Scheduling communications in a mobile device

• US 8,345,616 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ramjee, Ramachandran, Schulman, Aaron, Jain, Kamal, Navda, Vishnu, Padmanabhan, Venkata N.
• Primary Examiner(s): PARK, JUNG H
• Application Number:
  US12/822,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20110317631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 922 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329, 455/450
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/004 in the uplink, i.e. towards network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method scheduling outgoing communication in a mobile device is provided. The method includes receiving a signal quality profile for an area in which the device is located. The method further includes receiving a signal from a user application stored on the device that requests the mobile device to make the outgoing communication. Additionally, the method includes determining a current location, a speed, a direction, and a signal quality associated with the device and determining whether the signal quality is above a certain threshold. If not, the method includes predicting a future time at which the signal quality will be above the threshold based at least on the current location, the speed, the direction, the signal quality, and the signal quality profile. Finally, the method includes scheduling the outgoing communication from the mobile device at the future time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request to send an outgoing communication from a mobile device;

determining whether a signal quality of the mobile device with respect to one or more cell towers is above a predetermined threshold;

in an instance when the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers is less than the predetermined threshold, predicting a future time at which the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers will be above the predetermined threshold, the predicting being based on a current location of the mobile device, a speed of the mobile device, a direction of the mobile device, a signal quality profile for an area in which the mobile device is located, or combinations thereof; and

scheduling the outgoing communication from the mobile device at the future time when the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers is predicted to be above the predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising immediately sending another outgoing communication out of the mobile device in another instance responsive to determining that the signal quality is above the predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the outgoing communication is received from a user application stored on the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the predicting is based on the signal quality profile, and

the signal quality profile is stored on a cloud server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the future time is within a timeout period associated with a user application on the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the predicting is based on the signal quality profile, and

the signal quality profile for the area provides a plurality of signal qualities at a plurality of Global Positioning System coordinates within the area.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the predicting is based on the signal quality profile, and

the signal quality profile is overlaid over an existing geographical database.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the mobile device has not sent or received data for a predetermined period of time; and

placing a wireless radio of the mobile device into an idle state in an instance when it is determined that the mobile device has not sent or received the data for the predetermined period of time.

18. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor;

a wireless radio; and

a memory comprising program instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to perform the method of claim 1.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a request to send an incoming communication to a mobile device;

determining whether a signal quality of the mobile device with respect to one or more cell towers is above a predetermined threshold;

in an instance when the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers is not above the predetermined threshold, predicting a future time at which the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers will be above the predetermined threshold, the predicting being based on a current location of the mobile device, a speed of the mobile device, a direction of the mobile device, a signal quality profile for an area in which the mobile device is located, or combinations thereof; and

scheduling the incoming communication to the mobile device at the future time when the signal quality of the mobile device with respect to the one or more cell towers is predicted to be above the predetermined threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the request is received by a cloud server before the incoming communication reaches the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the predicting is based on the signal quality profile, and

the signal quality profile is stored on the cloud server.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising immediately sending another incoming communication to the mobile device in another instance responsive to determining that the signal quality is above the predetermined threshold.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more cell towers include a cell tower that is closest to the mobile device.

19. One or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processing units, cause the one or more processing units to perform the method of claim 9.

20. A server comprising:

the one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 19; and

the one or more processing units.

14. A method for scheduling an incoming communication to a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving a request to send the incoming communication to the mobile device;

determining whether a signal quality of the mobile device is above a predetermined threshold;

in an instance when the signal quality is not above the predetermined threshold, predicting a future time at which the signal quality will be above the predetermined threshold based on a current location, a speed, a direction of the mobile device, a signal quality profile for an area in which the mobile device is located, or combinations thereof;

scheduling the incoming communication to the mobile device at the future time;

predicting a future location associated with the future time at which the signal quality will be above the predetermined threshold; and

updating a cloud server with a new location associated with the mobile device in an instance when, at the future time, the new location does not match the future location.

15. The method of claim 14, performed by the cloud server.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the updating comprises receiving the new location from the mobile device.

17. One or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processing units, cause the one or more processing units to perform the method of claim 14.