Updating dynamic data usage plans and statistics

• US 9,369,589 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zalmanovitch, Gil, Scott, Gregory James, Guday, Shai, Kwok, Alec Garvin, Jiang, Yue, Ma, Kenneth Vincent
• Primary Examiner(s): Elhag, Magdi
• Application Number:
  US13/721,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20130196622A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,272 Days
• Field of Search: 455405-409, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 enable data usage plans and data usage statistics to be shared among user computing devices. In some embodiments, a web service receives a schema populated with data describing the data usage plan from a mobile operator. The web service distributes the populated schema to the user computing devices, and subsequently distributes updated portions of the schema as the data usage plan is updated by the mobile operator. The web service may also collect the data usage statistics from the user computing devices and the mobile operator, reconcile any differences, and send synchronization notifications to the user computing devices based on the reconciliation. In some embodiments, users are able to view bandwidth consumption by a plurality of user computing devices sharing the same data usage plan.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory area associated with a mobile computing device, said memory area storing first data usage statistics, the first data usage statistics representing network data consumed by the mobile computing device under a data usage plan; and

a processor programmed to;

collect the first data usage statistics relating to the data usage plan and store the collected first data usage statistics in the memory area;

receive second data usage statistics relating to the data usage plan as collected by a mobile operator;

reconcile differences between the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics, the reconciliation determining which of the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics is a more up-to-date measure of the network data consumption under the data usage plan, wherein the reconciliation is performed based on the differences before generating a synchronization notification to update the first data usage statistics; and

update the first data usage statistics stored in the memory area based on the reconciliation, wherein the first data usage statistics are not updated when the collected first data usage statistics are more up-to-date than the received second data usage statistics.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to collect the first data usage statistics by receiving at least a portion of the first data usage statistics from other computing devices associated with the same data usage plan, wherein the collected first data usage statistics are updated when the received second data usage statistics are more up-to-date than the collected first data usage statistics.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to send the updated first data usage statistics to the other computing devices based on the reconciliation.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to send the synchronization notification to only the other computing devices that share the same data usage plan and have outdated first data usage statistics, based on the reconciliation, wherein the other computing devices that share the same data usage plan obtain the updated first data statistics by sending a synchronization request, after the reconciliation in response to the synchronization notification.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for collecting and reconciling the first data usage statistics and the second data usage statistics.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for synchronizing the first data usage statistics with the second data usage statistics.

7. A method comprising:

collecting, by a processor, first data usage statistics related to a data usage plan and store the collected first data usage statistics in a memory area;

receiving, by the processor, second data usage statistics related to the data usage plan as collected by a mobile operator;

reconciling, by the processor, differences between the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics, the reconciliation determining which of the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics is a more up-to-date measure of the network data consumption under the data usage plan, wherein the reconciliation is performed based on the differences before generating a synchronization notification to update the first data usage statistics; and

updating the first data usage statistics stored in the memory area based on the reconciliation, wherein the first data usage statistics are not updated when the collected first data usage statistics are more up-to-date than the received second data usage statistics.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

collecting the first data usage statistics related to the data usage plan from a plurality of user computing devices; and

collecting, by a web service, the second data usage statistics related to the data usage plan from the mobile operator, the second data usage statistics representing network data collectively consumed by the plurality of user computing devices which share the same data usage plan.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending the updated first data usage statistics to a plurality of user computing devices based on the reconciliation.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein reconciling the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics comprises comparing a timestamp associated with the collected first data usage statistics and a timestamp associated with the received second data usage statistics, the comparison determining which of the collected first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics is more up-to-date.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending the synchronization notification to the plurality of the user computing devices, sharing the same data usage plan, based on said reconciling.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the data usage plan is described using a schema, the schema comprising an extensible markup language schema.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the data usage plan describes threshold values associated with network connections of a plurality of the user computing devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the threshold values correspond to maximum network data allotted under the data usage plan for the network connections.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the threshold values correspond to one of a plurality of fields in a schema.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one of the plurality of fields comprises one or more of the following:

peak times, off-peak times, peak time data consumption quota, off-peak time data consumption quota, peak time data consumption remaining, off-peak time data consumption remaining, a roaming rate, a mobile operator name, a billing cycle type, and a network connection type.

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

a schema component that when executed causes at least one processor to;

receive, from at least one mobile operator, a schema populated with data describing a data usage plan associated with at least one user computing device,

distribute the received, populated schema to the at least one user computing device,

subsequently receive, from the mobile operator, an updated portion of the schema, the updated portion of the schema corresponding to an updated portion of the data usage plan, and

subsequently distribute only the received, updated portion of the schema to the at least one user computing device; and

a statistics component that when executed causes at least one processor to;

receive first data usage statistics relating to the data usage plan as collected by the at least one user computing device,

receive second data usage statistics relating to the data usage plan as collected by the mobile operator,

reconcile differences between the received first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics, and

send, after said reconciling, a synchronization notification to the at least one user computing device based on said reconciled differences.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the statistics component reconciles the received first data usage statistics and the received second data usage statistics by comparing a timestamp associated with the received first data usage statistics and a timestamp associated with the received second data usage statistics.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the first data usage statistics represent network data consumed under the data usage plan by the at least one user computing device as determined by the at least one user computing device and the second data usage statistics received by the statistics component represent the network data consumed by the at least one user computing device under the data usage plan as measured by the mobile operator.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the schema component and the statistics component execute without interacting with each other.