Policy-Defined Connection Management of Opportunistic Network Capacity

A mobile device comprising:

• one or more transceivers;
• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory storing;
• instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, implement a connection manager to:
• determine, based on a wireless network policy of the mobile device, contextual information for a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection available through an access point (AP) to a WLAN associated with a mobile network operator (MNO);
• measure one or more first signal-related characteristics of the WLAN connection available through the AP;
• determine, based on the contextual information and the first signal-related characteristics, a first quality metric for the WLAN connection available through the AP;
• measure one or more second signal-related characteristics of a cellular network connection available through a base station to a cellular network associated with the MNO;
• determine, based on the second signal-related characteristics, a second quality metric for the cellular network connection available through the base station;
• compare the first quality metric to the second quality metric to produce a comparison result;
• and
• connect, based on the comparison result, to either the WLAN through the AP or the cellular network through the base station.

A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• determine, based on a wireless network policy of a mobile device, contextual information for a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection available through an access point (AP) to a WLAN associated with a mobile network operator (MNO);
• measure one or more first signal-related characteristics of the WLAN connection available through the AP;
• determine, based on the contextual information and the first signal-related characteristics, a first quality metric for the WLAN connection available through the AP;
• measure one or more second signal-related characteristics of a cellular network connection available through a base station to a cellular network associated with the MNO;
• determine, based on the second signal-related characteristics, a second quality metric for the cellular network connection available through the base station;
• compare the first quality metric to the second quality metric to produce a comparison result;
• and
• connect, based on the comparison result, to either the WLAN through the AP or the cellular network through the base station.