuration, including defining associated data to collect, wherein the associated data comprises data associated with the wireless device and with the performance data.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collected performance data further comprises forward traffic channel data throughput and reverse traffic channel data throughput corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collected performance data comprises application duration of use data corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the performance data further comprise application-layer data comprising one or more of file transfer protocol (FTP) data, browser protocol data, transmission control protocol (TCP) data, Internet protocol (IP) data, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) data, user datagram protocol (UDP) data, and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) data.

13. An apparatus for determining at least one of voice processing performance and data processing performance of a wireless device, comprising:

means for transmitting a voice/data performance module over a wireless network to the wireless device;

means for generating a data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

means for transmitting data collection configuration over the wireless network to the wireless device;

means for receiving the collected performance data of the wireless device, collected based on the data collection configuration and further based on execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device;

means for analyzing the collected performance data to determine at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device;

means for generating a new device configuration operable to change the at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data; and

means for transmitting the new device configuration over the wireless network to the wireless device.

14. A wireless device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a voice/data performance module over a wireless network;

receive a data collection configuration over the wireless network, the data collection configuration defining types of performance data to collect from a computer platform of the wireless device, the data collection configuration further comprising retrieval parameters associated with types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

execute a voice/data performance module;

collect selected ones of a plurality of performance data, based on the data collection configuration;

selectively transmit the collected performance data; and

receive a new device configuration over the wireless network, the new device configuration operable to change at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the selected ones of the plurality of performance data.

15. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the plurality of performance data further comprise at least one of signal strength, frame error rate, latency, fading, signal-to-noise ratio, signal pollution from another communications device, signal acquisition rate, voice call establishment rate, overall data throughput, data throughput of a given component of the wireless device, and a number of data re-transmissions.

16. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the plurality of performance data further comprise at least one of voice call information, data call information, application level protocol data, data link layer protocol data, data associated with troubleshooting, data associated with a utility, and Ping utility-related information.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to selectively transmit the selected ones of the plurality of performance data to another computer device across a wireless network.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the voice/data performance module further comprises at least one of a test program and test data, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute the test program and test data to generate the selected ones of the plurality of performance data.

19. The device of claim 14, wherein the wireless device comprises a cellular telephone and wherein the wireless network comprises a cellular telephone network.

20. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the collected performance data further comprises forward traffic channel data throughput and reverse traffic channel data throughput corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

21. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the collected performance data further comprises application duration of use data corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

22. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the performance data further comprise application-layer data comprising one or more of file transfer protocol (FTP) data, browser protocol data, transmission control protocol (TCP) data, Internet protocol (IP) data, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) data, user datagram protocol (UDP) data, and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) data.

23. A wireless device, comprising:

means for receiving a voice/data performance module over a wireless network from a user manager server;

means for receiving a data collection configuration from a user manager server over the wireless network, the data collection configuration defining types of performance data to retrieve from a computer platform of the wireless device, the data collection configuration further comprising retrieval parameters associated with the defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

means for executing the voice/data performance module;

means for collecting selected ones of a plurality of performance data of the wireless device, based on the data collection configuration;

means for selectively transmitting the collected performance data to the user manager server over the wireless network; and

means for receiving a new device configuration from the user manager server over the wireless network, the new device configuration operable to change at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data.

24. A method of determining a processing performance of a wireless device, comprising:

transmitting a voice/data performance module over a wireless network to the wireless device;

generating a data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

transmitting the data collection configuration over a wireless network to the wireless device;

receiving, at a processor, collected performance data of a wireless device collected based on the data collection configuration and further based on execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device;

analyzing the collected performance data to determine at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device;

generating a new device configuration operable to change the at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data; and

transmitting the new device configuration to the wireless device over the wireless network.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising selecting further performance data from a plurality of performance data associated with a processing engine on a computer platform of the wireless device, and dictating to the wireless device when to collect the selected performance data and when to transmit the collected performance data.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the received collected performance data are further generated by execution of at least one of a test program and test data on the wireless device.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising transmitting a command to the wireless device over the wireless network to execute a selected test program, wherein the received collected performance data are further generated by execution of the selected test program.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising transmitting at least one of a test program and test data to the wireless device over the wireless network, where the test program and the test data are executable by the wireless device to generate the collected performance data.

29. The method of claim 24, where analyzing the collected performance data further comprises comparing the collected performance data with a predetermined voice/data processing standard.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the collected performance data further comprise at least one of voice call application performance-related data, data call application performance-related data, voice over internet protocol (“

VoIP”

) application performance-related data, text messaging application performance-related data, video application performance-related data, multimedia application performance-related data, Internet Protocol services performance-related data, protocol processing performance-related data, troubleshooting diagnosis-related data, and configuration evaluation-related data.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the collected performance data further comprise at least one of voice call information, data call information, application level protocol data, data link layer protocol data, radio link protocol level data, data associated with troubleshooting, data associated with a utility, and Ping utility-related information.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the collected performance data further comprises forward traffic channel data throughput and reverse traffic channel data throughput corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

33. The method of claim 24, wherein the collected performance data further comprises application duration of use data corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

34. The method of claim 24, wherein the performance data further comprise application-layer data comprising one or more of file transfer protocol (FTP) data, browser protocol data, transmission control protocol (TCP) data, Internet protocol (IP) data, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) data, user datagram protocol (UDP) data, and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) data.

