US20110078285A1 - Method and apparatus for wireless internet access - Google Patents

Method and apparatus for wireless internet access Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US20110078285A1
US20110078285A1 US12/878,969 US87896910A US2011078285A1 US 20110078285 A1 US20110078285 A1 US 20110078285A1 US 87896910 A US87896910 A US 87896910A US 2011078285 A1 US2011078285 A1 US 2011078285A1
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
bit
tag
text
wireless
query
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
US12/878,969
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Jeffrey C. Hawkins
Scott D. Lincke
Joseph K. Sipher
Ronald Marianette
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Access Systems Americas Inc
Original Assignee
Access Systems Americas Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Access Systems Americas Inc filed Critical Access Systems Americas Inc
Priority to US12/878,969 priority Critical patent/US20110078285A1/en
Publication of US20110078285A1 publication Critical patent/US20110078285A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/18—Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/957—Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
    • G06F16/9577—Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/958—Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/04—Protocols specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50—Network services
    • H04L67/56—Provisioning of proxy services
    • H04L67/565—Conversion or adaptation of application format or content
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50—Network services
    • H04L67/56—Provisioning of proxy services
    • H04L67/565—Conversion or adaptation of application format or content
    • H04L67/5651—Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/04—Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/16—Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/16—Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
    • H04L69/161—Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/16—Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
    • H04L69/165—Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W80/00—Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
    • H04W80/06—Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/08—Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/22—Parsing or analysis of headers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
    • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
    • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
    • H04L69/326—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the transport layer [OSI layer 4]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
    • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
    • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
    • H04L69/329—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Definitions

  • This application relates to the following group of applications.
  • Each application in the group relates to, and incorporates by reference, each other application in the group.
  • the invention of each application is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
  • the group of applications includes the following.
  • This invention relates to the field of information communications.
  • the invention relates to wireless access to Internet based information.
  • Wireless communications provides one method for mobile users to communicate to a wired network.
  • wireless communications allows consumers to receive and send information.
  • Examples of such wireless networks include cellular phones, pager systems, and satellite systems.
  • the wireless network systems can be broken into relatively high bandwidth and low bandwidth systems. High bandwidth systems are for example satellite systems.
  • Lower bandwidth systems include cellular phones and mobile radio systems.
  • Still lower bandwidth systems include pager networks and low bandwidth packet switched radio systems (e.g., the BellSouth Mobile Data MobitexTM system).
  • the method in which they access the information is highly dependent on the type of wireless communications available to the user.
  • a high bandwidth network such as a wired network or a satellite system
  • the usual techniques for browsing data on the Internet are adequate.
  • the Web An important source of Internet based data is the data accessible through the World Wide Web (referred to as the Web).
  • the following describes the usual techniques for Web browsing.
  • a user selects a web site associated with a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
  • the URL represents the address of the entry point to the web site (e.g., the home page for the web site).
  • the user may select a web site that supplies restaurant reviews.
  • the user's computer makes an HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) request to the web server hosting the web site.
  • HTTP HyperText Transport Protocol
  • the client typically needs to make multiple HTTP requests of the web server. For example, to load the restaurant locator home page, multiple HTTP requests are needed to download all the graphics, frame content, etc.
  • the user will typically need to browse through a number of linked pages to get to the page from which a search for restaurants can be made. Even if the user is immediately presented with the desired page, a great deal of information has had to been downloaded from the web site (e.g., graphics, advertisements, etc.). This additional information makes for a visually rich browsing experience.
  • the user fills in the information on this page and selects a search button.
  • the client makes another series of HTTP requests of the web server.
  • the web server supplies the client with the requested information in an HTML formatted web page.
  • the web page typically includes links to more graphics and advertisements that need to be accessed by the client.
  • low bandwidth networks For low bandwidth networks this technique does not work well. Too much bandwidth is needed to download the images. Also, low bandwidth networks typically charge per byte transmitted and can be very expensive if large amounts of data are downloaded. Thus, low bandwidth networks are desirable to use for accessing information on the Web but only if the amount of data transferred over the network is small. Specifically for packet data networks, the cost of transmitting messages increases with the number of packets transmitted. The cost of transmitting multiple packet messages is therefore a daunting obstacle for packet data network customer use.
  • Handheld devices are emerging as important computer devices. Handheld devices typically implement a relatively small, but important function set. Examples of such handheld devices are the PalmPilotTM handheld device available from 3COM Corporation, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. Examples of the function set supported are address books, calendars, and task lists.
  • wireless modems such as are available from Novatel Communications, Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, or wireless transceivers for dedicated wireless data access network.
  • a wireless modem operates in the cellular phone network and supplies approximately 9600 baud bandwidth to the handheld device. This allows the user to access the web at a relatively low bandwidth.
  • handheld devices An issue with using handheld devices to access the Web is related to their capabilities. Even if connected to a high bandwidth network, most handheld devices do not have the screen area or the processing power to display the graphics and large amounts of text in a typical web page. However, it is still desirable to support the browsing of information on the Web using handheld devices. It is further desirable that the handheld devices be able to use networks that have relatively low bandwidths.
  • One method of reducing the amount of data transferred from the web site to the client is to cache the web site data locally on the client.
  • the Netscape CommunicatorTM browser application caches web pages on the client. Each cached web page is associated with a URL.
  • the Netscape Communicator browser attempts to use previously cached web pages before downloading the pages from the web site.
  • Another type of caching program is NetAttacheTM, available from Tympany, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
  • the NetAttache program downloads all the web pages from a given web site.
  • the web pages are all cached on the client.
  • a NetAttache server runs locally on the client.
  • a browser can then be used to browse through the local copy of the web pages.
  • the problem caching is that the pages still need to be retrieved from the server before they can be reused and there can still be a significant number of connections made to the web server.
  • some programs are customized for accessing specific information from particular web sites.
  • Examples of these programs are Java applets that reside on the client or are served to the client by a server. The applets can then be reused to access information from a web site.
  • An example of a specialized program for accessing specific information is the RealVideo Player from Real Networks, Inc.
  • a problem with these types of programs is that they are very specific to a particular type of content. For example, they do not use standard HTML (hypertext markup language) constructs. This means that web site developers cannot use standard web site development tools to create their sites.
  • One embodiment of the invention includes a device for providing wireless Internet access.
  • the device includes an antenna.
  • the antenna is for receiving wireless queries and transmitting wireless responses.
  • the device includes a program.
  • the program is for converting the wireless queries into Internet compatible protocols.
  • the program is for receiving the Internet protocol formatted responses. These responses are then converted in to the wireless responses.
  • the device includes a computer-with a transceiver card.
  • the transceiver card is coupled to the antenna.
  • the computer has a connection to the Internet.
  • the computer and the transceiver card are for executing the program.
  • the computer can be a network server or a client computer within the network.
  • the invention instead of a transceiver card, the invention includes an external transceiver.
  • the external transceiver can be connected to the computer via, for example, a serial connection, a Universal Serial Bus, a SCSI connection, or some other connection.
  • the device is a standalone device that couples directly to a network (e.g., the device has a separate IP address).
  • the device instead of performing the Internet protocol conversions, performs some conversions and sends the partially converted messages to a proxy server for further processing.
  • This type of configuration can provide wireless users with a greater degree of security.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communications device communicating with a web server.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates a method of communicating between a wireless communications device and a web server.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an example user interface for a wireless communications device.
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a wireless network topology
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a wireless network topology including a wireless network interface, a wireless network leased line, and a dispatcher.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a wireless communications device exchanging messages in a communications system.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a reliable message protocol packet structure
  • FIG. 8 illustrates an exchange of a single request packet and a single response packet using the reliable message protocol.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates an exchange of messages comprising a single request packet and two response packets using the reliable message protocol.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates an exchange of messages including a retransmit sequence using the reliable message protocol.
  • FIG. 11 illustrates lower level communication layers.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates the format of data passed between wireless client software layers.
  • FIG. 13 illustrates the format of an IP header and a UDP header.
  • FIG. 14 illustrates an alternative system for communicating between a wireless communications device and a web server.
  • the wireless communications device has programs for web access and two-way messaging.
  • One of these programs can include most of the static data from a web site.
  • the static data can be used to format a query to access the dynamic data from the web site.
  • Each program can be for accessing a different web site.
  • only the amount of static data that is communicated is significantly reduced.
  • the wireless communications device communicates as part of a communications system.
  • the communications system includes the wireless communications device, a server, and a source of data.
  • the server acts as a proxy server.
  • Typical sources of data are a web server or a mail server.
  • Some wireless networks such as those provided for two-way pagers and other wireless packet data networks, provide wider coverage and lower cost than competing networks. These wireless networks typically have relatively low performance however. A single packet of 400 bytes can take eight seconds just to travel to the Internet and back when the system is lightly loaded. With such a low throughput, it could easily take minutes to download even a small web page using standard browser technology.
  • the wireless communications system therefore employs novel methods for reducing the amount of traffic sent over the wireless link for web access.
  • a goal of the invention is to provide the user with fast access to web content.
  • the wireless communications device can access generic web content, because of the wireless communications device's limited screen size, most existing content will not be as visually appealing, will be harder to navigate, and may take longer to access than specially formatted content. Thus, significantly advantages are achieved with customized content.
  • the web content can be formatted for the small screens of most handheld communications devices. This content will download relatively quickly (because of its small size).
  • the formatted content can be created and published using the same tools used today for desktop web publishing (i.e. HTML tools and web servers) and could even be viewed using a standard desktop browser. But,
  • a second goal of the invention is wireless messaging.
  • a proxy server facilitates communications between web servers, mail servers, and other Internet data sources and the wireless communications device.
  • the proxy server improves performance for wireless networks. Because of the high latency and low bandwidth of wireless networks, using existing Internet protocols to directly access web servers from the wireless communications device would be prohibitively expensive and slow.
  • a minimum size packet has a round trip time of approximately three seconds on the low cost wireless network. Because of the large latency, the number of packets sent over the wireless link between the wireless communications device and the proxy server should generally be kept small. Thus, some embodiments of the invention are able to fetch most web pages and send or receive messages with just one packet up (wireless client->proxy server) and one packet down (proxy server->wireless client) over the wireless network.
  • the System Introduction section provides an introduction to the various elements of the wireless communications system.
  • the Wireless Network Topology section introduces the protocols used to communicate between the various devices in the system.
  • the Content Layer section describes the markup languages used in the system.
  • the Transfer Layer section describes a compact transfer protocol (CTP) used for communicating between the wireless communications device and the proxy server.
  • CTP compact transfer protocol
  • the Reliable Message Protocol section describes reliable and efficient variable length message delivery over the wireline and wireless networks.
  • the Wireless Network Interface section describes a set of programs that can be used to access the wireless network as an IP network.
  • the Proxy Server Details section describes how the proxy server works with the content layer, the transfer layer, and the reliable message protocol.
  • the Communications System Details section describes how the content layer, the transfer layer, the reliable message protocol, the network interface and the proxy server can be used together.
  • Computer is any computing device (e.g., PC compatible computer, Unix workstation, handheld device etc.). Generally, a computer includes a processor and a memory. A computer can include a network of computers.
  • Handheld Device a computer with a smaller form factor than a desktop computer or a laptop computer.
  • Examples of a handheld device include the Palm IIITM handheld computer and Microsoft's palm sized computers.
  • Internet is a collection of information stored in computers physically located throughout the world. Much of the information on the Internet is organized onto electronic pages. Users typically bring one page to their computer screen, discover its contents, and have the option of bringing more pages of information.
  • Client a computer used by the user to make a query.
  • Server a computer that supplies information in response to a query, or performs intermediary tasks between a client and another server.
  • World Wide Web (or Web or web)—is one aspect of the Internet that supports client and server computers handling multimedia pages.
  • Clients typically use software, such as the Netscape Communicator® browser, to view pages.
  • Server computers use server software to maintain pages for clients to access.
  • Program a sequence of instructions that can be executed by a computer.
  • a program can include other programs.
  • a program can include only one instruction.
  • Application is a program or a set of hyper-linked documents.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communications device communicating with a web server.
  • the wireless communications device includes a handheld computer (or portable computer) having wireless communications capabilities.
  • the handheld computer has predefined applications that correspond to a portion of the web site being served by the web server. Using the applications, a user can use to make queries of the web server.
  • Some embodiments of the invention provide compression techniques that enable the wireless handheld computer to complete a web based information request using only one packet up to a proxy server and only one packet back down to the wireless communications device.
  • FIG. 1 describes how the elements are coupled, and then describe the elements in detail.
  • FIG. 2 describes the operation of the elements.
  • FIG. 1 includes a wireless communications device 100 , a base station 170 , a proxy server 180 , the Internet 190 , and a web server 140 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 includes a screen 101 and is running an operating system 102 .
  • the operating system supports the execution of a browser 104 .
  • the browser 104 runs with the wireless application 106 and displays an example query form 105 and an example query response 107 .
  • Between the base station 170 and the proxy server 180 is a private network 172 .
  • the web server 140 includes a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) program 142 .
  • the CGI program 142 is responsible for generating the HTML page 144 .
  • FIG. 1 also includes a number of arrows indicating queries and responses.
  • These queries and responses include a wireless CTP (Compressed Transport Protocol) query 122 , a CTP query 124 , an HTTP query 126 , an HTTP response 136 , a CTP response 134 , and a wireless CTP response 132 .
  • a wireless CTP Compressed Transport Protocol
  • the wireless communications device 100 communicates with the base station 170 via wireless communications.
  • the base station 170 is coupled to the proxy server 180 via the private network 172 .
  • the proxy server 180 , and the web server 140 are all coupled to the Internet 190 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 represents a handheld device that has wireless communications capabilities (also referred to as a portable computer or handheld computer with wireless communications capabilities).
  • the wireless communications device 100 includes a Palm IIITM compatible handheld device having wireless communications capabilities.
  • the wireless communications device 100 is for communicating over the BellSouth Mobile Data (BSMD) Mobitex system.
  • BSMD BellSouth Mobile Data
  • Other embodiments of the invention support other wireless communications networks.
  • the BSMD Mobitex system is a relatively low bandwidth network.
  • the embodiments of the inventions support querying of web based data using such a low bandwidth network.
  • the operating system 102 is an example of an operating system that can run on a handheld computer. Examples of such operating systems include the Palm OSTM operating system, available from the 3COM Corporation, of Santa Clara, Calif.
  • the operating system 102 supports the running of applications.
  • the operating system 102 also supports low level communications protocols, user interface displays, and user input.
  • the browser 104 is an example of a program (or group of programs) that supports some standard browsing features (e.g., displaying markup language documents, following hyper-links).
  • the browser 104 is for generating queries and receiving responses.
  • the browser 104 can interface with groups of hyper-linked, marked up documents (also referred to as pages).
  • the browser 104 can also interface with standalone programs that do not use marked up documents.
  • the browser 104 is executing with the wireless application 106 .
  • the browser 104 is described in greater detail below.
  • the wireless application 106 represents one of many predefined applications that are stored locally on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • Each wireless application represents a static portion of a web site tree. That is, this information does not change significantly over time.
  • the web site tree is the data structure representing the hyper-linked web pages of a web site. (Note that the tree is actually usually a graph.)
  • Each predefined application is used for accessing a different web site.
  • the predefined applications can be downloaded to the wireless communications device 100 through wireless communications, but more typically, they are downloaded through a docking cradle or through infrared communications with another wireless communications device 100 .
  • the wireless application 106 includes a number of hyper-linked pages.
  • One of the pages includes the example query form 105 .
  • This example query form 105 is used to generate a query that is answered as the example query response 107 .
  • the wireless applications can standalone applications access through the browser 104 .
  • the applications can be C programs, JAVA programs, and/or compressed markup language (CML) or HTML pages.
  • the query response 107 represents the dynamic data in the web site tree (the data that can change often).
  • the query response 107 includes information retrieved from the web server 140 .
  • the example query form 105 and the example query response 107 can be stored in a CML format.
  • the markup language is compressed relative to HTML. This compressed markup language is described in greater detail below. What is important is that the compressed markup language is a subset and superset of HTML and is requires far fewer bytes than HTML typically requires. Additionally, the compressed markup language represents a compressed description of information to be displayed on the screen 101 .
  • the browser 104 /uses the representation to generate the display on the screen 101 .
  • the base station 170 represents a wireless communications base station.
  • the BSMD Mobitex system includes base stations like the base station 170 .
  • the base station 170 is responsible for communicating with the wireless communications device 100 and other wireless communications devices (e.g. pagers).
  • the private network 172 represents the communications links between a base station 170 and a proxy server 180 .
  • the BSMD Mobitex system has such a private network. Between the base station 170 and the proxy server 180 , many servers, routers, and hubs, etc. may exist. In some embodiments, the private network 172 may communicate with the proxy server 180 through the Internet 190 . The proxy server 180 would then communicate with the web server 140 , also through the Internet 190 .
  • the proxy server 180 represents one or more computers that convert queries from the wireless communications device 100 into queries that are compatible with Internet protocols.
  • the proxy server 180 communicates with the wireless network, which can include low bandwidth and high latency communications.
  • the proxy server 180 decompresses information from the wireless network side for use on the Internet 190 side of the proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 converts Internet protocols and content into a form that can be used by the wireless network and the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the proxy server 180 can converts image content to a size and bit depth appropriate for display on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the proxy server 180 communicates over the Internet 190 using standard Internet protocols such as, TCP, HTTP, and SSL. This allows developers to use already existing Internet protocols in their web servers.
  • the proxy server 180 is substantially stateless. That is, it does not keep state information about specific wireless communications device accesses. This configuration of the proxy server 180 tolerates communication and protocol errors more readily and allows for simpler scaling of the proxy server 180 . Statelessness should not be confused with caching.
  • the proxy server 180 can cache CML web pages for use by multiple wireless communications devices 100 .
  • the browser 104 works in tandem with the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 and proxy server 180 communicate with each other using a compressed transport protocol (CTP) built on top of IP.
  • CTP compressed transport protocol
  • the goal of this protocol is to enable a user to fetch and display a web page on the wireless communications device 100 with a one packet request sent to the proxy server 180 , Typically, a one packet response is returned to the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the proxy server 180 transmits a typical page of web content to the wireless communications device 100 in roughly 500 bytes. This can be challenging given that most web pages have lots of formatting information, hot links and images. Web pages are typically many Kbytes in size. A hot link reference can easily take up 100 bytes or more. Just to fill the wireless communications device screen 101 with text (11 lines of 35 characters each) would take nearly 400 bytes even if there were no formatting information included.
  • the Internet 190 represents the Internet. However, the Internet 190 could be replaced by any communications network.
  • the web server 140 responds to web accesses.
  • the web server 140 serves regular, and specially constructed, HTML pages.
  • the wireless communications device 100 is accessing the special HTML pages (e.g., HTML page 144 ).
  • the example query response 107 corresponds to the HTML page 144 .
  • the same HTML page can be served in response to a query from the wireless communications device 100 as is served to other types of clients.
  • the HTML page 144 is generated by the CGI 142 .
  • the CGI 142 represents a program that can dynamically generate HTML pages in response to HTTP requests.
  • the wireless CTP query 122 represents a compact transfer protocol (CTP) formatted query from the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the base station 170 receives this query and forwards it to the proxy server 180 .
  • the forwarded query is represented by CTP query 124 .
  • the proxy server 180 takes the CTP query 124 and converts it into one or more HTTP queries 126 .
  • the web server 140 receives this HTTP formatted query 126 and generates an HTTP response 136 that includes the HTML page 144 .
  • the proxy server 180 receives the HTTP response 136 , and generates the CTP response 134 .
  • the base station 170 generates the corresponding wireless CTP response 132 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 then generates the display on the screen 101 of the example query response 107 .
  • the browser 104 is described in greater detail.
  • the browser 104 and supporting wireless messaging programs comprise the client processing resources for some embodiments of the invention.
  • the web browser 104 works well with both wireless and wireline connections, enabling users to seamlessly access the web whether they are connected through the phone line or not.
  • the messaging support enables a user to send and receive wireless messages with other users that have Internet e-mail accounts.
  • the browser 104 support both wireless and wireline connections.
  • An effective wireless browsing solution leverages the use of the proxy server 180 in order to deliver satisfactory performance.
  • a solution embodied in the roles established for the wireless communications device 100 and the proxy server 180 dramatically reduces the amount of data that is sent between the wireless communications device 100 and the proxy server 180 over the slow wireless link. This form of browsing is referred to hereinafter as thin browsing.
  • wireline links The performance of wireline links, on the other hand, is high enough that a wireless communications device 100 can talk directly to a source of data such as a web content server using standard Internet protocols such as HTML, HTTP and TCP. This is how existing desktop browsers work and will be referred to hereinafter as standard browsing.
  • Thin browsing can be used over wireline links as well as wireless links.
  • the only extra requirement is that the proxy server 180 be accessible to the wireless communications device 100 over the Internet or an intranet.
  • Standard browsing is more appropriately used over wireline links because of increased chattiness and bandwidth requirements.
  • the browser 104 is structured as a single user-interface that runs either a standard browser engine or a thin browser engine. With either engine, the user interface essentially appears the same, and the way original HTML web content is interpreted and displayed will be almost identical.
  • the browser 104 relies on the proxy server 180 for reducing the amount of traffic and the number of transactions required. Although designed primarily for use over wireless networks, the browser 104 can be used over wireline networks as well
  • the primary purpose of the thin browser engine is for accessing content designed specifically for the limited screen 101 size and functionality of a wireless communications device 100 .
  • this layout and size are the only differences between content rendered for a wireless communications device 100 and existing desktops.
  • content creators for desktop content can use the same tools that are used for creating and publishing desktop content when creating and publishing content for the wireless communications device 100 .
  • Content rendered for the wireless communications device 100 can reside on standard HTML based web servers in standard HTML format (e.g., see web server 140 ).
  • the proxy server 180 performs a dynamic conversion of the HTML content into the more compact CML form before transmitting the content to the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the browser 104 will not prevent a user from accessing desktop oriented sites, but the browser 104 can behave differently when accessing them. For example, graphics can be ignored when not accessing a wireless communications device friendly site whereas the user will have the option to enable graphics for wireless communications device friendly sites. Another example of the difference is the browser 104 protects the user from unintentionally downloading a large desktop oriented site.
  • a user option enables the user to set the maximum size desktop page that may be downloaded. If a page is encountered which exceeds this maximum size, the page is clipped by the proxy server 180 before being sent down to the wireless communications device 100 . The user is able to set this maximum size on a page per page basis in the favorites list of the browser 104 .
  • the browser 104 When the user first launches the browser 104 , the browser 104 is able to display the user's home page without sending or receiving even a single byte over the network. This is in contrast to the standard web browser that go over the network to fetch the home page, or at least to check that the locally cached version of the home page is up to date.
  • the browser 104 relies much more on pre-loaded content. A transaction typically takes place over the wireless network only when necessary. For example, in some embodiments of the invention, the browser 104 assumes that the locally cached form is up to date and only submits a network request to the proxy server 180 after the user fills in a form requesting an update.
  • the browser 104 is particularly suited for accessing real-time data, not casual browsing.
  • emphasis is placed on optimizing the process of filling out a form (e.g., with airline flight information) then submitting the form, and getting the real-time data back.
  • a form e.g., with airline flight information
  • the user will still be able to casually browse any web site, the increased cost and volume of data involved with going to most standard web sites makes casual browsing relatively undesirable over a wireless network.
  • a typical user scenario for the browser 104 would then be as follows.
  • the user extends, or rotates, the antenna on the wireless communications device 100 and thereby automatically power up the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the browser 104 displays the user's home page (stored in local memory).
  • the home page has been configured by the user with a set of service icons such as weather info, traffic info, airline info, stock quotes, etc. before the browser is used.
  • the browser 104 displays the form (also stored in local memory) for the user to enter the flight number or city codes.
  • the user enters the information in the form and hits the “submit” button.
  • the browser 104 sends a request out over the network to fetch the airline information.
  • the proxy server 180 three to five seconds later
  • the browser 104 there are a number of significant differences between the browser 104 and a standard web browser.
  • the browser 104 In order to display most content published today on the Internet 190 , the browser 104 supports the most common features of HTML. However, because of the screen size and limited memory and performance of wireless communications device 100 , some HTML features may be limited in functionality or not supported at all.
  • the browser 104 may not render every possible text attribute in HTML.
  • a number of font sizes and styles map to the same font on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the user does not encounter significantly reduced readability or usability as a result of the mapping.
  • the proxy server 180 as directed by the wireless communications device 100 , can filters out all images, unless the user explicitly enables images, or the content author imbeds the appropriate tag into the content indicating that this page is wireless communications device 100 specific and that the images should be downloaded to the wireless communications device 100 .
  • HTML forms will have nearly full functionality.
  • the only feature of HTML forms that may not be supported is the use of dialogs that let the user choose a file name by browsing the local directory structure on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts can be supported.
  • CGI scripts are used by the web server 140 to respond to form submissions by browsers and for customizing web content for a particular user.
  • the browser 104 requests a web document that corresponds to a CGI script
  • the browser 104 can append text parameters to the end of the base document URL.
  • the proxy server 180 will parse the parameters out of the URL and send them to an executable program on the web server 140 , as identified by the URL.
  • Most CGI executables will then output dynamically generated HTML that is consequently returned to the browser 104 and displayed. From the browser's 104 point of view then, fetching a web document that uses CGI scripts is no different from fetching a static web document (other than having a slightly more complex URL).
  • FIG. 2 illustrates a method of communicating between a wireless communications device and a web server. Such a method can be implemented using the system of FIG. 1 .
  • the example method of FIG. 2 can be broken into three processes: a build a distributed web site process 202 , a query process 204 , and a response process 206 .
  • a distributed web site can be created where static information is primarily kept on the wireless communications device 100 and dynamic information is kept on the web server 140 .
  • a content developer defines a wireless application. In one embodiment of the invention, this includes defining a number of HTML pages.
  • the HTML pages represents the forms used for querying the web server 140 .
  • a program is then used to convert the HTML pages into compressed markup language pages to generate the wireless application 106 . This process is discussed in greater detail below in the compressed markup language section.
  • the web server 140 is created, or modified, to support reduced content HTML pages.
  • An example of such a page is shown as HTML page 144 .
  • These pages can be generated exactly the same way as regular HTML pages. However, as a guiding principle, the amount of information should include little more than the absolute minimum of information that a user would find useful.
  • a user loads the wireless application 106 onto the wireless communications device 100 .
  • This can be done as a HotSyncTM operation in a manner similar to the way in which other applications are loaded onto the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 can be connected to a computer via a cradle and the wireless application 106 can be loaded from the computer.
  • the wireless application 106 can be downloaded over the wireless network.
  • this second method of loading the wireless application 106 is less desirable in that it will require a significant amount of bandwidth.
