Smart management of background network connections

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10187430-B2
Application number	US-201313913113-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2013
Priority date	Jun 7, 2013
Publication date	Jan 22, 2019
Grant date	Jan 22, 2019

Abstract

In some implementations, a network daemon can manage access to a mobile device's network interface. The network daemon (e.g., network connection managing process) can monitor the condition of the mobile device's network connection on one or more interfaces. The network daemon can monitor many conditions on the mobile device. The network daemon can receive background networking requests from network clients (e.g., processes, applications) that specify criteria for initiating a network connection. The network daemon can then smartly manage network connections taking into account network conditions, mobile device conditions and/or client criteria received in the client request. This can help reduce battery life impact, memory usage, likelihood of call drops, data usage cost, and load on network operators.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a network management process executing on a mobile device, policy data specifying a plurality of conditions for establishing one or more background network connections for a plurality of client processes executing on the mobile device;
receiving, by the network management process, from a client process of the plurality of client processes, a request to establish a background network connection to perform a deferrable task on the mobile device based on connection criteria specified by the client process;
selecting, by the network management process from the policy data, a condition that corresponds to a column of first criterion and a row of second criterion from a policy table of the connection criteria, at least one of the first criterion or the second criterion is a data size and at least one of the first criterion or the second criterion is a time period;
delaying, by the network management process, establishing the background network connection for the client process until the network management process determines that the selected condition is satisfied; and
after the delaying, establishing, by the network management process, the background network connection according to the connection criteria to allow the client process to perform the deferrable task,
wherein the method is performed by one or more hardware processors.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
suspending the client process upon receiving the request from the client process by the network management process; and
obtaining a network connection identifier for the network connection upon establishing the network connection.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
invoking the client process upon establishing the network connection; and
sending the network connection identifier to the client process upon invoking the client process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request includes call back information usable by the network management process to call back the client process after the client process is suspended.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition corresponds to a series of time periods, the condition including a respective rule for each time period, a time period that is later in the series corresponding to a more relaxed rule for establishing a network connection.

6. The method of claim 1 , the condition comprising at least one of:
a data budget for the mobile device or an energy budget for the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving network connection guidance from one or more persistent network clients; and
delaying establishing the network connection for the client process based on the received network connection guidance.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network management process is a daemon process, and the method comprises, after the delaying, providing the network connection to the client process in a call back to the client process, the call back including an identifier of the network process.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the client process is suspended, and the network management process re-invokes the client process upon establishing the network connection.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining, by the network management process, that a user is using the mobile device; and
in response, submitting a message to the client process requesting the client process to pause or suspend using the network connection.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a network management process executing on a mobile device, policy data specifying a plurality of conditions for establishing one or more background network connections for a plurality of client processes executing on the mobile device;
receiving, by the network management process, from a client process of the plurality of client processes, a request to establish a background network connection to perform a deferrable task on the mobile device based on connection criteria specified by the client process;
selecting, by the network management process from the policy data, a condition that corresponds to a column of first criterion and a row of second criterion from a policy table of the connection criteria, at least one of the first criterion or the second criterion is a data size and at least one of the first criterion or the second criterion is a time period;
delaying, by the network management process, establishing the background network connection for the client process until the network management process determines that the selected condition is satisfied; and
after the delaying, establishing, by the network management process, the background network connection according to the connection criteria to allow the client process to perform the deferrable task.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , the operations comprising:
suspending the client process upon receiving the request from the client process by the network management process; and
obtaining a network connection identifier for the network connection upon establishing the network connection.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , the operations comprising:
invoking the client process upon establishing the network connection; and
sending the network connection identifier to the client process upon invoking the client process.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the request includes call back information usable by the network management process to call back the client process after the client process is suspended.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the condition corresponds to a series of time periods, the condition including a respective rule for each time period, a time period that is later in the series corresponding to a more relaxed rule for establishing a network connection.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the condition comprises at least one of:
a data budget for the mobile device or an energy budget for the mobile device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , the operations comprising:
receiving network connection guidance from one or more persistent network clients; and
delaying establishing the network connection for the client process based on the received network connection guidance.

18. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a network management process executing on a mobile device, policy data specifying a plurality of conditions for establishing one or more background network connections for a plurality of client processes executing on the mobile device;
receiving, by the network management process, from a client process of the plurality of client processes, a request to establish a background network connection to perform a deferrable task on the mobile device based on connection criteria specified by the client process;
selecting, by the network management process from the policy data, a condition that corresponds to a column of first criterion and a row of second criterion from a policy ta

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Vyas Amit K
• Graessley Joshua V
• Iarocci John
• Litzinger Darren
• Lam Andrew C
• Chang Ray Ling
• Parker Steven Douglas
• Wood Justin
• Klahn Matthew Scott
• Pollack Daniel B

Classifications

• H04L67/141

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title

• H04L65/1069 Primary

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04W48/20

  Selecting an access point · CPC title

• H04W76/11

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title