Mobile Network Presence Service with Load-Based Notification Throttling

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

• determining a paging channel load in a zone of a wireless telecommunications network;
• sending a plurality of outgoing presence updates to a mobile station located in the zone, wherein the outgoing presence updates are sent over the wireless telecommunications network on a channel different from the paging channel;
• and
• throttling the outgoing presence updates while the paging channel load exceeds a threshold load, wherein the throttling is minimum-delay throttling, and wherein throttling the outgoing presence updates comprises scheduling presence updates so that a minimum delay passes between presence updates to the mobile station, wherein the minimum delay is based at least in part on the paging channel load.

A presence system comprising:

• a presence server operative to generate presence update messages for a mobile station;
• network load determination logic operative to determine a level of network load associated with the mobile station, wherein the network load determination logic is configured to determine the level of network load based on a determination of a load of a paging channel serving the mobile station;
• throttling level determination logic operative to determine a level of throttling of presence updates based at least in part on an elapsed amount of time, wherein the elapsed amount of time is selected from the group consisting of a) time that has elapsed since the mobile station began a presence session, and b) time that has elapsed since an incoming presence update was received from the mobile station;
• and
• scheduling logic operative, in response to a determined level of throttling, to schedule presence updates for delivery so that a minimum delay passes between presence updates to the mobile station, wherein the minimum delay is based at least in part on the level of network load, and
• a network interface operative to send presence updates to the mobile station in accordance with the schedule.