Tracking data usage under a schematized data plan

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9660889-B2
Application number	US-201514642378-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2015
Priority date	Jan 27, 2012
Publication date	May 23, 2017
Grant date	May 23, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments provide a schema for representing data usage plans and data usage statistics. The data usage plan describes threshold values associated with network connections of computing devices of the user. A web service dynamically generates data usage statistics for the computing devices to represent data consumed by the computing devices under the data usage plan. The schema is updated with the data usage statistics and distributed to the computing devices for presentation to the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a memory area associated with a mobile computing device;
a mobile computing device comprising a processor programmed to:
dynamically generate data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated, at the mobile computing device, by identifying an amount of the network data sent and received by the mobile computing device, and
transmit a portion of the generated data usage statistics to a second computing device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user data usage plan 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.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the generated data usage statistics is transmitted to one or more other computing devices.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the mobile computing device and the one or more other computing devices share the user data usage plan.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the user data usage plan describes threshold values associated with one or more network connections of the mobile computing device or the one or more other computing devices, wherein the threshold values correspond to maximum data consumption allotted under the user data usage plan for one or more network connections.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identified amount of the network data sent and received by the mobile computing device comprises one or more of the following: time and date of network data consumption, location of the network data consumption, network interface used, subscriber identity module (SIM) card or other user identity module used for dual SIM, an international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI), internet protocol (IP) or other address of an access point, and an application responsible for the network data consumption.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user data usage plan is associated with a plurality of network connections, and wherein the plurality of network connections are categorized based on types of network traffic data.

8. A method comprising:
dynamically generating data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan by a mobile computing device, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated, at the mobile computing device, by collecting the network data consumed by the mobile computing device, the user data usage plan describing threshold values associated with one or more network connections of the mobile computing device; and
sending, by the mobile computing device, the generated data usage to a second computing device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second computing device is associated with a user interface that is displayed differently for different types of user data usage plans.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the user interface displays a plurality of user interface elements which are updated with an update in the generated data usage statistics.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the generated data usage statistics include an amount of remaining network data for consumption and a quantity of time remaining for consumption of the remaining network data.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein dynamically generating the data usage statistics comprises receiving network data consumed by one or more computing devices.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the user interface displays a user interface element which allows the user to select options or other configuration settings for receiving notifications.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving information representing network data consumed by a second mobile computing device; and
presenting the dynamically generated data usage statistics and the information representing network data consumed by the second mobile computing device in a user interface on the mobile computing device.

15. One or more computer storage devices embodying computer-executable components, said components comprising:
a collection component that when executed causes at least one processor on a mobile computing device to dynamically generate data usage statistics representing network data consumed under a user data usage plan by the mobile computing device, the data usage statistics being dynamically generated by determining an amount of network data sent and received by the mobile computing device;
a data structure component that when executed causes at least one processor on the mobile computing device to populate a schema with the dynamically generated data usage statistics; and
a communications interface component that when executed causes at least one processor on the mobile computing device to distribute at least a portion of the schema to one or more other computing devices.

16. The computer storage devices of claim 15 , further comprising a data structure component that when executed causes at least one processor to populate the schema with the dynamically generated data usage statistics.

17. The computer storage devices of claim 15 , further comprising a user interface component that when executed causes at least one processor to display the dynamically generated data usage statistics.

18. The computer storage devices of claim 17 , wherein the user interface component displays data usage statistics associated with one or more other computing devices, which share the user data usage plan, in separate user interface elements.

19. The computer storage devices of claim 17 , wherein the user interface component displays the data usage statistics associated with the one or more other computing devices in a user interface element on a home screen of the mobile computing device.

20. The computer storage devices of claim 17 , wherein the user interface component displays one or more of the following: one or more user data usage plans associated with the mobile computing device, threshold values associated with a plurality of network connections of the mobile computing device, and how much data consumption is remaining and over which of the plurality of the network connections.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Zalmanovitch Gil
• Scott Gregory James
• Guday Shai
• Kwok Alec Garvin
• Jiang Yue
• Ma Kenneth Vincent

Classifications

• H04L43/0876 Primary

  Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level · CPC title

• H04M15/856

  Unsuccessful event · CPC title

• H04L43/045

  for graphical visualisation of monitoring data · CPC title

• H04L12/1435

  volume-based · CPC title

• H04M15/8044

  Least cost routing · CPC title