WO2014187258A1

WO2014187258A1 - Traffic control method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2014187258A1
Application number: PCT/CN2014/077486
Authority: WO
Inventors: 桑广莲
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2013-10-23
Filing date: 2014-05-14
Publication date: 2014-11-27
Also published as: WO2015154495A1; CN104580684A

Abstract

Disclosed are a traffic control method and apparatus. The method comprises: determining whether a network traffic that has been used by a terminal in a time period exceeds a threshold set for the time period; and if the network traffic exceeds the threshold, restricting use of the network traffic for one or more applications in the terminal within the time period. The present invention solves the problem in the prior art that the user needs to perform manual operation to control the traffic of a terminal service application, enables the terminal to automatically control the traffic of the terminal service application, thereby improving user experience.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a flow control method and apparatus. BACKGROUND As a communication tool, a terminal (for example, a mobile phone, hereinafter, a mobile phone is taken as an example) is widely used as an easy-to-carry Internet tool, and the mobile phone's Internet traffic is usually linked to the broadband of the home. There is no difference in the unlimited traffic for the year of the package. Users usually choose the X-pack XX (M/month), which exceeds the monthly traffic and then charges X yuan/KB. After the rated traffic is exceeded, the cost of using the Internet traffic is used. It will be very high. At the end of the month, the monthly flow of users is not much left (for example, when it is less than 10M). Users still have the need to access the Internet. Users want to see the weather today. What users say to their friends today. Users need to go online, but users are worried, because nowadays more and more webpage images are getting bigger and bigger, maybe you can open a webpage casually, and the remaining 10M traffic of the user is gone. In the related art, there are many flow control tools, but most of them set the flow warning value and the flow limit value. When the warning value is reached and when the limit value is reached, the mobile phone will give a prompt, but it cannot meet the requirements of the user flow control. Because it is just a friendly reminder, and there is no solution. In the case that the traffic is not enough this month, in order to prevent the traffic from exceeding, it is necessary to set various Internet service modes, and then set up various online business modes again at the beginning of next month. This makes the user time-consuming and labor-intensive, reducing the user's online experience. For the related art, there is currently no solution proposed for the problem that the user needs to perform manual operations to control the traffic of the terminal service application. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The embodiments of the present invention provide a flow control method and apparatus, to at least solve the problem in the related art that requires a user to perform manual operations to control terminal service traffic. According to an aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a flow control method is provided, including: determining whether a network traffic that has been used by a terminal in a time period has exceeded a threshold set by the time period; if the threshold is exceeded, The use of network traffic within the time period of one or more applications in the terminal is limited. Preferably, the limitation of network traffic is cancelled if the current time exceeds the time period. Preferably, the display manner of the one or more applications is switched from a picture display mode to a text display mode; the automatic update of the one or more applications is turned off; the one or more applications are prohibited from connecting to the network. Preferably, the threshold includes a first threshold and a second threshold, where the use of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal is restricted if the first threshold is exceeded; In the case of a second threshold, the network of the terminal is closed. Preferably, the network traffic is data traffic of a mobile network, and the network is a mobile network. Preferably, the method further comprises: allowing the mobile network to be used for a portion of the time period. According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a flow control apparatus is provided, including: a determining module, configured to determine whether a network traffic that has been used by a terminal in a time period has exceeded a threshold set by the time period; It is set to limit the use of network traffic during the time period for one or more applications in the terminal if the threshold is exceeded. Preferably, the device further comprises: a canceling module, configured to cancel the restriction on the network traffic if the current time exceeds the time period. Preferably, the limiting module is configured to limit usage of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal, including at least one of: switching a display manner of the one or more applications from a picture display mode to Text display mode; turning off automatic updating of the one or more applications; prohibiting the one or more applications from connecting to the network. Preferably, the threshold includes a first threshold and a second threshold, and if the first threshold is exceeded, the limiting module is configured to limit usage of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal; In case the second threshold is exceeded, the limiting module is arranged to close the network of the terminal. Preferably, the network traffic is data traffic of a mobile network, and the network is a mobile network. According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is determined whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded the threshold set by the time period; if the threshold value is exceeded, the one or more applications in the terminal are at the time. The use of the network traffic in the segment is limited, and the problem that the user needs to perform manual operations to control the traffic of the terminal service application in the related art is solved, and the terminal automatically controls the application service application traffic to improve the user experience. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are set to illustrate,,,,,, . 