Tracking data usage under a schematized data plan

• US 9,660,889 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2015
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Guday, Shai, Zalmanovitch, Gil, Scott, Gregory James, Kwok, Alec Garvin, Jiang, Yue, Ma, Kenneth Vincent
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US14/642,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20150181047A1
• Time in Patent Office: 806 Days
• Field of Search: 455405, 455406, 455416, 4554141
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1435 volume-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/60 based on actual use of network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/7652 shared by users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/775 Account specifications on parallel communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/84 Types of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/846 optical, e.g. icon
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/853 Calculate maximum communication time or volume
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/854 Available credit
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/856 : Unsuccessful event
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/86 : Recipients of the notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 : Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 : Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 : Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

Embodiments provide a schema for representing data usage plans and data usage statistics. The data usage plan describes threshold values associated with network connections of computing devices of the user. A web service dynamically generates data usage statistics for the computing devices to represent data consumed by the computing devices under the data usage plan. The schema is updated with the data usage statistics and distributed to the computing devices for presentation to the user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory area associated with a mobile computing device;

a mobile computing device comprising a processor programmed to;

dynamically generate data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated, at the mobile computing device, by identifying an amount of the network data sent and received by the mobile computing device, and

transmit a portion of the generated data usage statistics to a second computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user data usage plan comprises one or more of the following:

peak times, off-peak times, peak time data consumption quota, off-peak time data consumption quota, peak time data consumption remaining, off-peak time data consumption remaining, a roaming rate, a mobile operator name, a billing cycle type, and a network connection type.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the portion of the generated data usage statistics is transmitted to one or more other computing devices.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the mobile computing device and the one or more other computing devices share the user data usage plan.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the user data usage plan describes threshold values associated with one or more network connections of the mobile computing device or the one or more other computing devices, wherein the threshold values correspond to maximum data consumption allotted under the user data usage plan for one or more network connections.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified amount of the network data sent and received by the mobile computing device comprises one or more of the following:

time and date of network data consumption, location of the network data consumption, network interface used, subscriber identity module (SIM) card or other user identity module used for dual SIM, an international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI), internet protocol (IP) or other address of an access point, and an application responsible for the network data consumption.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user data usage plan is associated with a plurality of network connections, and wherein the plurality of network connections are categorized based on types of network traffic data.

8. A method comprising:

dynamically generating data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan by a mobile computing device, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated, at the mobile computing device, by collecting the network data consumed by the mobile computing device, the user data usage plan describing threshold values associated with one or more network connections of the mobile computing device; and

sending, by the mobile computing device, the generated data usage to a second computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second computing device is associated with a user interface that is displayed differently for different types of user data usage plans.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user interface displays a plurality of user interface elements which are updated with an update in the generated data usage statistics.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the generated data usage statistics include an amount of remaining network data for consumption and a quantity of time remaining for consumption of the remaining network data.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein dynamically generating the data usage statistics comprises receiving network data consumed by one or more computing devices.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the user interface displays a user interface element which allows the user to select options or other configuration settings for receiving notifications.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving information representing network data consumed by a second mobile computing device; and

presenting the dynamically generated data usage statistics and the information representing network data consumed by the second mobile computing device in a user interface on the mobile computing device.

15. One or more computer storage devices embodying computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a collection component that when executed causes at least one processor on a mobile computing device to dynamically generate data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan by the mobile computing device, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated by determining an amount of network data sent and received by the mobile computing device;

a data structure component that when executed causes at least one processor on the mobile computing device to populate a schema with the dynamically generated data usage statistics; and

a communications interface component that when executed causes at least one processor on the mobile computing device to distribute at least a portion of the schema to one or more other computing devices.

16. The computer storage devices of claim 15, further comprising a data structure component that when executed causes at least one processor to populate the schema with the dynamically generated data usage statistics.

17. The computer storage devices of claim 15, further comprising a user interface component that when executed causes at least one processor to display the dynamically generated data usage statistics.

18. The computer storage devices of claim 17, wherein the user interface component displays data usage statistics associated with one or more other computing devices, which share the user data usage plan, in separate user interface elements.

19. The computer storage devices of claim 17, wherein the user interface component displays the data usage statistics associated with the one or more other computing devices in a user interface element on a home screen of the mobile computing device.

20. The computer storage devices of claim 17, wherein the user interface component displays one or more of the following:

one or more user data usage plans associated with the mobile computing device, threshold values associated with a plurality of network connections of the mobile computing device, and how much data consumption is remaining and over which of the plurality of the network connections.