Methods and apparatus providing intelligent radio selection for legacy and non-legacy applications

• US 9,603,085 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2011
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Giaretta, Gerardo, Craig, David William, Laganier, Julien H., Jin, Haipeng, Sundararajan, Jay Kumar, Ahmavaara, Kalle Ilmari, Tsirtsis, Georgios
• Primary Examiner(s): SHARMA, SUJATHA R
• Application Number:
  US13/028,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20110201285A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,226 Days
• Field of Search: 455/424, 455/62, 455/434, 455/552.1, 455/574, 455/550.1, 455/417, 455/452.2, 455/435.3, 455/509, 455/512, 455/557, 455/41.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

Methods and apparatus providing intelligent interface selection for legacy and non-legacy applications. The method includes intercepting a networking function call from an application desiring radio access, selecting a radio from a plurality of candidate radios based on selection criteria, and binding the radio to the application. To facilitate flow mobility, the method includes allocating an ephemeral port to the radio, generating a flow binding rule based only on the ephemeral port, and signaling the flow binding rule to a home agent.

Claims

1. A method for intelligent radio selection at a device, the method comprising:

intercepting, using a first library comprising at least a subset of functions associated with a networking library, a socket layer call from an application desiring radio access;

selecting a radio for the application to use from a plurality of candidate radios based on selection criteria and in response to a request to select a radio that is generated based on the intercepted socket layer call, wherein the selection criteria comprises a network policy set by a network operator, the network policy controlling network access by devices or applications; and

binding the selected radio to the application using one or more socket layer functions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first library comprises a pre-load library that is linked into an execution environment of the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said intercepting comprises linking the pre-load library at a higher priority in the execution environment than the networking library.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more socket layer functions are included in the networking library.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said request to select the radio is for a centralized radio controller to select the radio.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criteria further comprises at least one of application requirements, connection attributes, radio metric criteria, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the candidate radios comprise at least one of Cellular radio access technology, WiFi radio access technology, Bluetooth radio access technology, or a combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the socket layer call includes at least one of Connect( ), Bind( ), Setsockopt( ), or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is one of a legacy application or a non-legacy application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said binding comprises:

allocating an ephemeral port to the radio;

generating a flow binding rule based on the ephemeral port; and

signaling the flow binding rule to a home agent.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said binding comprises:

generating an IPv6 address to be associated with the radio;

generating a flow binding rule based on the IPv6 address; and

signaling the flow binding rule to a home agent.

12. An apparatus for intelligent radio selection at a device, the apparatus comprising:

means for intercepting, using a first library comprising at least a subset of functions associated with a networking library, a socket layer call from an application desiring radio access;

means for selecting a radio for the application to use from a plurality of candidate radios based on selection criteria and in response to a request to select a radio that is generated based on the intercepted socket layer call, wherein the selection criteria comprises a network policy set by a network operator, the network policy controlling network access by devices or applications; and

means for binding the selected radio to the application using one or more socket layer functions.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first library comprises a pre-load library that is linked into an execution environment of the device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said means for intercepting comprises means for linking the pre-load library at a higher priority in the execution environment than the networking library.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more socket layer functions are included in the networking library.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said request to select the radio is for a centralized radio controller to select the radio.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the selection criteria further comprises at least one of application requirements, connection attributes, radio metric criteria, or a combination thereof.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the candidate radios comprise at least one of Cellular radio access technology, WiFi radio access technology, Bluetooth radio access technology, or a combination thereof.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the socket layer call includes at least one of Connect( ), Bind( ), Setsockopt( ), or a combination thereof.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the application is one of a legacy application or a non-legacy application.

21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said means for binding comprises:

means for allocating an ephemeral port to the radio;

means for generating a flow binding rule based on the ephemeral port; and

means for signaling the flow binding rule to a home agent.

22. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said means for binding comprises:

means for generating an IPv6 address to be associated with the radio;

means for generating a flow binding rule based on the IPv6 address; and

means for signaling the flow binding rule to a home agent.

23. An apparatus for intelligent radio selection at a device, the apparatus comprising:

a connectivity engine configured to;

intercept, using a first library comprising at least a subset of functions associated with a networking library, a socket layer call from an application desiring radio access; and

select a radio for the application to use from a plurality of candidate radios based on selection criteria and in response to a request to select a radio that is generated based on the intercepted socket layer call, wherein the selection criteria comprises a network policy set by a network operator, the network policy controlling network access by devices or applications; and

a socket component configured to bind the radio to the application using one or more socket layer functions.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first library comprises a pre-load library that is linked into an execution environment of the device.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said pre-load library is linked at a higher priority in the execution environment than the networking library.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the one or more socket layer functions are included in the networking library.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the selection criteria further comprises at least one of application requirements, connection attributes, radio metric criteria, or a combination thereof.

28. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the candidate radios comprise at least one of Cellular radio access technology, WiFi radio access technology, Bluetooth radio access technology, or a combination thereof.

29. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the socket layer call includes at least one of Connect( ), Bind( ), Setsockopt( ), or a combination thereof.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the application is one of a legacy application or a non-legacy application.

31. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said socket component is configured to:

allocate an ephemeral port to the radio;

generate a flow binding rule based on the ephemeral port; and

signal the flow binding rule to a home agent.

32. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said socket component is configured to:

generate an IPv6 address to be associated with the radio;

generate a flow binding rule based on the IPv6 address; and

signal the flow binding rule to a home agent.

33. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying codes for intelligent radio selection at a device, the codes executable by a processor to:

intercept, using a first library comprising at least a subset of functions associated with a networking library, a socket layer call from an application desiring radio access;

select a radio for the application to use from a plurality of candidate radios based on selection criteria and in response to a request to select a radio that is generated based on the intercepted socket layer call, wherein the selection criteria comprises a network policy set by a network operator, the network policy controlling network access by devices or applications; and

bind the radio to the application using one or more socket layer functions.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the first library comprises a pre-load library that is linked into an execution environment of the device.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein said codes are configured to cause the processor to link the pre-load library at a higher priority in the execution environment than the networking library.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the one or more socket layer functions are included in the networking library.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the selection criteria further comprises at least one of application requirements, connection attributes, radio metric criteria, or a combination thereof.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the candidate radios comprise at least one of Cellular radio access technology, WiFi radio access technology, Bluetooth radio access technology, or a combination thereof.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the socket layer call includes at least one of Connect( ), Bind( ), Setsockopt( ), or a combination thereof.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the application is one of a legacy application or a non-legacy application.

41. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein said codes are configured to cause the processor to:

allocate an ephemeral port to the radio;

generate a flow binding rule based on the ephemeral port; and

signal the flow binding rule to a home agent.

42. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein said codes are configured to cause the processor to:

generate an IPv6 address to be associated with the radio;

generate a flow binding rule based on the IPv6 address; and

signal the flow binding rule to a home agent.