Optimizing data traffic and power consumption in mobile unified communication applications

• US 7,974,194 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Singh, Rahul, Manda, Srinivasa, Rajagopalan, Bala, Dixit, Madhur, Tripathi, Ashutosh
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Jianye
• Application Number:
  US12/333,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20100149975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 935 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

Data traffic, latency, and power consumption in a mobile unified communication environment are reduced by optimizing communication between a mobile client application and a mobile data server through determining optimum delay between exchanged messages and/or filtering portions of data not relevant to the mobile client application at the server. Additional optimizations include providing mobile client application relevant updates in an intelligent fashion based on user activity, screen resolution or displayed information, relevant contacts and relevance of information, and similar characteristics.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for optimizing data traffic between a mobile application and a server in a communication network, the method comprising:

dynamically adjusting a delay value associated with exchange of messages between the mobile application and the server, the messages including data provided by the server;

upon detecting a timeout, reducing the delay value to a last successful delay value in a binary search fashion;

receiving data to be delivered to the mobile application at the server;

storing the received data;

prioritizing the stored data based on at least one from a set of;

a mobile application user status, a category of the data, and a status of a source of the data; and

providing the stored data to the mobile application based on the prioritization.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically adjusting the delay value includes:

receiving a first delay value from the mobile application;

if no new data is to be provided at the end of the first delay value, receiving a second delay value that is greater than the first delay value; and

continuing to receive increased delay values until one of;

new data is to be provided before the end of a received delay value and a system communication timeout occurs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically adjusting the delay value includes:

receiving a first delay value from the mobile application;

receiving a query from the mobile application for an elapsed time until a timeout; and

providing the mobile application the elapsed time until the timeout such that the mobile application is enabled to use the elapsed time until the timeout as delay value for the exchange of messages until another timeout occurs.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received data is cached at the server such that older versions of the data are overwritten.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the stored data based on mobile application user status includes:

when new data is available for delivery to the mobile application, providing an indication of available new data to the mobile application;

in response to a request from the mobile application indicating one of;

the user being active, the user indicating a request for new data, and expiration of a user defined time period, providing the new data to the mobile application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the received data is presence data associated with users of the communication network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein prioritizing the stored data based on status of the source of data includes:

determining a presence status of the users of the communication network; and

prioritizing the data associated with users who are available for communication such that data associated with users who are not available for communication is provided to the mobile application only upon request.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein prioritizing the stored data based on a category of the data includes:

determining users of the communication network of interest to the mobile application user; and

prioritizing the data associated with the users of the communication network of interest to the mobile application user for delivery to the mobile application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the users of the communication network of interest to the mobile application user includes at least one of:

retrieving a favorite contacts list and receiving an indication from the mobile application user.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the users of the communication network of interest to the mobile application user includes employing a heuristic algorithm based on at least one of:

a recently contacted users list, a scheduled appointments list, and a received calls list.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a portion of the presence data that is not relevant to the mobile application; and

filtering the irrelevant portion of the data prior to providing the data to the mobile application.

12. A mobile server for optimizing data traffic between a mobile application and a unified communication network, the mobile server comprising:

a memory for storing computer-executable instructions;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute instructions to cause actions including;

dynamically determine a timing of message exchanges between the mobile server and the mobile application based on an iterative adjustment of a delay value and a system timeout;

upon detecting a timeout, reduce the delay value to a last successful delay value in a binary search fashion;

cache presence data received from subscribers of the unified communication network;

prioritize the cached presence data based on at least one from a set of;

whether a subscriber associated with the mobile application is active,

whether a portion of the cached presence data is of interest to the subscriber associated with the mobile application, and

whether the cached presence data is associated with an available subscriber; and

provide at least a portion of the cached presence data to the mobile application based on the prioritization.

13. The mobile server of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the timing of the message exchanges by one of increasing and decreasing an initial delay value provided by the mobile application based on occurrence of a timeout during a current delay period.

14. The mobile server of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive from the mobile application a plurality of contacts of interest to the subscriber associated with the mobile application; and

determine the portion of cached presence data of interest to the subscriber based on the plurality of contacts, wherein the plurality of contacts is determined from one of;

a favorite contacts list, a selection by the subscriber from a complete contacts list, and from a computation employing a heuristic algorithm based on communication activities.

15. The mobile server of claim 12, wherein cached presence data associated with unavailable subscribers of the unified communication network is de-prioritized and provided to the mobile application only upon explicit request.

16. The mobile server of claim 12, wherein the mobile server is configured to receive updates to the cached presence data upon changes to a presence of each subscriber of the unified communication network, and wherein only a portion of the cached data associated with availability and contact information of contacts of interest to the subscriber associated with the mobile application is provided to the mobile application.

17. A system for optimizing data traffic between a mobile application and a mobile server in a unified communication network, the system comprising:

a mobile device for executing the mobile application and for communicating with the mobile server and other communication devices over a cellular network, wherein the mobile application is configured to;

provide an iteratively adjusted delay value to the mobile server during an “

always-on”

connection to dynamically determine an optimum timing for exchange of messages between the mobile application and the mobile server;

upon detecting a timeout, reduce the delay value to a last successful delay value in a binary search fashion;

determine a list of contacts of interest through one of;

subscriber selection and heuristic computation; and

provide to the mobile server the list of contacts of interest and an activity status of the subscriber; and

the mobile server configured to;

cache presence data received from other subscribers of the unified communication network;

determine a portion of the cached presence data based on the list of contacts of interest to the subscriber and an activity status of the contacts on the list;

provide the portion of the cached presence data to the mobile application.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the mobile application is configured to facilitate communication in a selected communication mode over the cellular network utilizing the presence information received from the mobile server.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the mobile application is further configured to enable the subscriber to:

define a period for delivery of cached presence data from the mobile server regardless of an activity status of the subscriber;

request an immediate delivery of cached presence data from the mobile server regardless of an activity status of the subscriber; and

define a relevant portion of the cached presence data for delivery from the mobile server to the mobile application.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the mobile application and the mobile server are configured to communicate employing one of HTTP and HTTPS, and wherein the mobile server is further configured to communicate with other servers within the unified communication network employing Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).