Intelligent routing of network packets on telecommunication devices

• US 9,609,575 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2012
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Zhang, Hongliang, Tapia, Pablo, McDiarmid, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): MATTIS, JASON E
• Application Number:
  US13/732,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20140185519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,548 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0018 based on latency requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/308 Route determination based on user's profile, e.g. premium users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A telecommunication device configured to select one of a plurality of network connectivities of the telecommunication device to use for transmission of a network packet is described herein. The telecommunication device may select the network connectivity based on user routing criteria, connectivity metrics, or transmission times. The user routing criteria may be dynamically updated during a communication or connection, affecting selection of the network connectivity for further network packets. The network connectivities may be respectively associated with different network operators. Also, the telecommunication device may select a first network connectivity for transmitting a first network packet and a second network connectivity for transmitting a second network packet. Further, the telecommunication device may select a first network connectivity for uplink communications and a second network connectivity for downlink communications.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a telecommunication device, a first network packet and a second network packet from one or more applications of the telecommunication device;

determining, for the first network packet, a first score for a first telecommunication network by applying user routing criteria to (i) first connectivity metrics associated with the first telecommunication network, and (ii) first network packet attributes of the first network packet;

determining, for the first network packet, a second score for a second telecommunication network by applying the user routing criteria to (i) second connectivity metrics associated with the second telecommunication network, and (ii) the first network packet attributes of the first network packet;

based on a first comparison of the first score to the second score, selecting the first telecommunication network for transmission of the first network packet by the telecommunication device;

determining, for the second network packet, a third score for the first telecommunication network by applying the user routing criteria to (i) the first connectivity metrics associated with the first telecommunication network, and (ii) second network packet attributes of the second network packet;

determining, for the second network packet, a fourth score for the second telecommunication network by applying the user routing criteria to (i) the second connectivity metrics associated with the second telecommunication network, and (ii) the second network packet attributes of the second network packet;

based on a second comparison of the third score to the fourth score, selecting the second telecommunication network for transmission of the second network packet by the telecommunication device;

transmitting, by the telecommunication device, the first network packet using the first telecommunication network while simultaneously transmitting the second network packet using the second telecommunication network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first telecommunication network and the second telecommunication network are respectively associated with different network operators.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the different network operators are used for the first network packet and the second network packet because of a change to the user routing criteria or the connectivity metrics.

4. A method comprising:

receiving, by a telecommunication device, a plurality of network packets associated with at least one logical connection;

grouping the plurality of network packets into at least a first group of network packets and a second group of network packets, the grouping based on one or more of packet-size, packet-destination, or packet Quality-of-Service profile;

based on the grouping, prioritizing transmission of the first group of network packets over transmission of the second group of network packets;

based on the prioritizing, transmitting, by the telecommunication device, the first group of network packets using a first network connectivity associated with a first network operator selected based at least in part on first user routing criteria and connectivity metrics; and

based on the prioritizing and after transmitting the first group of network packets, transmitting, by the telecommunication device, the second group of network packets using a second network connectivity associated with a second network operator selected based at least in part on second user routing criteria and the connectivity metrics, wherein the second user routing criteria differ from the first user routing criteria;

wherein the first network connectivity and the second network connectivity are different network connectivities.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the connectivity metrics include a network protocol, a network availability, a network performance, a quality of service (QoS), a power consumption, a network bandwidth profile, a cost, or a security level.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the connectivity metrics are updated between the transmitting the of the first group of network packets and the transmitting of the second group of network packets.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the update results from movement from a first location to a second location.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the user routing criteria include a network performance, a QoS, a cost, a power consumption at a lowest bandwidth, an available bandwidth given specific performance requirements, a packet delivering efficiency, a security level, a user preference for an operator, or a combination of criteria.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first or second user routing criteria further include default user routing criteria, suggested user routing criteria, or user routing criteria automatically generated based on user-provided preferences.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising dynamically updating the second user routing criteria in real-time based on user-provided preferences, on criteria received from a network operator, or on criteria received from a host service.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the first or second user routing criteria are updated between the transmitting the of the first group of network packets and the transmitting of the second group of network packets responsive to user-provided preferences.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the first network connectivity or the second network connectivity is one of a WiFi network connectivity, a LTE network connectivity, a HSPA+ network connectivity, a Bluetooth network connectivity, or an infrared network connectivity.

13. The method of claim 4, further comprising at least one of selecting the first network connectivity based at least in part on attributes of the first group of network packets or selecting the second network connectivity based at least in part on attributes of the second group of network packets.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the attributes of the first group of network packets or the attributes of the second group of network packets include a network protocol, a QoS profile, a packet size, a destination address, a bandwidth demand, a service class, or a security level.

15. A telecommunication device comprising:

a processor;

one or more wireless communication transceivers configured to communicate with a plurality of networks; and

a packet routing module configured to be operated by the processor to receive a first network packet and a second network packet from one or more applications of the telecommunication device, the packet routing module including;

a network selection module to;

determine a first-packet score for each network, with respect to the first network packet, by applying user routing criteria to network metrics associated with each network and to first network packet attributes of the first network packet;

select, for the first network packet, a first telecommunication network from the plurality of telecommunication networks based at least in part on a comparison of first-packet scores associated with the first network packet;

determine a second-packet score for each network, with respect to the second network packet, by applying the user routing criteria to network metrics associated with each network and to second network packet attributes of the second network packet; and

select, for the second network packet, a second telecommunication network from the plurality of networks based at least in part on a comparison of second-packet scores associated with the second network packet, and

a transmission module to route the first network packet for transmission to the selected first telecommunication network and the second network packet for transmission to the selected second telecommunication network.

16. The telecommunication device of claim 15, wherein the first telecommunication network and the second telecommunication network are respectively associated with different network operators.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having stored thereon a plurality of executable instructions configured to program a telecommunication device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of network packets associated with at least one logical connection;

grouping, based on at least one of packet-size or packet-destination, the plurality of network packets into at least a first group of network packets and a second group of network packets;

at a first location, transmitting the first group of network packets using a first network connectivity associated with a first network operator selected to transmit the first group of network packets based at least in part on first user routing criteria and connectivity metrics, wherein the first user routing criteria are specific to the first location; and

after transmitting the first group of network packets, transmitting, at a second location, the second group of network packets using a second network connectivity associated with a second network operator selected to transmit the second group of network packets based at least in part on second user routing criteria and the connectivity metrics, wherein the second user routing criteria differ from the first user routing criteria,

wherein the first network connectivity and the second network connectivity are different network connectivities.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the connectivity metrics include a network protocol, a network availability, a network performance, a quality of service (QoS), a power consumption, a network bandwidth profile, a cost, or a security level.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the first or second user routing criteria further include a network performance, a QoS, a cost, a power consumption at a lowest bandwidth, an available bandwidth given specific performance requirements, a packet delivering efficiency, a security level, a user preference for an operator, or a combination of criteria.