WO2011093790A1

WO2011093790A1 - A method, device, and computer program of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device

Info

Publication number: WO2011093790A1
Application number: PCT/SE2011/050106
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jianhua Cao; Ulf Ahlfors
Original assignee: Mashmobile Sweden Ab
Priority date: 2010-02-01
Filing date: 2011-02-01
Publication date: 2011-08-04

Abstract

A method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device, comprising: queuing (301) uplink messages received (300) from one or more different applications of the mobile device; determining (302a,302b) a TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance; establishing (303) a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection to a proxy server logically attached to the mobile device at the TxRx slot instance; and transferring (304) the queued uplink messages to the proxy server.

Description

A METHOD, DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM OF SCHEDULING

TRANSFERRING OF APPLICATION MESSAGES IN A MOBILE DEVICE

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to a method, device and computer program of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device.

Background

Many applications (like push email) in mobile devices need to maintain long- lived connection with their respective application server in order for the application server to reach the mobile device in a timely manner. In order to keep the TCP connections alive, the application needs to ping the server periodically. A problem addressed is that pinging and data transfer between different applications are often not synced as of today, causing the power of the mobile device to be drained more than it should.

The radio subsystem (WCDMA in particular) of the mobile device is designed to wakeup periodically in idle mode to check if there is incoming CS (circuit switch) call or out going PS (packet switch) data. The length of the period is called DRX cycle in WCDMA and this parameter is controlled by the radio network.

Root to the problem is that each transfer will fire-off the radio in the mobile device and, depending on the WCDMA network configuration, the device will remain in the CELL DCH state or the CELL FACH state for some time after such transfer. The reason for the latter construction is that moving radio interface from idle into the connected states (CELL DCH/CELL FACH/URA PCH) often involves quite heavy signalling in the RRC (radio resource control) layer between the mobile device (UE) and the radio network (Node-b). Therefore, the nonsynchronized (ad-hoc) pinging and data transferring activities will keep the radio on without actual transferring for substantial amount of time and thus drain the battery unnecessarily.

More snecificallv. the following is the nroblem being addressed: The RRC and if necessary cell/URA update, routing/location area update procedures. The cell/URA updates and routing/location area updates will move R C layer to the CELL DCH/CELL FACH state and thus turns the radio on.

Each time the radio is turned on, including wakeup, a sequence of messages are exchanged between the mobile and the radio network to establish the connection. If there are several of those applications running in the background, the radio subsystem will likely to be on all the time.

Thus the battery life will be greatly reduced in those situations. Summary

It is an object to overcome at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages and to improve the method of and device of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device.

As a conceptual idea behind the invention, the present inventor has realized that novel and beneficial use may be made of message oriented (as opposed to stream oriented) protocol between application end-points in a mobile device and a proxy server.

A first aspect of the present invention is a method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device. The method comprises the steps of:

queuing uplink messages received from one or more different applications of the mobile device;

determining a TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance;

establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection to a proxy server logically attached to the mobile device at the TxRx slot instance; and

transferring the queued uplink messages to the proxy server.

Thanks to this message oriented protocol between applications in a mobile device and a proxy server power consumption is reduced by synchronizing and batching the data transferring of application data.

In one or more embodiments, the method may further comprise the step of: receiving downlink messages queued by the proxy server;

dispatching the received downlink messages to the different applications of the mobile device.

The different applications may be running on the mobile device.

TxRx slot instance may be determined based on parameters from the RRC (radio resource control) layer. In one or more embodiments, the step of queuing the uplink messages comprises the step of: queuing uplink messages in at least one queue for each application based on QoS (Quality of Services) parameters of each queue.

The QoS parameters may be delay tolerance and targeted throughput.

A second aspect of the invention is a computer program comprising program instructions for causing a mobile device having computer capability to perform the method according to first aspect, when said program is run on the mobile device.

The computer program may be on a carrier and comprise computer executable instructions for causing a mobile device having computer capability to perform the method according to the first aspect, when said program is run on the mobile device.

The above mentioned carrier may be a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory or an electrical carrier signal.

A third aspect of the invention is a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, when said program is loaded into a mobile device having computer capability, to make the mobile device execute the method according to the first aspect.

A fourth aspect of the invention is a mobile device for communication with a radio network, comprising:

a radio adapted to transfer messages to/from the mobile device;

an application subsystem for running different applications, adapted to queue uplink messages received from one or more different applications running on the mobile device;

a UE (user equipment) radio subsystem adapted to determine a TxRx

(transmit/receiver) slot instance and indicate for the application subsystem whether the radio is on or off; and

wherein the application subsystem is further adapted to: in response to an event received from the UE radio subsystem indicating that the radio is on, establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection to a proxy server logically attached to the mobile device at the TxRx slot instance; and

transferring the queued uplink messages to the proxy server.

