Patent Application
20200287812
Many homes and businesses today have a Wi-Fi or other type of wireless or wired network to which multiple electronic devices connect. Some of these devices connect and disconnect sporadically during use and disuse. Other of these devices, such as appliances and monitors may continuously be connected to and using the network. With so many devices connected to the network on a regular basis, some networks, which do not have large amounts of bandwidth for handling all of the network traffic, may get bogged down, seem to operate sluggishly, or even seem to cease operating at any sort of normal level. These negative impacts on the network performance may result in erroneous and misplaced customer service calls to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) whose service has not been downgraded. Each such call costs the ISP, and many such calls result in large dollar amounts being lost to calls which otherwise may be avoided. Therefore, what is needed is a way to visualize impacts on a network's performance that is easy to use particularly for those who may be less comfortable with solving technical problems.
An exemplary embodiment relates to a non-transient computer readable medium having program code stored thereon for causing a processing device to perform the method comprising accessing information related to local area network traffic, by the processing device and receiving the information. The method also includes displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) for a user of the network and calculating a percentage of impact for each device connected to the network that is using resources on the network. Further, the method includes displaying by the GUI, geometric shapes whose areas on the GUI approximate the relative impact that each device or group of devices has on the network.
Another exemplary embodiment relates to a Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi network includes a wireless router and a plurality of devices wirelessly communicating with the wireless router. At least one of the plurality of devices is running a network analyzer or the network analyzer running on a cloud server. The network analyzer comprises program code for carrying out the steps of: accessing information related to local area network traffic from the router, by the network analyzer; receiving the information by the network analyzer; displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) on the at least one of the plurality of devices; calculating a percentage of impact for each device connected to the Wi-Fi network that is using resources on the Wi-Fi network; and displaying by the GUI, geometric shapes whose areas on the GUI approximate the relative impact that each device or group of devices has on the Wi-Fi network.
Yet another exemplary embodiment relates to a communications network. The communications network includes a router and a plurality of devices wirelessly communicating with the router. At least one of the plurality of devices is running a network analyzer or the network analyzer running on a cloud server. The network analyzer includes a means for accessing information related to local area network traffic from the router, by the network analyzer and a means for receiving the information by the network analyzer. The network analyzer also includes a means for displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) on the at least one of the plurality of devices; a means for calculating a percentage of impact for each device connected to the communications network that is using resources on the communications network and a means for displaying by the GUI, geometric shapes whose areas on the GUI approximate the relative impact that each device or group of devices has on the communications network.
In addition to the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the disclosure set forth herein. The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, inclusions, and/or omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is NOT intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, features, and advantages of the devices and/or processes and/or other subject matter described herein will become apparent in the disclosures set forth herein.
The use of the same symbols in different drawings typically indicates similar or identical items unless context dictates otherwise.
All devices connected to a local area network, such as but not limited to a Wi-Fi network, a hardwired network or any other type of wireless network, use some amount of bandwidth on the network, however some devices require much more than others and this demand on use of the network changes dynamically at all times throughout the day. For instance, a mobile device such as a tablet on a Wi-Fi that is streaming HD video has much higher demands than a computer with its user reading email. Accordingly, a network impact visualizer can be used to graphically and dynamically display to a user of the network what devices are using the network. Conventional network impact visualizers are seen as displaying information in a way which makes usability and readability difficult while simultaneously having poor functionality. The network impact visualizer described herein solves these deficiencies.
Referring now to
In accordance with the exemplary embodiment shown, if a user taps and holds on a group circle for example group circle 110, owned by “John” may show how many devices belong to that group. Referring now to
As an example, referring to
If now, a user taps the “Apple” circle 320, a Service Limit circle 410, depicted in
Referring now to
The functionality described above may be used on any of a variety of devices, such as but not limited to mobile phones, tablets, notebook computers, desktop computers, connected watches, TVs, appliances, and other devices having a display and input interface. Further, the functionality described enables users to quickly and easily assess whether a sluggish network is being caused by devices heavily impacting the network, as well if there are certain devices dominating the network resources. If certain devices are dominating network resources, the application described above allows a user to easily and quickly identify which of those devices is dominating network resources. Being able to identify that a local network is being burdened by devices overloading network resources can prevent many unnecessary customer service calls to the ISP who has no control of the devices on the network.
In some instances, one or more components may be referred to herein as “configured to,” “configured by,” “configurable to,” “operable/operative to,” “adapted/adaptable,” “able to,” “conformable/conformed to,” etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that such terms (e.g. “configured to”) generally encompass active-state components and/or inactive-state components and/or standby-state components, unless context requires otherwise.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to claims containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that typically a disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms unless context dictates otherwise. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be typically understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art will appreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed in any order. Also, although various operational flows are presented in a sequence(s), it should be understood that the various operations may be performed in other orders than those which are illustrated, or may be performed concurrently.
Examples of such alternate orderings may include overlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental, preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variant orderings, unless context dictates otherwise. Furthermore, terms like “responsive to,” “related to,” or other past-tense adjectives are generally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictates otherwise.
