Intelligent routing of network packets on telecommunication devices

• US 10,715,425 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2017
• Issued: 07/14/2020
• 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:
  US15/447,558
• Publication Number:
  US 20170180245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• 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 telecommunication device comprising:

a processor;

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

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

a network selection module configured to;

determine network latencies associated with the networks based on the first network packet;

select one of the networks based at least in part on user routing criteria and the network latencies;

associated with the networks based on the first network packet;

determine that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted within a predetermined amount of time as the first network packet;

refrain from determining network latencies associated with the networks based on the second network packet in response to determining that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted within the predetermined amount of time as the first network packet; and

a transmission module to route the first network packet or the second network packet for transmission to the one of the networks.

2. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the network selection module determines the network latencies by transmitting messages to a destination associated with the first network packet or the second network packet over the networks, receiving responses to the messages, and, for each message-response pair, calculating a difference between a message transmission time and a response reception time.

3. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the network selection module selects the one of the networks based at least in part on the user routing criteria, the network latencies, connectivity metrics, and attributes of the first network packet or the second network packet.

4. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the first network packet or the second network packet is associated with a logical connection, a session, or a flow, and the network selection module determines the network latencies once for a plurality of network packets associated with the logical connection, the session, or the flow.

5. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the user routing criteria include at least one of 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.

6. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the networks include a first network and a second network and the first network and the second network are respectively associated with different network operators.

7. The telecommunication device of claim 1, further comprising receiving a plurality of network packets and 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.

8. The telecommunication device of claim 7, further comprising prioritizing transmission of the first group of network packets over transmission of the second group of network packets based on the grouping.

9. The telecommunication device of claim 8, further comprising transmitting the first group of network packets using a first network and transmitting the second group of network packets using a second network.

10. The telecommunication device of claim 1, wherein the user routing criteria includes default user routing criteria, suggested user routing criteria, or user routing criteria automatically generated based on user-provided preferences.

11. The telecommunication device of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted to a same destination as the first network packet; and

refraining from determining network latencies associated with the networks based on the second network packet in response to determining that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted within the predetermined amount of time as the first network packet and to the same destination as the first network packet.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a first network packet from a first application and a second network packet from a second application;

determining, by a telecommunication device, network latencies associated with networks based on the first network packet;

selecting, by the telecommunication device, one of the networks based at least in part on user routing criteria and the network latencies associated with the networks based on the first network packet;

determine that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted to a same destination as the first network packet;

refrain from determining network latencies associated with the networks based on the second network packet in response to determining that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted to the same destination as the first network packet; and

routing, by the telecommunication device, the first network packet or the second network packet for transmission to the one of the networks.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the network latencies comprises determining the network latencies by transmitting messages to a destination associated with the first network packet or the second network packet over the networks, receiving responses to the messages, and, for each message-response pair, calculating a difference between a message transmission time and a response reception time.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the selecting the one of the networks is based at least in part on the user routing criteria, the network latencies, connectivity metrics, and attributes of the first network packet or the second network packet.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the first network packet or the second network packet is associated with a logical connection, a session, or a flow, and the determining the network latencies comprises determining the network latencies once for a plurality of network packets associated with the logical connection, the session, or the flow.

16. 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:

determining, by the telecommunication device, network latencies associated with networks based on a first network packet;

selecting, by the telecommunication device, one of the networks based at least in part on user routing criteria and the network latencies associated with the networks based on the first network packet;

determine that a second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted within a predetermined amount of time as the first network packet;

refrain from determining network latencies associated with networks based on the second network packet in response to determining that the second network packet is scheduled to be transmitted within the predetermined amount of time as the first network packet; and

routing, by the telecommunication device, the first network packet from an application of the telecommunication device for transmission to the one of the networks.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the user routing criteria further includes at least one of 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.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the first network packet comprises a first group of network packets and the operations further comprising receiving a plurality of network packets and grouping the plurality of network packets into at least the 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.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18, further comprising, at a location, transmitting the first group of network packets using the one of the networks to transmit the first group of network packets based at least in part on the user routing criteria and the network latencies, wherein the user routing criteria are specific to the location.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the one of the networks comprises a first network, the user routing criteria comprises first user routing criteria, and the network latencies comprise first network latencies, the operations further comprising transmitting, at a second location, the second group of network packets using a second network to transmit the second group of network packets based at least in part on second user routing criteria and second network latencies.