  • the user loads the wireless application 106 over a high bandwidth network (e.g., the cradle download or by an infrared transfer from another wireless communications device 100 ).
  • the query process 204 includes the following steps.
  • the user fills in a query form 105 as part of the wireless application 106 .
  • the user is filling out a form to find Italian restaurants in San Francisco.
  • the user selects the look up button.
  • the look up button causes the wireless communications device 100 to initiate the wireless CTP query 122 .
  • the block 240 is completed by the sending of the wireless CTP query 122 and the CTP query 124 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless CTP query 122 is sent to the base station 170 .
  • the base station 170 and related hardware, perform any necessary changes to the wireless CTP query 122 to generate the CTP query 124 , and send the CTP query 124 over the private network 172 .
  • the proxy server 180 converts the CTP query 124 to an HTTP query 126 and forwards that HTTP query 126 to the web server 140 .
  • the query process 204 is completed.
  • the web server 140 generates and sends an HTML page 144 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the web server 140 generates the HTTP response 136 in response to the HTTP query 126 .
  • the HTTP query 126 corresponds to a wireless communications device 100 query
  • the web server 140 and in particular the CGI 142 , sends the HTML page 144 in the HTTP response 136 .
  • the conversion from the CTP query 124 to an HTTP query 126 may involve more than one HTTP request. This may occur where the web page has multiple referenced objects that need to be retrieved from the web server 140 .
  • the proxy server 180 may initiate multiple requests depending on the response in block 260 . Note however, only one CTP request was needed.
  • the proxy server 180 converts the HTML page 144 into the example query response 107 and sends the example query response 107 to the private network 172 .
  • the example query response 107 is inside of the CTP response 134 , which is transmitted from the proxy server 180 , across the private network 172 , to the base station 170 .
  • the base station 170 then sends the corresponding wireless CTP response 132 to the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the operating system 102 notifies the browser 104 that the wireless CTP response 132 has been received.
  • the browser 104 requests the contents of the wireless CTP response 132 from the operating system 102 .
  • the contents are the example query response 107 .
  • the browser 104 can display the example query response 107 on the screen 101 .
  • FIG. 3 includes a number of pictures showing an example display generated by the wireless communications device 100 . These displays would be generated when a user attempts to find restaurants in San Francisco.
  • the wireless communications device 100 includes a launcher under which wireless applications can be grouped.
  • the launcher interface 303 displays the list of available wireless applications. Note that the browser 104 is not specifically listed. This is because the user would typically only want to run a specific web site access application, not the browser 104 by itself. In this example, the user has selected “fine food” from the launcher interface 303 .
  • the example the browser 104 and the wireless application 106 begin executing.
  • the browser 104 displays the example query form 105 .
  • the example query form 105 is a CML page in the wireless application 106 .
  • the user can select/enter various field values for a query. In this example, the user is selecting the location field value “San Francisco”.
  • the completed query form 305 is shown next.
  • the user now wishes to send the query. This can be done by selecting the “look up” button. This sends the wireless CTP query 122 out through the network and to the web server 140 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 then receives the wireless CTP response 132 .
  • the response includes the information for the example query response 107 .
  • the browser 104 displays the example query response 107 on the screen 101 . Here a number of restaurant names and phone numbers are shown. The user can scroll up and down through the list.
  • the toolbar 310 allows the user to perform various functions within the browser 104 .
  • the toolbar 310 includes a back button, a connection indicator, and a drop down list.
  • the back button allows the user to go back to the previous query form.
  • the wireless communications indicator indicates whether the wireless communications device 100 is performing a wireless communications query.
  • the drop down list indicates a history of the query results that the user has requested during past use of the browser 104 .
  • FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 show the general topology of a wireless communications network.
  • the wireless client 405 (in FIG. 4 , the wireless communications device 100 and its software have been combined into the wireless client 405 ) communicates directly with the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 does not communicate directly with the actual source of data.
  • the source of data can be a web or mail server that has content desired by the wireless client 405 .
  • FIG. 1 shows the Internet 190 as the source of data and the source of data will be referred to as the Internet 190 throughout this application.
  • the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 can use a much more efficient (“thin”) protocol between themselves than used by Internet mail and web servers.
  • the proxy server 180 uses standard Internet protocols (HTTP, TCP) when communicating with existing mail and web servers.
  • the proxy server 180 acts as an agent.
  • the proxy server 180 takes requests from the wireless client 405 , obtains the requested information from the Internet 190 , and re-formats and sends the requested information back to the wireless client 405 .
  • the proxy server 180 acting in this manner, can hide the relatively chatty and bandwidth intensive protocols used by standard Internet 190 servers from the wireless link.
  • the thin protocols used between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 are IP based. IP based protocols are widely used and enable the wireless client 405 to communicate with many different wireless networks. Furthermore, basing wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 processing resources on IP provides a layer of isolation and independence from the actual wireless network in use.
  • FIG. 4 shows a wireless network topology 400 used for some embodiments of the invention.
  • the main components of the wireless communications system are the wireless client 405 , the wireless network access point 410 , the tunneler 430 , the proxy server 180 , and the Internet 190 .
  • the wireless network access point 410 has a corresponding wireless network access point radio 420 .
  • the wireless client 405 communicates across the wireless network using its own client radio 440 to transmit messages to and receive messages from the wireless network access point radio 420 .
  • the wireless network access point 410 is the nearest regional station in a wireless network with a connection to a proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless network is by nature not IP based, and its most basic packet type is referred to herein as wireless network protocol packet (WLNP). Consequently, the wireless client 405 encapsulates its IP packets with a WLNP header before the packets can be sent by the client radio 440 .
  • WLNP wireless network protocol packet
  • the packets sent over the air include a number of headers in the following order: a WLNP header, followed by a compressed user datagram protocol (C-UDP) header, followed by a reliable message protocol (RMP) header.
  • the headers encapsulate a Request/Response Message Fragment (RQMF/RSMF) of the packet.
  • RQMF/RSMF Request/Response Message Fragment
  • the RQMF/RSMF of each packet holds the message fragments.
  • These fragments are commands, requests, and responses sent between a wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 that enable a wireless client 405 to browse web pages, send and receive e-mail, and otherwise obtain access to content.
  • the wireless network has guaranteed delivery built into it. For these embodiments, it is not necessary to incur the extra overhead of a full connection-oriented protocol such as TCP on top of the wireless network protocol.
  • the wireless client 405 uses the Internet 190 UDP.
  • the UDP is a simple datagram based, best effort delivery protocol. Using UDP, it is possible that a web page can be viewed from the wireless client 405 by sending just one packet up to the proxy server 180 and receiving just one packet back.
  • the TCP protocol on the other hand, would require a minimum of 5 packets back and forth between the proxy server 180 and the wireless client 405 to view the web page.
  • the wireless network does not, on the other hand, guarantee order of delivery, so an RMP header is placed in front of the data area in each UDP packet. The RMP is used to detect and correct for out-of order or duplicate packet deliveries.
  • the wireless client 405 uses a smaller, compressed form of the UDP header called C-UDP.
  • a C-UDP header contains just enough information so that the actual IP/UDP header can be reconstructed at the other end of the wireless link.
  • the wireless network access point 410 receives WLNPs that have C-UDP packets imbedded in them.
  • the WLNP header is stripped off the front of the packets by the tunneler 430 for the wireless network.
  • the original EP header and UDP header are reconstructed, and the packets are then forwarded to the proxy server 180 through a TCP connection.
  • TCP is used to guarantee that the packets get transferred reliably.
  • the TCP stream that the proxy server 180 receives from the tunneler 430 has the imbedded IP packets.
  • the IP packets contain request message fragments.
  • the reliable message layer (shown in FIG. 6 as reference number 635 ) on the proxy server 180 reconstructs the original request message from the message fragments in the packets using the information contained in the RMP header area of each packet.
  • the requested information (web page or e-mail) is then be fetched as a data object from the Internet 190 , re-formatted, and passed back to the reliable message layer 635 .
  • Proxy server 180 processing resources operating in the reliable message layer 635 break down the data object into separate packets for transmission to the wireless client 405 , and send the packets to the tunneler 430 through the TCP connection.
  • the tunneler 430 forwards the packets back over the wireless network to the wireless client 405 .
  • FIG. 5 illustrates the wireless network topology including a wireless network interface 510 , a wireless network leased line 520 , and a dispatcher 530 .
  • FIG. 5 shows how the wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 communicate when the wireless client 405 is on a wireless network. Notice that the wireless client 405 is directly on the wireless network whereas the proxy server 180 is not. The wireless packets do not get sent directly to the proxy server 180 . Instead, they first pass through the base station 170 , a wireless access point 410 , and tunneler 430 before they are sent to the proxy server 180 over a wireline LAN (Local Area Network) connection.
  • wireline LAN Local Area Network
  • Wireless client 405 processing resources send messages through the reliable message layer 635 .
  • the reliable message layer 635 uses the RMP protocol to send the messages.
  • the RMP protocol encapsulates the message fragments with an RMP header and sends them through a UDP socket in the network library (shown as 1110 in FIG. 11 and discussed below).
  • the packets work their way through the IP stack on the wireless communications device 100 , which adds UDP header and IP header.
  • the packets are passed down to the wireless network interface 510 for transmission.
  • the wireless network interface 510 then compresses the IP header and UDP header of the packet into a C-UDP header, and adds the wireless network protocol (WLNP) header.
  • FIG. 5 shows the wireless network interface 510 adding a WLNP header that is used on the wireless packet data network. Other networks will have similar headers. Much of the information in the IP and UDP headers is redundant with the WLNP header, so the C-UDP header can be significantly smaller than the sum of the IP header and UDP header.
  • the WLNP encapsulated packets are sent over the radio and are received by a base station 170 .
  • the base station 170 passes them to a wireless network access point 410 .
  • the wireless network access point 410 then passes the packets through a wireless network leased line X.25 link to the tunneler 430 .
  • the X.25 link can be a 56 Kbps leased line or a high speed frame relay connection.
  • FIG. 5 shows only one tunneler 430 , two tunnelers are typically used for the wireless packet data network.
  • the first tunneler is part of the wireless packet data network infrastructure and is referred to as the “Internet Access Server” or IAS.
  • the IAS tunnels the WLNPs from the wireless network access point 410 into a TCP stream and sends this stream to a proxy server 180 specific tunneler.
  • the proxy server 180 tunneler takes each WLNP from the IAS stream and converts its WLNP/C-UDP headers into normal IP/UDP packet headers.
  • the packets look identical to the way they looked when the wireless client 405 first passed them to the wireless network interface 510 on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the tunneler 430 then sends its output stream to a dispatcher 530 .
  • the dispatcher's job is to load balance among multiple proxy servers 180 .
  • the dispatcher 530 distributes wireless client 405 requests that the dispatcher 530 receives from the tunneler 430 among a set of proxy servers 180 .
  • the dispatcher 530 checks the source IP address and UDP port number on each packet to determine whether the packet corresponds to a new transaction. If the packet corresponds to a new transaction, the dispatcher 530 selects the proxy server 180 with the lightest load and sends the packet to that proxy server 180 . If the packet does not correspond to a new transaction (i.e. the 2 nd packet of a two packet request), the dispatcher 530 looks up the proxy server 180 used for the previous packet of this transaction and sends the packet to that same proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 gathers the request packets from the dispatcher 530 , reassembles them into the original CTP request message, processes the request, forms a response, breaks the response down into separate IP/UDP/RMP packets, and then sends the response packets back through the TCP socket to the dispatcher 530 .
  • the proxy server 180 receives entire IP packets imbedded in the TCP stream that the proxy server 180 receives from the dispatcher 530 . These packets are re-ordered and re-assembled into the original message before the request is processed. The IP, UDP, and RMP headers are stripped off and the information in the RMP and UDP headers used to re-construct the original request message. When a response message is formed, the response message is split into separate packets as necessary. IP, UDP and RMP headers (with source and destination machine addresses and port numbers swapped) are pre-pended to the packets before they are sent via TCP to the dispatcher 530 where the packet continues its journey back to the wireless client 405 .
  • the wireless network interface 510 on the wireless client 405 and the tunneler 430 at the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 application software, reliable message layer 635 and all of the software on the proxy server 180 are strictly IP based and do not have to change if a different wireless network is used.
  • the tunneler 430 and the dispatcher 530 are not required to be placed on the same physical machine as the proxy server 180 . If the tunneler 430 and the dispatcher 530 are on the same machine as the proxy server 180 , the LAN link between the three system elements becomes a virtual TCP connection through the IP stack on the proxy server 180 . This may seem to be preferable from a performance point of view, but, there are many more advantages to having the dispatcher 530 and proxy servers 180 on separate machines. If the dispatcher 530 is on a separate machine, the dispatcher 530 can distribute wireless client 405 transactions among multiple proxy servers 180 , thereby providing both scalability and fault tolerance.
  • the dispatcher 530 can stop sending requests to the inoperative proxy server 180 . Because the communications system has multiple proxy servers 180 the dispatcher 530 can distribute the load between them. The dispatcher 530 therefore becomes the most sensitive link in the chain from a fault tolerance point of view. But, from a performance point of view, the dispatcher 530 has very little work to do for each transaction compared to the proxy server 180 so it makes sense to have multiple proxy servers 180 per dispatcher 530 (and tunneler 430 ). If necessary, multiple tunnelers 430 and dispatchers 530 can be placed in parallel to provide even more fault tolerance and scalability.
  • a third important point is that the only unreliable link in the whole chain is over the wireless network, i.e., between the wireless network interface 510 on the wireless client 405 and the base station 170 .
  • the link between the base station 170 and the proxy server 180 is a reliable link all the way through.
  • the RMP logic on both the wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 is simplified because the RMP logic only corrects for lost and unordered packets over the wireless network, not the wireline network between the base station 170 and the proxy server 180 . This simplified RMP logic enables the timeout values used for re-transmission attempts to be tuned for just the wireless portion of the network.
  • a corporate wireless Intranet is setup in the same manner as the Internet solution just described. The only major difference is the physical location of the machines.
  • the proxy server 180 is located at the wireless network access point 410 and has a connection to the global Internet.
  • the proxy server 180 is located at the corporation's own private site with a leased line to the nearest wireless network access point 410 .
  • the leased line transports the WLNPs between the wireless network access point 410 and the corporation's own tunneler and proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 has a direct connection to the corporation's private Intranet.
  • the content layer deals with how web content and personal messages are formatted and rendered on the wireless client 405 .
  • this section discusses the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Compact Markup Language (CML) page description languages.
  • HTML Hypertext Markup Language
  • CML Compact Markup Language
  • the wireless client 405 web browser application When using the standard browser engine, the wireless client 405 web browser application renders HTML obtained directly from the web content server. When using the browser 104 however, the wireless client 405 renders CML which has been dynamically generated from HTML by the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 e-mail application When the wireless client 405 e-mail application sends or receives personal messages with the proxy server 180 , it also uses CML to format the messages. Sending and receiving graphically formatted messages is not a specified requirement of the wireless communications device 100 , but CML is used for the message format because it also provides excellent raw text compression. An added benefit is that CML provides the framework required for graphically oriented messaging applications.
  • the first is effectively rendering existing web content on a very small screen.
  • the second to challenge is minimizing the amount of data that is sent over the wireless network when using the browser 104 engine.
  • HTML page description language works fine for answering the first challenge, but is not an appropriate choice for answering the second challenge.
  • HTML was designed as an “ideal” language for creating content. limn, is human readable, human editable, and screen size and depth independent. This makes it a very good general purpose page description language, but also a very verbose language and too large to transmit wirelessly.
  • CML answers both challenges because CML also minimizes the amount of data that is sent over the wireless network. In order to achieve its minimal size, CML sacrifices both human readability and editability.
  • the CML is created dynamically at run-time by the proxy server 180 using knowledge of the screen size and depth of the wireless client 405 .
  • the wireless client's 405 very limited screen 101 functionality will enable the proxy server 180 to generate a much smaller CML representation than the proxy server 180 could otherwise. For example, elements that do not fit on the wireless client 405 screen 101 could be left out altogether and images that are too deep for the wireless client 405 screen 101 are depth converted before being transmitted.
  • both page description languages provide the same feature set.
  • the implementation of the two languages is significantly different because CML provides the necessary compression to accommodate the wireless network bandwidth.
  • CML is optimized for small wireless clients 405 .
  • alternate and larger forms of representation can be used to implement the full feature set of HTML when necessary.
  • the proxy server 180 does not use the HTML standard generally used by Internet servers.
  • HTML HTML
  • all the tags and attributes associated with text, tables, forms, etc are text based, typically take up from 3 to 10 bytes each, and are stored both at the beginning and end of the text that they modify.
  • a web document would have to contain the following HTML sequence: ⁇ STRONG>This is emphasized text ⁇ /STRONG>.
  • CML Compact Markup Language
  • CML emphasizes compactness over readability and generally uses variable length binary bit fields instead of text to represent options and formatting information. The differences do not end there however; CML will use a host of other methods for reducing the number of bytes that is sent between the proxy server 180 and the wireless client 405 .
  • the default CML compression scheme formats text using a form of a five-bit character alphabet with escapes. This default compression scheme works best with pages that have mainly lower case alpha letters in them, but does allow for a full range of characters including characters with ASCII values greater than 128.
  • CML also leverages the fact that the proxy server 180 knows the screen size and bit depth of the wireless client 405 when encoding the layout of the content.
  • HTML was designed to be screen independent—neither the server nor the content creator knows ahead of time what size or depth screen upon which the document will eventually be rendered.
  • the proxy server 180 can also reduce the data sent to the wireless client 405 by not sending color attributes such as the background color, text colors, underline colors, etc.
  • CML The major emphasis of CML is that it is optimized for size. In other words, readability and flexibility are compromised for compactness.
  • One major design philosophy difference between HTML and CML is that CML is not designed as a content creation language.
  • CML is merely a temporary format used to represent content as it is being transferred between a proxy server 180 and a wireless client 405 .
  • CML is algorithmically generated, much like object code is generated from a compiler.
  • the analogy to compilers is even stronger when you take into account the fact that CML is generated with the screen size and attributes of the wireless client 405 taken into account.
  • the same HTML content can produce different CML representations for two wireless clients 405 that have different screen sizes—much like compilers for different microprocessor produce different object code from the same source code.
  • CML is a stream of text and image data with imbedded formatting commands (tags).
  • tags are imbedded as binary data and hence are very compact. Every tag is “sticky”; that is the tag continues to have an effect until explicitly changed by another tag of the same type. For example, a tag in the front of a document that specifies bold text makes the entire document bold, unless another tag later in the document turns off the bold formatting. This is in contrast with many HTML tags, such as paragraph formatting commands, that only affect the next paragraph.
  • CML The default behavior of CML is to compress all text by encoding it using a special 5-bit character alphabet discussed below in the CML Structure section. This form of compression works best for documents that are mainly comprised of lower case roman characters. Other forms of text encoding, including 8 bit ASCII, unicode, etc. are used in CML only when necessary.
  • some embodiments of the invention comprise a method for transmitting a message from a wireless client 405 to a proxy server 180 .
  • the method comprises transmitting a single message from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the single message comprises a single packet of data.
  • the single packet of data having a base document uniform resource locator followed by compressed data.
  • the compressed data comprises references to fields in a hyperlink document and an indication of use of the hyperlink document.
  • the hyperlink document is in the base document.
  • the size of the single packet of data is less than one kilobyte.
  • the references to fields comprise field values and field indices corresponding to fields in the hyperlink document.
  • the base uniform resource locator is expressed in a compact transfer protocol by a binary string.
  • the binary string comprises a first field indicating the encoding scheme used for the single message.
  • CML will be represented using a notation similar to that used in the C language for representing data structures.
  • This notation will be called Compact Data Structure Notation (CDSN) and is also used later in this document when describing the CTP protocol.
  • CDSN Compact Data Structure Notation
  • An example of this notation is:
  • the first field, enabled, is a 1 bit field that has the value 1.
  • the second field, type is a 3 bit field that has the value typeRound which is a constant defined to be 2.
  • the third field, length is a 16 bit integer with the value 0x1234.
  • CDSN A number of primitive data types are used in CDSN. The basic ones are:
  • UIntV and IntV are important types. These can be anywhere from 1 to 36 bits in length, depending on their value. The actual length can be determined by looking at the first 1 to 4 bits.
  • UIntV 0 The value 0 10 Bit[3] The values 0 through 7 (0x07) 110 Bit[6] The values 0 through 63 (0x3F) 1110 Bit[16] The values 0 through 65535 (0xFFFF) 1111 Bit[32] The values 0 through 4,294,967,295 (0xFFFFFFFF) IntV: 0 The value 0 0 Bit[3] The values ⁇ 4 through 3 110 Bit[6] The values ⁇ 32 through 31 1110 Bit[16] The values ⁇ 32768 through 32767 1111 Bit[32] The values ⁇ 2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647
  • a CML data stream is by default a 5-bit character text stream. Until a special character (as discussed below) appears in the stream, each sequence of 5 bits is assumed to represent a single text character.
  • the following table lists the possible 5-bit characters:
  • the single character escape (2) is followed by an 8 bit ASCII character. This single character escape then can be used to represent characters that are not present in the 5. bit alphabet. For example, the text:
  • 67 is the 8 bit sequence 01000011 which represents the ASCII value for ‘C’ (67 decimal, 0x43 hexadecimal) and all other characters are 5 bits long.
  • the tag start character (1) is included in a CML stream to indicate the presence of a CML tag.
  • the tag start character is followed by an 8 or 16 bit Tag ID structure.
  • the 8 or 16 bit Tag ID structure can be optionally followed by other variable length bit fields, depending on the specific tag.
  • the 8-bit Tag ID structures have the first bit clear and can have the values 0 through 127 (0 through 0x7F hexadecimal).
  • the 16-bit Tag ID structures have the first bit set and can have the values 32768 through 65535 (0x8000 through 0xFFFF hexadecimal).
  • tags have different functions. Some tags are followed by other variable length bit fields which specify parameters for that particular tag function. Other tags have no parameters at all. In any case, because the tag start character is a reset character, the text encoding mode is set back to 5-bit characters whenever a tag is encountered (unless the tag specifically changes the text encoding mode).
  • Tag textBold is used to turn on bold formatting. It has no parameters.
  • CML tags are used to include strings of text that can not be encoded as 5-bit characters.
  • text encoding tags are merely tags that have a variable number of parameters following them, where each “parameter” is another character in the text stream. The sequence of “parameters” ends as soon as a reset character is encountered (the endTag or startTag character).
  • the textEncoding8Bit tag indicates a string of 8 bit characters follows.
  • the string of 8 bit characters is assumed to continue in the stream until a reset character is encountered.
  • all special characters (which includes the reset characters and single character escape) are also now 8 bits long.
  • the endTag character becomes the 8 bit sequence 0b00000000 and the startTag character becomes the 8 bit sequence 0b00000001.
  • the single character escape (3 decimal) can be used to include characters in the text which are normally special characters.
  • a 16-bit unicode character of decimal value 1 could be included in the stream by inserting the 16-bit single character escape (3 decimal) in front of it.
  • endTag character is sometimes used in CML to separate two elements or to indicate the end of a block level element.
  • the list items are separated from each other by the endTag.
  • the endTag For example, when a list needs to be represented in CML, the list items are separated from each other by the endTag.
  • a 5-bit endTag character would be placed in the stream.
  • Tag ID structure Because the sequence of the tag escape character followed by Tag ID structure is used so often in the documentation, it is given it's own data type. It is defined as:
  • startTag character (decimal 1) followed by a single bit specifying the length of the tagID, followed by either a 7 or 15 bit tagID
  • tag escape character is normally 5 bits long, except when an alternate text encoding mode is in effect, in which case it's length depends on the particular text encoding mode.
  • Text data type Another common data type used in CML is the Text data type. This type is used to conveniently represent a string of characters. This type is a very powerful to data type because it hides the complexity of escaping special characters and the actual number of bits required to represent each character.
  • the Text data type hides the complexities of escaping non-lower case alpha characters as well as the endTag character used to switch the mode back from 8-bit to 5-bit ASCII.
  • this sequence can be represented as:
  • TextZ is basically a Text type with a terminating endTag character. This type is most often used in tag parameter lists. It can be defined simply as:
  • the format of the meta tag is defined as:
  • Tag tag tagMeta TextZ name TextZ value
  • variable is defined as a TextZ type, the variable generally has an endTag character at the end of it, though the end could be implied by the presence of a following tag.
  • This section lists the various CML tags available. Each tag is described in detail along with its parameters, if any. This section refers to tags by name, but in the actual implementation a pre-defined constant is associated with each tag.
  • TagBGColor Description Used to set the background color.
  • TagBGImage Description Used to set the background image. This image will be tiled to fill the entire window.
  • Text Attributes TagTextColor Description: Used to set the text color.
  • TagLinkColor Description Used to set the color used to display visited or unvisited links
  • Bit visited Byte red Byte green Byte blue Examples:
  • Bit relative // relative or absolute size UIntV size // line height of text in pixels.
  • Bit[3] align // one of alignLeft, alignCenter, // alignRight
  • Tag tag tagMeta TextZ “History” TextZ “Quote Results” tagDatePicker Description: Used to specify a date value. It takes either a valid date, or if 0 is specified, the current date is assumed. The date is specified as the number of seconds since midnight, 1/1/1904 GMT.
  • the dateLo field contains low 32 bits of this value and the dateHi field contains the upper 32 bits of this value (usually 0).
  • tagMarginIndent Description Used to set the indent amount of the margins.
  • the indent parameter specifies the number of pixels to indent on both the left and right margins of the window. The indenting takes effect on the next line of text, whether due to word wrap or line break.
  • Each item in the list is ended either by a endTag character or a tagListItemCustom tag with parameters.
  • the end of the list is indicated by the endTag character.
  • Bit[3] type // The bullet or number style UIntV value // ignored for unordered lists.
  • standalone forms like in standard HTML
  • server dependent forms can be much smaller than standard forms and are typically the only type of form received over a wireless link.
  • Standard forms on the other hand are designed to be pre-loaded onto the wireless communications device 100 through other means (HotSync, built into ROM, etc.).
  • a standalone form is indicated by a 1 in the standalone attribute of the form tag. A 1 in this bit indicates that the form also has post and action attributes and that each of it's input fields have the necessary attributes (name and value) for submitting the form without making the proxy reference the original HTML form off the internet first.
  • the encoding normal form submissions section below describes how to submit a standalone form to the proxy server 180.
  • a server dependent form is indicated by a 0 in the standalone attribute.
  • a 0 in this bit indicates that the form does not have post or action attributes and that it's input fields do not have associated name or value attributes.
  • the action attribute contains the URL of the CGI script on the server that handles the form submission.