1 is a flow chart of a flow control method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a flow control device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a flow control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a schematic diagram of an automatic flow control device in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flow automatic control method in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in conjunction with the embodiments. In the following embodiments, the terminal may be a mobile terminal (for example, a mobile phone, a tablet, etc.), or may be another type of terminal. The operating system running on the terminal is also various types of systems, for example, the currently widely used Android system, or the Windows operating system, the iOS system, etc., but is not limited thereto. In this embodiment, a flow control method is provided. FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a flow control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the flow includes the following steps: Step S102: determining that the time period is Whether the network traffic that has been used by the terminal has exceeded the threshold set by the time period; Step S104, if the threshold value is exceeded, limit the use of network traffic in the time period of one or more applications in the terminal. In the related art, the user is required to manually perform operations to limit the traffic. Through the above steps, in the case of a traffic threshold set over a certain period of time, the use of network traffic during the time period of one or more applications in the terminal is restricted, for example, the time period may be one day. In the case that the network traffic of the day exceeds the threshold, the use of network traffic during the time period may be applied to one or more applications in the terminal. The limitation of the line is to solve the problem that the user needs to perform manual operations to control the traffic of the terminal service application in the related art, and the terminal automatically controls the application service traffic, thereby improving the user experience. In this embodiment, after the terminal exceeds the limited time period, the terminal may automatically cancel the restriction on the network traffic. Preferably, if the current time exceeds the time period, the network traffic is restricted. In this embodiment, there may be many ways to limit the use of network traffic in the time period of one or more applications in the terminal. For different application services, there are different network traffic limiting modes, preferably, Switching the display mode of the one or more applications from the picture display mode to the text display mode; turning off automatic updating of the one or more applications; prohibiting the one or more applications from connecting to the network. In this embodiment, the threshold for determining whether the terminal network traffic needs to be restricted may be set to be different. For different thresholds, the manner of limiting is also different. Preferably, the threshold may include a first threshold and a second threshold. In the case of the first threshold, the use of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal is restricted; if the second threshold is exceeded, the network of the terminal is closed, and the application of the restriction mode is optimized, and the application is improved. user experience. In this embodiment, the network traffic is data traffic of the mobile network, and the network is a mobile network. Preferably, the terminal can detect whether there is currently available WiFi, and if so, switch the terminal from the mobile network to the WiFi, which can reduce the use of the predetermined service data packet by the terminal, and save network traffic. In this embodiment, the terminal may not always be in a state of being connected to the mobile network, and may connect to the mobile network only when needed. Preferably, the mobile network is allowed to be used within a part of the time period to prevent the terminal from being used. The use of network traffic is caused by the automatic running of programs in the background or the user's misoperation. In the present embodiment, a flow control device is also provided. The flow control device is used to implement the above method. It has been described in the above embodiments and preferred embodiments, and details are not described herein again. It should be noted that the name of the module in the following device does not constitute a practical limitation of the module. For example, the judging module can be expressed as "set to determine whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded the time. The module of the threshold set by the segment", the following modules can be implemented in the processor. For example, the judging module can be expressed as "a processor for judging whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded The threshold set by this time period, or "a processor, including a judgment module", etc. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a flow control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the device 20 includes: a determination module 22 and a restriction module 24. The structure will be described below. The determining module 22 is configured to determine whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded a threshold set for the time period; the limiting module 24 is configured to, if the threshold is exceeded, one or more of the terminals The application's use of network traffic during this time period is limited. In the case that the traffic threshold is set for a certain period of time, the device limits the use of the network traffic of the one or more applications in the terminal during the time period, thereby solving the related art. The problem that the user needs to perform manual operations to control the traffic of the terminal service application realizes that the terminal automatically controls the application service traffic and improves the user experience. 3 is a block diagram of a structure of a flow control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, in the embodiment, the flow control device further includes: a canceling module 32, configured to be in a case where the current time exceeds the time period. , remove the restriction on network traffic. In this embodiment, the restriction module 24 is configured to limit the use of the network traffic of the one or more applications in the terminal, including at least one of: switching the display manner of the one or more applications from the picture display mode to Text display mode; turn off automatic updating of the one or more applications; prohibit the one or more applications from connecting to the network. In this embodiment, the threshold may include a first threshold and a second threshold, and if the first threshold is exceeded, the limiting module 24 is configured to limit the use of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal; In the event that the second threshold is exceeded, the limit module 24 is configured to shut down the network of the terminal. The invention will now be described in connection with preferred embodiments and preferred embodiments. The preferred embodiment provides a method for automatically controlling the flow control. The user does not need to modify the flow control settings of the Internet-enabled application in the terminal, and provides a unified interface for the user to operate. After that, the flow control settings of all Internet-enabled applications in the terminal are automatically modified. The main contents of the preferred embodiment are as follows: The preferred embodiment provides two setting options for the user: one is daily flow control; the other is monthly flow control, and the following two options are respectively introduced: 1. Daily flow control Setting

1. User needs to set: 1) The upper limit of the current month's traffic usage is used for the overall planning of traffic distribution.

