INTELLIGENT MOBILITY APPLICATION PROFILING TOOL

• US 20130315088A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 11/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gerber, Alexandre, Mao, Zhuoqing Morley, Qian, Feng, Sen, Subhabrata, Spatscheck, Oliver, Wang, Zhaoguang
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0232 according to average transmission signal activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Analyzing mobile device applications within a wireless data network and other related aspects are presented herein. More particularly, described herein is a novel Intelligent Mobility Application Profiling Tool (iMAP) and/or other mechanisms, systems and methods for profiling and benchmarking applications associated with mobile devices in a wireless data network. Various systems and methods described herein expose cross-layer interaction associated with a network device in order to profile an application on the network device with respect to energy efficiency, performance, and functionality. As described herein, radio resource control (RRC) analysis can be performed to infer RRC states associated with a given application, identify tail time, etc. Further, analyzers are employed for various layers, including transmission control protocol (TCP) and/or hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), as well as to analyze communication bursts associated with a given application. Analysis results are subsequently utilized to deliver application profiling results to a user.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a system comprising a processor, cross-layer interaction associated with network activity data of a network device with respect to a radio resource control state;

determining, by the system, a burst comprising a period of time between consecutive packets of the network activity data; and

determining, by the system based on the cross-layer interaction, a source of the burst.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the burst comprises determining the period of time between data packets received by the network device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the system, information representing the cross-layer interaction, the burst, and the source of the burst.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the system, the radio resource control state based on a radio link control buffer characteristic of the network device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining, by the system based on the radio resource control state, an energy consumption of the burst.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining, by the system based on the energy consumption, an energy efficiency of the network device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the system, the network activity data from the network device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the cross-layer interaction comprises extracting a transmission control protocol data flow from the network activity data and identifying a property of a data packet associated with the transmission control protocol data flow.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the source of the burst comprises determining the source based on a transmission control protocol property associated with the burst.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the source of the burst comprises determining the source based on a packet duration associated with the burst.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising

determining, by the system, periodic bursts comprising the burst.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the system, a ratio of a first amount of data transferred from the network device to a second amount of data received by the network device.

13. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising;

determining information referencing cross-layer interaction associated with a network device with respect to a radio resource control state;

identifying a communication burst within communication activity of the network device comprising a time period between consecutive communications; and

determining, based on the information referencing the cross-layer interaction, an initiating event of the communication burst.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a property of an application of the network device based on the information and the communication burst.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a radio resource control state transition associated with the communication activity.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

associating the communication burst with an application of the network device.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an energy efficiency of the network device according to a defined efficiency measure based on the radio resource control state.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a transmission control protocol data flow based on the information; and

determining a property of a packet associated with the transmission control protocol data flow.

19. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

identifying cross-layer interaction associated with a network device with respect to a radio resource control state;

identifying a burst within operation data of the network device, wherein the burst comprises a period of time between consecutive packets of the operation data; and

determining, based on the cross-layer interaction, a trigger factor of the burst.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating profile data representing a performance profile of an application of the network device based on the cross-layer interaction, the burst, and the trigger factor of the burst.