  • the secure bit is only present for server-dependent forms
  • the secure bit is set if the action URL for the form is for a secure site (i.e. uses the HTTPS scheme).
  • the secure bit is used by the wireless client 405 to determine if the wireless client 405 should send the form submission to the proxy server 180 encrypted or not. For standalone forms, the wireless client 405 checks the scheme that is in the action URL parameter to see if the submission should be encrypted or not.
  • UIntV formIndex // assigned by proxy server Bit standalone if (standalone) Bit post // if 1, use POST instead of GET TextZ action // URL of the CGI-script else Bit secure // true if URL is HTTPS scheme
  • the checked parameter indicates the initial state of the control.
  • the group parameter is assigned by the proxy server 180 and allows the wireless client 405 to perform mutual exclusion selecting.
  • the hasName and hasValue are normally only set in standalone forms and indicate the presence of following text fields that contain the control's name and value.
  • the checked parameter indicates the initial state of the control.
  • the hasName and hasValue parameters are normally only set in standalone forms and indicate the presence of following text fields that contain the control name and value.
  • the hasName parameter is normally only set in standalone forms.
  • the hasValue parameter may be set in either type of form and indicates the initial default text for the input item.
  • TagIntV size // visible width of field in // characters UIntV maxLength // maximum number of allowed // characters Bit hasName Bit hasValue if (hasName) TextZ name if (hasValue) TextZ value
  • Tag tag tagForm Text “Enter Name:”
  • UIntV maxLength 0
  • Bit hasName 0
  • Bit hasValue 1
  • TagInputTextArea Description Used to represent a multi-line input text field within a form. The text element immediately following this tag is the initial text for the input field. The end of the initial text is indicated by an endTag character.
  • the hasName parameter is normally only set in standalone forms.
  • the hasValue parameter may be set in either type of form and indicates the initial default text for the input item.
  • the hasName and hasValue parameters are normally only set in standalone forms and indicate the presence of following text fields that contain the field's name and value.
  • Tag tag tagInputPassword
  • the label parameter is the button's label. An endTag character marks the end of the label.
  • the hasName parameter is normally only set in standalone forms.
  • the hasValue parameter may be set in either type of form and indicates the text that should appear inside the button. If the hasValue parameter is omitted, the default text of “submit” will be placed in the button.
  • TagInputSelect Description Used to represent select menus in a form. The multiple parameter should be set if multiple items are allowed to be selected at once. If multiple is set, then the size parameter indicates how many visible choices appear at once in the menu.
  • the hasName parameters is normally only set in standalone forms. This element is followed by 1 or more Text elements representing the menu options that are separated by endTag characters or tagSelectItemCustom tags. The tagSelectItemCustom tag only needs to be used for pre-selected items.
  • the hasValue parameter is normally only set in standalone forms. It can be used to indicate the text that should be included as the value of this item during the form submission. If this parameter is omitted, then the text that follows the tagSelectItemCustom tag is used instead.
  • Char itemSeparator endTag Tables
  • Each row in the table starts out with a tagTableRow tag that has optional parameters for the horizontal and vertical alignment of the cells in that row.
  • the cells within a table row are separated by endTag's, or tagTableColumn tags.
  • the tagTableColumn tags mark header cells, or permit attributes to be set for the next cell.
  • the first cell in each row can have a tagTableColumn tag preceding it if necessary in order to change its attributes.
  • Bit[3] hAlign // one of alignLeft, alignCenter, // alignRight UIntV width // table width in pixels UIntV border // border width in pixels UIntV cellSpacing // cell spacing in pixels UIntV cellPadding // cell padding in pixels
  • the tagTableColumn tags denote whether the next cell is a header cell or a data cell.
  • the tagTableColumn tags permit attributes to be set for the next cell.
  • the first cell in each row can have a tagTableColumn tag preceding it if necessary in order to change its attributes.
  • the rowSpan and colSpan parameters are 0-based, which means that a value of 0 in these fields means 1 row and 1 column respectively.
  • the width and height parameters can be 0 to make them automatically determined by the cell contents.
  • TagHyperlink Description Used to represent hyperlinks. All text enclosed between the tagAnchor tag and the terminating endTag are part of the hyperlink. Unlike the ⁇ a> tag in HTML which can be used to define hyperlinks or local anchors (i.e. fragment identifiers), the tagHyperlink tag is only used to define hyperlinks.
  • the tagAnchor tag defined below, is used exclusively to define local anchors.
  • the hasTitle bit can be set if a title is included. Normally, documents sent wirelessly will not include a title in order to conserve space. If this hyperlink is to another location within the same document (i.e.
  • a link to a tagAnchor then internal will be set to 1 and the anchorIndex parameter indicates the index of a local tagAnchor to jump to.
  • the first tagAnchor in the document is index 0, the next one is index 1, etc.
  • the recordIndex parameter indicates which web resource to go to, 0 means the current web resource.
  • a non-zero value represents the database record ID of the new web resource and is only used for wireless communications device 100 PQP databases that have multiple web resources stored in them - each in it's own record. Otherwise, if this hyperlink is to another document, then internal will be 0 and hasHRef will be set if the URL of the document is included.
  • Normally documents obtained wirelessly will not include href URLs and hyperlinks are followed by sending an indirect hyperlink URL request to the proxy server 180.
  • Documents designed to be installed onto the wireless communications device 100 through HotSync or other wireline means however will generally include an href URL and these kinds of hyperlinks can be jumped to by sending a normal URL request to the proxy server 180.
  • Bit hasTitle if (hasTitle) TextZ title Bit internal if (internal) UIntV recordIndex UIntV anchorIndex else Bit hasHRef if (hasHRef) TextZ href Examples:
  • an external indexed link that would typically be used by a document that was obtained wirelessly.
  • anchor #4 which is the 5 th tagAnchor tag in the current document (the first tagAnchor is given index #0).
  • UIntV recordIndex 1 // stay in this current resource
  • UIntV anchorIndex 4 // go to the 5th tagAnchor tag Text “Click on this text”
  • the tagHyperlink tag, defined above, is used exclusively to define hyperlinks.
  • tagAnchors don't need an associated name since the tagHyperlink tag jumps to tagAnchors by index.
  • the first tagAnchor in a document is index #0, the second is index #1, etc.
  • documents designed to be installed onto the Handheld computer through HotSync or wireline means might include the anchor names so that other documents could include hyperlinks that jump to that location using a fragment identifier URL (something like http://www.mine.com/#anchorName).
  • Bit hasName if (hasName) TextZ name Examples:
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method of converting an HTML message into a second message.
  • the method comprises translating the HTML message into a compact markup language (CML).
  • the HTML message comprises HTML constructs.
  • CML representation of HTML constructs comprises a stream of data with embedded tags:
  • the embedded tags comprise binary data corresponding to the HTML constructs.
  • the stream of data comprises text and image data.
  • the text data comprises multibit character representation for selected characters, eight bit representations for a first set of unselected characters, and sixteen bit representations for a second set of unselected characters.
  • the second message typically contains information requested by the wireless client 405 .
  • the second message is often referred to herein as the response message, but could be any message that requires formatting of an HTML message in CML prior to communication to a requesting host.
  • the data sent to the wireless client 405 from the proxy server 180 is in CML that is generated dynamically from the original HTML document.
  • the wireless client 405 gets the HTML source directly from the web server.
  • HEAD HEAD yes N/A Description The head start and end tags enclose the document head and are optional. Examples: ⁇ HEAD> CML Representation: Not needed. Every CML document starts with a title string terminated by an endTag character, which is the implied “head” portion. TITLE TITLE yes N/A Description: The title of the document. Usually displayed in the window's title bar. Examples: ⁇ TITLE>A study of population dynamics ⁇ /TITLE> CML Representation: No tag needed. Every CML document is defined to start with a title string terminated by an endTag character. STYLE STYLE yes N/A Description: A place holder for future versions of HTML which may support style sheets.
  • ISINDEX elements are translated into CML representations for a form in the body portion - there is no dedicated CML tag for ISINDEX.
  • Examples: ⁇ BASE HREF “http://www.acme.com”>
  • the wireless client 405 simply tells the proxy server 180 when the user clicks on a hotlink by passing the hotlink's index to the proxy server 180.
  • META META no N/A META Attributes Description Http-equiv Text HTTP response header name name Text Property name Content Text Property value Description: The META element can be used to include name/value pairs describing properties of a document such as author, expiration date, etc.
  • LINK Element LINK No N/A href url A URL specifying the linked resource rel text forward link types rev text reverse link types title text advisory title string Description:
  • Vlink color The color to use for visited hypertext links Background url
  • the TEXT, BGCOLOR, LINK, VLINK, and BACKGROUND attributes are represented by the standalone CML tags tagTextColor, tagBGColor, tagLinkColor, tagLinkColor, and tagBGImage respectively. indicates data missing or illegible when filed
  • H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 H1 yes Block H2 yes Block H3 yes Block H4 yes Block H5 yes Block H6 yes Block H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 Attributes: Description Align enum Can be any one of LEFT, CENTER, or RIGHT Description: The H1 through H6 tags are used for document headings. Start and end tags are required. H1 elements are more important than H2 elements, and so on. Examples: ⁇ H1 ALIGN CENTER>This is the Heading Text ⁇ /H1> CML Representation: Heading elements are represented by the corresponding tagH1..tagH6 CML tags.
  • P P Optional Block P Attributes Type Description Align enum Can be any one of LEFT, CENTER, or RIGHT Description: The P tag signifies a paragraph break and is typically rendered as a line break followed by a blank line (i.e. another line break). The end tag is optional because it can be inferred by the parser.
  • Attribute Type Description type enum Can be any one of DISC, SQUARE, or CIRCLE compact void Render list in a more compact style Description:
  • the UL tag is used for unordered lists.
  • the LI element is used for individual list items within the list. Examples: ⁇ UL> ⁇ LI>The first item ⁇ LI>The second item ⁇ /UL>
  • Attributes Attribute Type Description Compact Void Render list in a more compact style Description: The DL element is used to enclose 1 or more DT (definition term) and DD (definition) elements. Examples: ⁇ DL> ⁇ DT>PalmPilot ⁇ DD>A killer PDA ⁇ DT>WinCE ⁇ DD>Ouch!
  • ⁇ /DL> CML Representation The required formatting for displaying the definition list is accomplished by replacing the DL and DT tags with linebreaks.
  • the DD tags are represented by tagListItemDefinition CML tags. indicates data missing or illegible when filed
  • ADDRESS ADDRESS yes Block Description The ADDRESS start and end tags can be used to enclose authorship and contact details for the current document. Examples: ⁇ ADDRESS> Newsletter editor ⁇ BR> J.R. Brown ⁇ BR> 8723 Buena Vista, Smallville, CT 01234 ⁇ BR> Tel: +1 (123) 456 7890 ⁇ /ADDRESS> CML Representation: The ADDRESS start tag will be replaced with the appropriate tagTextSize, tagTextFont, etc. CML tags as necessary in order to represent the address section in a proportional, normal size, italic font.
  • the WIDTH attribute is only used by the proxy server 180 (to pick an appropriate font size) and is not present in the CML.
  • INPUT Element End Tag INPUT No Text INPUT Attributes Attribute Description Type enum One of TEXT, PASSWORD, CHECKBOX, RADIO, SUBMIT, RESET, FILE, HIDDEN, or IMAGE. name text The property name that this input represents value text The initial property value, or the label for submit and reset buttons checked void Used to initialize checkboxes and radio buttons to their checked state size number Used to set the visible size of text fields to the given number of characters maxlength number Used to set the maximum number of characters permitted in a text field src url Specifies a URL for the image to associate with a graphical submit button align enum Used to specify image alignment for graphical submit buttons.
  • the NAME attribute is not required for any of the input tags. Instead, the client references input items by index where the first input item in a form is item number 0.
  • the proxy server 180 is responsible for formatting the correct FORM “GET” or “POST” command using the input item names from the original HTML document. Also, the CHECKBOX and RADIO elements do not have associated VALUE attributes in CML. Instead, when the user hits the submit button, the wireless client 405 tells the proxy server 180 whether radio and checkbox controls were checked or not. The proxy server 180 then uses the VALUE parameters from the original HTML when submitting the actual request to the web server. For radio input items, the CML representation will also associate a group number for each radio input.
  • the tagInputSubmitImage does not have the equivalent to the SRC attribute. Instead, the image data is included as part of the parameters to the tag.
  • CML Representation This entity is represented by the CML tagInputTextArea tag. This tag is followed by two UintV's that specify the width and height of the text area along with the initial text terminated by an endTag character. The NAME attribute is not included in the CML representation since all input elements in forms on the wireless client 405 are referenced by index.
  • Attribute Type Description Text The property name that this select choice represents size Number The number of visible choices at once multiple Void Enables user to select more than 1 choice Option Attributes: Attribute Type Description selected void If present, this option is initially selected value text The property value to use when submitting the form. Description: The SELECT element is used to represent multiple choice selections within a form. This usually gets rendered on the screen as a pop-up menu. The items in the menu are each represented by the OPTION element.
  • the SELECT element is represented by the tagInputSelect CML tag. There is no associated NAME attribute since the wireless client 405 references all input elements in a form by index.
  • the tagInputSelect tag is followed by a single bit which specifies whether multiple selections are allowed followed by a UIntV containing the value of the SIZE attribute.
  • the select items are separated from each other by endTag characters or by selectItemCustom tags that specify pre-selected items.
  • the table is generally sized automatically to fit the contents, but you can also set the table width using the WIDTH attribute.
  • the BORDER, CELLSPACING, and CELLPADDING attributes provide further control over the table's appearance.
  • a caption can be placed at the top or bottom of a table by following the TABLE element with a CAPTION element.
  • the TR element is used to delineate rows of the table.
  • the TD element is used to mark data cells.
  • the TH element is used to mark header cells, which may be rendered in a different font than data cells.
  • Tag tag tagTable Bit[2]
  • Char endCaption endTag
  • An HTML table with 4 rows and 3 columns Gets rendered on the client as: indicates data missing or illegible when filed
  • the B tag is represented by the tagTextBold tag.
  • the U tag is represented by the tagTextUnderline tag.
  • the TT, STRIKE, BIG, SMALL, SUB and SUP tags are represented by the tagTextFormat tag.
  • EM, STRONG, DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, CITE Element EM Yes Text STRONG Yes Text DFN Yes Text CODE Yes Text SAMP Yes Text KBD Yes Text VAR Yes Text CITE Yes Text Description:
  • EM emphasis typically in italic font
  • STRONG strong emphasis typically in bold font
  • DFN definition CODE used for extracts of program code
  • SAMP used for sample output from programs KBD used for text to be typed by the user
  • VAR used for variables or arguments to commands
  • CITE used for citations or references to other sources. Examples: ⁇ EM> This is emphasized text ⁇ /EM>.
  • the STRONG tag is represented by the tagTextBold tag.
  • the DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, and CITE tags are represented by the tagTextFormat tag.
  • FONT Element FONT Yes Text FONT Attributes Description Size Text Font size.
  • IMG IMG No Text src url URL of the image alt text Text to display in place of image align enum Alignment of image either TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, LEFT, or RIGHT height number suggested height of image width number suggested width of image border number suggested border width hspace number suggested horizontal gutter vspace number suggested vertical gutter usemap url use client side image map ismap void use server image map Description: The IMG element is used to insert images into a document.
  • CML Representation Unlike in HTML, where images are fetched independently of the source document, CML imbeds image data directly inline with the rest of the document using tagImage tags.
  • MAP AREA MAP Yes Text
  • AREA No Text MAP attributes Name text Used to associate a name with a map
  • AREA attributes shape enum One of RECT, CIRCLE, or POLY coords text Comma separated list of coordinates.
  • href url The URL to jump to when this region is selected Nohref void This region has to action Alt text Alternate text to display if no image.
  • the MAP element is used in conjunction with the IMG element to specify wireless client 405 side image maps.
  • the wireless client 405 just tells the proxy server 180 when the user clicks on an active image (tagImage tag with the ismap parameter set to 1) and passes the x-y coordinates of the hit to the proxy server 180.
  • the proxy server 180 will then look up the appropriate URL using the original document's IMG and MAP elements. indicates data missing or illegible when filed
  • APPLET, PARAM APPLET Yes Text PARAM Yes Text APPLET Attributes: codebase url code base code text class file alt text for display in place of applet name text applet name width number suggested width in pixels height number suggested height in pixels align enum Vertical or horizontal alignment. One of TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, LEFT or RIGHT. Hspace number Suggested horizontal gutter Vspace number Suggested vertical gutter Ismap void Use server image map PARAM Attributes: Name text the name of the parameter Value text the value of the parameter Description: The APPLET element is used to enclose a Java applet.
  • FIG. 6 shows a wireless client 405 processing resources (software) flow diagram 600 .
  • the boxes shown with solid lines are the actual software layers present on the wireless client 405 .
  • the annotated boxes shown in dotted lines indicate the format of the data passed between each of the software layers.
  • the content user interface 605 and e-mail application user interface 610 layers are part of the browser 104 .
  • the content rendering layer 615 and message formatting layer 620 are also wireless client 405 processing resources.
  • the content rendering layer 615 converts CML into the wireless communications device 100 operating system 102 drawing commands.
  • the message formatting layer 620 converts CML messages from the network into a format compatible with the wireless communications device 100 e-mail application.
  • the CML language is discussed in depth above including the binary format of CML, how it is created from HTML, and how it should be rendered on the wireless client 405 .
  • the content request layer 625 and the message request layer 630 are responsible for fetching CML content from the proxy server 180 .
  • the content request layer 625 and the message request layer 630 use the compact transfer protocol (CTP) described below. These layers format request messages and accept response messages using the reliable message layer 635 .
  • CTP compact transfer protocol
  • the reliable message layer 635 is responsible for reliably delivering request and response messages between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the reliable message layer 635 breaks up large messages into datagrams that fit into the wireless network.
  • the reliable message layer 635 also guarantees order of delivery.
  • the reliable message layer 635 passes control directly to the TCP stack of the network library (shown in FIG. 11 as the “Net Library”, reference number 1110 ).
  • the reliable message layer 635 is described in greater detail below.
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method of using a computer for receiving an HTML data object (otherwise referred to as an HTML message) from a source of data.
  • the receiving method comprises fetching the HTML data object, compressing the HTML data object, passing representations of the data object to a content rendering layer 615 , and rendering the representations for viewing.
  • These embodiments combine the standard browser engine with CML and CTP to enable a wireless client 405 to fetch HTMI, data objects using a wireline connection to the Internet 190 .
  • Fetching, compressing, passing, and rendering are performed by processing resources.
  • the processing resources can be located at the wireless client 405 or elsewhere in the wireline network.
  • the HTML data object is compressed by representing selected portions of the HTML data object in CML.
  • CML embeds image data directly in line with the rest of the HTML data object.
  • Some embodiments of the invention comprise a method for receiving a first message (otherwise referred to as a data object) from a source of data. These embodiments employ the thin browser engine, and use the proxy server 180 and the wireless packet data network to fetch data objects from the Internet 190 .
  • the method comprises the six steps discussed below.
  • a proxy server 180 fetches the data object from the source of data.
  • the proxy server 180 converts the data object into a second message comprising data in CML.
  • the proxy server 180 transmits the second message to the wireless client 405 .
  • the wireless client 405 extracts CML data from the second message.
  • the wireless client 405 passes CML data to a content rendering layer 615 .
  • the wireless client 405 renders CML data for viewing on a wireless communications device 100 screen 101 .
  • the second message comprises packets of data. In some embodiments, only a single packet is required and the packet is smaller than five hundred fifty bytes.
  • the CML representations of the data object comprise temporary compressed formats adapted for single packet transfer between the proxy server 180 and the wireless client 405 .
  • the temporary compressed formats are tailored for wireless client 405 attributes.
  • wireless client 405 attributes comprise viewer screen 101 size and viewer image bit-depth.
  • CML embeds image data directly in line with the rest of the second message.
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method for requesting HTML messages from a source of data.
  • the requesting method comprises the following four steps. Submitting compressed representations of field values and field indices. Transmitting a first message in packets of data from a wireless client 405 to a proxy server 180 . Transforming the first message into an HTML request. Transmitting the HTML request to the source of data. Some embodiments further comprise formatting the first message according to a compact transfer protocol using variable length binary fields to communication commands, options, parameters, and attributes.
  • This section discusses the implementation of the wireless communications device 100 transfer layer. Instead of the Internet standard HTTP, this layer uses the Compact Transfer Protocol (CTP) to structure requests and responses between the wireless client 405 and associated proxy server 180 .
  • CTP Compact Transfer Protocol
  • the transfer layer is situated below the Content Layer (described above) and above the reliable message layer 635 (described below).
  • CTP is designed with an emphasis on compactness over readability. Instead of using text to communicate commands, options, and attributes, CTP will use variable length binary fields.
  • Some of the header information included in a typical HTTP request is used to convey information about the standard browser features to the server such as version numbers, and accepted return data types.
  • CTP saves additional bytes by simply sending the proxy server 180 an enumerated type that is understood by the proxy server 180 to represent a certain combination of features.
  • the wireless client 405 could send a CTP request that tells the proxy server 180 that the wireless client 405 is a particular wireless communications device 100 . This would automatically indicate a set of attributes to the proxy server 180 including the screen size, bit depth, and accepted return data types.
  • CTP has roughly the same functionality as HTTP when accessing web content and POPS and SMTP when sending or retrieving messages.
  • CTP was designed to replace these Internet 190 protocols because they are verbose and wasteful of network bandwidth and hence impractical to use over a wireless network.
  • CTP is designed to minimize the amount of data that is sent over the network between the wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 .
  • it uses binary fields to represent request and response parameters, instead of text like most Internet 190 protocols do.
  • CTP is not human readable like HTTP, but it is very compact.
  • FIG. 6 shows the wireless client 405 processing resources flow diagram 600 and illustrates how CTP is used on a wireless client 405 communicating with the proxy server 180 .
  • This diagram illustrates how CTP is used to transport the high level content of both the browser 104 and the messaging applications to and from the network.
  • Each of these applications uses CTP to send their requests to the proxy server 180 and to receive the responses.
  • a CTP request tells the proxy server 180 what data the wireless client 405 wants.
  • a CTP response has a success code along with the actual data requested in CML format.
  • the content request layer 625 formats CTP requests on behalf of the browser 104 application. When it gets a response from the proxy server 180 , the content request layer 625 extracts the CML content and passes it on up to the content rendering layer 615 .
  • the message request layer 630 creates CTP requests on behalf of the messaging application.
  • the message request layer 630 will extract the message data from the CTP response and pass it on up to the message formatting layer 620 .
  • Messages are also sent and received in CML format.
  • the lower software layers shown in FIG. 6 deal with reliably sending CTP request and response messages over the network. These layers are fully described below in the “reliable message layer” 635 section below.
  • CTP requests and responses are structures built up out of variable length bit fields. They are generated and parsed programattically because of the variable size nature of each field. Every CTP request starts out with a set of common request header fields followed by zero or more request specific fields. Each CTP response also starts out with a set of common header fields and may or may not also include a data payload such as the returned content from a URL request.
  • the header fields of a CTP request or response can be any number of bits long
  • the data portion starts on a byte boundary and the total CTP request or response, including the optional data payload, is an even number of bytes long.
  • anywhere from 0 to 7 extra pad bits are appended to the CTP header before the data section starts and the data section is always an even number of bytes long (possibly zero).
  • the extra pad bits and even byte CTP requirements are necessary because CTP requests and responses can be sent using the TCP protocol which sends data in quanta of bytes.
  • the even byte restriction is enforced whether the CTP request is sent wirelessly using RMP or wireline using TCP.
  • the data payload (e.g., part of an email message or part of web page) that is part of a CTP request or response, such as the content returned from a CTP URL request, is always an even number of bytes long.
  • a CTP web content response that has a 4 bit CTP response header and 100 bytes of content payload would require 4 bits of padding between the response header and the payload section in order to bring the total size of the response to 101 bytes long. If instead the CTP response header had been 8, 16, or any other multiple of 8 bits long, then no pad bits would be inserted between the header and the data.
  • the headerVersion field is 0 for this version of CTP.
  • the command field indicates the type of request—which could be either a request to fetch a URL, to get messages, or to send messages.
  • the contentVersion field indicates the requested format of the returned data. Because a UIntV of value 0 is encoded using just 1 bit, both the headerVersion and contentVersion fields each take up only 1 bit in this header.
  • the CTP commands are pre-defined:
  • ctpCmdEcho ctpCmdMsgGen
  • ctpCmdDiscard commands are provided for testing proxy server 180 connectivity and are described in more detail below in the CTP Commands section along with the commands for fetching a URL (ctpCmdReqURL) and processing mail requests (ctpCmdReqMail).
  • a UIntV specifying the encryption scheme follows along with encryption scheme dependent parameters.
  • the proxy server 180 receives an encrypted request, it returns the response in encrypted form using the same scheme as used in the request.
  • the result field indicates success (0) or failure (non-zero error code) in responding to the request.
  • the responseSize field indicates the size in bytes of the response data that immediately follows the result field and any necessary pad bits required to place the response data on a byte boundary.
  • the proxy server 180 can optionally provide extended error information in the data payload area of the CTP.
  • This extended error information is formatted as a 4 byte extended error code optionally followed by a zero-terminated 8-bit ASCII string describing that error code. For example, if the proxy server 180 can not find the server for a particular web site, the proxy server 180 can return the following CTP response:
  • UIntV responseSize 19 // 4 byte error code + 15 byte text
  • UIntV result 3 // proxy error Bit padding[...] // 0->7 bits if necessary to place // following data on a byte // boundary
  • UInt32 proxyErr 0xC1000011 // proxy specific error code Char[ ] “Host not found” // corresponding text
  • CTP defines a number of unique data types in its various requests and responses.
  • the DocumentAddr data type is used to specify the URL when fetching a web document. This data type allows most URLs to be encoded much more compactly than their text equivalents would be. It even allows a pre-determined set of URLs to be specified by index—which is even more compact and useful for fetching common wireless communications device 100 specific pages.
  • the byName field can be either 0 or 1. If the byName field is a 0, then it is followed by a UIntV specifying the URL by number. There is a pre-determined set of URLs defined by number that is known by all wireless clients 405 . For example, site #0 could be the 3COM home page.
  • the scheme field is a 3 bit field specifying one of the following 8 possible scheme strings that are prepended to the path:
  • the pathEncoding field indicates the text encoding format of the path field. If it is 0, then the path is normal 8-bit ASCII. If it's 1, then the path is encoded using a special 5-bit alphabet which is similar, but not identical, to the 5-bit alphabet used for CML text encoding:
  • Characters in a URL which are not in the 5-bit alphabet can be included by preceding the 8-bit ASCII value of the character by the 5-bit escape character (decimal value 1).
