Connectivity management and diagnostics for cellular data devices

1. A cellular device, comprising:

a data network indicator for providing an indication when data network connectivity associated with a cellular network does not meet performance or configuration criteria; and

an automatic network reconfiguration module, which stores an alternative network list, for automatically reconfiguring the data network connectivity to restore or improve the data network connectivity,

wherein, in response to the indication of the data network indicator, the automatic network reconfiguration module is configured to:

automatically retry a registration process with the cellular network, and if retrying the registration process is unsuccessful, choose an alternative cellular network from the alternative network list to join by restarting the registration process from an International Subscriber Identity Module (IMSI) attach step.

2. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein the performance or configuration criteria comprise one or more of the following: data connectivity with bandwidth below a predetermined value, no data connectivity, data connectivity cost above a predetermined rate value, data connectivity not with a preferred network provider, data connectivity unable to handle burst traffic, data connectivity uptime not better than a predetermined uptime value, data connectivity latency above a predetermined latency value, and data connectivity drop rate above a predetermined drop rate value.

3. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to choose the alternative cellular network based on one or more of the following: a network uptime, a network bandwidth, a network latency, a network cost, a network coverage, and a number of dropped connections.

4. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein automatically retrying the registration process comprises restarting the registration process with the cellular network from one of the following: IMSI attach, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) attach, and PDP setup.

5. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein, if retrying the registration process is unsuccessful, the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to:

choose a new route to a data network on the cellular network, and register with the alternative cellular network by restarting a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) setup procedure using an alternative Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

6. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to update the alternative network list via a management channel.

7. The cellular device as in claim 6 , wherein information transmitted on the management channel includes network diagnostic information.

8. The cellular device as in claim 6 , wherein information transmitted on the management channel is marked as privileged, and is transmitted when the cellular device has not been authenticated to communicate with the cellular network.

9. The cellular device as in claim 6 , wherein transmissions on the management channel are marked as privileged, and wherein privileged transmissions are marked by one or more of the following: changing a subscriber identity of the cellular device, changing an access point name the cellular device connects to, changing a user name the cellular device connects with, indicating a specific set of destinations devices can connect to and have their transmissions automatically marked as privileged, and marking any transmission from a given cellular device in a disconnected state as privileged and rerouting it to a specific destination.

10. The cellular device as in claim 1 , wherein the data network connectivity is determined by one or more of the following: monitoring signals passed between application software and a radio control software layer, monitoring a rate of data passing from the radio control software layer to the application software, monitoring a network registration status in the radio access software layer, and monitoring an external data network connection status indicator.

11. A cellular device, comprising:

a data network indicator for providing an indication when data network connectivity associated with a cellular network does not meet performance or configuration criteria; and

an automatic network reconfiguration module for automatically reconfiguring the data network connectivity to restore or improve the data network connectivity,

wherein, in response to the indication of the data network indicator, the automatic network reconfiguration module is configured to automatically restart a registration process with an alternative network, wherein the registration process includes sending a request for an alternative Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) in the alternative network to set up a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) session for the cellular device.

12. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the performance or configuration criteria comprise one or more of the following: data connectivity with bandwidth below a predetermined value, no data connectivity, data connectivity cost above a predetermined rate value, data connectivity not with a preferred network provider, data connectivity unable to handle burst traffic, data connectivity uptime not better than a predetermined uptime value, data connectivity latency above a predetermined latency value, and data connectivity drop rate above a predetermined drop rate value.

13. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to choose the alternative network from an alternative network list based on one or more of the following: a network uptime, a network bandwidth, a network latency, a network cost, a network coverage, and a number of dropped connections.

14. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to automatically retry the registration process with the cellular network, and wherein retrying the registration process comprises restarting the registration process from one of the following: International Subscriber Identity Module (IMSI) attach, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) attach, and PDP setup.

15. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to restart the registration process with the alternative network from an IMS I attach step.

16. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the automatic network reconfiguration module is further configured to update the alternative network list via a management channel.

17. The cellular device as in claim 16 , wherein information transmitted on the management channel includes network diagnostic information.

18. The cellular device as in claim 16 , wherein information transmitted on the management channel is marked as privileged, and is transmitted when the cellular device has not been authenticated to communicate with the cellular network.

19. The cellular device as in claim 16 , wherein transmissions on the management channel are marked as privileged, and wherein privileged transmissions are marked by one or more of the following: changing a subscriber identity of the cellular device, changing an access point name the cellular device connects to, changing a user name the cellular device connects with, indicating a specific set of destinations devices can connect to and have their transmissions automatically marked as privileged, and marking any transmission from a given cellular device in a disconnected state as privileged and rerouting it to a specific destination.

20. The cellular device as in claim 11 , wherein the data network connectivity is determined by one or more of the following: monitoring signals passed between application software and a radio control software layer, monitoring a rate of data passing from the radio control software layer to the application software, monitoring a network registration status in the radio access software layer, and monitoring an external data network connection status indicator.