TRANSPORT PROTOCOL LAYER OPTIMIZATION FOR MANAGING SIGNALING AND POWER CONSUMPTION
Systems and methods for optimizing signaling in a mobile network and conserving battery resources based on transport protocol layer such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer optimization techniques are disclosed. A distributed proxy system, in various embodiments, can implement one or more optimization techniques including deferring TCP socket closures or closing network sockets with TCP RST instead of TCP FIN to save on signaling in the wireless (e.g., mobile network) and conserve battery resources. In some embodiments, the disclosed system can implement various methods to prevent or reduce number of TCP and/or application level retries, and thereby reduce signaling in the wireless network and conserve battery resources. In other embodiments, the distributed proxy system can multiplex all TCP sockets in a mobile device through a single socket to reduce TCP/IP overhead and thus conserve device and network resources.
1 . A method of delaying requests to close connections to reduce signaling in a mobile network, comprising:
receiving a first request from a first mobile application on a mobile device to close a connection between the first mobile application and an application server associated with the first mobile application, wherein the first request is received while a radio of the mobile device is turned off;
delaying the first request to close the connection until a second request which causes a radio connection to be established to the mobile network is received from a second mobile application on the mobile device; and
sending both the first request to close the connection and the second request to the mobile network using the radio connection to reduce signaling in the mobile network.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second requests are received and sent by a local proxy on the mobile device.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request to close the connection is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) FIN or a TCP RST.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request to close the connection is a TCP RST.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second request is a request that is unrelated to closing a connection.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second request is a request for data initiated by a user of the mobile device.
7 . A mobile device, comprising:
a local proxy in communication with a mobile application and a network stack, configured to:
detect a request from the mobile application on the mobile device to close a network connection over a mobile network with an application server;
detect that the mobile network is unreliable; and
cause the network stack to utilize a second mechanism instead of a first mechanism in closing the network connection when the mobile network is unreliable so as to prevent additional signaling in the mobile network.
8 . The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein the mobile network is unreliable when the mobile network is one of congested, inoperative, or non-responsive.
9 . The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein the network stack is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) stack and wherein the second mechanism closes the network connection using a TCP RST and the first mechanism is configured to close a network connection using a TCP FIN.
10 . The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein closing the network connection using the TCP RST avoids the need for the application server to send an acknowledgement and prevents the network stack from retrying to close the network connection if a prior attempt failed.