In one or more embodiments, the application subsystem may be further adapted to:

receive downlink messages queued by the proxy server; and

dispatch the received downlink messages to the different applications of the mobile device. The mobile device is adapted to run the one or more different applications on the mobile device.

In one or more embodiments, the UE radio subsystem is adapted to determine the TxRx slot instance based on parameters from the RRC (radio resource control) layer.

In one or more embodiments, the application subsystem is further adapted to: queue uplink messages in at least one queue for each application based on

QoS (Quality of Services) parameters of each queue.

A fifth aspect of the invention is a method of scheduling transferring of application messages between application servers and mobile devices in a radio communication system. The method comprises the steps of:

queuing downlink messages received from one or more different application servers;

in response to establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection initiated by a mobile device, receiving queued uplink messages from the mobile device; transferring the queued downlink messages to the mobile device; and dispatching the received uplink messages to the one or more different application servers.

A sixth aspect of the invention is a computer program comprising program instructions for causing computer to perform the method according to the fifth aspect, when said program is run on a computer.

The computer program may be on a carrier comprising computer executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method to according to the fifth aspect, when said program is run on a computer.

The carrier may be a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory or an electrical carrier signal.

A seventh aspect of the invention is a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, when said program is loaded into a computer, to make the computer execute the method according to the fifth aspect. Brief Description of the Drawings

In order to explain the invention in more detail and the advantages and features of the invention, embodiments will be described in detail below, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG 1 A illustrates a communication system;

FIG IB illustrates a message format of an uplink or downlink message in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG 2 is a block diagram of a mobile device in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG 3 is a flowchart of a method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG 4 is a flowchart of a method of scheduling transferring of application messages between application servers and mobile devices in a radio communication system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG 5 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a method of

scheduling transferring of application messages in a radio communication system according an embodiment.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein;

rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.

FIG. 1A is an example of a communication system 100, including but not limited one or more mobile devices 110, a radio network 130, a proxy server 140 and one or more associated application servers 150-1- to 150-n.

The mobile device 110, may be but is not limited to, a mobile communication apparatus, including a laptop with mobile connection modem, a mobile radio terminal and/or mobile phone, PDA, communicator, or smartphone. According to one embodiment, the mobile device 110 is adapted to communicate with the radio network 130. The mobile device 110 comprises an application subsystem 111 for running different applications 112-1 to 112-n, wherein the application subsystem 111 is adapted to queue uplink messages received from one or more of the different applications 112-1 to 112-n running on the mobile device 110.

A UE (user equipment) radio subsystem 1012, for example but not limited to WCDMA, of the mobile device 110 is adapted to determine a TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance and indicate for the application subsystem 111 whether the radio is on or off. The application subsystem is further adapted to: in response to an event received from the UE radio subsystem 1012, indicating that the radio is on, establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection via the radio network 130 (including the the Core Network 131 and UTRAN 132) to the proxy server 140 logically attached to the mobile device 110 at the TxRx slot instance and transfer the queued uplink messages to the proxy server.

A proxy process 113 may be running inside the mobile device 110 as a daemon. It is configured with TxRx interval and is made aware of state changes by means of events from the UE Radio Sub System 1012 about the RRC layer, DRX cycle and cell information. The determination of a TxRx slot instance relies upon parameters from the RRC layer. The proxy process 113 maintains UL (uplink) queues 114-1 to 114-m for messages with data to be transferred from the different applications 112-1 to 112-n. The UL scheduling provided be an UL scheduler 115 may be affected by certain QoS (Quality of Services) parameters (delay tolerance and targeted throughput) of each queue 114-1 to 114-m set by the application at the time queue is created. At the TxRx slot instance, the proxy process 113 establishes a TCP connection to the proxy server 140 and starts the data transfer possibly of all data being queued up.

The application subsystem 111 may be further adapted to receive downlink messages queued by the proxy server 140 and dispatch the received downlink messages by a DL (downlink) dispatcher 116 to the different applications 112-1 to 112-n of the mobile device 110.

A message format 160 of the UL message and the DL message is shown in FIG. IB, and includes but is not limited to, an application id, a payload size, and the payload. The payload contains the original message between any application server 150- 1 to 150-n and application 112-1 to 112-n, respectively.

