WiFi and Cellular Communication Switching

• US 20170048774A1
• Filed: 10/23/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Martin Gronberg, Wesley Cheng
• Original Assignee: Martin Gronberg, Wesley Cheng
• Inventors: Cheng, Wesley, Gronberg, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 10,383,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/40 using split connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/60 based on actual use of network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/16 Performing reselection for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A system includes a server; a plurality of wireless networks coupled to the server; and one or more mobile devices coupled to the wireless networks with intermittent access to the wireless networks, the plurality of wireless networks providing data communication between client and server applications over multiple available connections.

Claims

1. A method for optimizing communication cost, the method comprising:

communicating over a wireless network and a cellular network, wherein a cellular network cost to communicate data is greater than a wireless network cost;

applying a policy containing one or more rules to determine whether to send via the cellular or wireless network the data to the mobile device, each rule being a function of cost, availability, one or more messaging attributes of data, channels or system environment; and

sending the data over the wireless network data if the wireless network is available and otherwise sending the data using the cellular network according to the policy.

2. A method for optimizing communication cost over a wireless area network (WAN) and a cellular network, the method comprising:

communicating over the WAN as the first wireless network and the cellular network as the second wireless network, wherein a first wireless network cost to communicate data is greater than a second wireless network cost;

applying a policy containing one or more rules to determine whether to send via the first or second wireless network the data to the mobile device, each rule being a function of cost, availability, one or more messaging attributes of data, channels or system environment; and

sending the data over the second wireless network data if the second wireless network is available and otherwise sending the data using the first wireless network according to the policy.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising automatically detecting networks by observing changes in a TCP/IP route table and configured by altering the default route

4. The method of claim 2, comprising running loosely coupled client-server applications without coding by declarative programming using relating business objects and graphical objects and mapping the objects into messages using properties sheets.

5. The method of claim 2, comprising handing data from an originating application to a gateway which immediately releases the connection so that the application does not have to wait for an acknowledgement from a target application.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first wireless network comprises cellular wireless network and the second wireless network comprises a wireless local area network.

7. The method of claim 2, comprising establishing a new connection to send the data block to the application when a reply is generated from the target application.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the gateway sends the data block to the application and any errors, rollbacks or replies are sent to the originating application with a new connection.

9. The method of claim 2, comprising code to provide bi-directional transactions between wireless/mobile devices and enterprise server applications.

10. The method of claim 2, comprising code to break up a sequence such that the client does not have to wait until a transaction is completed before relinquishing the network connection.

11. The method of claim 2, comprising code to perform asynchronous messaging, where a data block is persisted at every step and handed off to a next stage without waiting.

12. The method of claim 2, comprising code to process a reply from the server as an asynchronous message and complete the transaction.

13. The method of claim 2, comprising code to perform bi-directional communication using server-initiated push.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein data blocks are sent via communication channels comprising a combination of a physical network and a service provider.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein networks are automatically detected by observing changes in the TCP/IP route table and configured by altering the default route.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein service providers are determined by using identification servers accessible only in specific networks.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein transmission rules are formed using regular expressions to combine system, message and channel parameters.

18. A system comprising

a server;

a plurality of wireless networks coupled to the server; and

one or more mobile devices coupled to the wireless networks with intermittent access to the wireless networks, the plurality of wireless networks providing data communication between client and server applications over multiple intermittent connections, wherein the connection is selected based on a least cost, wherein the mobile devices communicate over a wireless area network (WAN) as the first wireless network and the cellular network as the second wireless network, wherein a first wireless network cost to communicate data is greater than a second wireless network cost;

wherein the devices apply a policy containing one or more rules to determine whether to send via the first or second wireless network the data to the mobile device, each rule being a function of cost, availability, one or more messaging attributes of data, channels or system environment; and

the devices communicating data over the second wireless network data if the second wireless network is available and otherwise sending the data using the first wireless network according to the policy.

19. The system of claim 18, comprising computer readable code for:

creating a first transaction on a first device, the first transaction including one or more data blocks intended to be exchanged with a second device over first or second wireless networks, wherein a first wireless network cost to communicate data is greater than a second wireless network cost;

creating a first device queue on the first device, the first device queue reflecting a current status of the first transaction, including which data block of the first transaction have been successfully or unsuccessfully sent or received;

creating a second device queue on the second device, the second device queue reflecting a current status of the first transaction, including which data block of the first transaction have been successfully or unsuccessfully sent or received;

applying a policy containing one or more rules to determine whether to send via the first or second wireless network data to the mobile device, each rule being a function of cost, availability, one or more messaging attributes of messages, channels or system environment; and

sending the data blocks over the second wireless network data if the second wireless network is available and otherwise sending the data block using the first wireless network according to the policy and notifying the first device that the first transaction sent by the first device was successfully or unsuccessfully received by the second device.

20. The system of claim 18, comprising code to determine a cost for each channel and priority thresholds based on the cost envelope and code to balance the cost and service by using min-max optimization of items including:

cost structures of each channel, target total cost of each channel, expected volume of messages, priority of to be sent by an expensive Channel, priority of messages to be sent by an inexpensive channel, and wherein messages are sent by a factor selected from the group consisting of;

specific time or event, billing cycle, billing unit, tier, time, availability, urgency, retry frequency, ping priority, ping frequency, and aging.