Propagating Communication Awareness over a Cellular Network

• US 20160044716A1
• Filed: 08/07/2014
• Published: 02/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hassan, Amer A., Verthein, William George, Menezes, Pascal Francis
• Granted Patent: US 9,414,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

Techniques for propagating communication awareness over a cellular network are described. According to various implementations, communication awareness of a communication session is propagated to an infrastructure component of a cellular network, such as a base station controller. Communication awareness of a communication session, for instance, can be employed to control various operational parameters of a cellular device that participates in a communication session.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

ascertaining that a communication session is initiated or scheduled to be initiated over a cellular network;

aggregating communication awareness that includes attributes of the communication session; and

propagating, separate from a data stream of the communication session, the communication awareness of the communication session for receipt by an infrastructure component of the cellular network.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the infrastructure component comprises a base station controller of the cellular network.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said propagating is performed by a network controller for a communication service that manages the communication session.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communication session comprises one or more of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) session, a video communication session, or a file sharing session.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communication session is implemented via a data session over the cellular network, and the communication session is managed by a communication service that is separate from a cellular service provider.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communication awareness comprises a media type for the communication session.

7. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communication awareness comprises one or more of a codec rate or a packet error rate threshold for the communication session.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communication awareness comprises a transmission power to be used by a mobile client to transmit data of the communication session.

9. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a change in performance attributes for the communication session; and

propagating further communication awareness indicating the change in performance attributes to the infrastructure component.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving communication awareness that includes attributes of a communication session over a cellular network;

ascertaining a resource policy to be applied to the communication session based on the attributes of the communication session; and

communicating, in a data stream that is separate from the communication session, session instructions to a mobile device that include one or more behaviors to be applied by the mobile device as part of the communication session.

11. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the communication session is managed by a communication service that is separate from a cellular service provider of the cellular network.

12. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the attributes of the communication session include one or more of a media type of the communication session, a codec rate of the communication session, or a packet error rate threshold of the communication session.

13. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the resource policy is selected from a set of resource policies that are each applicable to communication sessions with different attributes.

14. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the session instructions include a transmission power to be utilized by the mobile device for transmitting date of the communication session.

15. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the session instructions include channel aggregation information to be utilized by the mobile device for transmitting date of the communication session.

16. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the session instructions include dynamic frequency selection information to be utilized by the mobile device for transmitting date of the communication session.

17. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the session instructions include channel aggregation information to be utilized by the mobile device for transmitting date of the communication session.

18. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media including instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the at least one processor, cause the system perform operations including;

participating in a communication session that is implemented via a data session over a cellular network, the communication session managed by a communication service that is separate from a cellular service provider;

receiving, separately from a data stream of the communication session, session instructions that specify one or more behaviors to be applied as part of the communication session; and

applying the one or more behaviors to data transmission of the communication session from a mobile device.

19. A system as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more behaviors specify a transmission power to be utilized by the mobile device for transmitting data of the communication session.

20. A system as recited in claim 18, wherein said applying comprises changing a transmission power for transmitting data of the communication session based on the one or more behaviors specified by the session instructions.