Table of Contents
Today mobile applications retrieve asynchronously information from multiple sites. Developers have two ways to retrieve this information:
The first method is strongly discouraged due to the large number of connections made to the server needlessly, because information is not available and you lose time and resources.
That is why the PUSH methods are widely used for information retrieval, anyway how PUSH platforms are currently working are misusing mobile radio resources and also consuming lot of battery.
This article aims to explain how to manage this kind of messaging, problems with existing solutions and finally how Telefónica Digital, within the framework of the development of Firefox OS operating system, a new solution designed friendlier to the network and low battery consumption on mobile terminals.
Historically mobile operators offered (and offer) real mechanisms PUSH notifications, also known as WAP PUSH. WAP PUSH can "wake up" applications when any action is required of them by the server side (without interaction from the user). Sending WAP PUSH messages is done in the domain of circuits, the same used for voice and SMS, and that is why the user don't need to establish a data connection. These kind messages work properly out of the box.
WAP PUSH solutions works great when the user is registered in the mobile network, but if you are out of coverage or connected to a WiFi hotspot instead a celular network, you can not receive these messages.
Also, if we add that this messages implies an economic cost (basically it is a short message SMS) the effect is that major smartphone operating systems (Apple iOS and Google Android) have implemented a parallel solution that would work regardless of the mobile network to which the user belongs and it can run smoothly when they are using WiFi networks.
Internet PUSH solutions are based on a public accesible server which handles all the notification delivery.
These solutions were designed without considering the mobile networks way of working and forces the handset to maintain an open socket with the server in order to avoid misnotifications.
This way of working increases the signalling and the handsets battery consume. For more information about this, please refer to the "Mobile network issues with current PUSH platforms" chapter