The different operations of the application subsystem 111 may be managed by an OS (operating system) 117, which includes but is not limited to a radio driver 118 for communication with the radio and a TCP/IP block 119 for providing the TCP connection between the proxy process 113 and the proxy server 140. FIG. 2 shows the mobile device 110 including conventional elements and components of a mobile phone for providing basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages etc and the functionality of scheduling transferring of application messages according to embodiments of the invention. The mobile device 110 comprises, but is not limited to, a controller 120 that controls and provides various mobile phone functions 121, including but not limited to common mobile phone operations, i.e regular phone calls, sms, and data communication including internet access operation etc, and a function 122 of scheduling transferring of application messages according to embodiments of the invention. The mobile device further includes a memory 123 connected to the controller 120 for storing program and data accessible by the controller 120 to provide the operation of the mobile device 110.

To allow the user to interact with the mobile device 110 it may also include an input mechanism, for example a key pad or touch screen 124, and a display 125. The mobile device 110 may have a speaker 126 and microphone 127 for conventional voice communication.

The mobile device 110 also includes a radio unit with a radio transceiver 128 and antenna 128' for mobile communication with the radio network.

A rechargeable battery 129 is included in the mobile device 110 to provide the power source for the various mobile phone functions, including but not limited to functionality of scheduling transferring of application messages according to embodiments of the invention, of the mobile device 110.

According to this embodiment one mobile device 110 is logically attached to one proxy server 140. However, any number of mobile phones may be logically attached to the same or different proxy server. The proxy server 140 queues DL

(downlink to the mobile device) messages received from one or more of the application servers 150-1 to 150-n. The DL messages are queued in one or more DL queues 141-1 to 141-k. When the mobile device 110 connects to the proxy server 113, the DL messages are transferred from the proxy server 140 scheduled by a DL scheduler 142 to the mobile device 110 and dispatched to the applications 112-1 to 112-n. The UL (uplink) messages are transferred from the mobile device 110 to the proxy server 140 and routed by an UL dispatcher to the application servers 150-1 to 150-n responsible for the application.

A flowchart illustrating a method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device is shown in FIG 3. Uplink messages are received from one or more different applications 112-1 to 112-n of the mobile device in step 300 and queued in step 301. A TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance is determined by the UE Radio Sub System 1012 in step 302a. The proxy process 113 running inside the mobile device is configured with the TxRx interval and is made aware of the state changing of the radio unit from radio off to radio on by means of an event 302b from the UE Radio Sub System 1012 .

A TCP (transmission control protocol) connection is established to the proxy server 140 logically attached to the mobile device 110 at the TxRx slot instance in step 303. The queued uplink messages are sent to the proxy server 140 in step 304.

Downlink messages queued by the proxy server 140 are received in step 305 and the received downlink messages are dispatched to the different applications 112-1 to 112-n of the mobile device 110 in step 306. The TCP connection is disconnected in step 307 and the state changes to radio off in step 308.

The TxRx slot instance may be determined based on parameters from the RRC (radio resource control) layer.

The step 301 of queuing the uplink messages may comprise queuing uplink messages in the at least one queue UL queue 114-1 to 114-m for each application based on QoS (Quality of Services) parameters of each queue, wherein the QoS parameters may be, but is not limited to, delay tolerance and targeted throughput.

A method of scheduling transferring of application messages between application servers 150-1 to 150-n and one or more mobile devices 110 in a radio communication system is illustrated in a flowchart in FIG 4.

Downlink messages are received in step 400 from one or more different application servers 150-1 to 150-n and queued in step 401. In response to establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection initiated by the mobile device 110 instep 402, queued uplink messages are received from the mobile device 110 in step 403.

The queued downlink messages are transferred to the mobile device in step 404 and the received uplink messages are dispatched to the on or more different application servers in step 405.

Turning to FIG. 5, a message sequence diagram illustrating a method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a radio communication system according an embodiment. The reference labels in FIG 5 corresponds to the labels used in FIGs 1-4.

In further embodiments, the foregoing methods can be further extended so that every application has its own set of priority queues for uplink messages in the proxy process in the device. Upon receiving an added signal from the proxy process on device to the applications at the instance when the radio goes active, each application will be able to submit to the proxy process data that has not been yet been sent to and stored in the proxy process queues, thereby implementing a scheme for urgency push of application data. In case all uplink queues are full and/or the transmission slot has limited capacity, signaling between the proxy and the app is required to get the most prioritized traffic sent first. With the centralized queue in proxy process, each priority has its own queue and is shared among applications. The proxy can then serve the traffic strictly according to the priority. Instead, according to this extension, to prevent unfairness, a token or leaky bucket scheme can be employed for each application for each priority level.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to flowchart and/or block diagrams. It will be understood that some or all of the illustrated blocks may be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions when executed create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart otherwise described.

