Wireless end-user device with differentiated network access for background and foreground device applications

• US 9,137,701 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2015
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Headwater Research LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Original Assignee: Headwater Partners I LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Inventors: Raleigh, Gregory G., Lavine, James, Raissinia, Alireza
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): DEFAUW, THAD N
• Application Number:
  US14/675,113
• Publication Number:
  US 20150208273A1
• Time in Patent Office: 168 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1492 negotiation of tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1496 involving discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/19 at layers above the network layer network arrangements for networked applications for scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 : QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 : User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 : Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 : Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 : based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 : Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 : for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 : for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 : taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/30 : the meter or calculation of charges not being controlled from an exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 : Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 : Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 : Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 : Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 : based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8055 : Selecting cheaper transport technology for a given service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/81 : Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 : using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/088 : using filters or firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 : Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/021 : in wireless networks with changing topologies, e.g. ad-hoc networks self-organizing networks H04W84/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0215 : based on user or device properties, e.g. MTC-capable devices services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] H04W4/70; wireless resource selection or allocation plan definition based on terminal or device properties H04W72/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0221 : power availability or consumption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 : based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0257 : the individual bearer or channel having a maximum bit rate or a bit rate guarantee
• 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 28/0284 : detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 : using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 : Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/144 : over a different radio air interface technology
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/02 : Access restriction performed under specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 : based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/06 : based on traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 : Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0212 : managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is master and terminal is slave
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 : by selectively disabling software applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 : Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 : Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A wireless end-user device has wireless wide-area network (WWAN) and wireless local-area network (WLAN) modems. One or more processors determine when an application is running in a background state or as a foreground application. The processors control application access for Internet service activities through an application program interface (API). At a time when Internet service activities are communicated through the WWAN modem, the processors use a differential traffic control policy to selectively block and allow network access for an application based on the determination as to whether the application is running in a background state or as a foreground application. A different policy may apply to WLAN modem usage.

Claims

1. A wireless end-user device, comprising:

a wireless wide area network (WWAN) modem to communicate data for Internet service activities between the device and at least one WWAN, when configured for and connected to the WWAN;

a wireless local area network (WLAN) modem to communicate data for Internet service activities between the device and at least one WLAN, when configured for and connected to the WLAN;

one or more processors configured to

determine, for a first end-user application capable of running in a background state and capable of running as a foreground application, whether the application is running in a background state or as a foreground application, and control, via an application program interface (API), application access for Internet service activities provided through the WWAN modem and the WLAN modem, to, based on a first differential traffic control policy, selectively block and allow access by the first end-user application to the WWAN modem at a time when data for Internet service activities is communicated through a WWAN modem connection to the at least one WWAN,

wherein the access is selectively blocked based on a determination that the first end-user application is running in a background state, and wherein the access is selectively allowed based on a determination that the first end-user application is running as a foreground application.

2. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine that the first end-user application is running in a background state when a user of the device is not directly interacting with that application or perceiving any benefit from that application.

3. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface to provide a user of the device with information regarding why the first differential traffic control policy is applied to the first end-user application.

4. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface to inform a user of the device when there are options to set, control, override, or modify service usage controls that affect the first differential traffic control policy.

5. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the first differential traffic control policy is part of a multimode profile having different policies for different networks.

6. The wireless end-user device of claim 5, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to select a traffic control policy from the multimode profile based at least in part on the type of network connection currently in use by the device.

7. The wireless end-user device of claim 6, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to, when the type of network connection is at least one type of WLAN connection, select a traffic control policy from the multimode profile based at least in part on a type of network connection from the WLAN to the Internet.

8. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine whether a second end-user application is running in a background state or as a foreground application, and control application access for Internet service activities by the second end-user application similar to the control of application access for the first end-user application, except the control of application access for Internet service activities by the second end-user application is based on a second differential traffic control policy that can be set different from the first differential traffic control policy.

9. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, further comprising a network stack interface integrated with the API.

10. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, further comprising a networking stack, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to, at an application service interface layer, identify application traffic flows prior to the flows entering the networking stack.

11. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors control of application access based on a first differential traffic control policy is applied to one of but not both of a connection to a roaming WWAN network and a connection to a home WWAN network.

12. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically change the application of the first differential traffic control policy based on a power state of the device.

13. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically change the application of the first differential traffic control policy based on a device usage state.

14. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically change the application of the first differential traffic control policy based on monitoring of user interaction with the device.

15. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically change the application of the first differential traffic control policy based on power control state changes for one or more of the modems.

16. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to associate the first end-user application with the differential traffic control policy based on an application behavior.

17. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the differential traffic control policy defines that applications to which the policy applies can only have WWAN network access events during particular time windows.

18. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to update the first differential traffic control policy based on information received from a network element.

19. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, further comprising an agent to block, modify, remove, or replace user interface messages generated by the first end-user application based on the applied differential traffic control policy.

20. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors configured to control application access are configured to selectively block access by the first end-user application by intercepting open, connect, and/or write requests by the first end-user application to a network stack.

21. The wireless end-user device of claim 20, wherein the API responds to an intercepted request by the first end-user application by emulating network messaging.

22. The wireless end-user device of claim 21, wherein emulating network messaging comprises responding to a network request from the particular application by blocking the request from passing to a network stack and returning to the particular application a message indicating the network request was not successful.

23. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, the first differential traffic control policy comprising first and second sub-policies applicable respectively to Internet data service provided using the WWAN modem to connect to a home WWAN and a roaming WWAN, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to apply the first sub-policy when Internet data service is provided through a home WWAN and to apply the second sub-policy when Internet data service is provided through a roaming WWAN.

24. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, the first differential traffic control policy comprising first, second, and third sub-policies applicable respectively to Internet data service provided using the WWAN modem and three different network types from the network types consisting of 2G, 3G, 4G, home, and roaming.

25. The wireless end-user device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine when the first end-user application is running in a background state or as a foreground application based on a state of user interface priority for the application.