35. A computer program resident in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed, directs a wireless device to perform the actions of:

receiving a voice/data performance module over a wireless network from a user manager server;

receiving, at a processor, a data collection configuration over a wireless network from the user manager server, the data collection configuration defining types of performance data to collect from a computer platform of the wireless device, the data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with the defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

executing the voice/data performance module;

collecting selected ones of a plurality of performance data of the wireless device, based on the data collection configuration;

selectively transmitting the collected performance data over the wireless network to the user manager server; and

receiving a new device configuration over the wireless network from the user manager server, the new device configuration operable to change at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data.

36. At least one processor configured to perform the actions of:

receiving a voice/data performance module over a wireless network from a user manager server;

receiving a data collection configuration defining types of performance data to collect from a computer platform of the wireless device, the data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with the defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the user manager server, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

executing the voice/data performance module;

collecting selected ones of a plurality of performance data of the wireless device, based on the data collection configuration;

selectively transmitting the collected performance data over a wireless network to the user manager server; and

receiving a new device configuration over a wireless network from the user manager server, the new device configuration operable to change at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data.

37. At least one processor configured to perform the actions of:

transmitting a voice/data performance module over a wireless network to a wireless device;

generating a data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the at least one processor, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

receiving collected performance data of the wireless device, collected based on the data collection configuration and further based on execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device;

analyzing the collected performance data to determine at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device;

generating a new device configuration operable to change the at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data; and

transmitting the new device configuration over the wireless network to the wireless device.

38. A computer program resident in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed, directs a computer device to perform the actions of:

transmitting a voice/data performance module over a wireless network to a wireless device;

generating a data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the apparatus, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

transmitting the data collection configuration over a wireless network to the wireless device;

receiving collected performance data of the wireless device, collected based on the data collection configuration and further based on execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device;

analyzing the collected performance data to determine at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device;

generating a new device configuration operable to change the at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data; and

transmitting the new device configuration to the wireless device over the wireless network.

39. A method of determining a processing performance of a wireless device, comprising:

receiving a voice/data performance module over a wireless network from a user manager server;

receiving a data collection configuration from the user manager server, the data collection configuration defining types of performance data to retrieve from a computer platform of the wireless device, the data collection configuration comprising retrieval parameters associated with the defined types of performance data, the retrieval parameters including a parameter relating to when to collect the performance data and a parameter relating to when to transmit the collected performance data back to the user manager server, and the performance data comprising at least radio link protocol (RLP) level data selected from the group consisting of frame/byte count for received/sent, erasures received, negative acknowledgements received/sent, idle, fill, other frame counts for received/sent, largest continuous erasure, reset count and abort count;

executing the voice/data performance module;

collecting selected ones of a plurality of performance data of the wireless device based on the data collection configuration;

selectively transmitting the collected performance data; and

receiving a new device configuration from the user manager server over the wireless network, the new device configuration operable to change at least one data processing characteristic of the wireless device, wherein the new device configuration is based on the collected performance data.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

receiving at least one of a test program and test data from across the wireless network, wherein the one of the test program and test data are executable by the wireless device to generate the collected performance data; and

executing the received one of the test program and the test data.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising receiving a command to execute a selected test program on the wireless device, wherein the collected performance data are further generated by execution of the selected test program.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein the collected performance data further comprise at least one of voice call application performance-related data, data call application performance-related data, voice over internet protocol (“

VoIP”

) application performance-related data, text messaging application performance-related data, video application performance-related data, multimedia application performance-related data, Internet Protocol services performance related data, protocol processing performance-related data, troubleshooting diagnosis-related data, and configuration evaluation-related data.

43. The method of claim 39, wherein the collected performance data further comprise at least one of voice call information, data call information, application level protocol data, data link layer protocol data, radio link protocol level data, data associated with troubleshooting, data associated with a utility, and Ping utility-related information.

44. The method of claim 39, wherein the collected performance data further comprises forward traffic channel data throughput and reverse traffic channel data throughput corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

45. The method of claim 39, wherein the collected performance data further comprises application duration of use data corresponding to the execution of the voice/data performance module on the wireless device.

46. The method of claim 39, wherein the performance data further comprise application-layer data comprising one or more of file transfer protocol (FTP) data, browser protocol data, transmission control protocol (TCP) data, Internet protocol (IP) data, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) data, user datagram protocol (UDP) data, and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) data.