Mobile network congestion recognition for optimization of mobile traffic

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9326185-B2
Application number	US-201313956174-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2013
Priority date	Mar 11, 2013
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for mobile network congestion recognition for optimization of mobile traffic are disclosed. A mobile device having a local proxy equipped with congestion recognition capabilities can sample time consumed to establish data connection between the mobile device and the mobile network, collect data including at least one of signal strength data, cell identifier, and location area code associated with the data connection between the mobile device and the mobile network, and anticipate network congestion, based at least on the time consumed and the collected data. On detecting mobile network congestion, the local proxy can apply a blocking policy to block all or low priority traffic from signaling the congested mobile network to ease the congestion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method implemented by a mobile device for congestion detection in a mobile network, the method, comprising:
sampling, at a mobile device, setup times for establishing a data connection between the mobile device and one or more base stations in the mobile network;
analyzing at least the sampled setup times and thereby detecting congestion at a base station from the one or more base stations in the mobile network; and
applying a blocking policy on traffic from the mobile device in response to detecting congestion at the base station,
wherein the analyzing comprises using a baseline determined from the sampled setup times to detect an increase in setup times associated with subsequent data connections established between the mobile device and the one or more base stations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, a setup time is measured as a difference between a timestamp associated with a data request at the mobile device and a timestamp associated with a transition of a radio state of the mobile device from an idle state to a connected or high state.

3. The method of claim 1 , a setup time includes a radio access bearer reconfiguration time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein, the mobile device includes a smartphone or a superphone, a tablet or a phablet.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing a set of the setup times in a memory stack, wherein the analyzing is triggered when the memory stack is full.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein, the increase in setup times is used as an indicator by the mobile device to detect congestion at the base station.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the baseline is calculated as a sum of a mean of a set of the setup times, a standard deviation of the set of the setup times and a sensitivity factor.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sensitivity factor adjusts sensitivity in detecting the increase in setup times.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that the base station in the mobile network is congested based on a rejection message received in response to attempts to establish a data connection.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an amount of time to wait before attempting to connect or reconnect to the mobile network.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blocking policy allows high priority traffic from the mobile device to reach the base station in the mobile network.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
logging information on the detected congestion; and
periodically uploading the logged information to a remote server.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the logged data is processed to generate a congestion report.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the congestion report is provided to an operator or service provider of the mobile network.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base station is a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile network.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein, the base station is a Node B in a 3G mobile network or an Evolved Node B in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.

17. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to:
aggregate setup times for connection requests in a mobile network to determine a baseline;
detect increase in setup times for subsequent connection requests in the mobile network from the baseline;
determine that a base station in the mobile network is congested based at least in part on the detected increase in setup times; and
apply a blocking policy to selectively block traffic from the mobile device from reaching the mobile network in response to determining that the base station in the mobile network is congested.

18. The medium of claim 17 , wherein the machine uses reception quality associated with the subsequent connection requests to confirm that the base station in the mobile network is congested.

19. The medium of claim 18 , wherein the machine further uses a distribution pattern of the subsequent connection requests to further confirm that the base station in the mobile network is congested.

20. The medium of claim 17 , wherein the machine determines an amount of time to wait before attempting to connect or reconnect to the mobile network.

21. The medium of claim 17 , wherein the blocking policy is applied for a predefined duration of time, or until a high priority data request is detected at the mobile device.

22. The medium of claim 19 , wherein the distribution pattern of the subsequent connection requests is established using location area code and base station identifier information associated with the subsequent connection requests.

23. The medium of claim 17 , wherein when a rejection message is received in response to any one of the subsequent connection requests, the machine determines that the base station in the mobile network is congested, and applies the blocking policy on traffic from the machine to reduce signaling to the mobile network.

24. The medium of claim 17 , wherein the baseline is a statistical measure that adapts to network peculiarities.

25. A method for anticipating network congestion, comprising:
sampling time consumed to establish a data connection between a mobile device and a mobile network;
collecting data including at least one of signal strength data, cell identifier, and location area code associated with the data connection between the mobile device and the mobile network;
anticipating, based at least on the time consumed and the collected data, network congestion; and
blocking traffic from the mobile device to the mobile network in response to the anticipating network congestion.

26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising:
determining an amount of time to wait before attempting to connect or reconnect the mobile device to the mobile network.

27. The method of claim 25 , further comprising:
querying a modem of the mobile device to determine whether a data connection rejection message is received from the mobile network.

28. The method of claim 27 , further comprising:
anticipating network congestion on the mobile network regardless of the time consumed or the collected data when the data connection rejection message is received from the mobile network.

29. The method of claim 28 , wherein the time consumed to establish the data connection is based on the time difference between time of a data request and time of transition of the radio state to connected state from idle state.

30. The method of claim 28 , wherein the time consumed in establishing each data connection is compared to a threshold to detect a potential case of network congestion.

31. The method of claim 28 , wherein the time consumed to establish the data connection is based on time to complete a radio bearer reconfiguration procedure.

32. The method of claim 30 , wherein the threshold is a statistical measure derived from a dataset stored in a memory stack, wherein the dataset includes values of time consumed to establish data connection between the mobile device and the mobile network.

33. The method of claim 32 , wherein the threshold is adjustable by

Assignees

• Seven Networks Inc
• Seven Networks Llc

Inventors

• Alisawi Rami

Classifications

• H04W28/0284 Primary

  detecting congestion or overload during communication (monitoring arrangements H04L43/00) · CPC title

• H04W52/0254

  detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device · CPC title

• H04W52/0219

  where the power saving management affects multiple terminals · CPC title

• H04W52/0245

  according to signal strength · CPC title

• Y02B70/00

  Technologies for an efficient end-user side electric power management and consumption · CPC title