Relaying Mobile Communications via Intermediary Relay
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile communication devices often cannot maintain continuous connections with server components, leading to challenges in delivering communications, such as text messages or notifications, when the destination device is offline or unavailable.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that relay messages through an intermediate user's device, allowing the destination device to appear 'always connected' without continuous power expenditure, by using relay messages and relay requests to wake up the destination device and establish a connection with the server when necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the destination device maintains a continuous connection with the server, then communication delivery reliability is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a relay device as an intermediary component between the server and the destination device. When the destination device is offline, the relay device receives and stores communications, then forwards them when the destination device comes online. This mediator approach maintains communication reliability without requiring the destination device to maintain a continuous connection, thus reducing power consumption while ensuring messages are delivered.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the destination device goes offline to conserve power, then power consumption is reduced, but communication delivery reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having the relay device store communications in advance when the destination device is offline. The relay device proactively receives and holds messages, so that when the destination device wakes up, communications are already available for immediate delivery. This preliminary storage action ensures reliability is maintained despite the destination device being offline to conserve power.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the device hibernates to save power, then power consumption decreases, but the ability to receive alerts in a timely manner worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The relay device serves as a mediator that bridges the time gap when the destination device is hibernating. It receives alerts during the hibernation period, stores them, and forwards them immediately when the destination device wakes up. This intermediary approach minimizes the effective delay by ensuring alerts are ready for immediate delivery the moment the device becomes available, thus reducing the perceived loss of time despite hibernation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method and apparatus for relaying mobile communications is provided. The system hosts a communication application operated by mobile communication devices. When a communication is received for a user of a destination device that is off-line, the system determines whether the destination device is capable of receiving an unsolicited message (e.g., a push message, a peer-to-peer message). The system then selects a different mobile device capable of sending a peer-to-peer relay message to the destination device. A relay request is transmitted to the selected device, which causes it to generate and transmit toward the destination device a relay message that will cause the destination device to connect to the system. Either or both of the relay device and the destination device may delete the messages it sends and/or receives during this process, before a user of the device opens the message(s).