Evaluation of an application

• US 9,471,467 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2014
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Mller, Frank, Zachrison, Mats
• Primary Examiner(s): TECKLU, ISAAC TUKU
• Application Number:
  US14/325,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 834 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/22 Traffic simulation tools or models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states

Abstract

It is presented a method for evaluating an application intended to be installed in a wireless terminal of a cellular network. The method is performed in an application development device and comprises the steps of: obtaining performance data associated with an execution of the application in a test wireless terminal in a simulated or real cellular network, the performance data being obtained for each cellular data session of the execution of the application, each cellular data session being defined as a period when the test wireless terminal is in a cellular network connection state when data transfer is possible; and evaluating the performance data by comparing the in performance data with reference performance data, the comparison being based on the duration of each cellular data session.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating an application intended to be installed in a wireless terminal of a cellular network, the method being performed in an application development device and comprising the steps of:

obtaining performance data associated with an execution of the application in a test wireless terminal in a simulated or real cellular network, the performance data being obtained by the application development device for each cellular data session between the test wireless terminal and the application development device during the execution of the application, each cellular data session being defined as a period when the test wireless terminal is in a cellular network connection state when data transfer is possible;

evaluating the performance data by comparing the performance data for each cellular data session with recommended reference performance data of an application provider, the recommended reference performance data determined based on the duration of each cellular data session and corresponding to the obtained performance data, wherein evaluating the performance further comprises comparing the performance data with a strict subset of the recommended reference performance data, the strict subset being defined by a range of durations of the cellular data sessions, for recommended reference performance data, in which the duration of the cellular data session falls; and

presenting recommendations indicating recommended performance data values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of obtaining performance data, the performance data comprises a measurement of data transfer magnitude.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of obtaining performance data, the performance data comprises at least one of the following:

number of transferred uplink bytes, number of transferred downlink bytes, time spent in a specific cellular network connection state, number of transitions of cellular network connection states, downlink energy estimate, and uplink energy estimate.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cellular network connection states when data transfer is possible are only CELL_FACH, a state when a Forward Access Channel is available, and CELL_DCH, a state when Dedicated Channel is available.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cellular network connection state when data transfer is possible consists of a single state of an RRC_CONNECTED, Radio Resource Control Connected, state.

6. An application development device arranged to evaluate an application intended to be installed in a wireless terminal of a cellular network, application development device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to;

obtain performance data associated with an execution of the application in a test wireless terminal in a simulated or real cellular network, the performance data being obtained by the application development device for each cellular data session between the test wireless terminal and the application development device during the execution of the application, each cellular data session being defined as a period when the test wireless terminal is in a cellular network connection state when data transfer is possible;

evaluate the performance data by comparing the performance data for each cellular data session with recommended reference performance data, the recommended reference performance data selected based on the duration of each cellular data session and corresponding to the obtained performance data, wherein evaluating the performance further comprises comparing the performance data with a strict subset of the recommended reference performance data, the strict subset being defined by a range of durations of the cellular data sessions, for recommended reference performance data, in which the duration of the cellular data session falls; and

present recommendations indicating recommended performance data values.

7. The application development device according to claim 6, wherein the instructions to obtain comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to obtain performance data comprising a measurement of data transfer magnitude.

8. The application development device according to claim 6, wherein the instructions to obtain comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to obtain performance data comprising at least one of the following:

number of transferred uplink bytes, number of transferred downlink bytes, time in spent in a specific cellular network connection state, number of transitions of cellular network connection states, downlink energy estimate, and uplink energy estimate.

9. The application development device according to claim 6, wherein the instructions to obtain performance data comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to consider the cellular network connection states when data transfer is possible are only CELL_FACH, a state when Forward Access Channel is available, and CELL_DCH, a state when Dedicated Channel is available.

10. The application development device according to claim 6, wherein the instructions to obtain performance data comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to consider the cellular network connection states when data transfer is possible to consist of a single state of an RRC_CONNECTED, Radio Resource Control Connected, state.

11. The application development device according to claim 6, wherein the instructions to evaluate the performance comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the application development device to compare the performance data with a strict subset of the recommended reference performance data, the strict subset being defined by a range of durations of the cellular data sessions, for the recommended reference performance data, in which the duration of the cellular data session falls.

12. A computer program product for evaluating an application intended to be installed in a wireless terminal of a cellular network, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions thereon, the instructions comprising:

code for obtaining performance data associated with an execution of the application in a test wireless terminal in a simulated or real cellular network, the performance data being obtained by an application development device for each cellular data session between the test wireless terminal and the application development device during the execution of the application, each cellular data session being defined as a period when the test wireless terminal is in a cellular network connection state when data transfer is possible;

code for evaluating the performance data by comparing the performance data for each cellular data session with recommended reference performance data, the recommended reference performance data selected based on the duration of each cellular data session and corresponding to the obtained performance data, wherein evaluating the performance further comprises comparing the performance data with a strict subset of the recommended reference performance data, the strict subset being defined by a range of durations of the cellular data sessions, for recommended reference performance data, in which the duration of the cellular data session falls; and

code for presenting recommendations indicating recommended performance data values.