Patent ID: 7564810

Claim:
A method for managing power consumption of a computing device having a network interface module for transmitting and receiving network communication data, the computing device comprising a storage area for storing accumulated network communication data, the method comprising: at least one processor analyzing traffic statistics data to derive at least one parameter of a model that establishes a relationship between idle time and a quantity of delayed traffic data that is predicted to accumulate in the storage area as a function of time when the network interface module is put in a low-power state in which the network interface module stops transmitting network communication data; and the at least one processor calculating a target idle time for the network interface module based on the model with the at least one parameter, wherein puffing the network interface module in the low-power state for the target idle time is predicted by the model to result in a non-zero quantity of delayed traffic data in the storage area that is less than or equal to a pre-selected threshold, the threshold being selected based on the size of the storage area such that the quantity of delayed traffic data does not exceed the size of the storage area; wherein the model comprises at least one equation that determines the idle time using the threshold, wherein the target idle time is calculated using the at least one equation and using the at least one parameter, and wherein the at least one parameter of the model is a prediction regarding future traffic through the network interface module.