Optimizing traffic by controlling keep-alives

Abstract

A system, method and non-transitory computer code for operating a proxy server operating under software to cause the proxy server to access a communication network and to delay, advance or block keep-alives for a client device to improve traffic data flow.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method comprising: 
       at a proxy server on a mobile device:
 identifying transactions; 
 determining that a respective transaction is a keep-alive message, non-user interactive traffic, and user-interactive traffic; 
 determining whether a keep-alive transaction is necessary or unnecessary based on the presence of user initiated data transmitting from the mobile device in addition to the keep-alive message; and 
 blocking unnecessary keep-alive transactions. 
 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that a respective transaction is non-user interactive traffic or user-interactive traffic includes determine whether the traffic originates in response to output mechanisms of the mobile device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the output mechanisms of the mobile device include at least one of a display screen, audio, notification light, Bluetooth® module, NFC module, RFID module, and touch sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that a respective transaction is a keep-alive is based off of at least one of periodicity of transactions, size of transactions, and repetitiveness of transactions. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further including determining a tolerance of delay of keep-alive messages. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein determining a tolerance of delay of keep-alive messages, and delaying the keep-alive messages based on the determined tolerance of delay. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein determining a tolerance of delay comprises increasing a tolerance of delay until an application transmitting one of the user-interactive or non user-interactive traffic times out and then reducing the tolerance of delay. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein increasing a tolerance of delay comprises increasing a tolerance of delay for a combination of at least two of an application executing on the mobile device, a protocol, or a communications port communicating with the application. 
     
     
         9 . A method comprising: 
       at a proxy server on a mobile device:
 identifying transactions; 
 determining that a respective transaction is a keep-alive message, non-user interactive traffic, and user-interactive traffic; 
 determining whether a keep-alive transaction is necessary or unnecessary based on monitored traffic during a learning period; 
 determining factors to determine whether a keep-alive transaction is necessary or a candidate for an unnecessary transaction based on the monitored traffic; and 
 based on the determined factors, blocking the candidate for an unnecessary keep-alive transactions. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further including:
 observing traffic after blocking the candidate for an unnecessary keep-alive transactions; and   determining whether the blocked candidate for an unnecessary keep-alive transaction is unnecessary based on the observed traffic.