Apparatus, mobile terminal, and method to estimate quality of experience of application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9838892-B2
Application number	US-201414517262-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2014
Priority date	Dec 22, 2011
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A method of notifying estimated QoEs (Quality of Experiences) for applications between a mobile terminal and a plurality of application servers that provide services of the applications, may measure first QoEs for the applications between the apparatus and the mobile terminal, measure second QoEs for the applications between the apparatus and the application server, estimate the estimated QoEs for the applications, based on the first and second QoEs for the applications, and notify the estimated QoEs to the mobile terminal.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus to estimate a quality of experience (QoE), the apparatus comprising:
a processor,
wherein the processor is configured to:
measure a first QoE for an application between the apparatus and a mobile terminal;
measure a second QoE for the application between the apparatus and an application server that provides a service of the application; and
estimate, based on the first QoE and the second QoE, a third QoE for the application between the mobile terminal and the application server;

a transmitter/receiver communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to:
receive the third QoE from the processor; and
communicate with the mobile terminal; and

a storage communicatively coupled to the transmitter/receiver,
wherein the transmitter/receiver is configured to:
receive information that identifies the application from the mobile terminal,

wherein the storage is configured to store the received information and the received third QoE; and
send the third QoE to the mobile terminal, wherein the third QoE enables a user of the mobile terminal to select the application based on a level of the third QoE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to periodically measure the second QoE for the application.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to estimate the third QoE for the application by comparison of the first and second QoEs for the application such that a lower one of the first and second QoEs is estimated as the third QoE.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to communicate with a cloud computation system which includes a plurality of application servers that provide services of a plurality of applications usable by the mobile terminal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein:
the processor is configured to:
measure the first QoE for each of the plurality of applications;
measure the second QoE for each of the plurality of applications; and
measure the third QoE for each of the plurality of applications, and

the transmitter/receiver is configured to send the third QoE for each of the plurality of applications to the mobile terminal.

6. A mobile terminal, comprising:
a transmitter/receiver configured to:
output information related to an application that is executable in the mobile terminal;
receive, in accordance with the information, a notification of an estimate of a quality of experience (QoE) for the application between the mobile terminal and an application server that provides a service of the application; and
output the estimated QoE to a base station;

a display communicatively coupled to the transmitter/receiver and configured to display a level of the estimated QoE for the application received by the transmitter/receiver,
wherein the displayed level of the estimated QoE enables a user of the mobile terminal to select the application; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the transmitter/receiver and configured to control the transmitter/receiver in order to output the information related to the application.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6 , wherein the display is further configured to display levels of a plurality of estimated QoEs for a plurality of applications in a manner distinguishable by at least one of:
mutually different colors that represent the estimated QoEs;
mutually different colors of icons that represent the plurality of applications;
mutually different sizes of icons that represent the plurality of applications; and
mutually different motions of icons that represent the plurality of applications.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to control the transmitter/receiver to identify the application in the information outputted to the base station.

9. A method to estimate a quality of experience (QoE), the method comprising:
outputting, by a mobile terminal, information that identifies an application to a base station;
measuring, by the mobile terminal, a first QoE for the application between the base station and the mobile terminal;
receiving, by the mobile terminal from the base station, a notification of a second QoE for the application between the base station and an application server;
estimating, by the mobile terminal, a third QoE for the application between the mobile terminal and the application server, as an estimated QoE, based on the first QoE and the second QoE; and
displaying, on a display of the mobile terminal, a level of the estimated QoE for the application, wherein the displayed level of the estimated QoE enables a user of the mobile terminal to select the application.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
outputting the estimated QoE to the base station.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
displaying, on the display of the mobile terminal, levels of estimated QoEs for a plurality of applications in a manner distinguishable by at least one of:
mutually different colors that represent the estimated QoEs;
mutually different colors of icons that represent the plurality of applications;
mutually different sizes of icons that represent the plurality of applications; and
mutually different motions of icons that represent the plurality of applications.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution by a computer device, cause the computer device to perform or control performance of operations to:
measure a first quality of experience (QoE) for an application between a base station, which comprises the computer device, and a mobile terminal;
measure a second QoE for the application between the base station and an application server that provides a service of the application;
estimate, based on the first QoE and the second QoE, a third QoE for the application between the mobile terminal and the application server;
input information that identifies applications usable by the mobile terminal;
store the information that identifies the applications usable by the mobile terminal; and
send the third QoE to the mobile terminal, wherein the third QoE enables a user of the mobile terminal to select the application based on a level of the third QoE.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, in response to execution by the computer device, cause the computer device to perform or control performance of at least one operation to:
send a request to receive the service of the application to the application server via a cloud computer system that includes the application server; and
receive the service of the application from the application server,
wherein the measurement of the second QoE is based on the received service of the application.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
measure the first QoE based on at least one of a bandwidth, a time delay, a jitter, and a loss of the application between the apparatus and the mobile terminal; and
measure the second QoE based on at least one of a bandwidth, a time delay, a jitter, and a loss of the application between the apparatus and the application server.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to measure the first QoE based on at least one of a time delay and a bandwidth detected from a wireless communication rate monitored by the apparatus while the wireless communication rate is varied.

Assignees

• Empire Technology Dev Llc

Inventors

• Yamanaka Naoaki
• Oki Eiji
• Arakawa Yutaka

Classifications

• H04L43/0882

  Utilisation of link capacity · CPC title

• H04W4/18 Primary

  Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04L41/5096

  wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications · CPC title

• H04L41/5067

  Customer-centric QoS measurements · CPC title