  • the Extensions data type is used to include optional parameters in CTP requests and responses. For example, authentication and encryption parameters can be included in the extensions area of a CTP request so that most requests are not burdened with the overhead of the security fields.
  • UInt8 length // number of bytes of parameters
  • UInt16 extID // 16-bit extension ID
  • UInt16 length // length of extension data UInt8[length] data // extension parameters.
  • the extension type is a list of extensions terminated by a 0 byte.
  • Some extensions are boolean extensions that simply change the default value of a feature. For example, a boolean extension can tell the proxy server 180 to include all images instead of ignoring them.
  • Extension IDs 128 through 254 can have up to 255 bytes of parameter data following them.
  • extension ID #255 is for adding 16-bit extension IDs.
  • Requests are sent from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 and are used to request certain web pages or to send or receive messages.
  • the command field in the common fields of the request header is set to ctpReqURL which has a value of 0.
  • the maxResponse parameter encodes the maximum size response that the wireless client 405 is willing to receive.
  • the maximum size in bytes is represented by (maxResponse+1)*1024.
  • the proxy server 180 truncates the response to this number of bytes. When a response has to be truncated, the result field in the CTP response will contain the non-fatal error code: ctpWarnTruncated.
  • the part parameter is used along with the maxResponse parameter to enable the wireless client 405 to request portions of a response that were previously truncated. Normally it is set to 0 to fetch the beginning of a response. If a wireless client 405 sets the truncation size to 1024 bytes (by setting the maxResponse field to j), it could fetch the second 1024 bytes of the response by setting the part field to 1.
  • the screenDepth parameter contains the bit depth of the wireless client 405 screen 101 and is used by the proxy server 180 to determine the maximum bit-depth to render images at.
  • the contentWidth parameter contains the rough window width of the wireless client 405 and can be used by the proxy server 180 for formatting of the return content data.
  • the default value of this parameter is zero, which yields a window width of 160.
  • the maximum granularity of this field is 16 pixels at a time, so the actual width of the wireless client 405 window may be smaller than the specified size.
  • the docAddr field specifies the document address (URL) to fetch. This field is of type documentAddr and was described above.
  • the extensions field is used to specify seldom used options.
  • This variable length field is used to indicate changes to the default behavior, such as inclusion or exclusion of images, authentication and encryption options, etc.
  • CtpExtUserName 131 followeded by length byte and a 0 terminated 8-bit ascii user name string. Must be specified if checking for new mail over a wireline network.
  • ctpExtServer 132 followeded by a length byte of 1 and 8 bits (1 byte) of server behavior flags.
  • ctpExtConverTo 133 followsed by length byte of 1 and a 1 byte conversion identifier ctpConvXXX. If not present then ctpConvCML is assumed.
  • the response will include the ctpRspExtContenType and ctpRspExtContentEncoding extensions indicates data missing or illegible when filed
  • the 6 byte checkNewMailID tells the proxy server 180 whether or not to check for new mail along with fetching the given web resource. If this ID is 0, new mail is not checked. If this ID is 1, then the proxy server 180 will check for any new mail that has arrived since the last successful mail read operation. If this ID is greater than 1, then it indicates a mail message ID and the proxy will check for any new mail that has arrived after that given mail message.
  • the user name can be determined from a corresponding wireless packet data unique address number which is part of the wireless network protocol headers. Consequently, when a user to sends requests over the wireless network, the user does not have to include their user name in the extensions area of the CTP request. However, when using wireline networks, the user includes their user name in the CTP request itself using the ctpExtUserName extension since the wireless network is bypassed and the wireless network protocol header is not available. If a request is sent with a non-zero checkNewMailID over the wireline network without a ctpExtUserName present, the checkNewMailID is treated as if it were 0.
  • the post field is generally set when submitting standalone forms designed for the HTTP POST method.
  • the post data is generally included in the data portion of the CTP request and the number of bytes of data included should be set in the dataSize field. Note that the post field only needs to be used for standalone forms.
  • Server dependent forms are submitted in the same manner to the proxy server 180 (through the “?*” sequence in the URL) for both GET and POST methods.
  • CTPRspCommon UIntV responseSize UIntV result
  • CTPRspURLData Bit hasDocAddr // true if docAddr included if (hasDocAddr) DocumentAddr docAddr // the URL of the return document Bit hasExtensions // true if extensions present if (hasExtensions) Extensions extensions // optional extensions Bit[...] cmlContent // content in CML format.
  • the entire response, including the common fields has the following structure:
  • the hasDocAddr bit will be set if the document address is included in the response.
  • the proxy server 180 will generally include the docAddr only if the document was requested using a hot link index relative to another URL.
  • Extensions bit will be set if extension data is included in the response. Extension data could include things like expiration date of the content, security info, etc.
  • the content itself follows the extension data.
  • the content is returned in CML format and can be any number of bytes long.
  • the following is a response to a request to fetch the 4th hot link on the USR home page.
  • this response is 403 bytes long. Of that, 83 bits (approximately 10 bytes) is part of the response header and roughly 393 bytes is the content itself.
  • This command will cause the proxy server 180 to echo back the data included in the CTP request
  • CTPReqCommoncommon // command field ctpCmdEcho (2) CTPEchoParams params // request params.
  • the dataSize parameter indicates the size of the data in bytes that immediately follows the CTPEchoParams structure.
  • UIntV headerVersion 0
  • UIntV contentVersion 0
  • Bit encrypted 0
  • UIntV dataSize 5 Bit[..] padding // 0 to 7 bits Byte[5] “Hello”
  • This command will cause the proxy server 180 to return the requested number of pre-initialized bytes of data.
  • the first byte in the response data will have the value 0 and all other bytes will be incremented by 1.
  • CTPReqCommon common // command field ctpCmdMsgGen (3) CTPMsgGenParams params // request params.
  • CTPMsgGenParams UIntV dataSize // # of requested bytes of data.
  • the dataSize parameter indicates the size of the data in bytes that will be returned by the proxy server 180 .
  • the following is a request to return 10 bytes from the proxy server 180 :
  • UIntV headerVersion 0
  • UIntV contentVersion 0
  • Bit encrypted 0
  • UIntV dataSize 5 Bit[..] padding // 0 to 7 bits of padding
  • This command will cause the proxy server 180 to return a simple response with no data.
  • CTPReqCommon common // command field ctpCmdDiscard (4) CTPDiscardParams params // request params.
  • the dataSize parameter indicates the size of the data in bytes that immediately follow the CTP request header.
  • the following is a request to return discard 5 bytes to the proxy server 180 :
  • UIntV headerVersion 0
  • UIntV dataSize 5 Bit[..] padding // 0 to 7 bits of padding Byte[5] 0,0,0,0,0
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method for requesting a hyperlink document.
  • the method uses hot link indices to compress a request message sent from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the request is for access to a hyperlink document that is in a base document.
  • the hyperlink document is indicated by a hyperlink in a base document.
  • the method for requesting the hyperlink document comprises sending a compact representation of the hyperlink document to a proxy server 180 .
  • the compact representation of the hyperlink document comprises a base document uniform resource locator followed by a compact representation of the hyperlink and a compact representation of a hash value corresponding to the hyperlink.
  • the representations of the hyperlink document and the hash value are in CML.
  • the compact representation of the hyperlink comprises a character sequence indication of an indirect hyperlink followed by a hyperlink index.
  • the hyperlink index is one or more letters in a base 26 number system.
  • the hash value is represented by one or more letters in a base 26 number system.
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method of receiving a compressed hyperlink request represented by a hyperlink tag.
  • the hyperlink tag comprises a compact place holder for a hyperlink and the hyperlink is in a hyperlink document.
  • the method of receiving comprises submitting a compressed representation of a URL, indicating tag representation of the hyperlink, and determining whether the hyperlink tag corresponds to a hyperlink document version used by the proxy server 180 .
  • the compressed representation of the URL comprises the hyperlink tag and a wireless client 405 hash value corresponding to the hyperlink.
  • Tag representation of the hyperlink is indicated by placing a first character string before the hyperlink tag.
  • the proxy server 180 determines whether the hyperlink tag corresponds to a hyperlink document version used by the proxy server 180 by comparing the wireless client 405 hash value with a proxy server 180 hash value.
  • a typical web document has numerous hot links that can be clicked on to bring the user to another document on the web, or to another scroll position within the same document.
  • Each hot link especially the ones that bring the user to another document on the web, can easily take up 100 bytes or more in the web document.
  • the proxy server 180 tells the wireless client 405 where the hot links should appear in the base document on the screen 101 , but leave out the actual web addresses of the hot links.
  • the wireless client 405 tells the proxy server 180 the index corresponding to the pressed hot link.
  • the proxy server 180 determines which document to fetch by looking up the link information for the pressed hot link from the base HTML document. Using this hot link indices approach, the user is not able to view the URL of a hotlink before activating the hotlink.
  • the proxy server 180 determines which information to retrieve, the proxy server 180 knows the name of the base document as well as the hot link index. Because the proxy server 180 design is stateless, the wireless client 405 includes the base document address as well as the hot link index in the request. When the requested content is returned to the wireless client 405 , the actual web address of the new content will be returned as well, allowing the wireless client 405 to follow subsequent hot links. This is an area where maximum compression of data is traded off for the increased reliability of a stateless server design. Both the requests and the responses include a document address. Document addresses are highly compressed to minimize the number of packets required to complete a transaction.
  • documents that are sent wirelessly to the wireless communications device 100 do not include URLs for each hyperlink. Instead, the formatted documents include tags that are placeholders for each hyperlink in the document. Consequently, when the user clicks on a hyperlink, the browser 104 cannot simply ask the proxy server 180 for that hyperlinked document directly. Instead, the browser 104 tells the proxy server 180 to fetch the n′th hyperlink of the current document (the browser 104 knows the URL of the current document). For example, if the user clicks on the 4 th hyperlink in the document “www.3com.com/palm.html”, the browser 104 sends a request to the proxy server 180 to return the document referenced by the 4 th hyperlink in the base URL “www.3com.com/palm.htm”. In order to process this request, the proxy server 180 fetches the base document, looks up the URL of the 4 th hyperlink in that document, fetches the document corresponding to the 4 th hyperlink, and returns it to the wireless client 405 .
  • This form of hyperlinking is called indirect hyperlinking and in one embodiment of the invention is indicated in a URL by a pound sign (#) sign followed by an asterisk (*).
  • a pound sign followed by a section name is the Internet standard method of indicating a particular section in a document to go to.
  • the wireless communications device 100 builds upon this metaphor by defining #* as an indirect hyperlink to go to.
  • the text following the #* sequence indicates the index of the indirect hyperlink to follow.
  • the following URL tells the proxy server 180 to return the document referenced in the 1 st hyperlink of the document www.3com.com/palm.htm.
  • the ‘#*’ sequence indicates an indirect hyperlink and the ‘a’ following it indicates the hyperlink index.
  • the hyperlink indices are represented by one or more lower case letters using a base 26 number system.
  • the first hyperlink is represented by the letter ‘a’, the second by the letter ‘b’, the 27 th by the sequence ‘ba’, the 28 th by the sequence ‘bb’, etc.
  • the character ‘*’ is not normally considered an unsafe or reserved character in URLs. But, because of its special significance in the browser 104 and proxy server 180 , it is escaped (using the sequence % 2 a ) if being sent as a normal text character in a path name, variable name, or any other portion of a URL.
  • server dependent forms are much smaller than standard forms because information is generally not included in the form that can be provided by the proxy server 180 .
  • the forms When forms are sent wirelessly to the wireless communications device 100 , the forms will normally be sent as server dependent forms in order to save wireless network bandwidth.
  • the compact markup language and compact transfer protocol techniques are also applied to forms that are not server dependent forms. But, the number of packets to transmit these forms would be substantially greater than for a server dependent form.
  • a server dependent form contains a list of input fields for the form and corresponding field types (radio button, checkbox, etc.).
  • the server dependent form does not contain the field names or selection values for each field in the form.
  • the wireless client 405 With the field type information, the wireless client 405 is able collect the necessary input values from the user for each field in the form.
  • the wireless client 405 does not have all the information required for actually submitting the form request to a CGI script.
  • the proxy server 180 comes in combines the input information obtained from the wireless client 405 along with information from the original HTML form (which has all the field names and selection values) in order to format the request according to the CGI script.
  • the wireless client 405 When the wireless client 405 needs to submit a server dependent form, the wireless client 405 transmits only the index of each field in the form and its user input value (true/false for checkboxes and radio buttons, typed in text for input items) to the proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 looks up the actual field names and values from original HTML form, formats a standard form submittal request from that information, sends the request to the CGI script on the web server, and forwards the appropriately formatted response back to the wireless client 405 .
  • the server dependent form submittal process requires that the original HTML form be available to the proxy server 180 when the form is submitted. For forms that were recently sent down to the wireless client 405 wirelessly, this is not a serious restriction since the form has been obtained from the Internet in the first place.
  • the form availability to the proxy server 180 restriction could be a problem however for forms that are pre-loaded into the wireless communications device 100 ROM or installed using HotSync. Therefore, forms designed to be pre-loaded into the wireless communications device 100 are built as standard forms and contain all of the field names and selection values in them. Since they will generally be loaded onto the wireless communications device 100 using non-wireless means, the bigger size of these forms is acceptable.
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method for transmitting a first message in packets of data to the proxy server 180 .
  • the first message corresponds to a hypertext document and can be a request message submitted from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the hypertext document has fields.
  • the method for transmitting the message comprises submitting compressed representations of data corresponding to the fields to wireless client 405 processing resources, and transmitting the compressed representations in packets of data from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the compressed representations are formatted according to a compact transport protocol.
  • the fields comprise input fields, control fields, and select fields.
  • the control fields comprise radio buttons and check boxes.
  • the input fields use text input.
  • the radio buttons and check boxes use toggle on indications of activation by the sending wireless client 405 .
  • Select fields use toggle on indications of selection by the sending wireless client 405 .
  • the compressed representations comprise CTP representations of text and name attributes corresponding to input fields and CTP representations of values and value attributes corresponding to control fields and select fields.
  • the CTP representations are temporary formats representing data for transfer between wireless client 405 processing resources and proxy server 180 processing resources.
  • Normal forms on the wireless communications device 100 have nearly as much information as standard HTML forms, including name and value attributes for each of the fields, but are still encoded using CML and hence are much more compact than their HTML equivalents. Normal forms are larger than server dependent forms and are usually only loaded onto the wireless communications device 100 using HotSync or other wireline means, or are built into the ROM itself.
  • a normal form in CML format is indicated through a “1” in the standalone attribute bit of the form tag.
  • a “1” in the standalone field indicates the presence of two more attributes in the form: a post attribute and an action attribute.
  • the post attribute is “1” for forms that are submitted using the HTTP POST method and 0 for forms that are submitted through an HTTP GET method.
  • the action attribute is the URL of the CGI-script on the web server that processes the form input.
  • the URL for submitting a normal CML form is identical to that used for submitting an HTML form. For this example, it would be:
  • field names and values are sent as-is in the URL.
  • any forms designed to be installed onto the wireless communications device 100 as normal forms should be written such that the field names and values are as short as possible and defined with lower case letters (which can be encoded with just 5 bits each) in order to conserve as much network bandwidth as possible when the form is submitted.
  • the wireless client 405 sets the post bit in the CTP request structure, set the dataSize field appropriately, and include the form submission data in the data portion of the CTP request.
  • the hypertext document comprises a server dependent form.
  • An index is used to identify which server dependent form is used by the wireless client 405 .
  • the server dependent form can include field input types and initial default values for the input fields.
  • the server dependent form is selected from a plurality of server dependent forms.
  • Input field types comprise input fields, select fields, and control fields.
  • Compressed text representations are provided by the wireless client 405 for input fields.
  • Compressed text representations are also provided by the wireless client 405 for control fields that have values different than the corresponding server form default value, and select fields that have been selected. Control fields that have the corresponding server dependent form default values are omitted from the first message sent to the proxy server 180 . Select fields that have not been selected are also omitted from the first message.
  • Server dependent forms are basically forms that are missing field names and selection values in order to make them as small as possible.
  • the only information present in a server dependent form is the field input types (radio button, checkbox, etc.) and the initial default values.
  • the client When a server dependent form is submitted by the wireless client 405 , the client sends the inputted values of each field up to the proxy server 180 along with the field index. It is then up to the proxy server 180 to fetch the original HTML form from the Internet, lookup the actual field names and selection values for each of the fields in the form, and send a standard form submittal to the CGI script on the server.
  • the form parameter information indicates that the name field was filled in with the text “deb” and the radio button with a name attribute of “sex” and a value attribute of “f” was selected and that the submit button with a value of “1week” was pressed.
  • An HTML representation of a form called “http://www.server.com/forms/myform.html”) is:
  • Char endForm endTag
  • the wireless client 405 sends the following URL to the proxy server 180 :
  • the first “a” is the form index (obtained from the formIndex attribute of the tagForm tag) the next “a” is the index of the first field in the form (using the base 26 number system introduced above in the Encoding Indirect Hyperlinks section).
  • the next item in the list is the inputted value corresponding to the first field, “deb”.
  • the “c” is the index of the third field in the form and because the third field is a simple radio control, it does not have an associated value.
  • the “e” is the index of the submit button that was pressed (e.g., the button with the value of “1 week”). The submit button index is included even if the form only has 1 submit button. Also, between each of the field entries in the parameter list is a ‘/’ character.
  • the base URL is the URL of the document that contains the form itself.
  • fieldIndex is the base 26 index of the field
  • fieldValue is only included for text line or text area fields.
  • the ⁇ select> element is treated conceptually as a set of checkboxes—each ⁇ option> in the select element gets its own field index. For example, in a form that had a single radio button followed by a 3 item select element, the three items in the select element would be identified by the field indices ‘b’, ‘c’, and ‘d’. The next field in the form after the select element would have the index ‘e’.
  • Security support for the wireless communication system is implemented at the transfer layer.
  • Implementing security at the transfer layer provides encryption of the actual request parameters, i.e., the requested uniform resource locator (URL), thereby hiding the request parameters from prying eyes.
  • the common request header field corresponding to the transfer layer is a convenient place to include security parameters.
  • the encrypted bit is set in the common fields of the request header and is immediately followed by an encryption scheme field and encryption scheme specific parameters. In some embodiments, everything in the request message after the encryption scheme parameters is encrypted, including the actual request parameters.
  • the following is an example of an encrypted request according to one embodiment of the invention:
  • the security provided for sensitive wireless communications satisfies a number of requirements in order to gain trust for use in consumer commerce (i.e., transmitting credit card information) and private corporate communications (i.e., sending confidential sales forecasts, product plans, etc.).
  • the wireless communications system provides a level of security equal to, and in some circumstances better than, that provided by the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol widely used by Internet 190 browsers and servers.
  • SSL Secure Sockets Layer
  • the SSL protocol is the most common security protocol used by web browsers and servers, and is generally believed to provide a satisfactory level of protection for confidential information and transactions.
  • SSL defines a protocol that is used to negotiate the encryption algorithms.
  • the SSL protocol supports a number of different encryption algorithms of varying strengths. Nonetheless, most SSL implementations have settled on one of two different algorithms commonly known as 128-bit (for domestic use) and 40-bit (for export).
  • SSL is a very chatty protocol that requires multiple messages per request. Therefore, SSL is not well adapted for networks characterized by very high latency and low bandwidth, such as the wireless packet data network.
  • the wireless client 405 will instead uses its own secure communications protocol.
  • the wireless client 405 security protocol uses encryption algorithms that are equivalent in strength to those used by “128-bit” SSL implementations.
  • An ideal secure protocol has the following properties:
  • the wireless communications system provides full confidentiality, proxy server 180 authentication, and integrity. However, the wireless communications system provides neither wireless client 405 authentication, nor nonrepudiation. Some level of wireless client 405 authentication and nonrepudiation is provided by the application layer. When the wireless client 405 is forced to enter a password when submitting a form using a browser 104 , a reasonable measure of wireless client 405 authentication is provided. Because, the wireless client 405 password should be private, the wireless client 405 can not claim that someone else other than the wireless client 405 sent the message.
  • the security protocol used in the wireless client 405 is optimized for use over wireless networks. As such, the security protocol is designed to minimize the number of transactions, or messages, sent between the wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 . The number of messages is minimized to avoid exacerbating the latency problem inherent in wireless packet data networks. Latency is generally the most critical wireless packet data network performance bottleneck.
  • One security scheme implemented on the wireless client 405 (scheme #0) can perform a secure transaction with just a single request message sent from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 ; and a single response message returned from the proxy server 180 to the wireless client 405 . Each message comprises at least one packet of data.
  • the messages provide the basis of a transaction where the transaction comprises response messages and request messages exchanged between a wireless client 405 and a proxy server 180 . Because of the extra parameters required for encrypted data, it is less likely that secure messages will fit in a single packet, but sending multiple packet messages has less of an impact on performance than performing multiple transactions (or sending multiple messages in either direction).
  • Each secure transaction i.e. submitting a form, and getting a response
  • steps including generating a new random data encryption key.
  • the wireless client 405 generates a new 128 bit data encryption key (DEK) using the following algorithm:
  • DEK MD 5( SHA (penStrokeQueue+hardwareTimerRegister+tickCount+timeInSeconds+lowMemoryChecksum))
  • MD5 is the MD5 message digest function that accepts an arbitrary length string of bytes and outputs a 128-bit hash of the input.
  • the secure hash algorithm (SHA) accepts an arbitrary length string of bytes and outputs a 160-bit hash of the input.
  • the ‘+’ signs in the above equation represent concatenation, not addition.
  • a random number generator uses input from a pen stroke queue. The pen stroke queue depends on user interaction with the pen in order to be as completely unpredictable as possible when generating the DEK. Both the MD5 and SHA functions are used in order to minimize the impact of a weakness in either one of these hash functions.
  • the wireless client 405 encrypts the DEK using the stored public key of the proxy server 180 [ E SPUB ( DEK )].
  • the wireless client 405 By encrypting the DEK using the public key of the proxy server 180 , the wireless client 405 insures that only the proxy server 180 (using its private key) will be able to recover the DEK.
  • The'DEK is randomly generated (see step number one above) because public/private key encryption algorithms are particularly susceptible to known-plain text attacks and hence should only be used to encrypt random data. Examples of public/private key algorithms that can be used for the communications system encryption scheme include EIG amal and E lliptic C urves. 3.
  • the wireless client 405 forms a 128 bit message integrity check (MIC) using the following algorithm:
  • the ctpReqParams is the CTP request parameters block that would normally follow the CTP common request header fields in an unencrypted request (as described above in the CTP Requests and CTP Commands sections).
  • the dateTime is the current time (32-bit value) on the wireless client 405 measured in seconds since a given reference time (such as 12:00 am on Jan. 1, 1997) and matches the dateTime field included in the encryption parameters area of the request. Both the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 know the reference time.
  • the serverID is the proxy server 32-bit network address. The serverID comprises a byte of zeroes followed by a 24-bit unique proxy server 180 account number when using the wireless packet data network, or a 32-bit IP address when using the Internet 190 . In either case, the serverID used to create the MIC must match the serverID field included in the encryption parameters area of the request.
  • the proxy server 180 uses the timeOfDay and serverID fields to detect and ignore replay attacks (i.e., where an attacker sends a copy of a request that was generated earlier by a valid wireless client 405 ).
  • the wireless client 405 encrypts the MIC via a symmetric encryption algorithm, such as triple-DES, using the DEK generated in step number 1.
  • the wireless client 405 encrypts the CTP request parameters via a symmetric encryption algorithm using the DEK generated in step number one.
  • the wireless client 405 sends entire request, including encryption parameters, timeOfDay, serverID, encrypted DEK, encrypted MIC, and encrypted hCTP request parameters to the proxy server 180 :
  • serverID does not match the ID of the proxy server 180 , the request is thrown out. If the dateTime is more than 24 hours away from the current date and time, the request is thrown away. If the dateTime is less than or equal to the last encrypted request received from this wireless client 405 , the request is thrown out and the event is logged as an attempted security breach.
  • the dateTime checks insure against a replay attack to the same proxy server 180 , allowing a 24 hour slack for differences in time zones.
  • the serverID check insures that a request sent to one proxy server 180 can not be copied and replayed back to another proxy server 180 . If the request is invalid, an error response is returned to the wireless client 405 explaining the reason for the rejection.
  • a request can also be rejected if the public key for the proxy server 180 (identified by the serverPublicKeyID field) is no longer valid.
  • the proxy server 180 administrator may choose to no longer recognize a public key if the corresponding private key has been compromised. In this case, the proxy server 180 will throw out the request and send back an error response message to the wireless client 405 containing a new public key and key ID. When this happens (very rarely, if ever) a dialog will appear on the wireless client 405 screen 101 asking if the wireless client 405 wants to accept the new public key. If the user accepts the new public key, the original request must be re-submitted using the new public key.
  • the response that the proxy server 180 returns when the server private key has been changes has the following structure:
  • UIntV responseSize UIntV result invalidPublicKey
  • UInt8 encPublicKeyInfo[ ] where encPublicKeyInfo is the following structure encrypted using the DEK from the request message:
  • UInt32 serverPublicKeyID UInt8 serverPublicKey[ . . . ] and newPublicKeyMIC is the following:
  • the proxy server 180 recovers the DEK by running encDEK through the public/private key decryption algorithm using the proxy server 180 stored private key. 9. The proxy server 180 recovers the MIC by running encMIC through the symmetric decryption algorithm using the DEK as the key. 10. The proxy server 180 recovers ctpReqParams by running encCTPReqParams through the symmetric decryption algorithm using the DEK as the key. 11. The proxy server 180 computes the MIC from ctpReqParams, dateTime, and serverID using same algorithm the wireless client 405 used in step number 3 and compares the computed MIC to the MIC recovered in step number 9 .
  • the proxy server 180 processes the request and forms an unencrypted response, ctpRspData. 13.
  • the proxy server 180 computes the MIC for the response and encrypts the response MIC and the response data using the symmetric encryption algorithm with the DEK supplied by the wireless client 405 .
  • the secure communications methods uses symmetric encryption.
  • the proxy server 180 sends the response back to wireless client 405 :
  • UIntV responseSize UIntV result UInt8 encMICrsp[16] UInt8 encCTPRspData[ . . . ] 15.
  • the wireless client 405 receives the encrypted response, decodes the MIC and CTPRspData using the saved DEK for this transaction, and verifies the MIC.
  • Some embodiments of the invention comprise a method for securely transmitting a message from a wireless client 405 .
  • the method for securely transmitting comprises encrypting a data encryption key, encrypting the message using the data encryption key, and transmitting the encrypted message to the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client encrypts the data encryption key using a proxy server 180 public key to form the encrypted data encryption key.
