Intermediary Management Component for Network Usage Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Client devices and applications often lack the capability to monitor network usage effectively and enforce compliance rules related to network usage, leading to unaccounted costs and potential overconsumption of data.
Innovation Solution
A management component intercepts network calls made by client applications, modifies them to analyze network usage, and reports this data to a management service, which logs usage and enforces compliance rules by notifying administrators and taking remedial actions such as disabling network access or replenishing data allotments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If client devices and applications are configured to monitor network usage, then network usage monitoring capability is improved, but device complexity and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
A management component is introduced as an intermediary between client applications and the network. This component intercepts network calls, monitors usage data, and enforces compliance rules centrally, rather than requiring monitoring capabilities in each individual client application or device. This resolves the contradiction by centralizing the monitoring function, improving measurement precision while avoiding the complexity of implementing monitoring in every client component.
2Reliability
If compliance rules are enforced at the client device level, then network usage control is improved, but ease of operation and user convenience deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The management component acts as an intermediary that transparently enforces compliance rules without requiring user awareness or action. It intercepts network calls, evaluates compliance, and automatically takes remedial actions such as blocking network access or notifying administrators, all without disrupting the user's normal operation of client applications. This maintains reliability of enforcement while preserving ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements automatic remedial actions that enforce compliance without human intervention. When compliance violations are detected, the management component automatically executes predefined remediation steps (such as disabling network access or replenishing data allotments), eliminating the need for users to manually monitor or manage compliance, thus maintaining both reliability and user convenience.
3Device complexity
If network usage is not monitored, then device simplicity is maintained, but cost accountability and data overconsumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The management component serves as a centralized intermediary that monitors network usage without requiring complex monitoring infrastructure in each client device. It intercepts network calls to collect usage data, evaluates it against compliance rules, and enforces limits, thereby preventing data overconsumption and ensuring cost accountability while keeping individual client devices simple.
4Measurement precision
If client applications are modified to include monitoring capabilities, then network usage analysis is improved, but ease of manufacture and deployment deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of modifying each client application to include monitoring capabilities, the management component is introduced as a separate intermediary that performs all monitoring and analysis functions. This centralizes the complexity in a single component rather than distributing it across multiple applications, significantly easing manufacturing and deployment while maintaining precise network usage analysis capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are examples that relate to monitoring network usage by client devices and enforcing compliance rules related thereto. In various examples, a system can intercept a network call in transit from a client application to an operating system of a client device, wherein the network call is configured to cause a content provider to transmit content to the operating system over a carrier network, and wherein the network call is further configured to cause the operating system to transmit the content to the client application; can modify the configuration of the network call such that the network call causes the operating system to transmit the content to the management component; can receive the content from the operating system; can analyze the content for network usage; can create a network usage analysis; and, can provide the content to the client application.