2) Set the traffic distribution time. Since the user usually uses the WiFi in the home at home, only the monthly traffic of the mobile network needs to be used during working hours. The traffic distribution time setting includes: working day: such as Monday to Friday; daily fixed opening traffic time: 7:30am-6:30pm daily.

2. Set the processing method after the traffic is used up on the current day, including: Close all browsers and social networking sites or application image display, change to text mode; Detect all network-related applications installed in the terminal, and list all applications that use traffic to the user. , please manually set the online policy of the listed apps; close the network connection.

3. The terminal will automatically calculate the allocated daily traffic, automatically detect whether there is WiFi available at the specified time every day, if not, then open the mobile network connection, if there is, then keep the current WiFi connection until no WiFi is available. In the process of using the mobile network, once it is detected that there is currently available WiFi, the user is prompted to switch to the WiFi link. 4. Within the specified time of using the mobile network, if the daily limit has been exceeded, according to the user's settings, open the provincial traffic mode or turn off the mobile network, and restore all the default settings beyond 00:00, which will not affect the normal use the next day. . The provincial traffic mode detects all Internet-related applications, sets them to no-image mode, or disables application background networking or automatic updates.

5. The available WiFi is detected, the terminal automatically turns on WiFi, and the mobile network is closed. In order to ensure normal Internet access, the terminal can close the mobile network. The application is as follows: There is a WiFi available to prompt the user, the user enters the correct password and then closes the mobile network; there is available WiFi, the user's mobile phone's WiFi list has the correct password, and can be connected normally. , turn on WiFi, turn off the mobile network. Second, monthly flow control 1. Users need to set: 1) The upper limit of the monthly traffic usage;

2) The traffic usage warning value;

3) Set the processing mode of the current month when the flow reaches the warning value: automatic control; manual setting.

2. Automatic control methods include: 1) Turn off all background data services;

2) Close all browser and social network photo display, change to text mode.

3. Manual setting methods include:

1) Prompt user traffic has reached the warning, detect all network-related applications installed in the terminal, sort according to traffic usage, and list all applications that use traffic to the user. Please manually set the application that needs to limit traffic.

2) When the traffic usage exceeds the warning value, according to the user's preset processing, when the traffic usage reaches the usage upper limit, the mobile network is closed and the user is prompted. All modification settings will be restored to the user default settings on the first day of the next month for the user to use. Preferred Embodiment 2 FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an automatic flow control device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the device includes: a software setting module 42, a flow control module 44, an application management module 46, and a network monitoring module 48. The configuration of the flow control module 44 is the same as that of the restriction module 24 and the cancellation module 32. The functions of the network monitoring module 48 and the determination module 22 are the same. . The software setting module 42 is configured to be responsible for the completion of some human-computer interaction work; the flow control module 44 is configured to be responsible for the completion of the flow control work; the application management module 46 is configured to cooperate with the flow control module 44 to manage each application; Module 48, set to monitor the current available network and traffic usage. Through the mutual cooperation of the modules used in the above devices, the automatic flow control function of the device is realized. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flow automatic control method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the working content of the flow control function is as follows: The user starts the traffic management function, and the software setting module 42 first initiates a user operation request, requesting the user. The management function is set. At this time, the user can select daily flow control or monthly flow control, and the user's selection is fed back to the software setting module 42 through the user operation module, and the software setting module 42 processes the user's selection result and starts correspondingly. The control function informs the flow control module 44.

1. Network monitoring module 48 implementation content is as follows:

1) Monitor the current network status, report the traffic control module 44 when it is available to WiFi, and notify the software setting module 42, prompt the user whether to switch the current network. 2) Monitor and document the usage of traffic by individual applications.

3) The total amount of data service is monitored and reported to the flow control module 44 periodically.