  • the data encryption key corresponds to a specific transaction between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client encrypts the message using the data encryption key to form an encrypted message.
  • the wireless client 405 transmits the encrypted message to the proxy server.
  • the encrypted message comprises at least one packet of data. In some embodiments, each packet of data is formatted according to a compact transfer protocol.
  • the method prior to encrypting the data encryption key, further comprises the step of generating the data encryption key.
  • the data encryption key is generated by the wireless client 405 for a specific transaction between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • Generating the data encryption key comprises applying a secure hash to a first input to form a first multibit hash, and applying a message digest function to the first multibit hash to form the data encryption key.
  • the first input comprises a concatenation of an output from a random number generator and at least one other character string.
  • the message comprises a request message corresponding to a hypertext document.
  • the encrypted request message further comprises encrypted request parameters, an encrypted bit, an encryption scheme identifier, a proxy server public key identifier, a proxy server identifier, a wireless client generated indication of current date and time, an encrypted request message integrity check, and the encrypted data encryption key.
  • the encrypted request parameters are created from request parameters using the data encryption key.
  • the request parameters comprise compressed representations of data corresponding to fields in the hypertext document.
  • the compressed representations are formatted according to a compact transfer protocol.
  • the encrypted request message integrity check is encrypted using the data encryption key.
  • the method for securely transmitting the message from the wireless client further comprises validating the encrypted request message after transmitting the encrypted request message.
  • Validating comprises comparing the wireless client generated indication of current date and time with a proxy server indication of current date and time. If the difference in these times is greater than a predetermined value (such as twenty-four hours), the proxy server 180 throws away the encrypted request message. If the difference in these times is smaller than the predetermined value, the proxy server 180 processes the encrypted request message and forms a response message.
  • the proxy server 180 returns wireless client 405 generated indications of current date and time corresponding to each encrypted message received by the proxy server from the wireless client 405 prior to the wireless client 405 transmitting the encrypted request for a predetermined time.
  • the method for securely transmitting the message from the wireless client 405 further comprises validating the encrypted single request message after transmitting the encrypted request message.
  • Validating the encrypted request message comprises determining whether the wireless client 405 generated indication of current date and time submitted with the encrypted request message is less than or equal to any of the retained wireless client generated indications of current date and time. If the wireless client generated indication of current date and time submitted with the encrypted request message is less than or equal to any of the retained wireless client generated indications of current date and time, the proxy server throws away the encrypted request message. If the wireless client 405 generated indication of current date and time for the request message is greater than all of the retained wireless client 405 generated indications of current data and time, the proxy server 180 processes the encrypted request message and forms a response message.
  • the specific transaction comprises a single request message and each packet of data is less than one kilobyte.
  • Some embodiments of the invention comprise a method for securely transmitting a message from a proxy server 180 to a wireless client 405 .
  • the method for securely transmitting comprises the following steps.
  • the wireless client 405 encrypting a data encryption key using a proxy server public key to form an encrypted data encryption key.
  • the proxy server receiving the encrypted data encryption key.
  • the proxy server recovering the data encryption key.
  • the proxy server encrypting the message using the data encryption key.
  • the proxy server transmits the encrypted message to the wireless client.
  • the data encryption key corresponds to a specific transaction between the proxy server and the wireless client.
  • the proxy server recovers the data encryption key by decrypting the encrypted data encryption key using the proxy server private key.
  • the proxy server encrypts the message using the data encryption key to form an encrypted message.
  • the encrypted message comprises at least one packet of data.
  • the message comprises compressed data in a compact markup language.
  • the specific transaction comprises a single response message, and each packet of data is less than one kil
  • the method for securely transmitting a message from the proxy server 180 further comprises the following steps prior to recovering the data encryption key.
  • the proxy server 180 receives an encrypted request message comprising encrypted request parameters, a wireless client 405 generated indication of current data and time, and a proxy server 180 identifier.
  • the proxy server 180 receives an encrypted wireless client 405 generated request message integrity check.
  • the encrypted request parameters are formed by encrypting request parameters using the data encryption key.
  • the encrypted request message integrity check is formed by encrypting a wireless client generated request message integrity check using the data encryption key.
  • the client generated request message integrity check is formed from a concatenation of the request message parameters, the wireless client generated indication of current data and time, and the proxy server identifier.
  • the message transmitted from the proxy server 180 to the wireless client 405 comprises a response message.
  • the method for securely transmitting a message from the proxy server further comprises the following steps before the transmitting step.
  • the proxy server computing a response message integrity check.
  • the proxy server encrypting the response message integrity Check using the data encryption key to form an encrypted response message integrity check.
  • the encrypted response message further comprises the encrypted response message integrity check.
  • the system for secure communications comprises a source of data, a wireless client 405 , and a proxy server 180 .
  • the source of data comprises means for transmitting HTML messages to the proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 comprises means for exchanging encrypted messages with the proxy server 180 .
  • the encrypted messages comprise encrypted request messages and encrypted response messages. Each encrypted message comprises at least one packet of data.
  • Each encrypted request message comprises encrypted request parameters and an encrypted data encryption key.
  • the request parameters corresponding to fields in a hypertext document.
  • the proxy server 180 is in communication with the wireless client 405 and the source of data.
  • the proxy server 180 comprises means for exchanging encrypted messages with the wireless client, means for fetching HTML messages from the source of data, and means for recovering the data encryption key.
  • the strength of the wireless communications system security is roughly equivalent to that provided by 128-bit versions of SSL. However, there are possible attacks and this section provides an overview of the possible attacks and counter measures employed to prevent them.
  • Attackers can be broadly classified into one of two categories: passive and active. Passive attackers are eavesdroppers who can listen in on a conversation and glean useful information from either one of the parties but otherwise do not take an active part in the conversation. Active attackers can actually take part in the conversation by impersonating one of the parties by modifying messages sent between the two parties, or by interjecting extra messages into the conversation.
  • Wireless networks are considered particularly susceptible to passive attacks because all that is required is a radio receiver, and there is nearly zero-chance of being detected. Active attacks on the other hand are easier to detect since most wireless networks have mechanisms for detecting and shutting down invalid transmitters (through Electronic Serial Numbers).
  • the wireless communication system resistance to passive attack is provided through a combination of encryption algorithms.
  • the wireless communication system uses two encryption techniques: public key (public/private) and symmetric.
  • Public key encryption is used to send a symmetric encryption key from the wireless client 405 to proxy server 180 and symmetric encryption is used to encrypt the actual message data. This combined approach leverages the strengths of the two encryption techniques while providing maximum security.
  • Public key encryption has the unique quality that data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. This is ideal for wireless communications system because the proxy server 180 private key can remain secret on the proxy server 180 and each wireless client 405 only needs the proxy server 180 public key. Therefore, any of the wireless clients 405 can encrypt data for transmittal to the proxy server 180 . No one (including the sender) other than the proxy server 180 can decrypt the data once the data has been encrypted.
  • public key algorithms are much (i.e., orders of magnitude) slower than symmetric algorithms and are particularly susceptible to chosen plaintext attacks.
  • the chosen plaintext attacks are conducted by a malicious party who selects chosen data to be encrypted with the private key. The malicious party is then able to deduce the private key from the resulting cyphertext.
  • the message data is encrypted using a symmetric algorithm and the slower public key algorithm is only used to encrypt the symmetric key.
  • the symmetric data encryption key (DEK) is randomly generated so that chosen plaintext attacks can not be mounted.
  • the wireless communication systems resistance to active attack is provided by inclusion of the message integrity check (MIC), dateTime stamp, and proxy server 180 ID fields.
  • MIC message integrity check
  • dateTime stamp dateTime stamp
  • proxy server 180 ID fields The combination of these elements insures that an active attacker will not be able to modify, or replay a message without being detected. If any portion of the message data is modified, the MIC will be invalid. Furthermore, because the MIC is encrypted, the MIC can not be re-generated by an active attacker without knowledge of the DEK or the proxy server ( 180 ) private key.
  • the proxy server 180 keeps a record of the last dateTime stamp received from each wireless client 405 within the last 24 hours. If a duplicate dateTime stamp is detected by the proxy server 180 , the proxy server rejects the request by the attacker. The proxy server 180 also performs a bounds check on the dateTime stamp and rejects the request if the dateTime stamp is off by more than 24 hours in either direction. Thereby, the proxy server 180 can safely dispose wireless client 405 dateTime stamps once the dateTime stamps become more than 24 hours old.
  • the serverID stamp is included to foil replay attacks to a different proxy server 180 . If an attacker tries to replay a request sent to proxy server A by sending it to proxy server B, proxy server B will reject the request since the serverID will not match.
  • Another possible attack is for someone to impersonate the base station 170 and proxy server 180 .
  • the attacking rogue server would attempt to force the wireless client 405 to accept a new public key as part of the public key rejection mechanism outlined above in step number 7 above.
  • the rogue server In order for this attack to be successful, however, the rogue server must know the private key of the real proxy server 180 . Furthermore, the rogue server must be able to receive and transmit messages using the unique identification number of the real proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 software asks user permission through a dialog before accepting a new public key from the proxy server 180 .
  • a proxy server 180 public key is changed so that “legal” changes to the proxy server 180 public key do not come as a surprise to a user. Because the user knows of any legal change to the proxy server 180 public key before the change is made, base station 170 and proxy server 180 impersonation attacks can be defeated by user denial of permission to use new public keys that are not accompanied by appropriate user notification.
  • wireless network e.g., wireline e-mail, or hard copy delivery
  • Algorithms that provide adequate protection using the wireless communications system encryption scheme include ElGamal or Elliptic Curve for the public key algorithm, and 3-way or Triple-DES for the symmetric algorithm. These algorithms are attractive because they provide high levels of security.
  • the proxy server(s) 180 are located in a secure site. Because the proxy server 180 decrypts data before using SSL to transfer it to the content server, the unencrypted content reside in the proxy server 180 memory for short periods of time.
  • proxy sewer 180 private key is kept under complete confidence.
  • the unencrypted private key never appears on paper or in electronic form, but rather is encrypted using a sufficiently long pass phrase that must be entered by a proxy server 180 administrator at run-time.
  • the reliable message layer 635 provides reliable, efficient delivery of arbitrary length messages over both wireline and wireless networks.
  • the protocol it uses over wireless links is called the reliable message protocol (RMP).
  • RMP reliable message protocol
  • the reliable message layer 635 is situated below the transfer layer and above the network layer.
  • the network layer is the layer responsible for sending packets over the network.
  • the network layer is the wireless communications device 100 operating system 102 network library (also referred to as NetLib, and shown as Net Library, reference number 1110 in FIG. 11 ).
  • the reliable message layer 635 When operating over a wireline network, the reliable message layer 635 will uses the TCP Internet protocol. TCP provides guaranteed delivery of stream data and works well over networks that have relatively high bandwidth and low latency. By following a few simple usage rules that are described below, the TCP protocol is easily adapted to send discrete messages instead of stream data.
  • the reliable message layer 635 When operating over a wireless network, the reliable message layer 635 will instead use the RMP protocol.
  • RMP is used because TCP is not practical over high latency low bandwidth networks.
  • RMP is much more efficient than TCP and is optimized for use in an environment where small requests and responses are transferred between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • a message is simply a block of data that represents either a request from a wireless client 405 to a proxy server 180 , or a response from a proxy server 180 to a wireless client 405 .
  • These messages can in general be any size but the majority of them will be small enough to fit within a single wireless network packet.
  • RMP therefore provides a mechanism to identify packets in such a way that the receiving host can reconstruct the message as each packet arrives. Furthermore, the packets are not guaranteed to arrive in the same order they were sent out, so the receiving host is also prepared to re-order them.
  • wireless networks do not guarantee delivery of packets.
  • RMP provides a mechanism for re-transmission of packets that are not received by the remote host. This mechanism is adapted to minimize any unnecessary traffic over networks that have guaranteed delivery.
  • RMP is extremely efficient in its use of network bandwidth.
  • Wireless networks typically have a very high latency for every packet, no matter how small the packet size. For example, a one byte packet on a packet data network typically takes an average of 3 seconds just to travel from a remote wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 . To reduce overall latency then, most transactions should be accomplished with just one packet sent from wireless client 405 to proxy server 180 and just one packet returned. To reduce bandwidth, the header space used by RMP is minimal.
  • the following structure defines the format of the RMP header.
  • the notation used to represent the RMP header (shown in FIG. 7 as reference number 730 ) is the same notation used to document CML and CTP. This notation was introduced and described in the previous “Compact Data Structure Notation” section.
  • RMP Header Bit lastDg // set for last datagram in a // message UIntV dgIndex // index of datagram
  • the RMP header 730 has only two fields: a single bit that is set for the last datagram of a message, and a variable size integer specifying the datagram index.
  • the datagram index is zero for the first datagram in a message and increments by one for each subsequent datagram.
  • the maximum allowed index for a datagram is 65534 (0xFFFE).
  • RMP header 730 does not contain any fields specifying the packet length, the byte offset within the message that the packet represents, addressing information or port numbers. These fields are not required because RMP datagrams are sent using the Internet UDP protocol.
  • the IP header 710 and UDP header 720 present in a UDP packet provide the overall packet length, source and destination machine addresses, and source and destination port numbers.
  • RMP ensures that datagrams are small enough to fit within a single network packet, so a single RMP datagram will never be fragmented across 2 or more IP packets.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates an entire RMP Packet Structure 700 .
  • the IP header 710 and the UDP header 720 are typically transmitted over the wireless network in a highly compressed form since most of the information in these headers is redundant or unnecessary over the wireless link. When using a packet data wireless network, the IP header 710 and UDP header 720 are reduced from 28 to 3 bytes.
  • the “Wireless Network Interface” section below describes how the IP header 710 and UDP header 720 are compressed over the packet data wireless network.
  • RMP packets are sent using UDP, and because UDP packets are always an even number of bytes long, the total size of the RMP area (header+data) is an even number of bytes long. Since the RMP header 730 is not generally an even number of bytes long, anywhere from 0 to 7 pad bits (which are always 0 bits) are appended to the header before the start of the data area in order to place the start of the data area on an even byte boundary.
  • the actual messages (e.g., message fragment 740 ) that RMP transports are an even number of bytes long.
  • the box below illustrates the Data Area Padding and shows an example of a single packet request that has a 2 byte message in it. Notice that the header section is padded with 6 bits. This makes the entire RMP packet an integer number of bytes long (24 bits, or 3 bytes). If instead the RMP header 730 area had been 8, 16, or any other multiple of 8 bits long, then no padding bits would be inserted before the data area.
  • RMP When RMP is being used over a network that does not guarantee delivery of packets, RMP provides a mechanism for the re-transmission of lost packets. Most reliable protocol designs rely on acknowledgements from the remote host to indicate to the sender that a packet was properly received. Then, if an acknowledgement is not received within a specified timeout period, the packet is resent. This method is not used in RMP because it forces a minimum of three packets to be exchanged for a single transaction (request to proxy server 180 , response to wireless client 405 , acknowledgement of response to proxy server 180 ).
  • RMP will assume by default that packets are correctly delivered to the remote host.
  • the only time a packet will be re-transmitted is when an RMP re-transmit request is explicitly received from a remote host.
  • the only time that a remote host will even send a re-transmit request is if the remote host has not received all packets from a multi-packet message within a certain timeout period.
  • the reliable message layer 635 will simply return with a timeout error and the user or higher layer software will have to re-submit the request. If at least one packet of a multi-packet message is received before the timeout period however, the reliable message layer 635 will send a re-transmit request to the remote host and tell it which datagrams of the message need to be re-transmitted.
  • the following structure shows a re-transmit request:
  • the first two fields, last D g and dg I ndex are set to 1 and 0xFFFF respectively in order to identify this RMP packet as a re-transmit request.
  • the num S egments field indicates how many start D g and num D gs pairs follow. Each start D g/num D g pair indicates a range of packets that need to be re-transmitted. For example, a start D g of 2 and num D g of 3 indicates that datagrams 2, 3 and 4 need to be re-transmitted.
  • a num D gs value of 0xFFFF is a special case that indicates that all datagrams from start D g to the end of the message need to be re-transmitted. This special value is used because the host receiving the message does not know how big the entire message is until it receives the last packet in the message (the one with the lastDg bit set).
  • This protocol although very efficient in terms of network bandwidth, can place a significant burden on the sending host to implement, particularly the proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 saves the response data in a buffer somewhere just in case the wireless client 405 needs part of it re-transmitted. Only after the timeout period expires (which can be quite long for wireless networks—up to 60 seconds or more) can the proxy server 180 safely dispose of the response message and recover the memory used to hold it.
  • the reliable message protocol (RMP) protocol is described herein through examples.
  • the RMP protocol combined with the compact transport protocol and the compressed markup language provide the basis for packet minimized communications between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • One embodiment of the invention includes a method for completing a transaction between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the method comprises transmitting a single request message from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 , and transmitting a single response message from the proxy server 180 to the wireless client 405 .
  • the request message comprises packets of data.
  • Transmitting the request message comprises placing in the request message a base document uniform resource locator followed by compressed data.
  • the compressed data comprises field values and field indices corresponding to fields in a hyperlink document, and an indication of use of a hyperlink document. Field values and field indices correspond to fields in the hyperlink document. The number of packets is small and the size of each packet is small.
  • each response message packet is less than one kilobyte.
  • the base uniform resource locator can be expressed in CTP by a binary string.
  • the binary string includes a first field that indicates the encoding scheme used in the request message.
  • the binary string can also include a second field comprising a representation of a second segment of the base uniform resource locator (URL).
  • Lower case letters in the base URL and other selected text are represented by a multi-bit alphabet.
  • the alphabet has less than eight bits. Characters not represented by the multi-bit alphabet, are preceded by a multi-bit escape character.
  • the escape character indicates that text following the escape character is represented by a different scheme than the multi-bit alphabet. These alternate schemes can be eight bit ASCII representation or sixteen bit ASCII representation.
  • the simplest RMP case is where both the request and response messages are small enough to fit in one packet.
  • the wireless client 405 sends a single packet request 810 to the proxy server 180 . Because the entire request fits in the one packet, the lastDg bit is set in the single packet request RMP header 850 to indicate that the single packet is the last packet in the request message.
  • the single packet request 810 comprises an IP header 710 , a UDP header 720 , the single packet request RMP header 850 , and a request message fragment (RQMF) 820 .
  • the proxy server 180 then sends a single packet response 830 back to the wireless client 405 after processing the request. Because the entire response fits in one packet, the lastDg bit is set in the single packet response RMP header 860 .
  • the single packet response 830 comprises an IP header 710 , a UDP header 720 , the single packet response RMP header 860 , and a response message fragment (RSMF) 840 .
  • RSMF response message fragment
  • the RMP protocol is built on top of UDP.
  • Each one of the examples that follow shows a complete transaction from the client's point of view.
  • the wireless client 405 sends a single message request and receives a single message response.
  • the wireless client 405 uses the next available local UDP port number. This port number is sent to the proxy server 180 as part of the UDP header 720 information and tells the proxy server 180 to which port the response packets 830 are to be returned.
  • This port number is sent to the proxy server 180 as part of the UDP header 720 information and tells the proxy server 180 to which port the response packets 830 are to be returned.
  • the destination port of each UDP transaction is constant for very transaction, i.e., the pre-defined port number for the UDP socket on the proxy server 180 that is listening for requests.
  • FIG. 9 shows an example of a seven hundred byte response message that is too large to fit in one five hundred byte packet.
  • the proxy server 180 sends a two packet response back to the wireless client 405 where the first response packet 910 does not have the lastDg bit set in the first response packet RMP header 920 .
  • the second response packet 940 has the lastDg bit set in the second response packet RMP header 950 .
  • An interesting point to bring up here is that the RMP headers never indicate how many bytes of the message have already been sent, only the relative index of each packet. It is up to the receiver to determine the correct message byte offset of each packet by adding up the message fragment sizes from the previous packets.
  • FIG. 10 shows an example of a re-transmit packet being sent from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 sends a two packet response back to the wireless client 405 but the second packet gets lost.
  • the wireless client 405 after a timeout period, sends a re-transmit request 1010 back to the proxy server 180 .
  • the num D gs field in the re-transmit request 1010 is 0xFFFF indicating that every datagram from the start D g to the end of the message is missing.
  • the reliable message layer 635 uses the TCP Internet protocol instead of RMP to communicate with the proxy server 180 .
  • TCP provides acceptable performance over these networks because they have relatively low latency and high bandwidth. Performance issues aside, TCP is preferable over RMP because of its widespread use and implementation as an Internet standard.
  • the API to the reliable message layer 635 effectively hides the actual network and protocols used over the network Thus, the caller does not need to know whether RMP or TCP is being used to send messages to the remote host.
  • the reliable message layer 635 When TCP is being used on the wireless client 405 , the reliable message layer 635 simply opens up a TCP connection to a pre-defined port number on the proxy server 180 , and sends the actual message data.
  • the wireless client 405 shuts down the transmit side of the client's connection, causing the proxy server 180 to receive an end-of-file indication.
  • This end-of-file indication informs the proxy server 180 that the request message as ended.
  • the proxy server 180 sends the response back, it closes down the TCP connection and the wireless client 405 receives an end-of-file indication that the end of the response message has been transmitted.
  • a new TCP connection is established for every transaction, i.e., a request message sent from wireless client 405 to proxy server 180 and a response message back from the proxy server 180 .
  • a new unique local port number is assigned to the connection. This port number is used by TCP to keep track of connections—much like how RMP uses the UDP port number to keep track of its connections.
  • API Application Program Interface
  • the reliable message layer 635 provides access to the remote host through the RMP or TCP protocols.
  • the two hosts communicate using TCP, which is already built-in to nearly all desktop and server operating systems, as well as on the wireless communications device 100 operating system 102 .
  • the two hosts communicate using the reliable message protocol.
  • This protocol is unique to the wireless communications device 100 and therefore requires implementation on both the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the reliable message protocol will instead use the same Berkeley sockets API that's used for TCP and UDP. Berkeley sockets is the de-facto standard network API on most platforms.
  • the Reliable Message Protocol will be implemented as a new socket type to the network library.
  • the network library is shown in FIG. 11 as 1110 .
  • the network library 1110 provides a Berkeley sockets API for network IO on the wireless communications device 100 .
  • the network library 1110 can support three socket types: datagram sockets, stream sockets, and message sockets. Datagram sockets utilize the UDP protocol, stream sockets utilize the TCP protocol, and message sockets utilize the RMP protocol.
  • the reliable message layer 635 API is essentially the Berkeley sockets API. Once a socket of the appropriate type has been opened, all other calls for reading and writing data, etc. are the same for the three protocols. There are certain usage restrictions in the sockets API that are observed (see below), but these restrictions can be applied equally to the socket types.
  • the socket( ) call will tell the wireless network interface 510 to prepare the client radio 440 for a transaction.
  • Preparing the client radio 440 includes taking the client radio 440 out of low power mode, verifying signal strength, searching for a base station 170 if necessary, etc.
  • RMP would appear as a new socket type on both the wireless communications device 100 and the proxy server 180 platform.
  • new socket types can not be easily implemented on the proxy server 180 since this is usually not a part of the proxy server 180 operating system that can be extended by third party developers. So, a compromise will be made on the proxy server 180 side. Therefore, the RMP protocol is implemented as a layer on top of the built-in sockets API, but with more or less the same calling conventions and parameters as the sockets API.
  • the RMP protocol is incorporated into the network 1 library 1110 as a new socket type.
  • the network library 1110 is re-structured to allow for optional extensions, like RMP, that add new socket types or network types. This approach, although more involved than the approach taken on the proxy server 180 platform, pavesthe way for adding other socket types to network library 1110 in the future for features such as infra-red and non-IP network protocols.
  • RMP will be implemented as a layer of code on top of a TCP ( SOCK — STREAM ) socket.
  • This layer of code will have the same calling conventions as the standard sockets API and behave in the same manner.
  • Each of the calls in this layer will have the name RMP xxxxx where xxxxx is the name of the corresponding sockets API call.
  • RMP socket calls correspond to an equivalent sockets API call, except RMPR eady( ) which is used to implement select( ) functionality.
  • the select call is unique in that it provides blocking support for a set of different socket types at once—both RMP sockets and standard sockets. See the description below of S uper S elect( ) for details on how this functionality is implemented.
  • RMP socket calls are written to simply fall through to the standard sockets call if the socket descriptor is not for a RMP socket.
  • the S uper S elect( ) call is written such that it can be used in place of the standard select( ) call.
  • This call creates a new socket and returns the socket refnum. It will be implemented as follows:
  • socket( ) If the family and type of the socket are not the right values for a RMP socket, simply call socket( ) and return.
  • RMP socket structure pointer in a global array indexed by descriptor. This array is large enough to hold all possible descriptor values for the operating system since it is used by other RMP calls to determine if a given descriptor is for a RMP socket or a built-in socket. This global array is referred to as the descriptor array.
  • This call prepares a socket to accept incoming connection requests. It will be implemented as follows:
  • This call specifies a local IP address and port number for the socket. It will be implemented as follows:
  • This call specifies a remote IP address and port number for the socket.
  • This call blocks incoming data from the remote host and returns the number of bytes read. If end-of-file has been reached (the remote host shutdown the transmit side of its connection), 0 is returned. It will be implemented as follows:
  • RMP socket structure pointer Lookup the associated RMP socket structure pointer from the global descriptor array. If this is not a RMP socket (nil RMP socket pointer), simply call recv( ) and return.
  • Loop calling recv( ) on the TCP socket. If a packet arrives out of order, queue it up in the socket structure and keep looping. Otherwise, return the requested number of bytes from the packet.
  • RMP socket structure pointer Lookup the associated RMP socket structure pointer from the global descriptor array. If this is not a RMP socket (nil RMP socket pointer), simply call send( ) and return.
  • split the message into chunks small enough to fit into single packets add an RMP header 730 , a UDP header 720 , and an IP header 710 to each packet, and send the packets to the TCP socket using send( ).
  • the lastDg bit is set in the RMP header 730 of the last packet. If the message is a multi-packet message, save it in the socket structure for a period of time (on the order of 60 seconds) in case the remote host later requests a re-transmission of some of the message. The re-transmit requests are watched for and handled by RMPclose.
  • This call terminates further input and/or output on a socket. It will be implemented as follows:
  • RMP socket structure pointer Lookup the associated RMP socket structure pointer from the global descriptor array. If this is not a RMP socket (nil RMP socket pointer), simply call shutdown( ) and return.
  • RMP socket structure pointer Lookup the associated RMP socket structure pointer from the global descriptor array. If this is not a RMP socket (nil RMP socket pointer), simply call close( ) and return.
