The present disclosure relates to offline data communication. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a transmission protocol for handling offline data communication.
BACKGROUND
The number of applications, popular known as apps, have grown exponentially in the past few decades. One of the primary reasons that have led to the growth and popularity of these apps is the easy accessibility of data, by Wi-Fi or mobile data, on portable electronic devices.
However, there is still a large population that do not have a constant access to data; and/or do not have access to the internet; and/or are using non-smart phones that do not have a provision to access internet. For this large population, a mechanism needs to be provided so that they can perform data centric activities, for example, accessing an app, downloading a document/movie/music, etc., even when they are offline.
SUMMARY
This section is intended to introduce certain embodiments and aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify the key features or the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments of the present invention may relate to a method for offline data communication. The method comprising receiving a plurality of application data segments of an application data via a non-data based transmission means. The plurality of application data segments are then converted from a non-data based transmission means format to original application data format to obtain the application data. Finally, the application data is displayed at a user interface (Ul) of an application requesting the application data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for a transmission protocol to handle offline data communication, according to an embodiment;
IG. 2 is an exemplary embodiment illustrating a process for offline communication, according to an embodiment;
FIG. 3 is an exemplary embodiment illustrating a process for offline communication between two portable electronic devices, according to an embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Embodiments of the present disclosure are explained in detail below with reference to the various figures. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide an understanding of the embodiments and examples. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize a number of equivalent variations of the various features provided in the description. Furthermore, the embodiments and examples may be used together in various combinations.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a system and a method for a transmission protocol that handles offline data communication. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system 100 for a transmission protocol to handle offline data communication, according to an embodiment. The proposed transmission protocol is a new transfer protocol that allows transfer of data in any format, including arbitrary binary data, between two nodes. In one embodiment, the transmission protocol allows transfer of any data, including arbitrary binary data, between two nodes using any non-data transport means, for example SMS, voice, etc, . The transmission protocol may allow transfer of data when the node/s are offline, i.e., not connected to a data network or a Wi-Fi. In one embodiment, the node may be a redistribution point or a communication endpoint that supports

the proposed transmission protocol based data transfer between the nodes. The nodes may include any electronic instrument. For example, the electronic instrument may include a Point of Sale (PoS) terminal or a portable electronic device 102 that can send and receive data to and from a data store, for example, an offline communication module 104. A portable electronic device 102 may include a mobile phone, smartphone, or a wearable device. An offline communication module 104 may include a data server that manages reception and transfer of data to the portable electronic device.
As shown in FIG. 1, the portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104 include transport protocol modules 106 and 108, respectively, that manages the proposed transport protocol based data transmission between the portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104. The transport protocol modules 106 and 108 at the portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104, respectively, includes four layers, i.e., application layers 110 and 112, respectively, the transmission layers 114 and 116, respectively, the protocol layers 118 and 120, respectively, and the transport layers 122 and 124, respectively. The application layers 110 and 112 are defined to manage communication between offline communication module 104 and applications (apps) running on the portable electronic device 102. The application layer 110 at the portable electronic device 102 initiates a request for receiving an application data from the portable electronic device 102. The request may include the registered mobile number, the application (app) identity of the application requesting the data, and the request for data. For example, when the application is a messaging application then the request for application data may include a request to send and/receive messages at the messaging application, the messaging application id, and the mobile number of the portable electronic device that send the request.

In one embodiment, the application layer 110 ensures that the application data requested at the portable electronic device 102 is displayed at the User Interface (Ul) of the application requesting the application data. The application layer 110 ensures that the requested data, for example data related to an application, is displayed at the application requesting the data such that the application experience when the portable electronic device is offline is same as when the portable electronic device is online. The application layer 110 ensures that the application data is displayed as an in-app Ul, and not as a SMS or voice message, which has the same user experience as when the application is accessed online. In one embodiment, multiple applications may use the application layer 112 to send and/or receive requested data from the offline communication module 104.
In one embodiment, the application layer 112 at the offline communication module 104 generates a unique transmission identity (id) and sends it to the application that requested the data. The id is then used to track the progress and state of transmission by the offline communication module 104 and the app executing at the portable electronic device 102.
The transmission protocol modules 106 and 108 at the portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104, respectively, also includes transmission layers 114 and 116, respectively, that handles assembling/disassembling, multiplexing, compression/decompression, and encryption/decryption of transmissions. The transmission layers 114 and 116 also provides transmission progress and state to the application layers 110 and 112, respectively, that communicates it to the respective application.
The application layers 110 and 112 transmits the application data, which may include an application data request at the portable electronic device 102 or the requested application data at the offline communication module 104, to transmission layers 114 and 116, respectively, included in the transmission protocol modules 106 and 108, respectively. In one embodiment, the application