The flow control module 44 implements the following content: The flow control module 44 processes the result according to the report reported by the network monitoring module 48. When the traffic usage exceeds the alarm value and has not reached the maximum value, the notification software setting module 42 prompts the user to select the automatic control flow or The application that needs to control the traffic is manually selected, and the user selection result is reported to the flow control module 44. The flow control module 44 performs corresponding processing according to the user selection result, selects to start the plain text mode, or controls the traffic of the corresponding application according to the selection result, or It is to directly shut down the data business. When the traffic reaches the maximum value of the day, the notification software setting module 42 prompts the user to select an automatic control flow or manually selects an application that needs to control the traffic, and reports the user selection result to the flow control module 44, and the flow control module 44 performs corresponding according to the user selection result. Processing, choose to start the text-only mode, or control the traffic of the corresponding application according to the selection result, or directly close the data service. When the traffic usage reaches the maximum, the data service is turned off. When the available WiFi network is found during use of the mobile network, the notification software setting module 42 asks the user if the network needs to be switched. When the mobile network usage time exceeds the agreed time, but no available WiFi network is found, the user is prompted to continue to use the mobile traffic. When the traffic usage exceeds the alarm value, the user chooses to automatically control the traffic, and the application management module 46 is notified to change all applications to the text-only mode. When the traffic usage reaches the maximum value of the day, the user chooses to automatically control the traffic, and the application management module 46 is notified to change all applications to the text-only mode. When the traffic usage exceeds the alarm value, and the user manually selects some applications that need to limit the traffic, the flow control module 44 requests the network monitoring module 48 to provide a corresponding application list to the software setting module 42. The software setting module 42 notifies the flow control of the user selection result. The module 44, the flow control module 44 notifies the application management module 46 of the list of applications that need to be processed according to the result of the user selection. When the traffic usage reaches the maximum value of the day, and the user manually selects some applications that need to limit the traffic, the traffic control module 44 requests the network monitoring module 48 to provide a corresponding application list to the software setting module 42, and the software setting module 42 notifies the traffic of the user selection result. The control module 44, the flow control module 44 notifies the application management module 46 of the list of applications that need to be processed according to the selection result of the user. For daily traffic management, after all operations beyond the current day traffic will exceed 00:00, the traffic control module 44 will notify the application management module 46 to restore all default settings without affecting the normal use of the user the next day. For monthly traffic management, after all the settings after the warning value is exceeded and the maximum value is reached, after the end of this month, the flow control module 44 notifies the application management module 46 to restore all default settings without affecting the next month's use.

4. Application Management Module 46 The implementation content is as follows:

1) When the application management module 46 receives the flow control module 44 to open all the application-only text mode, the processing request completes the operation, and the flow cancellation module is notified of the processing result. 2) When the user selects to manage a part of the application, the application management module 46 processes the application required by the flow control module 44, and after completing the operation, notifies the flow cancellation module of the processing result.

3) When the application management module 46 receives the restore all default settings message sent by the flow control module 44, the default settings of all applications are restored for the user. The preferred embodiment implements the automatic flow control function by cooperating with all the above modules, which allows the user to conveniently and quickly control the traffic usage of each application. Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the above modules or steps of the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented by a general computing device, which can be concentrated on a single computing device or distributed in multiple computing devices. Alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device, thereby They may be stored in a storage device by a computing device, or they may be fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or a plurality of modules or steps thereof may be implemented as a single integrated circuit module. Thus, embodiments of the invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to the field of communications, and solves the problem that the user needs to perform manual operations to control the traffic of the terminal service application in the related art, and implements the terminal to automatically control the application service traffic and improve the user experience.

Claims

Claim

1. A flow control method, comprising:

Determining whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded the threshold set by the time period;

In the event that a threshold is exceeded, the use of network traffic for the one or more applications in the terminal during the time period is limited.

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

In the case where the current time exceeds the time period, the restriction on network traffic is cancelled.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting the use of network traffic of one or more of the terminals comprises at least one of:

Switching the display manner of the one or more applications from a picture display mode to a text display mode; turning off automatic updating of the one or more applications;

The one or more applications are prohibited from connecting to the network.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein

The threshold includes a first threshold and a second threshold, where the use of network traffic of one or more applications in the terminal is restricted if the first threshold is exceeded;

The method further includes: closing the network of the terminal if the second threshold is exceeded.

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the network traffic is data traffic of a mobile network, and the network is a mobile network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises: allowing the mobile network to be used for a portion of the time period.

7. A flow control device comprising:

a judging module, configured to determine whether the network traffic that the terminal has used in the time period has exceeded a threshold set by the time period; A restriction module is configured to limit usage of network traffic during the time period for one or more applications in the terminal if a threshold is exceeded.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the apparatus further comprises: a canceling module, configured to cancel the restriction on network traffic if the current time exceeds the time period.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the limiting module is configured to limit usage of network traffic of one or more of the terminals to include at least one of:

The one or more applications are prohibited from connecting to the network.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the threshold comprises a first threshold and a second threshold, wherein the limiting module is set to one or more of the terminals if the first threshold is exceeded The use of the applied network traffic is limited; in the case where the second threshold is exceeded, the restriction module is set to close the network of the terminal.

The apparatus according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the network traffic is data traffic of a mobile network, and the network is a mobile network.