  • This call is a replacement for the select( ) call. It supports RMP socket descriptors as well as standard descriptors. It blocks until any of the file descriptors in rfds, wfds, or efds become ready for IO and updates rfds, wfds, and efds with the set of ready descriptors on exit.
  • RMPR eady( ) takes a RMP socket descriptor parameter and a direction parameter. It returns 1 if the RMP socket is ready for IO in the given direction, 0 otherwise.
  • the direction parameter is either ⁇ 1 for input, 0 for exception, or 1 for output.
  • the RMPR eady( ) just loops calling select( ) on the TCP socket with a timeout of 0 until the socket either returns not ready, or until the next 1 or more bytes of message data can be queued up in the RMP socket structure.
  • select( ) says that the TCP socket has a packet ready
  • the packet is read out of the TCP socket and queued into the appropriate place of the RMP socket structure. Since packets may arrive out of order, the arrival of a packet does not necessary mean that the RMPR eady should return true.
  • S uper S elect first checks to see if at least one of the RMP descriptors are ready and if so, changes the timeout for the following select( ) call to 0. It then calls the select( ) call in order to update the list of standard descriptors that are ready for IO. Finally, it goes through each one of the RMP descriptors to see which RMP descriptors are ready. If no descriptors are ready at the end (which could happen if an out-of-order packet arrived at a RMP socket), it loops back to call select again.
  • the RMP protocol is incorporated into the network library 1110 as a new socket type. Rather than statically link the RMI. protocol into the network library 1110 , the network library 1110 is re-structured to accept plug-in network library 1110 extensions that can add new socket or network types.
  • network library 1110 plug-ins will be structured as wireless communications device 100 operating system 102 libraries, just like network library 1110 is a library, but with certain pre-defined entry points that are specifically for use by network library 1110 .
  • the plug-in libraries When installed, they will register themselves with network library 1110 and tell network library 1110 which socket type(s) and network type(s) the plug-in libraries support.
  • network library 1110 Whenever network library 1110 receives a socket open request, it will check the network and socket type and call the appropriate network library 1110 plug-in library to handle the open request. In addition, any network library 1110 calls that take a socket refnum, like listen( ), accept( ), read( ), write( ), etc. will check the socket refnum and pass control onto the appropriate network library 1110 plug-in if the socket is not a built-in type.
  • the select( ) call in the Network library 1110 will also have to be extended in order to support Network library 1110 plug-ins.
  • One embodiment of select for the Network library 1110 includes logic similar to that described above for the S uper S elect( ) call on the proxy server 180 . It will have to be aware of plug-in socket types and call the appropriate plug-in library for any of the socket descriptors that don't correspond to built-in socket types. The plug-in library call will tell select whether or not that particular socket is ready for IO.
  • network library 1110 reserves a first group of socket descriptors for built-in socket types.
  • Network library 1110 plug-ins can choose a free descriptor number from one of the other 12 possible descriptors that are not reserved for the built-in sockets (there are a total of 16 possible selectors on the wireless communications device 100 ). Having the descriptors partitioned in this way simplifies and speeds up the logic in the select( ) call and other portions of the network library 1110 .
  • Network library 1110 plug-in modules will also have to call the system event group signal function S ys E v G roup S ignal( ) whenever one of their sockets becomes ready for IO, just like built-in network library 1110 sockets do. This is done in order to unblock the select( ) call, and could be performed from an interrupt routine or a separate background task created by the plug-in.
  • RMP sockets An important thing to note about RMP sockets, is that the caller will call either recv or select repeatedly while waiting for a response to arrive. This is due to the way that re-transmit requests from the remote host are handled. Instead of creating a separate task to watch for re-transmit requests, the RMP plug-in simply looks for and processes re-transmit requests during recv and select calls.
  • This call creates a new socket and returns the socket refnum. It will be implemented as follows:
  • Call Network library 1110 to create a UDP socket and store its descriptor in the newly created RMP socket info structure.
  • This call prepares a socket to accept incoming connection requests. This call will not be implemented on the wireless client 405 since it does not support incoming RMP connection requests—only the proxy server 180 implementation does.
  • This call blocks until an incoming connection request arrives for the socket. It then creates a new socket for the connection and returns the new socket refnum.
  • This call will not be implemented on the wireless client 405 since it does not support incoming RMP connection requests—only the proxy server 180 implementation does.
  • This call specifies a local IP address and port number for the socket. It will be implemented as follows:
  • This call specifies a remote IP address and port number for the socket. It will be implemented as follows:
  • Loop calling network library's 1110 racy( ) on the UDP socket If a packet arrives out of order, queue it up in the RMP socket info structure and keep looping. If a re-transmit request packet is received, re-transmit the correct packets. Otherwise, return the requested number of bytes from the packet.
  • This call terminates further input and/or output on a socket. It will be implemented as follows:
  • the network library 1110 is enhanced to support plug-ins that provide new socket types and network types. Besides branching off to the correct plug-in handler for calls that operate on sockets (like bind, connect, send, recv, etc.) the network library 1110 is also plug-in aware in order to implement the select call.
  • the select call blocks until any of the socket descriptors in rfds, wfds, or efds become ready for IO and updates rfds, wfds, and efds with the set of ready descriptors on exit.
  • PIR eady( ) takes a socket descriptor parameter and a direction parameter. It returns 1 if the socket is ready for 10 in the given direction, 0 otherwise.
  • the direction parameter is either ⁇ 1 for input, 0 for exception, or 1 for output.
  • PIR eady( ) just loops calling select( ) on the UDP socket that it owns with a timeout of 0 until the socket either returns not ready, or until the next 1 or more bytes of message data are queued up in the RMP socket structure.
  • select( ) says that the UDP socket has a packet ready, the packet is read out and processed. Since packets may arrive out of order or they may be re-transmit requests, the arrival of a packet does not necessary mean that the PIR eady should return true.
  • the following pseudo-code illustrates how PIR eady( ) will be used to implement select( ).
  • it first checks to see if at least one of the plug-in descriptors are ready and if so, changes the timeout for the following select( ) call to 0. It then calls the select( ) call in order to update the list of built-in descriptors that are ready for IO. Finally, it goes through each one of the plug-in descriptors to see which plug-in descriptors are ready. If no descriptors are ready at the end (which could happen if an out-of-order packet arrived at a RMP socket), it loops back to call select again.
  • FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of the lower level communication layers on a wireless communications device 100 .
  • the wireless network interface 510 is seen situated between the network library 1110 and the network hardware 1120 .
  • the wireless network interface 510 isolates the actual network hardware 1120 from the network library 1110 and provides a generic interface to the network library 1110 .
  • the network library 1110 serves wireless client 405 applications 1130 and a client preference panel 1140 .
  • This module enables the network library 1110 to access the Wireless packet data network as an IP network. Once installed, any application can access the Wireless packet data network using the Berkeley sockets API of the network library 1110 .
  • the network library 1110 is designed in such a way that support for new network hardware, like the client radio 440 , can be added dynamically simply by installing an appropriate network interface module onto the wireless communications device 100 .
  • Network interface modules are separately linked databases that contain the code necessary to abstract the network hardware. They can be “attached” and “detached” from the network library 1110 at run-time, usually through a preference panel 1140 .
  • PPP and SLIP are provided by separate network interface databases in the ROM and one or the other is selected for use through the network preference panel 1140 .
  • wireless communication devices 100 In addition to the PPP and SLIP interfaces, wireless communication devices 100 also have a wirelegs network interface 510 . When this wireless network interface 510 is attached to the network library 1110 , applications will be able to communicate over the wireless packet data network using the Berkeley sockets API of the network library 1110 .
  • the wireless communications system operates primarily through the proxy server 180 and therefore does not emphasize providing support for TCP/IP clients like FTP, Telnet, etc. that talk directly to standard Internet services.
  • the wireless packet data network does not have the built-in IP routing support that would be necessary to transfer IP packets directly from a host on the Internet to a wireless client 405 .
  • wireless clients 405 do not have a unique Internet IP address assigned to them.
  • the wireless packet data network is enhanced to support direct IP routing without any further impact on the client software.
  • all wireless network interfaces 510 have two entry points: a packet read/write entry point and a settings entry point.
  • the packet read/write entry point is used e for sending and retrieving IP packets over the network.
  • the settings entry point is used to configure the wireless network interface 510 with the appropriate settings it needs to communicate—such as IP address, user account information, etc.
  • a preference panel 1140 will change or access settings and only applications will read or write packets.
  • wireless network interfaces 510 There are a number of existing pre-defined settings that are applicable across all wireless network interfaces 510 ; like EP address, subnet mask, etc. Besides providing a mechanism to configure the wireless network interface 510 , the settings can also be read in order to query the wireless network interface 510 for information. Some of the currently defined settings are very general (like IP address) or applicable only to serial based interfaces (like login script, baud rate, etc.). If a particular setting is not applicable to a wireless network interface 510 , the setting can be quietly ignored. For wireless network interfaces 510 , like the wireless packet data network interface, a set of new settings is defined for wireless specific functionality. These new settings provide wireless network access point radio 420 specific information like signal strength, base station 170 info, etc.)
  • wireless network interfaces 510 A unique consideration of wireless network interfaces 510 is their power management. Unlike interfaces such as PPP and SLIP, it is very important that wireless network interfaces 510 are placed into power save mode whenever the wireless network interfaces 510 are not being used. In order to accomplish this, the network library 1110 is adapted to be wireless network “aware”, and hence able to place wireless network interfaces 510 into power-save mode when appropriate.
  • the network library 1110 generally takes the following course of action: when the first socket is opened, the network library 1110 tells all attached interfaces (through a new setting) to come out of power-save mode and to prepare for transactions; when the last socket is closed, the network library 1110 tells all attached interfaces to go back into power-save mode.
  • Existing interfaces like SLIP and PPP can quietly ignore the new setting call. This model assumes that wireless applications will be conservative about opening sockets and immediately close them when no longer needed in order to save power.
  • wireless network interfaces 510 are generally search for a base station 170 when the wireless network interfaces 510 first power up. Typically, this search takes only a couple seconds. But if the user has traveled across country for instance, it could take ten seconds or more. This is not entirely unlike the connection negotiation sequence that PPP goes through when it starts up and can in fact be performed when the wireless network interface 510 is told to come “up” by the network library 1110 —just like PPP and SLIP do. So, this feature of wireless network interfaces 510 does not require any new functionality on the part of the network library 1110 .
  • Some embodiments of the invention include a method for formatting a packet of data.
  • the formatting method comprises the following four steps. Determining that the packet destination is a proxy server 180 . Setting a first bit in a compressed user datagram protocol (C-UDP) header to indicate that the packet destination is the proxy server 180 . Placing bit flags in the C-UDP header to indicate whether optional delivery and Internet 190 protocol fields are included in the header. Placing a source port number identifying a wireless client 405 in the C-UDP header.
  • the packet of data comprises a message encapsulated by the C-UDP header. In some embodiments, the bit flags indicate that no optional UDP fields and no optional Internet protocol fields are included in the C-UDP header.
  • the method for formatting a packet of data further comprises the following steps are performed prior to determining that the packet of data is to be transmitted to the proxy server 180 .
  • a reliable message protocol socket splits messages received from wireless client 405 processing resources into datagrams.
  • the reliable message protocol socket adds a reliable message protocol header 730 to the packet of data before passing the datagram to a user datagram socket.
  • An Internet 190 protocol stack adds an Internet 190 protocol header 710 and a best effort delivery header to the packet of data before passing the packet of data to a wireless network interface 510 .
  • the packet of data comprises one of the datagrams.
  • the method for formatting a packet of data further comprises the following two steps after placing a source port number in the C-UDP header identifying the wireless client 405 in the compressed C-UDP header after the plurality of bit flags.
  • a wireless network interface 510 adding a wireless system header. Encapsulating the packet of data in the following order: the wireless system header followed by the C-UDP header, followed by the reliable message protocol header 730 , followed by the message.
  • wireless client 405 processing resources reside at a network library 1110 and comprise the reliable message protocol socket and the Internet protocol stack.
  • FIG. 12 shows a block diagram of wireless client 405 software and the format of the data passed between each of the software layers.
  • the application at the very highest layer sends messages to a reliable message protocol socket in the network library 1110 .
  • the reliable message protocol socket then splits the message into datagrams and adds a RMP header 730 to each datagram before passing it to a UDP socket of the network library 1110 .
  • the IP stack in the network library 1110 then adds an IP header 710 and UDP header 720 to each packet and passes the packets on down to the wireless network interface 510 .
  • packets that get sent to the packet-write entry point of the wireless network interface 510 by the network library 1110 have an IP header 710 , followed by a UDP header 720 , followed by a RMP header 730 , and finally, the message datagram.
  • the wireless network interface 510 adds the wireless network protocol header, called a WLNP, to the packet.
  • a WLNP header contains source and destination host addresses and the overall packet size, among other things. All hosts on the wireless packet data network are addressed using unique source account numbers that are 24 bits long.
  • the unique destination account number will be of the tunneler 430 , which can be connected through an X.25 link to a wireless network access point 410 as illustrated in FIG. 5 —Wireless Network Topology.
  • the unique source account number will be the client's unique account number. Since the source and destination host addresses are already specified in the WLNP header, the source and destination IP addresses that are in the IP header 710 are not necessary.
  • IP header 710 and the UDP header 720 there are a number of other fields in the IP header 710 and the UDP header 720 that are not required when transferring RMP datagrams between the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the entire IP header 710 and UDP header 720 are replaced with a Compressed UDP (C-UDP) header which contains only the bare minimum amount of information necessary.
  • C-UDP Compressed UDP
  • the tunneler 430 will have to re-create the original IP header 710 and UDP header 720 using just the information from the WLNP and C-UDP headers.
  • the C-UDP header is not optimized as a general purpose header.
  • the C-UDP header can be highly specialized (and hence highly compressed) for use between a wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 over the wireless packet data network.
  • the C-UDP header also provides a mechanism to represent any possible IP packet type that could be sent from a wireless packet data network wireless client 405 including IP packets meant for applications other than a wireless communications device 100 .
  • FIG. 13 shows the format of the IP header 710 and the UDP header 720 . All together, the two headers take up 28 bytes: 20 for the IP header 710 and 8 for the UDP header 720 .
  • Bit jerryPkt Bit hasVersHlenServiceTTL Bit hasFragmentation Bit hasProtocol Bit hasSrcIP Bit hasDstIP Bit unused Bit noCompression // see description . . . if (jerryPkt) Bit[16] sourcePort // UDP source port else if (hasVersHlenServiceTTL) Bit[4] vers Bit[4] hlen Bit[8] serviceType Bit[8] ttl if (hasFragmentation) Bit[16] identification Bit[3] fragFlags Bit[13] fragOffset if (hasProtocol) Bit[8] protocol if (hasSrcIP) Bit[32] sourceIPAddr if (hasDstIP) Bit[32] destIPAddr if (hasVersHlenService) UInt32[?] ipOptions if (!hasProtocol
  • the C-UDP header can compress any type of IP protocol, not just the UDP protocol like the name implies. It is optimized however for UDP and doesn't provide as optimal a level of compression for other protocols like TCP.
  • the C-UDP header has a number of optional fields that are either present or not, depending on the value of the flag bits in the beginning of the header.
  • the following sub-sections explain the various formats of the C-UDP header and where they are used.
  • the first bit in the header is set for packets sent using the UDP protocol to the proxy server 180 .
  • the only fields present in the C-UDP header are the UDP source port number for the wireless client 405 and the other seven bit flags for optional UDP header 720 and LP header 710 fields as shown above.
  • the RMP header 730 and data then immediately follow the UDP source port number. All other fields that are present in normal IP header 710 and UDP header 720 can be omitted.
  • the vers, hlen, and serviceType fields can be omitted because these packets use version 4 of the IP header 710 , have no IP options, and use normal service type.
  • the total length is redundant because the WLNP header contains the total length.
  • the identification, fflags, and fragment offset fields can be omitted because RMP datagrams are guaranteed to be small enough to not require fragmentation.
  • the time to live field is not required because these packets go directly to the proxy server 180 at the wireless network access point 410 and do not pass through any IP routers.
  • the protocol field is not required because the protocol is always UDP.
  • the header checksum is not required because WLNPs already have CRC checks for data integrity.
  • the source and destination IP addresses are not required because the source and destination hosts can be identified by the source and unique destination account numbers in the WLNP header.
  • the UDP dest port is not required since the packets are always destined for the proxy server 180 destination port and the UDP message length and checksum are not required because the WLNP header already contains the overall packet length and has a CRC check for data integrity.
  • the wireless network interface 510 can determine if a packet can be compressed into this format by checking that the destination IP address is for the proxy server 180 , that the protocol is UDP, and that the destination UDP port number is for the proxy server 180 service port. Determining that the destination IP address is for the proxy server 180 can be done by checking for a special value or comparing it with a value that has been registered with the wireless network interface 510 through a settings call. Since the packet itself will not go out onto the Internet 190 , the address used to identify the proxy server 180 does not have to be a unique Internet IP address.
  • the first bit in the packet header will be 0 and will be followed by 7 more bits of flags that indicate the presence of other optional IP header 710 and UDP header 720 fields.
  • the packet has a vers field of 4, no EP options, and a standard service type field (0), then the hasVersHlenService bit will be 0. Otherwise, the vers, Men, and serviceType fields will follow the 8 bits of flags.
  • the identification, fFlags, and fragment offset will be included. Notice the only time the identification field is present is when the fragmentation fields are also included. Technically, this identification field is not required except for fragmented packets, but there is a possibility that some IP implementations may not work correctly if this field is not sent verbatim between the 2 hosts.
  • the packet's ttl field is the default ([what is the default value??])
  • the hasTTLProtocol bit will be 0. Otherwise, the ttl and protocol (which is UDP) fields will be included.
  • the hasSrcIP bit will be set. Whether the source EP address is included or not is up to the wireless network interface 510 to decide. In some embodiments, the rule applied is to only include the source IP address if in fact the wireless client 405 has a real Internet 190 or intranet IP address. There is also a setting for wireless network interfaces 510 that gets set by a preference panel 1140 and this new setting will tell the wireless network interface 510 whether or not the wireless client 405 owns a genuine IP address or just a fake placeholder.
  • the hasDstIP bit will be set. The only time the destination IP address will be left out is when sending packets to the proxy server 180 .
  • a packet is not a UDP packet, its compressed format will generally be the to same as for generic UDP packets described above, but the hasTTLProtocol bit will be set, the ttl and protocol fields will be included, and the sourcePort and destPort fields will NOT be included. Instead, the protocol specific fields will appear as-is immediately following the C-UDP header. For example, a TCP packet that has a destination IP address but no IP options would have its IP header 710 portion compressed into the C-UDP header format but its TCP header fields would appear as-is immediately after the destIPAddr field in the C-UDP header.
  • noCompression bit is set. If this bit is set, there are NO other fields from the C-UDP header following the first 8 bits of flags. Instead, the original, unadulterated IP header 710 and data of the packet will immediately follow the 8 bits of flags.
  • Some embodiments of the proxy server 180 include a method of transforming a first CTP message into an HTML request.
  • the method of transforming comprises combining the first message received from the wireless client 405 with a hypertext markup language hyperlink document.
  • the first message comprises compressed representations of field values and field indices corresponding to fields in the hypertext markup language hyperlink document.
  • the proxy server 180 responds to requests by wireless clients 405 to fetch either web content or messaging information.
  • the proxy server 180 carries most of the burden of bringing the information from the Internet 190 , converting it to wireless client 405 compatible CTP and CML formats, and transferring it to the wireless client 405 over the wireless network.
  • the wireless client 405 by comparison, simply sends requests to the proxy server 180 and displays the transferred data onto the wireless communications device 100 screen 101 .
  • the proxy server 180 adequately services 100 , 000 users without introducing substantial delays.
  • the proxy server 180 design is scalable so that any number of users can be supported in the future.
  • the proxy server 180 Besides acting as a proxy server 180 to the wireless clients 405 , the proxy server 180 also acts as a client to existing Internet 190 mail and web servers. This means that the proxy server 180 includes support for almost all versions of HTML, HTTP, SMTP, POP, etc. as well as support for security protocols like SSL, S-HTTP, etc.
  • proxy server 180 is designed to run on multiple machines simultaneously.
  • the proxy server 180 is to be stateless.
  • a stateless design is more tolerant of communication and protocol errors than a stateful design.
  • a stateless design is also easier to implement and manage, especially with a network of distributed proxy servers 180 . For example, with multiple distributed proxy servers 180 , a stateful design would have to transfer state from one proxy server 180 to another if a user happened to temporarily move to a different region or if one of the proxy servers 180 went down for maintenance.
  • proxy server 180 processing resources are replicated Onto as many machines as necessary in order to handle regional loads. Proxy server 180 processing resources are shared on two or more machines to for load sharing for a single region and to provide both load balancing and continuous service in case a single machine goes down.
  • the proxy server 180 design is stateless so that the proxy servers 180 do not have to share information with each other, and so that users will not encounter any difficulties when they move from area to area and change which proxy server 180 they are using.
  • Some embodiments of the proxy server 180 can support a user database.
  • the user database sets browsing options, messaging options, etc. on the proxy server 180 and reduces the amount of data that is sent between the wireless client 405 and proxy server 180 during normal operation.
  • the user database is also used to collect statistics on usage patterns. Note that the user database is shared between all the proxy servers 180 .
  • the proxy server 180 design also enables corporations to create their own intranets. For example, corporations can use a leased line connection from the nearest wireless network access point 410 center to a proxy server 180 at the corporation's own site and connected to the corporation's private intranet. To facilitate this, proxy server 180 processing resources are easy to setup, maintain and operate using off-the-shelf hardware.
  • the performance goal of the proxy server 180 is to process each request in less than 1 second. That is, given a typical request of 40 bytes to the proxy server 180 , the proxy server 180 is able to access the requested content off the Internet, reformat it, and send a typical size response of 360 bytes to the wireless client 405 in less then one second. Taking into account the bandwidth and latency of the wireless packet data network, the user will see roughly a 7 to 11 second response time overall. The peak usage rate of the wireless communications devices 100 with 100,000 users will be 920,000 transactions per hour which is 256 transactions per second. This load can be divided up by as many proxy servers 180 as required.
  • Configuration support includes mechanisms for configuring the proxy server 180 for different environments, adjusting performance settings, displaying usage statistics, etc. These are all tasks that a system administrator performs when first setting up the proxy servers 180 and also performs periodically in order to keep the proxy servers 180 tuned and to monitor their performance. Trouble-shooting support includes mechanisms for an engineer to debug problems with the design and to enable special purpose diagnostics. Because of the distributed nature of the proxy server 180 , these functions are controlled remotely. In order to enable remote control, the proxy server 180 processing resources support a telnet-like connection for these purposes.
  • Some embodiments of the invention provide a wireless client 405 comprising means for requesting a hyperlink document in a compressed form.
  • the means for requesting a hyperlink document in a compressed form comprise means for sending a base document uniform resource locator followed by a compact representation of a first hyperlink and a compact representation of a hash value corresponding to the first hyperlink to proxy server 180 processing resources.
  • the wireless client 405 further comprises means for completing a transaction between a wireless client 405 and a proxy server 180 .
  • Some embodiments of the wireless client 405 further comprise means for transmitting a first message in packets of data to a proxy server 180 .
  • the first message corresponds to a hypertext document.
  • the hypertext document has input fields and control fields.
  • the means for transmitting comprises the following two steps. Submitting compressed representations of data corresponding to input fields and control fields formatted according to CTP to wireless client 405 processing resources. Transmitting packets of data comprising compressed representations of data to the proxy server 180 .
  • the compressed representations comprise text and name attributes corresponding to input fields and compressed values and value attributes corresponding to control fields and select fields.
  • means for completing a transaction between a wireless client 405 and a proxy server 180 comprise means for transmitting a single request message sent from the wireless client 405 to a proxy server 180 and means for receiving a single response message from the proxy server 180 .
  • the request message comprises packets of data.
  • Means for transmitting the request message comprise means for placing in the request message a base uniform resource locator followed by compressed data.
  • the compressed data comprise field values and field indices corresponding to fields in a hyperlink document, and an indication of use of a hyperlink document.
  • Some embodiments of the invention include communications system comprising a source of data, a wireless client 405 , and a proxy server 180 .
  • the wireless client 405 comprises means for requesting a hyperlink document in a compressed form.
  • the proxy server 180 comprises means for transforming a first message into an HTML request, and means for converting an HTML response into a second message in a compact markup language.
  • Some embodiments of the communications system further comprise a wireless network.
  • the wireless network is in communication with both the proxy server 180 and the wireless client 405 .
  • the proxy server 180 , the wireless client 405 , and the source of data are disposed at three separate locations.
  • the compact markup language comprises a stream of data comprising text and image data.
  • the text data comprises multibit character representations for selected characters, eight-bit character representations for a first set of unselected characters, and sixteen-bit character representations for a second set of unselected characters, the multi-bit character representations comprising less than eight bits.
  • Some embodiments of the communications system further comprise means for completing a transaction between a wireless client 405 and a proxy server 180 .
  • the means for completing the transaction comprise means for transmitting a single request message from the wireless client 405 to the proxy server 180 and means for transmitting a single response message from the proxy server 180 to the wireless client 405 .
  • the request message comprises packets of data. Transmitting the request message comprises placing in the request message a base uniform resource locator followed by compressed data.
  • the compressed data comprises field values and field indices corresponding to fields in a hyperlink document, and an indication of use of a hyperlink document.
  • the single response message comprises packets of data.
  • the number of packets in the request message is one and the packet size is less than one kilobyte.
  • the proxy server 180 Because the proxy server 180 is connected to the wireless network access point 410 , the proxy server 180 can communicate with wireless clients 405 without having to go over the Internet 190 . Therefore, the proxy server 180 does not require the IP routing support that other hosts on the Internet 190 would require. Generic IP access between wireless clients 405 and other hosts on the Internet 190 can be accomplished by adding the appropriate IP routing support to the wireless network access point 410 and assigning a unique Internet IP address to each wireless client 405 .
  • the proxy server 180 tunneler 430 (which can be a part of the proxy server 180 processing resources) will support a mechanism that enables wireless client 405 applications to “tunnel” IP packets to and from other hosts on the Internet 190 . But, because the IP packets are imbedded within a TCP stream, custom proxy server 180 software written on the remote host is required in order to accept, process, and reply to these tunneled packets.
  • FIG. 5 Wireless Network Topology, shows a diagram of how the wireless client 405 , wireless network, and tunneler 430 are interconnected.
  • the tunneler 430 takes packets off the wireless network, restores the original IP header 710 and UDP header 720 from the WLNP and C-UDP headers, and then tunnels each packet to the appropriate host using TCP. Most of the packets off the wireless network will be destined for the proxy server 180 , but the packets can be sent to any other host accessible from the tunneler 430 over TCP.
