System, method and apparatus for subscriber user interfaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11973607-B2
Application number	US-202218045108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2022
Priority date	Aug 10, 2012
Publication date	Apr 30, 2024
Grant date	Apr 30, 2024

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems manage use of shared network resources among subscribers to a data communication service. In some implementations, a first metric is computed representing a subscriber's use of the shared network resources. A second metric may also be computed that represents the amount of network congestion of the shared network resources. Data derived from the first metric and the second metric may then be presented to the subscriber. The data may be transmitted to the subscriber over a network and/or the data may be displayed to the subscriber on an electronic display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method of managing network utilization in a network where a plurality of subscribers to a data communication service access a set of shared network resources, comprising
electronically monitoring a subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources, and congestion of the shared network resources from a network access control center remote from the plurality of subscribers;
computing, at the network access control center, a first metric indicative of an accumulated amount of the subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources, based, at least in part, on the monitored utilization;
computing, at the network access control center, a second metric indicative of a current amount of congestion of the shared network resources due to usage of the shared network resources by the plurality of subscribers, based at least in part on the monitored congestion;
determining, at the network access control center, whether to limit the subscriber's use of the shared network resources based on the first metric and the second metric in relation to a defined criteria;
if the first metric and the second metric meet the defined criteria:
limiting the subscriber's use of the shared network resources,
presenting to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric, and
presenting the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource, wherein the limiting the subscriber's use of the shared network resources is maintained for a predetermined period of time, or until the first metric and the second metric do not meet the defined criteria, or the subscriber completes the steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource; and

if the first metric and the second metric do not meet the defined criteria, maintaining a current level of usage of the shared network resources by the subscriber.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a request for a web page from the subscriber.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the presented first data and the presented second data are transmitted over a computer network as part of a web page in response to receiving the request for a web page.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first metric is presented with respect to a utilization limit defined by a data access plan of the subscriber.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presented first data and the presented second data are selected from html data and xml data.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising periodically updating and transmitting the presented first data and the presented second data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein limiting the subscriber's use of the shared network resources includes limiting at least one data speed available to the subscriber.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein limiting subscriber use comprises preventing at least some data transfer activities.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subscriber's use is limited to one or more of a set of network applications, a set of network destinations, or a set of network ports.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource comprise approaches to reduce the subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource comprise changing a data access plan of the subscriber.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric presenting the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource occur simultaneously.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the first data and the second data comprises:
categorizing the subscriber's utilization into one of three utilization categories;
categorizing the network congestion into one of three congestion categories; and
indicating the one utilization category and the one congestion category.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
presenting a traffic light graphic associated with the subscriber, the traffic light graphic simultaneously displaying first, second, and third icons; and
displaying one of the first icon with a red color, second icon with a yellow icon, and the third icon with a green color based on the second data.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric and the presenting the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource is in response to the limiting.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting the second data further comprises presenting the second data relative to an overall usage capacity limit of the shared network resources.

17. A computing system where a plurality of subscribers to a data communication service access a set of shared network resources, comprising:
a network access control center comprising a network server for:
computing a first metric indicative of an accumulated amount of a subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources and for computing a second metric indicative of an amount of current congestion of the shared network resources due to usage of the shared network resources by the plurality of subscribers;
determining whether to limit the subscriber's use of the shared network resources based on the first metric and the second metric in relation to a defined criteria;

wherein if the first metric and the second metric meet the defined criteria, the network server is operative to:
limit the subscriber's use of the shared network resources,
present to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric, and
present the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource, wherein the limiting the subscriber's use of the shared network resources is maintained for a predetermined period of time, until the first metric and the second metric do not meet the defined criteria, or the subscriber completes the steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource; and
wherein if the first metric and the second metric do not meet the defined criteria, the network server is operative to maintain a current level of usage of the shared network resources by the subscriber.

18. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the network server is further operative to transmit the first data and the second data over a computer network for display to the subscriber terminal.

19. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the presenting to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric and the presenting the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared network resource occurs simultaneously.

20. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the network server is configured to present the first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric and present the subscriber with steps to alleviate the limiting of the subscriber's use of the shared net

Assignees

• Viasat Inc

Inventors

• Dankberg Mark
• Esserman Jim
• Lippert Keven

Classifications

• H04L41/0896

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title

• H04L67/75

  Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display · CPC title

• H04L12/1489 Primary

  dependent on congestion · CPC title

• H04M15/58

  based on statistics of usage or network monitoring · CPC title

• H04M15/8016

  based on quality of service [QoS] · CPC title