Quality of service application controller and user equipment application profiler

• US 9,100,854 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2012
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Tapia, Pablo, Shah, Mehul, Ionescu, Alexandru Catalin
• Primary Examiner(s): ROSE, KERRI M
• Application Number:
  US13/705,014
• Publication Number:
  US 20130142043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0268 using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Various topologies of a quality of service application controller and related techniques to optimize the communications performance an application executing on a device participating in a communications environment are disclosed. The communications environment may include a cellular network, an unlicensed spectrum network, or a combination of the two. The quality of service application controller observes one or more key performance indicators of the communications network, and retrieves a policy from a policy store specific to the application. The quality of service application controller then modifies the execution of the application and/or the configurable aspects of the communications environment to optimize the communications performance of the application. For example, the application'"'"'s data throughput may be increased, the power draw of the application may be minimized, data requested by the application may be minimized, or the apparent response time of the application'"'"'s response to a web service may be minimized.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a device configured to communicate over a communications network, the device including at least one application executing on the device;

a policy storage configured to store at least one policy to configure the application; and

a quality of service application controller communicatively coupled with the device and the policy storage and configured to receive an application indicator of the application, select the at least one policy for the application based on the application indicator, retrieve the at least one policy, and execute the retrieved at least one policy,

wherein the quality of service application controller is separated and distinct from the application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications network comprises any one of the following:

a communications network operating on a licensed band;

a communications network operating on an unlicensed band;

or

a communications network operating on a licensed band configured to load balance data communications with an unlicensed band.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the quality of service application controller is executing on the device.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an operating system executing on the device, the operating system with a user mode and a kernel mode, and wherein the quality of service application controller is communicatively coupled to the operating system in user mode and in kernel model.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a radio interface layer executing on the device, the operating system communicatively coupled to a modem on the device via the radio interface layer, and wherein the quality of service application controller is communicatively coupled to the radio interface layer.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising a media framework executing on the device and communicatively coupled to the operating system, the application communicatively coupled to the media framework, and wherein the quality of service application controller is communicatively coupled to the media framework.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising a communications stack executing on the device and communicatively coupled to the operating system, and wherein the quality of service application controller is communicatively coupled to the communications stack.

8. The system of claim 7, the device comprising an integrated circuit implementing the communications stack at least in part and communicatively coupled to the operating system, and wherein the quality of service application controller is communicatively coupled to the integrated circuit.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the quality of service application controller is executing on a server separate from the device over the communications network, and the device is communicatively coupled to the quality of service application controller over the communications network.

10. The system of claim 1,

wherein the communications network is configured to bill the user for a volume of digital data transmitted and received by the device over the communications network;

wherein the application has a data response time measuring the time between the application'"'"'s data request and a data response to the application over the communications network;

wherein the application has a power draw measuring an amount of power used by the application as it executes on the device; and

wherein the policies are to do any one of the following;

minimize data flow over the communications network;

maximize data response time of the application;

or

minimize the application'"'"'s power draw on the device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy storage is resident on the device and at least one policy is statically preconfigured to be stored in the policy storage.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy storage is resident on the application, and the application is configured to dynamically generate the policy upon receiving a request from the quality of service application controller.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy storage is resident on a trusted policy application, the trusted policy application communicatively connected to the application and to the quality of service application controller, and the trusted policy application is configured to dynamically configure the application based upon a generated policy upon receiving a request from the quality of service application controller.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy storage is resident on a server device separate from the device, and the device is communicatively coupled to the policy storage over the communications network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy storage is resident on the modem.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving at a quality of service application controller an application indicator of an application executing on a device;

retrieving from a policy storage a policy based at least on the received application indicator; and

dynamically configuring a communications environment for the application according to the retrieved policy, via the quality of service application controller,

wherein the quality of service application controller is separated and distinct from the application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising retrieving by the quality of service application controller a conditional instruction from a user profile for the application.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the retrieved policy is to modify the number of available communications pipes available in the communications environment.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the communications environment includes a packet buffer containing data packets to and from the application, and wherein the retrieved policy is to hold at least some data packets in the packet buffer, thereby throttling data throughput.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the communications environment includes a communications protocol with at least one configurable protocol timer, and wherein the retrieved policy is to modify at least one configurable protocol timer, thereby modifying the timing of the communications protocol.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the retrieved policy is to shut off the application.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the communications environment includes a communications protocol, the communications protocol responsive to predetermined notifications, and wherein the retrieved policy is to speed response in the communications protocol by sending fake notifications.

23. A computer-implemented method comprising:

retrieving by a quality of service application controller a policy from a policy storage based at least on an application identifier of an application executing on a device, wherein the application is connected to a web service via a communications environment, the communications environment including a cellular network; and

dynamically configuring the communications environment according to the retrieved policy, via the quality of service application controller to reduce an apparent response time of requests from the application to the web service,

wherein the quality of service application controller is separate and distinct from the application.