Apple Inc.
QUICK RELAY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT FOR CLOUD MESSAGING

Abstract:

A quick relay communication protocol is used by an initiating communication device (such as a wearable electronic device, e.g., a smart watch) and/or a recipient communication device (such as a companion electronic device to the wearable electronic device, e.g., a smart phone, a tablet computer or a laptop computer) to selectively communicate messages via different communication channels. Based on available connections and a communication constraint associated with a message, a processor executing a program module in an application layer in the initiating communication device provides transmission instructions to an interface circuit in the initiating communication device, which transmits a message to the recipient communication device based on the transmission instructions. When there are currently no available connections and the message is eligible to be communicated through a cloud-based relay server, the processor establishes a cloud-based connection with the recipient communication device via the relay server.