  • the tunneler 430 simply uses the destination IP address of each packet to determine which host is to receive the packet.
  • the tunneler 430 can act as a gateway and send the packets directly to the remote host without tunneling them within a TCP stream. Then, because the Internet 190 routing support would be in place, the packets sent back from the remote host would find their way back to the tunneler 430 and then get forwarded back over the wireless network to the wireless client 405 .
  • the tunneler 430 decides whether to send packets within a TCP stream to the remote host or to send them directly.
  • IP routing support present on the wireless packet data network
  • the tunneler 430 decides whether to send packets within a TCP stream to the remote host or to send them directly.
  • IP routing support is available because the wireless client 405 can use the more efficient UDP protocol over the wireless link but still be guaranteed that the UDP packets received by the wireless access point 410 get delivered to the Internet 190 host (since they are sent using TCP).
  • the tunneler 430 will only tunnel UDP packets that have a destination UDP port number of between 0x7000 and 0x7FFF.
  • the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 processing resources follow similar rules as those used by the RMP protocol. Namely, the host on the Internet 190 automatically closes down the TCP connection between it and the tunneler 430 whenever a transaction is over. Otherwise, TCP connections established from the tunneler 430 to remote hosts would remain open indefinitely. Just in case though, the tunneler 430 has a fairly large inactivity timeout on the TCP connections in order to automatically close them down.
  • FIG. 14 illustrates another embodiment of a system that allows the wireless communications device 100 to communicate with the web server 140 .
  • the system of FIG. 14 illustrates an alternative embodiment where users can turn their own desktop computers or servers into wireless communications base stations 170 and proxy servers 180 for communicating with their wireless communications devices 100 .
  • the users install transceiver cards, or other hardware, and software on their computers. In this way, users can provide localized “free” Internet 190 access to wireless communications devices 100 .
  • Corporations can purchase additional hardware and software for some user computers or servers throughout their campus. Thus, the corporations can provide wireless communications to their employees. Alternatively, standalone systems can be purchased and plugged directly into the corporate Intranet.
  • a user computer 1482 is included in this system.
  • the user computer 1482 is executing a wireless and Internet communications program 1486 .
  • the user computer 1482 also includes an antenna 1470 and related wireless communications hardware.
  • the user computer 1482 has an Internet connection that can be used for communicating to the web server 140 .
  • the wireless communications device 100 communicates wirelessly with the user computer 1482 .
  • the protocols used to communicate wirelessly are the same as those used in the wireless packet data network described above.
  • the wireless communications device 100 can communicate with both the wireless packet data network and computers having the wireless communications capability of the user computer 1482 .
  • other communications protocols can be used instead.
  • the wireless and Internet communications program 1486 performs the functions of the base station 170 and the proxy server 180 .
  • the user computer 1482 couples to a proxy server 180 through the Internet 190 .
  • the wireless and Internet communications program 1486 provides wireline communications to the proxy server 180 . This would be for the purposes of providing secure communications, e-mail access, or for updating query form information that is not stored in the user computer 1482 .
  • the wireless and Internet communications program 1486 can perform the basic wireless communications base station functions, while the proxy server 180 can still perform the security and other proxy server functions. This configuration helps to provide users with a higher degree of security because the proxy server 180 is performing the secure communications with the web server 140 .
  • the proxy server 180 or the user computer 1482 can perform the conversions.
  • an external transceiver device is used instead of a transceiver card.
  • the external transceiver can be connected to the computer via, for example, a serial connection, a Universal Serial Bus, a SCSI connection, or some other connection.
  • the device is a standalone device that couples directly to a network (e.g., the device has its own IP address).
  • the wireless communications device 100 can communicate with both the Mobitex system, or some other wireless data communications system, and the wireless communications system established with the computer 1482 .
US12/878,969 1998-05-29 2010-09-09 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access Abandoned US20110078285A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US12/878,969 US20110078285A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2010-09-09 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US09/087,552 US7025209B2 (en) 1998-05-29 1998-05-29 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US11/089,445 US20060046686A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2005-03-23 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US12/878,969 US20110078285A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2010-09-09 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Related Parent Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US11/089,445 Continuation US20060046686A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2005-03-23 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20110078285A1 true US20110078285A1 (en) 2011-03-31

Family

ID=22205851

Family Applications (3)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/087,552 Expired - Lifetime US7025209B2 (en) 1998-05-29 1998-05-29 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US11/089,445 Abandoned US20060046686A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2005-03-23 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US12/878,969 Abandoned US20110078285A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2010-09-09 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Family Applications Before (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/087,552 Expired - Lifetime US7025209B2 (en) 1998-05-29 1998-05-29 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US11/089,445 Abandoned US20060046686A1 (en) 1998-05-29 2005-03-23 Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Country Status (1)

Country Link
US (3) US7025209B2 (US20110078285A1-20110331-C00005.png)

Cited By (20)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20080046547A1 (en) * 2003-04-21 2008-02-21 International Business Machines Corporation System for Low Power Operation of Wireless LAN Interfaces
US20090100407A1 (en) * 2007-10-15 2009-04-16 Eric Bouillet Method and system for simplified assembly of information processing applications
US20090177955A1 (en) * 2008-01-08 2009-07-09 Zhen Liu Method and system for modeling user requests, applications and components used in dynamic application assembly
US20090177910A1 (en) * 2008-01-08 2009-07-09 Zhen Liu Method of recovering from software failures using replanning
US20090276753A1 (en) * 2008-05-05 2009-11-05 Eric Bouillet Method and apparatus for simplified assembly of parametric information processing applications
US20100115103A1 (en) * 2000-11-03 2010-05-06 Tagg James P Cooperative network for mobile internet access
US20120278440A1 (en) * 2011-04-27 2012-11-01 Aruba Networks, Inc. Dynamic Transaction-Persistent Server Load Balancing
US8312426B2 (en) 2008-01-07 2012-11-13 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for simplified service composition in web environment
US20130339543A1 (en) * 2012-06-14 2013-12-19 Qualcomm Incorporated Avoiding unwanted tcp retransmissions using optimistic window adjustments
US20140017990A1 (en) * 2012-07-16 2014-01-16 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Session continuity in wireless local area networks with internet protocol level mobility
US8640149B2 (en) 2008-03-26 2014-01-28 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for dynamic web service composition and invocation
US8949140B2 (en) 2008-04-21 2015-02-03 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for dynamic software reconfiguration triggered by component- or system- initiated events
US8972551B1 (en) * 2010-04-27 2015-03-03 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Prioritizing service requests
US9286032B2 (en) 2013-03-15 2016-03-15 International Business Machines Corporation Automated software composition
US9635148B2 (en) * 2014-10-31 2017-04-25 Aruba Networks, Inc. Partitioning data sets for transmission on multiple physical links
US20190179879A1 (en) * 2017-12-08 2019-06-13 Symantec Corporation Webpage rendering using a remotely generated layout node tree
US10887291B2 (en) 2016-12-16 2021-01-05 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Secure data distribution of sensitive data across content delivery networks
US10979403B1 (en) * 2018-06-08 2021-04-13 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Cryptographic configuration enforcement
US11159498B1 (en) 2018-03-21 2021-10-26 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Information security proxy service
US20220210695A1 (en) * 2011-12-14 2022-06-30 Seven Networks, Llc Mobile device configured for operating in a power save mode and a traffic optimization mode and related method

Families Citing this family (330)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8352400B2 (en) 1991-12-23 2013-01-08 Hoffberg Steven M Adaptive pattern recognition based controller apparatus and method and human-factored interface therefore
WO1999037047A1 (en) * 1998-01-16 1999-07-22 Symbol Technologies, Inc. INFRASTRUCTURE FOR WIRELESS LANSs
US8516055B2 (en) * 1998-05-29 2013-08-20 Research In Motion Limited System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device in a wireless data network
US7025209B2 (en) * 1998-05-29 2006-04-11 Palmsource, Inc. Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US6343318B1 (en) 1998-05-29 2002-01-29 Palm, Inc. Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks
SE523335C2 (sv) * 1998-07-03 2004-04-13 Sendit Ab Förfarande och anordning för åtkomst och inhämtning av information
US6304914B1 (en) * 1998-09-22 2001-10-16 Microsoft Corporation Method and apparatus for pre-compression packaging
US7131062B2 (en) * 1998-12-09 2006-10-31 International Business Machines Corporation Systems, methods and computer program products for associating dynamically generated web page content with web site visitors
US7296060B2 (en) * 1998-12-24 2007-11-13 Intel Corporation System and method for automatically identifying and attaching related documents
US7904187B2 (en) 1999-02-01 2011-03-08 Hoffberg Steven M Internet appliance system and method
US7340057B2 (en) * 2001-07-11 2008-03-04 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and apparatus for distributing authorization to provision mobile devices on a wireless network
US6647260B2 (en) * 1999-04-09 2003-11-11 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and system facilitating web based provisioning of two-way mobile communications devices
US7215345B1 (en) * 1999-04-09 2007-05-08 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for clipping video information before scaling
WO2000070838A2 (en) * 1999-05-14 2000-11-23 Pivia, Inc. Client-server independent intermediary mechanism
GB9913102D0 (en) * 1999-06-04 1999-08-04 Nokia Telecommunications Oy An element for a communications system
GB2350973A (en) * 1999-06-11 2000-12-13 Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd Simultaneously fetching page content and link content in a mobile web browser
US6418310B1 (en) * 1999-08-05 2002-07-09 Ericsson Inc. Wireless subscriber terminal using java control code
US6882659B1 (en) * 1999-09-20 2005-04-19 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ) Wide area network synchronization
US20010014085A1 (en) * 1999-10-08 2001-08-16 Microsoft Corporation Originator authentication
US20010015977A1 (en) * 1999-10-08 2001-08-23 Stefan Johansson Selective reception
US6536000B1 (en) * 1999-10-15 2003-03-18 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Communication error reporting mechanism in a multiprocessing computer system
AU1570801A (en) * 1999-10-16 2001-04-30 Iceberg International, Inc. Information management system for remote computing platforms
US6950881B1 (en) * 1999-11-02 2005-09-27 Mshift, Inc. System for converting wireless communications for a mobile device
US6611500B1 (en) * 1999-11-04 2003-08-26 Lucent Technologies, Inc. Methods and apparatus for derivative-based optimization of wireless network performance
US7171473B1 (en) * 1999-11-17 2007-01-30 Planet Exchange, Inc. System using HTTP protocol for maintaining and updating on-line presence information of new user in user table and group table
US7065342B1 (en) 1999-11-23 2006-06-20 Gofigure, L.L.C. System and mobile cellular telephone device for playing recorded music
JP3575360B2 (ja) * 1999-12-24 2004-10-13 日本電気株式会社 通信方法および通信システム
US7315544B2 (en) * 2000-01-21 2008-01-01 Bytemobile, Inc. Global sequence numbers in wireless communications systems and methods
US7003571B1 (en) * 2000-01-31 2006-02-21 Telecommunication Systems Corporation Of Maryland System and method for re-directing requests from browsers for communication over non-IP based networks
US6633314B1 (en) * 2000-02-02 2003-10-14 Raja Tuli Portable high speed internet device integrating cellular telephone and palm top computer
US6834341B1 (en) * 2000-02-22 2004-12-21 Microsoft Corporation Authentication methods and systems for accessing networks, authentication methods and systems for accessing the internet
US7340532B2 (en) * 2000-03-10 2008-03-04 Akamai Technologies, Inc. Load balancing array packet routing system
US7173922B2 (en) 2000-03-17 2007-02-06 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Multiple wireless local area networks occupying overlapping physical spaces
US7173923B2 (en) * 2000-03-17 2007-02-06 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Security in multiple wireless local area networks
US7558584B2 (en) * 2000-03-31 2009-07-07 Ntt Docomo, Inc. Location reporting method and related mobile communication terminal
JP2001306467A (ja) * 2000-04-19 2001-11-02 Hudson Soft Co Ltd 情報伝達方法
US20020032750A1 (en) * 2000-05-16 2002-03-14 Kanefsky Steven T. Methods and systems for searching and managing information on wireless data devices
US7062475B1 (en) * 2000-05-30 2006-06-13 Alberti Anemometer Llc Personalized multi-service computer environment
US7136913B2 (en) * 2000-05-31 2006-11-14 Lab 7 Networks, Inc. Object oriented communication among platform independent systems across a firewall over the internet using HTTP-SOAP
US7962603B1 (en) * 2000-06-06 2011-06-14 Nobuyoshi Morimoto System and method for identifying individual users accessing a web site
US7493486B1 (en) * 2000-06-09 2009-02-17 Verizon Laboratories, Inc. Method and apparatus for supporting cryptographic-related activities in a public key infrastructure
JP4776804B2 (ja) * 2000-06-12 2011-09-21 キヤノン株式会社 ネットワークデバイス及びその制御方法、並びにコンピュータプログラム
US7451476B1 (en) * 2000-06-20 2008-11-11 Motorola, Inc. Method and apparatus for interfacing a network to an external element
US20020048283A1 (en) 2000-06-29 2002-04-25 Ching-Yi Lin Phone appliance with display screen and methods of using the same
US7051078B1 (en) * 2000-07-10 2006-05-23 Cisco Technology, Inc. Hierarchical associative memory-based classification system
US6832215B2 (en) * 2000-07-21 2004-12-14 Microsoft Corporation Method for redirecting the source of a data object displayed in an HTML document
US7068599B1 (en) * 2000-07-26 2006-06-27 At&T Corp. Wireless network having link-condition based proxies for QoS management
US8806326B1 (en) * 2000-09-25 2014-08-12 Nokia Inc. User preference based content linking
US7596564B1 (en) 2000-09-29 2009-09-29 Vignette Corporation Method and system for cache management of a cache including dynamically-generated content
US7191211B2 (en) 2000-10-03 2007-03-13 Raja Tuli Portable high speed internet access device priority protocol
US20020087630A1 (en) 2000-10-20 2002-07-04 Jonathan Wu Enhanced information and presence service
AU2002213098A1 (en) * 2000-10-26 2002-05-06 Virtual Media, Inc. Translating data streams using instructions in templates
US10860290B2 (en) 2000-11-01 2020-12-08 Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. Mobile information apparatuses that include a digital camera, a touch sensitive screen interface, support for voice activated commands, and a wireless communication chip or chipset supporting IEEE 802.11
US10915296B2 (en) 2000-11-01 2021-02-09 Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. Information apparatus that includes a touch sensitive screen interface for managing or replying to e-mails
US11204729B2 (en) 2000-11-01 2021-12-21 Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. Internet based digital content services for pervasively providing protected digital content to smart devices based on having subscribed to the digital content service
US20020051200A1 (en) 2000-11-01 2002-05-02 Chang William Ho Controller for device-to-device pervasive digital output
US11467856B2 (en) * 2002-12-12 2022-10-11 Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. Portable USB device for internet access service
CN1209719C (zh) * 2000-11-13 2005-07-06 国际商业机器公司 用于将服务器上的业务提供给用户设备的方法和系统
US7318086B2 (en) 2000-11-20 2008-01-08 Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. System for mobile and pervasive output
US8255791B2 (en) 2000-11-29 2012-08-28 Dov Koren Collaborative, flexible, interactive real-time displays
US20020069296A1 (en) * 2000-12-06 2002-06-06 Bernie Aua Internet content reformatting apparatus and method
US20020116637A1 (en) * 2000-12-21 2002-08-22 General Electric Company Gateway for securely connecting arbitrary devices and service providers
US6850941B1 (en) * 2000-12-21 2005-02-01 Vignette Corporation Method and system for native-byte form handling
US6892377B1 (en) 2000-12-21 2005-05-10 Vignette Corporation Method and system for platform-independent file system interaction
US7194506B1 (en) 2000-12-21 2007-03-20 Vignette Corporation Method and system for cache management of locale-sensitive content
US6961776B1 (en) * 2000-12-22 2005-11-01 Nortel Networks Limited Architecture for multiple channel access to applications
SE518751C2 (sv) * 2001-01-03 2002-11-19 Microsoft Corp Metod och system där en extern server erhåller information om enskilda mobila terminalers radioöverföringskapacitet
US20020133616A1 (en) * 2001-01-17 2002-09-19 Richard Yoza Method and apparatus for using a known address to gain access to a service provider having an unknown address
US20020097419A1 (en) 2001-01-19 2002-07-25 Chang William Ho Information apparatus for universal data output
US20020107706A1 (en) * 2001-02-02 2002-08-08 Oliver Mitchell B. Virtual negotiation
US7383329B2 (en) 2001-02-13 2008-06-03 Aventail, Llc Distributed cache for state transfer operations
US20020112009A1 (en) * 2001-02-12 2002-08-15 Capers Karen L. Method and system for providing data applications for a mobile device
US7360075B2 (en) * 2001-02-12 2008-04-15 Aventail Corporation, A Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of Sonicwall, Inc. Method and apparatus for providing secure streaming data transmission facilities using unreliable protocols
US7170864B2 (en) * 2001-03-08 2007-01-30 Bmc Software, Inc. System and method for WAP server management using a single console
US7421083B2 (en) * 2001-04-05 2008-09-02 General Instrument Corporation System for seamlessly updating service keys with automatic recovery
US7725604B1 (en) * 2001-04-26 2010-05-25 Palmsource Inc. Image run encoding
WO2002088911A2 (en) * 2001-04-30 2002-11-07 Nokia Corporation Protection of content reproduction using digital rights
EP1391809A4 (en) * 2001-05-24 2007-10-17 Sony Corp SERVICE DELIVERY METHOD AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
US20020199013A1 (en) * 2001-06-25 2002-12-26 Sorensen Lauge S. Method and apparatus for moving HTML/XML information into a HTTP header in a network
US7349942B1 (en) 2002-02-13 2008-03-25 Vignette Corporation Storage medium having a manageable file directory structure
US9639547B2 (en) 2001-07-13 2017-05-02 Open Text Sa Ulc Method and system for file-system based caching
US7761497B1 (en) 2001-07-13 2010-07-20 Vignette Software, LLC Storage medium having a manageable file directory structure
US7024452B1 (en) 2001-07-13 2006-04-04 Vignette Corporation Method and system for file-system based caching
US20030028673A1 (en) * 2001-08-01 2003-02-06 Intel Corporation System and method for compressing and decompressing browser cache in portable, handheld and wireless communication devices
US6996537B2 (en) 2001-08-13 2006-02-07 Qualcomm Incorporated System and method for providing subscribed applications on wireless devices over a wireless network
US9203923B2 (en) * 2001-08-15 2015-12-01 Qualcomm Incorporated Data synchronization interface
US8307045B1 (en) 2001-08-22 2012-11-06 Open Text S.A. System and method for creating target-specific data conversion templates using a master style template
US20040066920A1 (en) * 2001-08-31 2004-04-08 Vandermeijden Tom R. Method and apparatus for automatically populating a contact database in a mobile communication device
US20030046532A1 (en) * 2001-08-31 2003-03-06 Matthew Gast System and method for accelerating cryptographically secured transactions
US7127238B2 (en) * 2001-08-31 2006-10-24 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and apparatus for using Caller ID information in a browser of a mobile communication device
US8234412B2 (en) * 2001-09-10 2012-07-31 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for transmitting compacted text data
KR100464020B1 (ko) * 2001-10-05 2004-12-30 엘지전자 주식회사 이동통신 단말기의 브로드캐스트 데이터 수신방법
US8285880B2 (en) * 2001-11-30 2012-10-09 Oracle International Corporation Servicing requests that are issued in a protocol other than the protocol expected by the service
US20030105880A1 (en) * 2001-12-04 2003-06-05 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Distributed processing, storage, and transmision of multimedia information
US7219140B2 (en) * 2001-12-05 2007-05-15 Dennis Craig Marl Configuration and management systems for mobile and embedded devices
JP2003186794A (ja) * 2001-12-13 2003-07-04 Fujitsu Ltd 情報提供プログラム，情報提供プログラムを記録したコンピュータ読取可能な記録媒体及び情報提供装置
KR100393048B1 (ko) * 2001-12-15 2003-07-28 (주)이지네고 전화번호를 이용한 무선인터넷 접속방법
US6687793B1 (en) * 2001-12-28 2004-02-03 Vignette Corporation Method and system for optimizing resources for cache management
US7062515B1 (en) 2001-12-28 2006-06-13 Vignette Corporation System and method for the synchronization of a file in a cache
DE10200165A1 (de) * 2002-01-04 2003-07-10 Klaus Rock Verfahren zur Reduzierung der Latenzzeit bei der interaktiven Datenkommunikation über ein Satellitennetzwerk
AU2003209194A1 (en) * 2002-01-08 2003-07-24 Seven Networks, Inc. Secure transport for mobile communication network
US20030154308A1 (en) * 2002-02-13 2003-08-14 Infowave Software, Inc. General purpose compression proxy system and method for extensible markup language (XML) documents
US20030158959A1 (en) * 2002-02-15 2003-08-21 Jay Jayapalan Establishment of communications using point to point protocols such that duplicate negotiations are avoided
US7296243B2 (en) 2002-03-19 2007-11-13 Aol Llc Animating display motion
US7114160B2 (en) 2002-04-17 2006-09-26 Sbc Technology Resources, Inc. Web content customization via adaptation Web services
US7412495B2 (en) * 2002-04-26 2008-08-12 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method, system, and article of manufacture for a server side application
US8543657B2 (en) * 2002-05-03 2013-09-24 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd Data communication system and method using a wireless terminal
US7558873B1 (en) * 2002-05-08 2009-07-07 Nvidia Corporation Method for compressed large send
US7437548B1 (en) 2002-07-11 2008-10-14 Nvidia Corporation Network level protocol negotiation and operation
CA2393502A1 (en) * 2002-07-15 2004-01-15 Mark J. Frazer System and method for reliable transport in a computer network
US20040068569A1 (en) * 2002-09-06 2004-04-08 Mavis Liao System and method for identifying portable devices by a web server
US7535922B1 (en) * 2002-09-26 2009-05-19 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Devices, systems and methods for delivering text messages
US7558861B1 (en) * 2002-10-24 2009-07-07 NMS Communications Corp. System and methods for controlling an application
US8270423B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2012-09-18 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods of using packet boundaries for reduction in timeout prevention
US7616638B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2009-11-10 Orbital Data Corporation Wavefront detection and disambiguation of acknowledgments
US8233392B2 (en) * 2003-07-29 2012-07-31 Citrix Systems, Inc. Transaction boundary detection for reduction in timeout penalties
US7630305B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2009-12-08 Orbital Data Corporation TCP selective acknowledgements for communicating delivered and missed data packets
US8176428B2 (en) 2002-12-03 2012-05-08 Datawind Net Access Corporation Portable internet access device back page cache
JP4133274B2 (ja) * 2002-12-04 2008-08-13 株式会社エヌ・ティ・ティ・ドコモ コンテンツ配信システム、中継装置及びコンテンツ配信制御方法
US7908401B2 (en) 2002-12-12 2011-03-15 Flexiworld Technology, Inc. Method and device for wireless communication between computing devices
US7188216B1 (en) * 2002-12-13 2007-03-06 Vignette Corporation Method and system for an extensible caching framework
US8380932B1 (en) 2002-12-13 2013-02-19 Open Text S.A. Contextual regeneration of pages for web-based applications
US7360025B1 (en) 2002-12-13 2008-04-15 O'connell Conleth Method and system for automatic cache management
US8463998B1 (en) 2002-12-13 2013-06-11 Open Text S.A. System and method for managing page variations in a page delivery cache
US7818506B1 (en) * 2002-12-13 2010-10-19 Vignette Software Llc Method and system for cache management
US8312222B1 (en) 2002-12-13 2012-11-13 Open Text, S.A. Event-driven regeneration of pages for web-based applications
US7924767B2 (en) * 2002-12-26 2011-04-12 Sierra Wireless, Inc. Control and status protocol
US7792121B2 (en) * 2003-01-03 2010-09-07 Microsoft Corporation Frame protocol and scheduling system
US7181701B2 (en) * 2003-01-03 2007-02-20 Microsoft Corporation Glanceable information system and method
US8468126B2 (en) 2005-08-01 2013-06-18 Seven Networks, Inc. Publishing data in an information community
US7917468B2 (en) 2005-08-01 2011-03-29 Seven Networks, Inc. Linking of personal information management data
US7587486B2 (en) * 2003-01-08 2009-09-08 Microsoft Corporation Click stream analysis
US7853563B2 (en) 2005-08-01 2010-12-14 Seven Networks, Inc. Universal data aggregation
US7199895B2 (en) * 2003-01-23 2007-04-03 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Processing a printer control command
US9232077B2 (en) 2003-03-12 2016-01-05 Qualcomm Incorporated Automatic subscription system for applications and services provided to wireless devices
DE10315111A1 (de) * 2003-04-02 2004-10-14 Klaus Rock Verfahren zur Reduzierung der Latenzzeit bei der interaktiven Datenkommunikation zwischen einem Terminal Server und einem Terminal-Server Client in einem geostationären Satellitennetzwerk
US7313113B1 (en) * 2003-04-04 2007-12-25 Airespace, Inc. Dynamic transmit power configuration system for wireless network environments
CN107885679B (zh) * 2003-04-11 2021-10-08 富意科技公司 一种可实现自动运行的集成电路存储设备或方法
JP2005102133A (ja) * 2003-04-28 2005-04-14 Ricoh Co Ltd 画像形成装置及び宛先情報参照方法
EP1634423B1 (en) * 2003-06-06 2013-01-02 Computer Associates Think, Inc. System and method for compressing url request parameters
