Application controller for quality-of-service configuration of a telecommunication device radio

• US 9,596,697 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2012
• 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): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): ATKINS JR., GEORGE CALVIN
• Application Number:
  US13/839,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20130258966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

An application controller of a telecommunication device to determine, for a packet flow of an application, a quality-of-service rule associated with the application is described herein. The application controller then configures a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the telecommunication device with a quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule and provides a packet of the packet flow for transmission to a remote recipient via the configured data bearer.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a processor;

a wireless communication stack;

an application configured to be operated by the processor to send and receive packets of a packet flow;

an application controller configured to be operated by the processor to determine, for the packet flow, a quality-of-service rule associated with the application and to configure a data bearer for the packet flow with a first quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule for a first cell in a telecommunications network and a second quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule for a second cell in the telecommunications network using one or more radio interface layer (RIL) extensions to communicate with and configure the data bearer; and

a radio interface layer configured to be operated by the processor to implement the data bearer and to use the data bearer to transmit, via the wireless communication stack, a packet of the packet flow to a remote recipient;

wherein the second quality-of-service is further based at least in part on one or more user quality-of-service preferences provided by a user; and

wherein the one or more user quality-of-service preferences are used to (1) select a quality-of-service in a quality-of-service rule or (2) override the quality-of-service in the quality-of-service rule.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the application controller is part of the application, is part of an operating system, or is a layer that is between the application and the operating system or is between the operating system and the radio interface layer.

3. The UE of claim 1, further comprising a set of quality-of-service rules that is received from or updated by a network operator or a service provider, the set of quality-of-service rules including the quality-of-service rule.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the radio interface layer is further configured to utilize the data bearer for incoming packets from the remote recipient that are associated with the packet flow.

19. The UE of claim 1, where the user (1) pays a fee or (2) purchases a service plan upgrade to override the quality-of-service specified by the quality-of-service rule.

5. A method comprising:

determining for a packet flow of an application, by a user equipment (UE), one or more quality-of-service rules associated with the application;

configuring, by the UE, a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the UE with a first quality-of-service for a time period and with a second quality-of-service at an expiration of the time period specified by the quality-of-service rule using one or more radio interface layer (RIL) extensions to communicate with and configure the data bearer;

transmitting, by the UE, via the data bearer, a packet of the packet flow in accordance with the first quality-of-service or the second quality-of-service based at least in part on a current time;

receiving another packet of another packet flow of another application, determining that the other application is not associated with a quality-of-service rule, and configuring another data bearer with a default quality-of-service;

wherein the second quality-of-service is further based at least in part on one or more user quality-of-service preferences; and

wherein the one or more user quality-of-service preferences are used to (1) select a quality-of-service in a quality-of-service rule or (2) override the quality-of-service in the quality-of-service rule.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving another packet of another packet flow from the application, determining that another data bearer has already been configured for the other packet flow, and providing other packet to the other data bearer for transmission.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining and configuring are performed by a quality-of-service application controller of the UE.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining comprises retrieving the quality-of-service rule from a set of quality-of-service rules based on an application identifier associated with the application.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving the set of quality-of-service rules or an update to the set of quality-of-service rules from a network operator or service provider.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the application identifier includes one or more of an internet protocol (IP) address, a communication protocol, a source port, a destination port, an application name, a signature, or a website name.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the quality-of-service rule specifies at least one of a priority or a minimum bit rate.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the quality-of-service rule specifies different qualities-of-service for uplink and downlink communications of packets of the packet flow.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuring is further based at least in part on one or more user quality-of-service preferences.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the quality-of-service rule belongs to one of a plurality of sets of quality-of-service rules respectively associated with a plurality of subscription levels.

15. One or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to program a user equipment (UE) to perform operations comprising:

determining for a packet flow of an application a first quality-of-service rule associated with the application;

determining that a data bearer has not previously been configured for the packet flow;

receiving one or more user quality-of-service preferences from a user at the UE to override the first quality-of-service rule;

prompting the user to pay a fee to access a second quality-of-service;

configuring a data bearer for a wireless communication stack of the UE with a second quality-of-service rule based at least in part on the one or more user quality-of-service preferences using one or more radio interface layer (RIL) extensions to communicate with and configure the data bearer; and

transmitting, via the data bearer, a packet of the packet flow in accordance with the second quality-of-service rule;

wherein the second quality-of-service is higher than the quality-of-service associated with the first quality-of-service rule.

16. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 15, wherein the determining comprises retrieving the first quality-of-service rule from a set of quality-of-service rules based at least in part on an application identifier associated with the application.

17. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 15, wherein the first quality-of-service rule specifies at least one of a priority or a minimum bit rate.

18. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 15, wherein the second quality-of-service is a default highest quality-of-service for a telecommunications network associated with the UE.