Intelligent mobility application profiling with respect to identified communication bursts

• US 8,527,627 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2010
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gerber, Alexandre, Mao, Zhuoqing Morley, Sen, Subhabrata, Spatscheck, Oliver, Wang, Zhaoguang, Qian, Feng
• Primary Examiner(s): BAROT, BHARAT
• Application Number:
  US12/967,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20120151041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-224, 370229-230, 370328-329, 455/450, 455524-525
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0232 according to average transmission signal activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for analyzing mobile device applications within a wireless data network are presented herein. More particularly, described herein is a novel Intelligent Mobility Application Profiling Tool (iMAP) and/or other mechanisms, systems and methods for profiling and benchmarking applications associated with mobile devices in a wireless data network. Various systems and methods described herein expose cross-layer interaction associated with a network device in order to profile an application on the network device with respect to energy efficiency, performance, and functionality. As described herein, radio resource control (RRC) analysis can be performed to infer RRC states associated with a given application, identify tail time, etc. Further, analyzers are employed for various layers, including transmission control protocol (TCP) and/or hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), as well as to analyze communication bursts associated with a given application. Analysis results are subsequently utilized to deliver application profiling results to a user.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, network activity data relating to a network device;

analyzing, by the system, cross-layer interaction related to a radio resource control layer of an application executed by the network device;

in response to the analyzing, determining, by the system, a communication burst is represented in the network activity data; and

in response to the determining the communication burst is represented in the network activity data, profiling, by the system, the application executed by the network device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the system, a report relating to the cross-layer interaction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises:

inferring radio resource control states associated with the network activity data based on a radio link control buffer characteristic of the network device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining, by the system, an energy consumption associated with the communication burst as a function of the radio resource control states and power functions corresponding to the radio resource control states.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

quantifying, by the system, an energy efficiency associated with the of the network device based on the energy consumption associated with the communication burst.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing, by the system, a first value representing a first resource usage efficiency associated with the communication burst; and

generating, by the system, a report relating to a burst combination associated with a second value representing a second resource usage efficiency that is higher than the first value.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving a set of packet traces from the network device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving the set of packet traces comprises:

determining a target application that is associated with the network device; and

determining a packet trace within the set of packet traces that relates to the target application.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving information relating to an application activity associated with the network device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises:

performing transmission control protocol analysis with respect to the network activity data based on extracting transmission control protocol flows from the network activity data and determining properties of data packets associated with the transmission control protocol flows.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises:

reassembling transmission control protocol flows corresponding to the network activity data;

parsing the transmission control protocol flows according to a hypertext transfer protocol; and

determining relationships between packets of the transmission control protocol flows and hypertext transfer protocol requests.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

determining a triggering factor of the communication burst based on information within the network activity data representing burst size.

13. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising;

receiving information relating to communication activity of a network device;

conducting a cross-layer analysis of the information with respect to a radio resource control layer of an application executed by the network device;

identifying a communications burst within the communication activity of the network device; and

characterizing the application in response to the conducting of the cross-layer analysis and the identifying of the communications burst.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, based on the information, radio resource control state transitions associated with the communication activity of the network device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

relating the communications burst to the application; and

determining, based on a resource usage efficiency associated with the communications burst, a burst combination.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise determining, based on a radio resource control state associated with the communication burst, an energy efficiency of the network device as a function of an energy consumption determined to be associated with the communication burst.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

extracting transmission control protocol flows from the information; and

identifying properties of packets associated with the transmission control protocol flows.

18. A computer readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

receiving network device operation data comprising packet trace data associated with a network device;

performing a cross-layer analysis of the network device operation data with respect to a radio resource control layer associated with an application executed by the network device;

determining a burst that is represented in the network device operation data; and

generating a performance profile of the application in part on in response to the performing of the cross-layer analysis of the network device operation data, and in response to the determining that the burst is represented in the network device operation data.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

inferring radio resource control states associated with the network device operation data based on a radio link control buffer characteristic of the network device.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an energy consumption associated with the burst based on radio resource control states associated with the network device operation data and power functions corresponding to the radio resource control states.