MANAGING DATA TRANSFERS OVER NETWORK CONNECTIONS BASED ON PRIORITY AND A DATA USAGE PLAN

• US 20130198373A1
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zalmanovitch, Gil, Scott, Gregory James, Guday, Shai, Kwok, Alec Garvin, Jiang, Yue, Ma, Kenneth Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 9,900,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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 manage use of different network connections for data transfer in view of priority information and a data usage plan identifying threshold limits associated with the different network connections. A computing device receives data transfer requests from applications executing on the computing device. The data transfer requests have priority information associated therewith. The computing device compares the priority information with available network connections. One or more of the data transfer requests are selected for initiation based on the comparison and on the threshold limits.

Claims

1. A system for managing use of network connections for data transfer, said system comprising:

a memory area associated with a mobile computing device, said memory area storing a plurality of data transfer requests received from at least one application of a plurality of applications executing on the mobile computing device, the memory area further storing priority information associated with each of the plurality of data transfer requests; and

a processor programmed to;

compare the priority information stored in the memory area with at least one network connection available between the mobile computing device and another computing device;

select one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests for initiation based on the comparison;

notify the application associated with the selected data transfer requests of the selected data transfer requests, the application initiating at least one of the selected data transfer requests;

detect an absence of the network connection; and

notify the application associated with the selected data transfer requests of the detected absence, the application suspending one or more of the at least one of the selected data transfer requests in response to the notification.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to detect an absence of the network connection by detecting an absence of a first network connection, wherein the selected data transfer requests are operable with the first network connection and a second network connection, and wherein the application suspends performance of the selected data transfer requests in response to the notification to prevent performance of the selected data transfer requests over the second network connection.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a data transfer cost associated with the second network connection is greater than a data transfer cost associated with the first network connection.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory area further stores a data usage plan describing threshold values associated with the network connection detected between the mobile computing device and the other computing device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is programmed to select the one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests by selecting the one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests by analyzing remaining data consumption based on the threshold values.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for reducing data transfer costs by opportunistic use of the network connections based on the priority information.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of data transfer requests from one or more applications executing on a first computing device, each of the plurality of data transfer requests having priority information associated therewith;

comparing the priority information with one or more network connections between the first computing device and a second computing device; and

selecting one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests for initiation based on the comparison and based on a data usage plan associated with a user of the first computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, for each of the received plurality of data transfer requests, determining the priority information to be one or more of the following:

explicit, background, opportunistic, and predictive.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving the priority information from the one or more applications for the plurality of data transfer requests.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising initiating the selected one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising notifying the applications associated with the selected one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests of said selecting, wherein the notified applications initiate the data transfer requests.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising tracking a cumulative amount of data transfers over each of the network connections.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein comparing further comprises comparing the tracked, cumulative amounts to corresponding threshold values associated with each of the network connections.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein selecting further comprises selecting one or more of the received plurality of data transfer requests for initiation based on whether the tracked, cumulative amounts are less than the corresponding threshold values.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining the threshold values from the data usage plan.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein said receiving, said comparing, and said selecting are performed by an operating system executing on the first computing device.

17. One or more computer storage media embodying computer-executable components, said components comprising:

an interface component that when executed causes at least one processor to receive a plurality of data transfer requests from one or more applications executing on a first computing device, each of the plurality of data transfer requests having priority information associated therewith;

a type component that when executed causes at least one processor to classify one or more network connections detected between the first computing device and a second computing device;

a priority component that when executed causes at least one processor to assign one or more of the plurality of data transfer requests to the classified network connections based on the priority information and remaining data consumption associated with the classified network connections, the remaining data consumption determined from a data usage plan associated with a user of the first computing device; and

a notification component that when executed causes at least one processor to notify the applications of the assigned data transfer requests.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the type component classifies the network connections into one or more of the following types:

cellular, roaming, and Wi-Fi.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the priority component is further programmed to determine the remaining data consumption by comparing cumulative data consumption in a billing period with threshold values defined in the data usage plan.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the priority component further sorts the network connections based on the classifications from the type component.