Adaptive crowdsourced keep-alive interval determination
First Claim
1. A method of connecting from a mobile device to an internet via an access point (AP), the AP supporting a time out of any connection that is idle for longer than a keep-alive interval, the keep-alive interval being initially unknown to the mobile device, the method comprising:
- connecting from the mobile device to the AP and, via the AP, to an entity on the internet; and
determining, by the mobile device, whether data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored by querying a remote database for the data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP, the remote database separate from the mobile device and separate from the AP, and, if so, obtaining the keep-alive interval, and otherwise adaptively determining, by the mobile device, the keep-alive interval by iteratively sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval to the AP until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved, wherein a duration of an interval of a later iteration differs from a duration of an interval of an earlier iteration by a factor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of determining a keep-alive interval for a network access point (AP) employs adaptive learning and crowd sourced data building to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of mobile device connectivity. In particular, in addition to allowing group accessed storage of resolved keep-alive intervals for specific APs, the disclosed principles provide a mechanism for resolving the keep-alive interval for any AP upon first encounter, allowing devices to maintain connectivity during a session without consuming bandwidth unnecessarily by sending superfluous keep-alive messages.
27 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of connecting from a mobile device to an internet via an access point (AP), the AP supporting a time out of any connection that is idle for longer than a keep-alive interval, the keep-alive interval being initially unknown to the mobile device, the method comprising:
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connecting from the mobile device to the AP and, via the AP, to an entity on the internet; and determining, by the mobile device, whether data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored by querying a remote database for the data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP, the remote database separate from the mobile device and separate from the AP, and, if so, obtaining the keep-alive interval, and otherwise adaptively determining, by the mobile device, the keep-alive interval by iteratively sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval to the AP until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved, wherein a duration of an interval of a later iteration differs from a duration of an interval of an earlier iteration by a factor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A mobile device for connecting to an internet via a WiFi AP, comprising:
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a WiFi communications module configured to wirelessly communicate between the mobile device and the WiFi AP; a local memory; and a processor configured to connect from the mobile device to the AP, to determine whether data regarding a keep-alive interval of the AP has been stored by querying a remote database for the data regarding the keep-alive interval of the AP, the remote database separate from the mobile device and separate from the WiFi AP, and, if so, to obtain the keep-alive interval, and otherwise to adaptively determine the keep-alive interval by iteratively sending keep-alive messages to the AP at a variable interval until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved, wherein a duration of an interval of a later iteration differs from a duration of an interval of an earlier iteration by a factor. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of determining a keep-alive interval of a WiFi AP from a mobile device, the method comprising:
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querying, by the mobile device, a memory location for the keep-alive interval of the AP, the memory location separate from the WiFi AP and separate from the mobile device; and obtaining, by the mobile device, the keep-alive interval of the AP from the memory location if the memory location contains the keep-alive interval of the AP, and otherwise; adaptively determining, by the mobile device, the keep-alive interval by iteratively sending keep-alive messages at a variable interval from the mobile device to the AP until the keep-alive interval of the AP is resolved, wherein a duration of an interval of a later iteration differs from a duration of an interval of an earlier iteration by a factor; and storing, by the mobile device, the keep-alive interval at the memory location. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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Specification