System and method providing usage analytics for a mobile device

Abstract

A system and method for obtaining usage information for selected applications running on a mobile device. A VPN engine initiates a VPN connection for each selected application when the mobile device is operating in cellular connectivity mode. This results in all data transmitted and received by the mobile device to pass through the VPN connection. A VPN platform can thus identify usage information of the particular application for the particular mobile device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for collecting usage data of one or more selected applications loaded on a mobile device, the method comprising the actions of:
 loading a virtual private network (“VPN”) engine onto a mobile device;   initiating VPN connections for each of a plurality of active applications if the mobile device is connected to the cellular network; and   recording the data usage of each active application over the VPN connection associated with that active application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action of initiating VPN connections further comprises initiation a dedicated VPN connection for each active application. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising terminating a particular dedicated VPN connection when it is detected that a particular application switches from being active to being inactive. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the action of monitoring the data transmitted over the VPN connections to generate data usage information for each of the active applications. 
     
     
         5 . A method to monitor network usage and collect analytics using a virtual private network (“VPN”) starter engine operating in conjunction with a mobile device, the method comprising:
 detecting the mobile device being connected to a cellular network or to a WiFi network; 
 identifying when a monitored application loaded on the mobile device becomes active; 
 initiating a VPN connection to a destination for the monitored application in response to determining that the mobile device is connected to the cellular network and the monitored application is active; 
 whereby any data usage of the monitored application occurring while the mobile device is connected to the cellular network is transmitted over the VPN connection to the destination and can be included in the analytics. 
 
     
     
         6 . A processor executing a virtual private network (“VPN”) starter engine and operating in conjunction with a mobile device, the VPN starter engine comprising:
 an interface to a mobile device that enables the VPN starter engine to determine if the mobile device is connected to a cellular network or a WiFi network; 
 a controller that establishes a VPN connection for an active monitored application in response to determining that the mobile device is connected to the cellular network; 
 the VPN starter engine further configured to collect data usage of the active monitored application occurring while the mobile device is connected to the cellular network to be provided for the generation of billing. 
 
     
     
         7 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 6 , wherein the interface to the mobile device further enables the VPN starter engine to identify when the monitored application becomes active. 
     
     
         8 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 6 , wherein the interface to the mobile device further enables the VPN starter engine to identify when the monitored application is active and, the VPN connection controller performs the action to initiate a VPN connection only when the monitored application is active. 
     
     
         9 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 6 , wherein the interface to the mobile device further enables the VPN starter engine to identify when the monitored application is inactive and, the VPN connection controller performs the action to disable the VPN connection proximate to the time that the monitored application becomes inactive. 
     
     
         10 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 6 , wherein the interface to the mobile device is further configured to identify when the monitored application is inactive and, the VPN connection controller performs the action to disable the VPN connection only when the monitored application is inactive. 
     
     
         11 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 6 , wherein the VPN connection enables all data from the active monitored application to pass through a VPN tunnel on a public network to a VPN server that can meter the date on a per-user level. 
     
     
         12 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 11 , wherein the VPN server is configured to meter the data usage and create call data records (“CDR”). 
     
     
         13 . The processor executing the VPN starter engine of  claim 12 , wherein the VPN server transmits the CDRs to a platform for processing bills.