Energy saving techniques for multi-connectivity devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11838869-B2
Application number	US-202017773851-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2020
Priority date	Nov 4, 2019
Publication date	Dec 5, 2023
Grant date	Dec 5, 2023

Abstract

A method for reducing the energy consumption of a mobile device includes: measuring condition values of the mobile device by a measuring unit associated to the mobile device; comparing the measured condition values of the mobile device to entries of a condition listing, wherein the condition listing is stored in a memory unit of the mobile device; and initiating an energy saving program of the mobile device upon detecting a match of the measured condition values and an entry of the condition listing. The entries of the condition listing comprise the following measuring condition values of the mobile device: a display state, an activity state, a traffic consumption value, a traffic stream value, an SSID state, a BSSID state, an ESSID state, authentication information, and/or access type information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for reducing the energy consumption of a mobile device having multi-connectivity functionality that comprises at least two different communication interfaces, wherein each of the least at least two different communication interfaces is associated to a different network flow, the method comprising:
generating an energy saving program, wherein the generated energy saving program is tailored to specific requirements of the mobile device at a specific point in time;
obtaining measured condition values of the mobile device;
comparing the measured condition values of the mobile device to entries of a condition listing, wherein the condition listing is stored in a memory of the mobile device; and
initiating the energy saving program of the mobile device upon detecting a match of a measured condition value and an entry of the condition listing, wherein the energy saving program comprises the mobile device switching off the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device;
wherein the entries of the condition listing comprise condition values corresponding to at least one of the following: a display state, an activity state, a traffic consumption value, a traffic stream value, a service set ID (SSID) state, a basic service set ID (BSSID) state, an extended service set ID (ESSID) state, location information, or access type information; and
wherein, based on the obtained measured condition values, the mobile device detects:
whether a display of the mobile device is off;
whether a charge state of a battery of the mobile device is below a predefined level;
whether any user application is running on the mobile device;
whether the mobile device is connected to a power supply; and
whether the mobile device is connected to the Internet via a mobile network flow and via a Wi-Fi network flow.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring energy consumption of a plurality of network flows; and
choosing, for data transfer while the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device is switched off, a network flow that has the lowest energy consumption out of network flows which fulfill a minimum bandwidth requirement of an application running on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring performance of a plurality of network flows; and
choosing, for data transfer while the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device is switched off, a network flow that has the best performance out of the plurality of network flows for data transfer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy saving program is dynamically generated based on performance target parameters provided by an application running on the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the energy saving program takes a usage history of the mobile device into account;
wherein the energy saving program includes activation times based on information regarding times during which a user does not use the mobile device actively.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy saving program further comprises: reducing a particular network interface and/or disabling multi-connectivity status messages.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy saving program further comprises: reducing a particular network interface and disabling multi-connectivity status messages.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the energy saving program comprises: selecting an energy saving measure out of the following energy saving measures: disabling or reducing a particular network interface, disabling an activation of a particular network interface, or disabling multi-connectivity status messages;
wherein the selected energy saving measure has the best performance out of energy saving measures which meet energy saving and/or performance target parameters corresponding to the energy saving program.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a condition value corresponding to the display state differentiates between whether a display of the mobile device is on or off; and
wherein the mobile device switches off the multi-connectivity functionality based on the display being off.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a condition value corresponding to the activity state differentiates between whether a low power mode of the mobile device is activated; and
wherein the mobile device switches off the multi-connectivity functionality based on the low power mode being activated.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device switches off the multi-connectivity functionality based on the traffic consumption value being below a predefined threshold.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the energy saving program further comprises the mobile device reducing certain frequencies, bandwidth and/or rates for a respective communication interface.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a condition value corresponding to the location information indicates whether the mobile device is located in a remote region; and
wherein the mobile device switches off the multi-connectivity functionality based on the mobile device being in the remote region and being without energy supply.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that the mobile device is connected to an electrical power supply; and
in response to detecting that the mobile device is connected to an electrical power supply, terminating the energy saving program.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving user input regarding a degree to which performance of the mobile device should be lowered; and
generating the energy saving program based on the user input regarding the degree to which performance of the mobile device should be lowered.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving user input regarding how long the battery charge of the mobile device should last; and
generating the energy saving program based on the user input regarding how long the battery charge of the mobile device should last.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device comprises operating Wi-Fi and cellular interfaces of the mobile device simultaneously for capacity aggregation, and wherein switching off the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device comprises disabling the Wi-Fi interface of the mobile device or disabling the cellular interface of the mobile device.

18. A mobile device having multi-connectivity functionality, comprising:
a memory having processor-executable instructions stored thereon; and
a processor configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate the following being performed by the mobile device:
generating an energy saving program, wherein the generated energy saving program is tailored to specific requirements of the mobile device at a specific point in time;
obtaining measured condition values of the mobile device;
comparing the measured condition values of the mobile device to entries of a condition listing, wherein the condition listing is stored in the memory of the mobile device; and
initiating the energy saving program of the mobile device upon detecting a match of a measured condition value and an entry of the condition listing, wherein the energy saving program comprises the mobile device switching off the multi-connectivity functionality of the mobile device;
wherein the entries of the condition listing comprise condition values corresponding to at least one of the following:

Assignees

• Deutsche Telekom Ag

Inventors

• Amend Markus
• Bogenfeld Eckard

Classifications

• H04W52/0277 Primary

  according to available power supply, e.g. switching off when a low battery condition is detected · CPC title

• H04W28/0917 Primary

  based on the energy state of entities · CPC title

• H04L69/14 Primary

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title

• H04W52/0212

  managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is leader and terminal is follower · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title