Abstract

This document describes techniques that enable a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, ring, glasses, etc.) and a mobile computing device (e.g., a smartphone) to optimize network-related power consumption. For instance, a wearable device tethered to a mobile computing device (“companion device”) via BLUETOOTH may experience power inefficiencies when attempting to access a network (e.g., cellular, WI-FI, Internet, etc.) if the companion device is in an area with poor network coverage. In this scenario, one of or both the wearable device and companion device may experience increased power consumption during connection attempts that may ultimately fail. According to the techniques of this disclosure, the companion device may assess a network connection quality when the wearable device requests network access. If the companion device determines the network connection quality is poor, the companion device may indicate a "no internet" status to the wearable device, even if the companion device can still connect to the internet or services such as SOS. The companion device may update the status when the network connection quality improves. Responsive to receiving the “no internet” status, the wearable device may suspend attempts to access the network. In this way, described techniques may reduce power-consuming network access attempts by the wearable device during periods of poor connectivity, improving power efficiency and battery life.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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