最小化WP7 App网络负载

Question

I have made an App that connects to a WCF service and checks every 1.5 second by a DispatcherTimer if the phone has the most recent image. If not, it will download the most recent image. It might be that the phone has the most recent image for quite some time, say 10 minutes. If that is the fact, then the 1.5 second interval is way too fast. But when the image is changed on the server, I want it to be downloaded by the App as soon as possible, say, within seconds.

I understand I could use the Push notification service of Microsoft, but my project is about using a closed network, no internet available.

So my question is, in what way would I lower and minimize my network use? Any help and tips appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

If you are using a closed WiFi network - even every 1,5 seconds updates polling isn't too much of an overhead for the network. It is for your device's battery though.

Make it every 10 seconds and you are in a "golden mean".

As for the WCF itself, just make sure you are returning a bool value from the server in response to the client's app question "Is there any picture updates?" and you have your minimum in data sent back and forth.

Since Windows Phone doesn't support WCF Duplex channels yet, you can't use the best approach of just configuring the server to notify you only when the pictures are updated on the server.