data is a random binary data that may be understood at both the nodes, for example, a portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104.
The transmission layers 114 and 116 may either be receiving a requested application data, for example at the portable electronic device 102, or may be forwarding a requested data, for example from the offline communication module 104. In case the transmission layers 114 and 116 are forwarding the requested data, the transmission layer compress, encrypts, and breaks the application data into application data segments when the requested application data is received at the transmission layers 114 and 116. An application data segment is a portion of the application data. The application data is broken into application data segments of smaller size as an SMS, voice, or any other non-data means of data transfer mode between the nodes, may have a limit on the data size that may be transmitted. The length of segment is selected so that it may be transmitted using these non-data transfer means. In one embodiment, an application data segment may be further broken into several application data packets, and the non-data transfer means may transfer one of these application data packets. In one embodiment, the transmission layer 114 at the portable electronic device 102 combines the different data packets received at the protocol layer 118 to obtain the application data.
The transmission layer 114 at the portable electronic device 102 analyzes and process the received application data packet. For example, when a data is received then the transmission layers 114 or 116 adds data part of packet to ta pending partial transmission and reports the progress to the application layer 110 that is reported to the app. After all the data packets of a requested application data is received then the transmission layer 114 decrypts, decompress, and sends the transmission to application using application layers 110 and 112.

Further, the transmission protocol modules 106 and 108 at the portable electronic device 102 and the offline communication module 104 also include protocol layers 118 and 120 that is responsible for creation, management, and recovery of a non-data transmission sessions. In one embodiment, the protocol layers 118 and 120 encodes an application data segment received from transmission layers 114 and 116 in a non-text format, for example binary format, received from the transmission layers 114 and 116 to an SMS or voice format or decodes application data segment received from transmission layers 114 and 116 in a text format to a binary format. In one embodiment, an algorithm may be used to convert the application data segments from a original application data format to a non-data transmission means data format, for example a text format or a voice format.
In case the protocol layer 120 is receiving an application data, for example at the offline communication module 106, then the transmission layer 116 may send a notification to the protocol layer 120 indicating availability of an outgoing session. The protocol layer 120 checks whether a non-data transmission session is already open between the offline communication module 104 and the portable electronic device 102. In case a non-data transmission session is not already open then the protocol layer 120 initiates a new non-data transmission session to initiate a session between the offline communication module 104 and the portable electronic device 102.
The protocol layer 120 then requests queued outgoing packets from the transmission layer 116 and creates a segment using multiple/single packet(s). This segment is then encoded to application data segments in non-data transmission means data format and is sent to the portable electronic device 102. The protocol layer 120 then awaits an acknowledgment about delivery of the message and after receiving the acknowledgement generates and transmits the next segment. In case an acknowledgment is not received the protocol layer 120 will resend the

same segment after a certain timeout. This process continues until all the application data segments of the application data are delivered.
In case the protocol layer 118 is at the node receiving application data, for example at the portable electronic device 102, then the protocol layer 118 waits for incoming segments. On arrival of new segment the session manager performs validity checks on the segment. When the application data segment is valid and no errors are detected by the protocol layer 118 then the protocol layer sends acknowledgment to the other node, for example the offline communication module 104, extracts packets from application data segment and passes the application data segments to transmission layer 114 for further processing. In case an error is detected then the protocol layer 118 sends an ERR packet to the other node, for example the offline communication module 104. If ERR packet delivery fails then session is closed and reopened in order to correct the order.
Finally, the transmission protocol modules 106 and 108 include transport layers 122 and 124, respectively, that analyzes incoming messages and forwards it to protocol layers 118 and 120, respectively, when the received application data segments have application data segments.
The established non-data transmission session allows sending/receiving 124 application data segments over a non-data transmission session. As the proposed transmission session has no limitation on the number of characters that may be transmitted or the type of data that may be transmitted, data of any data type, for example random binary data, and of any size may be transmitted using the proposed transmission session. Further, the proposed transmission session ensures that the user experience of the displayed application data, when the portable electronic device 102 is offline, is same as the online user experience.
In one embodiment, the nodes, for example, the portable electronic device 102 and the offline management module 104, are provided with a message sequence

