Per-Application Data Usage Limiting in Telecommunication Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile device applications often engage in hidden data usage, leading to battery drain, memory congestion, and excessive bandwidth consumption, without users' knowledge or consent, as they collect and report information in the background, exceeding intended data limits and affecting network resources.
Innovation Solution
Implementing servers and methods that detect and halt traffic forwarding for applications exceeding per-application data usage limitations, allowing users to set specific data caps for individual apps, distinguishing between foreground and background usage, and enforcing these limits within telecommunication networks to manage data usage more effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If applications are allowed to run freely in the background, then application functionality is improved, but data usage increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data usage control from a global level to an application-specific level. The system monitors and enforces data usage limits individually for each application, allowing users to set separate thresholds for different apps. This segmentation enables selective control over which applications can consume data and to what extent, resolving the contradiction by maintaining necessary application functionality while preventing excessive data usage through granular per-application limits.
2Ease of operation
If per-application data monitoring is implemented, then data usage control is improved, but network processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component in the network infrastructure that acts as a mediator between applications and the core network. This intermediary element monitors application identifiers in data packets, tracks data usage volumes, compares them against predefined limits, and enforces restrictions by blocking or allowing traffic accordingly. By placing this monitoring and enforcement logic in a dedicated network intermediary rather than in user devices or core network elements, the system achieves ease of operation for users while managing network processing complexity in a centralized, efficient manner.
Data Source
AI summary
Servers, computer-readable media, and methods are disclosed for halting forwarding of traffic of an application exceeding a per-application data usage limitation. For example, a processor deployed in a telecommunication network may detect traffic between a third-party device and an endpoint device, associate the traffic with an application of a plurality of applications running on the endpoint device, determine, based upon a volume of the traffic, that a per-application data usage limitation for the application is exceeded, and halt forwarding of the traffic when the per-application data usage limitation for the application is exceeded.