It is to be understood that the functions/acts noted in the flowchart may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. Although some of the diagrams include arrows on communication paths to show a primary direction of communication, it is to be understood that communication may occur in the opposite direction to the depicted arrows.

A computer program product may comprise computer program code portions for executing the method, as described in the description and the claims, for providing control data when the computer program code portions are run by an electronic device having computer capabilities.

A computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program product may comprise computer program code portions for executing the method, as described in the description and the claims, for providing control data when the computer program code portions are run by an electronic device having computer capabilities. A computer program product may comprise computer program code portions for executing the method, as described in the description and the claims, for requesting control data when the computer program code portions are run by an electronic device having computer capabilities.

A computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program product may comprise computer program code portions for executing the method, as described in the description and the claims, for requesting control data when the computer program code portions are run by an electronic device having computer capabilities.

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed specification, and thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention, which fall within the scope of the invention. However, although embodiments of the method and apparatus of the invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, the disclosure is illustrative only and changes, modifications and substitutions may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.

Claims

1. A method of scheduling transferring of application messages in a mobile device, comprising:

queuing (301) uplink messages received (300) from one or more different applications of the mobile device;

determining (302a,302b) a TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance;

establishing (303) a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection to a proxy server logically attached to the mobile device at the TxRx slot instance; and

transferring (304) the queued uplink messages to the proxy server.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving (305) downlink messages queued by the proxy server; and dispatching (306) the received downlink messages to the different applications of the mobile device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the different applications are running on the mobile device.

4. The method according to any of the claims 1 to 3, wherein TxRx slot instance is determined based on parameters from the RRC (radio resource control) layer.

5. The method according to any of the claims 1 to 4, wherein the step of queuing (301) the uplink messages comprises:

queuing uplink messages in at least one queue for each application based on

QoS (Quality of Services) parameters of each queue.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the QoS parameters are delay tolerance and targeted throughput.

7. A computer program comprising program instructions for causing a mobile device having computer capability to perform the method of any of the claims 1-6, when said program is run on the mobile device.

8. A computer program on a carrier and comprising computer executable instructions for causing a mobile device having computer capability to perform the method according to any of the claims 1-6, when said program is run on the mobile device.

9. A computer program according to claim 8, wherein said carrier is a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory or an electrical carrier signal.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, when said program is loaded into a mobile device having computer capability, to make the mobile device execute the method of any of the claims 1-6.

11. A mobile device for communication with a radio network, comprising: a radio (128) adapted to transfer messages to/from the mobile device;

an application subsystem (111) for running different applications (112-1— 112-n), adapted to queue uplink messages received from the one or more different applications running on the mobile device;

a UE (user equipment) radio subsystem (1012) adapted to determine a TxRx (transmit/receiver) slot instance and indicate for the application subsystem whether the radio is on or off; and

wherein the application subsystem (111) is further adapted to: in response to an event received from the UE radio subsystem indicating that the radio is on, establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection to a proxy server logically attached to the mobile device at the TxRx slot instance; and

transferring the queued uplink messages (114-1— 114-m) to the proxy server

(140).

12. The mobile device according to claim 11, wherein the application subsystem (111) is further adapted to:

receive downlink messages queued by the proxy server; and

dispatch the received downlink messages (116) to the different applications (112-1— 112-n) of the mobile device.

13. The mobile device according to claims 11 or 12, wherein the

mobile device is adapted to run the one or more different applications (112—112-n)on the mobile device.

14. The mobile device according to any of the claims 11 to 13, wherein the UE radio subsystem (1012) is adapted to determine the TxRx slot instance based on parameters from the R C (radio resource control) layer.

15. The mobile device according to any of the claims 11 to 14, wherein the application subsystem is further adapted to:

queue uplink messages in at least one queue for each application based on QoS (Quality of Services) parameters of each queue.

16. The mobile device according to claim 15, wherein the QoS parameters are delay tolerance and targeted throughput.

17. A method of scheduling transferring of application messages between application servers and mobile devices in a radio communication system, comprising: queuing (401) downlink messages received (400) from one or more different application servers;

in response to establishing a TCP (transmission control protocol) connection (402) initiated by a mobile device, receiving (403) queued uplink messages from the mobile device;

transferring (404) the queued downlink messages to the mobile device; and dispatching (405) the received uplink messages to the one or more different application servers (150-1— 150-n).

18. A computer program comprising program instructions for causing computer to perform the method of claim 17, when said program is run on a computer.

19. A computer program on a carrier and comprising computer executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method according to claim 17, when said program is run on a computer.

20. A computer program according to claim 19, wherein said carrier is a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory or an electrical carrier signal.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, when said program is loaded into a computer, to make the computer execute the method of claim 17.