managers 126 and 128, respectively, that stores and tracks the sequence number of the messages received from the other node.
The offline communication module 104 also includes a notification module 130
that manages delivery of notifications using non-data transmission protocols. The
5 notification module 130 includes a notification API that is exposed to a third party
that wants to send notifications to several users. The API receives as input a list of
users to whom the third party wants to deliver the notification and the notification
payload. The API checks the list of users to determine users, i.e., the portable
electronic device 102 of the user, from the list that support communication using
10 non-data based transmission means. The API provides the determined users as a
result to the third party.
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a process 200 to transmit and receive data between an application at a portable electronic device and an offline or online communication module, according to an embodiment. In one embodiment, the
15 offline and online communication management module are data servers that
manage offline communication and online communication, respectively, between the application at the portable electronic device and the different communication modules. The online communication module initiates an application data delivery to the portable electronic device (202). The application data delivery may be
20 initiated based on a request initiated by an app executing at the portable
electronic device.
Next a check is then performed to determine whether the portable electronic
device is online (204). In case the portable electronic device is online then the
application data is delivered online (206). In case the portable electronic device is
25 not online a check is performed to determine whether the portable electronic
device is enabled to communicate using non-data based transmission means (208).
9

Next in case the portable electronic device is enabled to communicate using non-
data based transmission then the application data is transferred from the offline
communication module to the portable electronic device (210). The offline
communication module transmits the application data to the application at the
5 portable device using non-data based transmission means, as explained in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an exemplary system diagram 300 illustrating a non-data based transmission communication between two portable electronic devices 302 and 304, according to an embodiment. Initially a data to be delivered to another portable electronic device 304 is received at one of the portable electronic device
10 302. Next the message is transferred to an online communication module 306. A
check is then performed to determine whether another portable electronic device 304 to which the message is to be transferred is online. In case the other portable electronic device 304 is online then the online communication module 306 transfers the message to the other portable electronic device 304. In case the
15 other portable electronic device 304 is not online then the online communication
module 306 checks whether the other portable electronic device 304 is capable of communicating using non-data based transmission means. When the other portable electronic device 304 is identified as capable of communicating using non-transmission means then the online communication module 306 transfers the
20 message to the offline communication module 308. The offline communication
module 308 finally transfers the message to the other portable electronic device by non-data based transmission means.
Embodiments and examples are described above, and those skilled in the art will
be able to make various modifications to the described embodiments and
25 examples without departing from the scope of the embodiments and examples.
Although the processes illustrated and described herein include series of steps, it will be appreciated that the different embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited by the illustrated ordering of steps, as some steps may occur in
10

different orders, some concurrently with other steps apart from that shown and described herein. In addition, not all illustrated steps may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the present disclosure. Moreover, it will be appreciated that the processes may be implemented in association with the apparatus and systems illustrated and described herein as well as in association with other systems not illustrated.

We Claim:
A computer implemented method for handling offline data communication, the method comprising:
at a portable device, receiving a plurality of application data segments of an application data via a non-data based transmission means;
converting the plurality of application data segments from a non-data based transmission means format to original application data format to obtain the application data; and
displaying the application data at a user interface (Ul) of an application requesting the application data.
The computer implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising:
determining whether the non-data based transmission means session is established between the portable electronic device and an offline communication module; and
establishing a non-data transmission means session when the non-data based transmission means session is not established between the portable electronic device the offline communication module.
The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the non-data transmission means is a Short Messaging Service (SMS).
The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the non-data transmission means is a voice based communication.
A portable electronic device comprising:
a memory storing a program code; and
a processor executing the program code to:

receive a plurality of application data segments of an application data via a non-data based transmission means;
convert the plurality of application data segments from a non-data based transmission means format to original application data format to obtain the application data; and
display the application data at a user interface (Ul) of an application requesting the application data.
6. The portable electronic device of claim 5, further executing the program code to:
determine whether a non-data based transmission means session is established between the portable electronic device and an offline communication module.