US7913294B1 (en) 2003-06-24 2011-03-22 Nvidia Corporation Network protocol processing for filtering packets
US7539169B1 (en) * 2003-06-30 2009-05-26 Cisco Systems, Inc. Directed association mechanism in wireless network environments
US8432800B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2013-04-30 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for stochastic-based quality of service
US8437284B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2013-05-07 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for additional retransmissions of dropped packets
US8238241B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2012-08-07 Citrix Systems, Inc. Automatic detection and window virtualization for flow control
US7236982B2 (en) * 2003-09-15 2007-06-26 Pic Web Services, Inc. Computer systems and methods for platform independent presentation design
US7788681B1 (en) 2003-09-16 2010-08-31 Vignette Software, LLC System and method for incorporating web services in a web site
US9614772B1 (en) * 2003-10-20 2017-04-04 F5 Networks, Inc. System and method for directing network traffic in tunneling applications
US7996505B2 (en) * 2003-10-24 2011-08-09 Microsoft Corporation Network and interface selection on a computing device capable of establishing connections via multiple network communications media
US20050149753A1 (en) * 2003-12-30 2005-07-07 Cromer Daryl C. Apparatus, system, and method for validating interface addresses
US20050198304A1 (en) * 2004-01-15 2005-09-08 Ian Oliver System and method for access point translation of web service content
CN101065765A (zh) 2004-01-21 2007-10-31 高通股份有限公司 无线订户网络中基于应用程序的价值记帐
US7369533B1 (en) * 2004-02-02 2008-05-06 Utstarcom, Inc. System, method and mobile devices transmitting request codes during link establishment in data networks
US20050171977A1 (en) * 2004-02-02 2005-08-04 Osborne James W. Methods, systems and products for data preservation
US7774834B1 (en) * 2004-02-18 2010-08-10 Citrix Systems, Inc. Rule generalization for web application entry point modeling
US7890996B1 (en) * 2004-02-18 2011-02-15 Teros, Inc. Using statistical analysis to generate exception rules that allow legitimate messages to pass through application proxies and gateways
US8484348B2 (en) * 2004-03-05 2013-07-09 Rockstar Consortium Us Lp Method and apparatus for facilitating fulfillment of web-service requests on a communication network
JP4160092B2 (ja) * 2004-03-09 2008-10-01 ケイティーフリーテル カンパニー リミテッド パケットデータ課金細分化方法及びそのシステム
US8244672B1 (en) * 2004-08-31 2012-08-14 Sprint Spectrum L.P. Method and system for establishing an application contact list
US7797724B2 (en) 2004-08-31 2010-09-14 Citrix Systems, Inc. Methods and apparatus for secure online access on a client device
US7593755B2 (en) 2004-09-15 2009-09-22 Microsoft Corporation Display of wireless data
WO2006045102A2 (en) * 2004-10-20 2006-04-27 Seven Networks, Inc. Method and apparatus for intercepting events in a communication system
US8010082B2 (en) 2004-10-20 2011-08-30 Seven Networks, Inc. Flexible billing architecture
US8001464B1 (en) * 2004-10-29 2011-08-16 Glovia International, Inc. Segmentation of markup language documents
US7706781B2 (en) 2004-11-22 2010-04-27 Seven Networks International Oy Data security in a mobile e-mail service
FI117152B (fi) 2004-12-03 2006-06-30 Seven Networks Internat Oy Sähköpostiasetusten käyttöönotto matkaviestimelle
US8077632B2 (en) * 2005-01-20 2011-12-13 Citrix Systems, Inc. Automatic LAN/WAN port detection
US7581005B2 (en) * 2005-01-20 2009-08-25 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for preserving transport layer protocol options
US20060195557A1 (en) * 2005-02-11 2006-08-31 Critical Path, Inc., A California Corporation Configuration of digital content communication systems
US7805140B2 (en) * 2005-02-18 2010-09-28 Cisco Technology, Inc. Pre-emptive roaming mechanism allowing for enhanced QoS in wireless network environments
US7596376B2 (en) * 2005-02-18 2009-09-29 Cisco Technology, Inc. Methods, apparatuses and systems facilitating client handoffs in wireless network systems
US20060193299A1 (en) * 2005-02-25 2006-08-31 Cicso Technology, Inc., A California Corporation Location-based enhancements for wireless intrusion detection
US7752633B1 (en) 2005-03-14 2010-07-06 Seven Networks, Inc. Cross-platform event engine
JP2006260197A (ja) * 2005-03-17 2006-09-28 Toshiba Corp 電子ファイル保存システム
EP1708423A1 (en) 2005-03-29 2006-10-04 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Inter-domain context transfer using context tranfer managers
US7796742B1 (en) 2005-04-21 2010-09-14 Seven Networks, Inc. Systems and methods for simplified provisioning
US8438633B1 (en) 2005-04-21 2013-05-07 Seven Networks, Inc. Flexible real-time inbox access
JP4515319B2 (ja) * 2005-04-27 2010-07-28 株式会社日立製作所 コンピュータシステム
US9185538B2 (en) 2005-05-31 2015-11-10 Qualcomm Incorporated Wireless subscriber application and content distribution and differentiated pricing
US9350875B2 (en) 2005-05-31 2016-05-24 Qualcomm Incorporated Wireless subscriber billing and distribution
WO2006136660A1 (en) 2005-06-21 2006-12-28 Seven Networks International Oy Maintaining an ip connection in a mobile network
US8418233B1 (en) 2005-07-29 2013-04-09 F5 Networks, Inc. Rule based extensible authentication
US8069166B2 (en) 2005-08-01 2011-11-29 Seven Networks, Inc. Managing user-to-user contact with inferred presence information
US8533308B1 (en) 2005-08-12 2013-09-10 F5 Networks, Inc. Network traffic management through protocol-configurable transaction processing
JP2007083873A (ja) * 2005-09-22 2007-04-05 Alpine Electronics Inc 車載表示装置およびこれに用いる車載プロキシサーバ
US8539374B2 (en) * 2005-09-23 2013-09-17 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Graphical user interface for electronic devices
US7698269B2 (en) * 2005-11-29 2010-04-13 Yahoo! Inc. URL shortening and authentication with reverse hash lookup
US8565088B1 (en) 2006-02-01 2013-10-22 F5 Networks, Inc. Selectively enabling packet concatenation based on a transaction boundary
US9143622B2 (en) 2006-02-17 2015-09-22 Qualcomm Incorporated Prepay accounts for applications, services and content for communication devices
US9185234B2 (en) 2006-02-22 2015-11-10 Qualcomm Incorporated Automated account mapping in a wireless subscriber billing system
US7769395B2 (en) 2006-06-20 2010-08-03 Seven Networks, Inc. Location-based operations and messaging
KR100713523B1 (ko) * 2006-03-03 2007-05-02 삼성전자주식회사 스패닝 트리 구성시 루트 브리지 선택 방법
US8533338B2 (en) * 2006-03-21 2013-09-10 Japan Communications, Inc. Systems and methods for providing secure communications for transactions
US20070233806A1 (en) * 2006-03-29 2007-10-04 Mehrzad Asadi Method and system for conducting an internet search using a mobile radio terminal
US8280982B2 (en) 2006-05-24 2012-10-02 Time Warner Cable Inc. Personal content server apparatus and methods
US9386327B2 (en) * 2006-05-24 2016-07-05 Time Warner Cable Enterprises Llc Secondary content insertion apparatus and methods
US8195762B2 (en) * 2006-05-25 2012-06-05 Adobe Systems Incorporated Locating a portion of data on a computer network
US7821986B2 (en) * 2006-05-31 2010-10-26 Cisco Technology, Inc. WLAN infrastructure provided directions and roaming
US7861005B2 (en) * 2006-06-12 2010-12-28 Research In Motion Limited Method and apparatus for folder synchronization and management
US8024762B2 (en) 2006-06-13 2011-09-20 Time Warner Cable Inc. Methods and apparatus for providing virtual content over a network
US8185607B1 (en) * 2006-06-14 2012-05-22 Comscore, Inc. Querying wireless network offerings
US20080001717A1 (en) * 2006-06-20 2008-01-03 Trevor Fiatal System and method for group management
US20080016158A1 (en) * 2006-07-13 2008-01-17 Comverse Ltd. Method for appending a signature to a size limited text message
US8042036B1 (en) 2006-07-20 2011-10-18 Adobe Systems Incorporated Generation of a URL containing a beginning and an ending point of a selected mark-up language document portion
US20080055311A1 (en) * 2006-08-31 2008-03-06 Ati Technologies Inc. Portable device with run-time based rendering quality control and method thereof
US9178793B1 (en) * 2006-09-29 2015-11-03 Yahoo! Inc. Engine for processing content rules associated with locations in a page
US20080082578A1 (en) * 2006-09-29 2008-04-03 Andrew Hogue Displaying search results on a one or two dimensional graph
JP4771915B2 (ja) * 2006-11-15 2011-09-14 京セラミタ株式会社 Ｈｔｍｌテキストを変換する装置、方法、およびプログラム
US7664857B2 (en) 2007-01-26 2010-02-16 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods of using an IP ID field for automatic WAN/LAN detection
US20080183839A1 (en) * 2007-01-26 2008-07-31 Shuqair Michel A D System For Computer To Mobile Device Place Shifting
US9106606B1 (en) 2007-02-05 2015-08-11 F5 Networks, Inc. Method, intermediate device and computer program code for maintaining persistency
JP4714940B2 (ja) * 2007-02-09 2011-07-06 独立行政法人情報通信研究機構 項目表示装置、項目表示方法、ならびに、プログラム
US8181206B2 (en) 2007-02-28 2012-05-15 Time Warner Cable Inc. Personal content server apparatus and methods
US7532134B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2009-05-12 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for sharing compression histories between multiple devices
US8572160B2 (en) 2007-03-12 2013-10-29 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for script injection
US7827237B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2010-11-02 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for identifying long matches of data in a compression history
US7619545B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2009-11-17 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods of using application and protocol specific parsing for compression
US8255570B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2012-08-28 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods of compression history expiration and synchronization
US9021140B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2015-04-28 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for error detection
US7865585B2 (en) 2007-03-12 2011-01-04 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for providing dynamic ad hoc proxy-cache hierarchies
US7460038B2 (en) * 2007-03-12 2008-12-02 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods of clustered sharing of compression histories
US8693494B2 (en) 2007-06-01 2014-04-08 Seven Networks, Inc. Polling
US8805425B2 (en) 2007-06-01 2014-08-12 Seven Networks, Inc. Integrated messaging
KR101372418B1 (ko) * 2007-10-19 2014-03-12 (주)휴맥스 비트스트림 디코딩 장치 및 방법
US7809697B1 (en) * 2007-11-09 2010-10-05 Google Inc. Compressing hyperlinks in a hyperlink-based document
US8364181B2 (en) 2007-12-10 2013-01-29 Seven Networks, Inc. Electronic-mail filtering for mobile devices
US9002828B2 (en) 2007-12-13 2015-04-07 Seven Networks, Inc. Predictive content delivery
US8793305B2 (en) 2007-12-13 2014-07-29 Seven Networks, Inc. Content delivery to a mobile device from a content service
ES2390988T3 (es) * 2008-01-11 2012-11-20 Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) Gestión de mensajes en un subsistema multimedia IP
US8107921B2 (en) 2008-01-11 2012-01-31 Seven Networks, Inc. Mobile virtual network operator
US8468117B1 (en) * 2008-01-22 2013-06-18 Salesforce.Com, Inc. System, method and computer program product for creating a visual component for tenants of an on-demand database service
US8862657B2 (en) 2008-01-25 2014-10-14 Seven Networks, Inc. Policy based content service
US20090189892A1 (en) 2008-01-27 2009-07-30 Nitin Desai Methods and systems for detecting a dirty region within a frame encompassing three dimensional graphics
US8255491B1 (en) 2008-01-28 2012-08-28 Comscore, Inc. Determining a particular type of wireless device to be emulated
US20090193338A1 (en) 2008-01-28 2009-07-30 Trevor Fiatal Reducing network and battery consumption during content delivery and playback
US9503691B2 (en) 2008-02-19 2016-11-22 Time Warner Cable Enterprises Llc Methods and apparatus for enhanced advertising and promotional delivery in a network
US20090288019A1 (en) * 2008-05-15 2009-11-19 Microsoft Corporation Dynamic image map and graphics for rendering mobile web application interfaces
US9832069B1 (en) 2008-05-30 2017-11-28 F5 Networks, Inc. Persistence based on server response in an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)
US8787947B2 (en) 2008-06-18 2014-07-22 Seven Networks, Inc. Application discovery on mobile devices
US8078158B2 (en) 2008-06-26 2011-12-13 Seven Networks, Inc. Provisioning applications for a mobile device
US9130846B1 (en) 2008-08-27 2015-09-08 F5 Networks, Inc. Exposed control components for customizable load balancing and persistence
US8041893B1 (en) 2008-09-09 2011-10-18 Vignette Software Llc System and method for managing large filesystem-based caches
WO2010042578A1 (en) 2008-10-08 2010-04-15 Citrix Systems, Inc. Systems and methods for real-time endpoint application flow control with network structure component
US8909759B2 (en) 2008-10-10 2014-12-09 Seven Networks, Inc. Bandwidth measurement
DE102009010902A1 (de) * 2009-03-02 2010-09-16 SOFHA GmbH Gesellschaft für Soft- und Hardware Verfahren und Anordnung zur Konfiguration eines Druckertreibers sowie ein entsprechendes Computerprogramm und ein entsprechendes computerlesbares Speichermedium
WO2010107346A1 (en) * 2009-03-18 2010-09-23 Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) Access node comprising voip cards with common ip/mac addresses
US20100268673A1 (en) * 2009-04-16 2010-10-21 The Boeing Company Associate memory learning agent technology for travel optimization and monitoring
WO2011027492A1 (ja) 2009-09-04 2011-03-10 パナソニック株式会社 クライアント端末、サーバ、サーバクライアントシステム、連携動作処理方法、プログラム、および記録媒体
US8830954B2 (en) * 2009-12-31 2014-09-09 Intel Corporation Protocol for communication between mobile station and WiMAX signaling forwarding function
US9043320B2 (en) * 2010-02-22 2015-05-26 Yahoo! Inc. Enhanced find-in-page functions in a web browser
US20110225134A1 (en) * 2010-03-12 2011-09-15 Yahoo! Inc. System and method for enhanced find-in-page functions in a web browser
WO2011126889A2 (en) 2010-03-30 2011-10-13 Seven Networks, Inc. 3d mobile user interface with configurable workspace management
US20110264530A1 (en) 2010-04-23 2011-10-27 Bryan Santangelo Apparatus and methods for dynamic secondary content and data insertion and delivery
US8838783B2 (en) 2010-07-26 2014-09-16 Seven Networks, Inc. Distributed caching for resource and mobile network traffic management
EP3651028A1 (en) 2010-07-26 2020-05-13 Seven Networks, LLC Mobile network traffic coordination across multiple applications
GB2495877B (en) 2010-07-26 2013-10-02 Seven Networks Inc Distributed implementation of dynamic wireless traffic policy
EP2599280A2 (en) 2010-07-26 2013-06-05 Seven Networks, Inc. Mobile application traffic optimization
US8166164B1 (en) 2010-11-01 2012-04-24 Seven Networks, Inc. Application and network-based long poll request detection and cacheability assessment therefor
US8190701B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2012-05-29 Seven Networks, Inc. Cache defeat detection and caching of content addressed by identifiers intended to defeat cache
US8903954B2 (en) 2010-11-22 2014-12-02 Seven Networks, Inc. Optimization of resource polling intervals to satisfy mobile device requests
WO2012060995A2 (en) 2010-11-01 2012-05-10 Michael Luna Distributed caching in a wireless network of content delivered for a mobile application over a long-held request
US8843153B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2014-09-23 Seven Networks, Inc. Mobile traffic categorization and policy for network use optimization while preserving user experience
US8326985B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2012-12-04 Seven Networks, Inc. Distributed management of keep-alive message signaling for mobile network resource conservation and optimization
US9060032B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2015-06-16 Seven Networks, Inc. Selective data compression by a distributed traffic management system to reduce mobile data traffic and signaling traffic
US9330196B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2016-05-03 Seven Networks, Llc Wireless traffic management system cache optimization using http headers
CN103620576B (zh) 2010-11-01 2016-11-09 七网络公司 适用于移动应用程序行为和网络条件的缓存
US8484314B2 (en) 2010-11-01 2013-07-09 Seven Networks, Inc. Distributed caching in a wireless network of content delivered for a mobile application over a long-held request
CA2798523C (en) 2010-11-22 2015-02-24 Seven Networks, Inc. Aligning data transfer to optimize connections established for transmission over a wireless network
FR2968494B1 (fr) * 2010-12-03 2012-12-28 Oberthur Technologies Procede de communication entre un serveur embarque et un serveur distant
GB2501416B (en) 2011-01-07 2018-03-21 Seven Networks Llc System and method for reduction of mobile network traffic used for domain name system (DNS) queries
US20120254453A1 (en) * 2011-03-28 2012-10-04 Sony Corporation Remote user interface adapter
US8316098B2 (en) 2011-04-19 2012-11-20 Seven Networks Inc. Social caching for device resource sharing and management
EP2621144B1 (en) 2011-04-27 2014-06-25 Seven Networks, Inc. System and method for making requests on behalf of a mobile device based on atomic processes for mobile network traffic relief
EP2702500B1 (en) 2011-04-27 2017-07-19 Seven Networks, LLC Detecting and preserving state for satisfying application requests in a distributed proxy and cache system
WO2013015995A1 (en) 2011-07-27 2013-01-31 Seven Networks, Inc. Automatic generation and distribution of policy information regarding malicious mobile traffic in a wireless network
US8468145B2 (en) * 2011-09-16 2013-06-18 Google Inc. Indexing of URLs with fragments
US9489121B2 (en) * 2011-11-02 2016-11-08 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Optimal display and zoom of objects and text in a document
US8868753B2 (en) 2011-12-06 2014-10-21 Seven Networks, Inc. System of redundantly clustered machines to provide failover mechanisms for mobile traffic management and network resource conservation
US8934414B2 (en) 2011-12-06 2015-01-13 Seven Networks, Inc. Cellular or WiFi mobile traffic optimization based on public or private network destination
US9277443B2 (en) 2011-12-07 2016-03-01 Seven Networks, Llc Radio-awareness of mobile device for sending server-side control signals using a wireless network optimized transport protocol
WO2013086455A1 (en) 2011-12-07 2013-06-13 Seven Networks, Inc. Flexible and dynamic integration schemas of a traffic management system with various network operators for network traffic alleviation
EP2792188B1 (en) 2011-12-14 2019-03-20 Seven Networks, LLC Mobile network reporting and usage analytics system and method using aggregation of data in a distributed traffic optimization system
US9832095B2 (en) 2011-12-14 2017-11-28 Seven Networks, Llc Operation modes for mobile traffic optimization and concurrent management of optimized and non-optimized traffic
WO2013090821A1 (en) 2011-12-14 2013-06-20 Seven Networks, Inc. Hierarchies and categories for management and deployment of policies for distributed wireless traffic optimization
WO2013103988A1 (en) 2012-01-05 2013-07-11 Seven Networks, Inc. Detection and management of user interactions with foreground applications on a mobile device in distributed caching
WO2013116856A1 (en) 2012-02-02 2013-08-08 Seven Networks, Inc. Dynamic categorization of applications for network access in a mobile network
WO2013116852A1 (en) 2012-02-03 2013-08-08 Seven Networks, Inc. User as an end point for profiling and optimizing the delivery of content and data in a wireless network
US9647748B1 (en) 2013-01-21 2017-05-09 Rockwell Collins, Inc. Global broadband antenna system
US8812695B2 (en) 2012-04-09 2014-08-19 Seven Networks, Inc. Method and system for management of a virtual network connection without heartbeat messages
WO2013155208A1 (en) 2012-04-10 2013-10-17 Seven Networks, Inc. Intelligent customer service/call center services enhanced using real-time and historical mobile application and traffic-related statistics collected by a distributed caching system in a mobile network
WO2014011216A1 (en) 2012-07-13 2014-01-16 Seven Networks, Inc. Dynamic bandwidth adjustment for browsing or streaming activity in a wireless network based on prediction of user behavior when interacting with mobile applications
US9356980B2 (en) 2012-07-31 2016-05-31 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Distributing communication of a data stream among multiple devices
US9774608B2 (en) * 2012-08-07 2017-09-26 Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. Device control method, device control system, and server device
US20140074871A1 (en) * 2012-09-07 2014-03-13 Research In Motion Limited Device, Method and Computer-Readable Medium For Recognizing Places
US10033837B1 (en) * 2012-09-29 2018-07-24 F5 Networks, Inc. System and method for utilizing a data reducing module for dictionary compression of encoded data
US9161258B2 (en) 2012-10-24 2015-10-13 Seven Networks, Llc Optimized and selective management of policy deployment to mobile clients in a congested network to prevent further aggravation of network congestion
WO2014063240A1 (en) * 2012-10-26 2014-05-01 Absolute Software Corporation Device monitoring using multiple servers optimized for different types of communications
TWI511509B (zh) * 2012-12-11 2015-12-01 Inst Information Industry 智慧型電表基礎建設網路系統及其訊息廣播方法
US9307493B2 (en) 2012-12-20 2016-04-05 Seven Networks, Llc Systems and methods for application management of mobile device radio state promotion and demotion
US9750079B1 (en) * 2013-01-21 2017-08-29 Rockwell Collins, Inc. Hybrid satellite radio system
US9241314B2 (en) 2013-01-23 2016-01-19 Seven Networks, Llc Mobile device with application or context aware fast dormancy
US8874761B2 (en) 2013-01-25 2014-10-28 Seven Networks, Inc. Signaling optimization in a wireless network for traffic utilizing proprietary and non-proprietary protocols
US9326185B2 (en) 2013-03-11 2016-04-26 Seven Networks, Llc Mobile network congestion recognition for optimization of mobile traffic
US20140282786A1 (en) 2013-03-12 2014-09-18 Time Warner Cable Enterprises Llc Methods and apparatus for providing and uploading content to personalized network storage
US9224228B1 (en) * 2013-03-15 2015-12-29 Google Inc. Data presentation
US9065765B2 (en) 2013-07-22 2015-06-23 Seven Networks, Inc. Proxy server associated with a mobile carrier for enhancing mobile traffic management in a mobile network
US20150052237A1 (en) * 2013-08-15 2015-02-19 Unisys Corporation Transmission of large data files over an extensible scripting file format
US20150072645A1 (en) * 2013-09-11 2015-03-12 II Carl Jibril Sulaiman Method for managing prepaid wireless accounts
US9357435B2 (en) * 2013-11-06 2016-05-31 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Method and system for handling audio packets during a volte call
US10645597B2 (en) 2014-02-25 2020-05-05 Roblox Corporation Message by message tunability of message reliability in a cellular network
US9516519B2 (en) * 2014-02-25 2016-12-06 Chetan Ahuja Methods and systems of internet protocol optimization for cellular data networks
US10382981B2 (en) 2014-02-25 2019-08-13 Roblox Corporation Cellular network protocol optimizations
US9898520B2 (en) 2014-03-25 2018-02-20 Open Text Sa Ulc Systems and methods for seamless access to remotely managed documents using synchronization of locally stored documents
US10114805B1 (en) * 2014-06-17 2018-10-30 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Inline address commands for content customization
US9614900B1 (en) * 2014-06-19 2017-04-04 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Multi-process architecture for a split browser
US10713859B1 (en) * 2014-09-12 2020-07-14 World Wide Walkie Talkie (Mbt) Wireless flight data recorder with satellite network method for real time remote access and black box backup
US9946702B2 (en) * 2014-11-14 2018-04-17 Dna Software, Inc. Digital processing system for transferring data for remote access across a multicomputer data network and method thereof
US9819563B2 (en) * 2014-12-19 2017-11-14 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Failure management for electronic transactions
US10834065B1 (en) 2015-03-31 2020-11-10 F5 Networks, Inc. Methods for SSL protected NTLM re-authentication and devices thereof
US10334041B2 (en) * 2015-11-23 2019-06-25 Intel Corporation Network interface device facilitating transaction assurance
US10841262B2 (en) * 2016-01-11 2020-11-17 Etorch, Inc. Client-agnostic and network-agnostic device management
US11323399B2 (en) * 2016-01-11 2022-05-03 Mimecast North America, Inc. Client-agnostic and network-agnostic device management
US10404698B1 (en) 2016-01-15 2019-09-03 F5 Networks, Inc. Methods for adaptive organization of web application access points in webtops and devices thereof
US10754968B2 (en) * 2016-06-10 2020-08-25 Digital 14 Llc Peer-to-peer security protocol apparatus, computer program, and method
GB2552201B (en) * 2016-07-13 2019-12-11 Canon Kk Method and device for http streaming over unreliable transport protocol
US11003632B2 (en) 2016-11-28 2021-05-11 Open Text Sa Ulc System and method for content synchronization
US11301431B2 (en) 2017-06-02 2022-04-12 Open Text Sa Ulc System and method for selective synchronization
US10911491B2 (en) * 2017-11-20 2021-02-02 International Business Machines Corporation Encryption with sealed keys
US10970320B2 (en) * 2019-04-26 2021-04-06 Open Text Sa Ulc Systems and methods for coordinate-based search
US11403849B2 (en) 2019-09-25 2022-08-02 Charter Communications Operating, Llc Methods and apparatus for characterization of digital content

Citations (90)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4432057A (en) * 1981-11-27 1984-02-14 International Business Machines Corporation Method for the dynamic replication of data under distributed system control to control utilization of resources in a multiprocessing, distributed data base system
US4807182A (en) * 1986-03-12 1989-02-21 Advanced Software, Inc. Apparatus and method for comparing data groups
US4866611A (en) * 1987-01-29 1989-09-12 International Business Machines Corporation Method for automatically reconciling entries on two copies of independently maintained electronic calendars
US4875159A (en) * 1987-12-22 1989-10-17 Amdahl Corporation Version management system using plural control fields for synchronizing two versions of files in a multiprocessor system
US4956809A (en) * 1986-11-24 1990-09-11 Mark Williams Company Method for canonical ordering of binary data for portable operating systems
US5001628A (en) * 1987-02-13 1991-03-19 International Business Machines Corporation Single system image uniquely defining an environment for each user in a data processing system
US5065360A (en) * 1989-01-10 1991-11-12 Kelly Douglas J Portable data storage and editing device
US5124909A (en) * 1988-10-31 1992-06-23 Hewlett-Packard Company Software program for providing cooperative processing between personal computers and a host computer
US5142619A (en) * 1990-02-21 1992-08-25 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for visually comparing files in a data processing system
US5159592A (en) * 1990-10-29 1992-10-27 International Business Machines Corporation Network address management for a wired network supporting wireless communication to a plurality of mobile users
US5187787A (en) * 1989-07-27 1993-02-16 Teknekron Software Systems, Inc. Apparatus and method for providing decoupling of data exchange details for providing high performance communication between software processes
US5210868A (en) * 1989-12-20 1993-05-11 Hitachi Ltd. Database system and matching method between databases
US5235679A (en) * 1989-06-14 1993-08-10 Hitachi, Ltd. Guidance method and apparatus upon a computer system
US5237678A (en) * 1987-05-08 1993-08-17 Kuechler William L System for storing and manipulating information in an information base
US5251291A (en) * 1989-10-13 1993-10-05 International Business Machines Corporation Method of selectively transferring video displayed information
US5261045A (en) * 1987-12-18 1993-11-09 International Business Machines Corporation Method of exchanging entries from a plurality of different electronic calendars based on interactively entered criteria
US5261094A (en) * 1991-04-08 1993-11-09 International Business Machines Corporation Asynchronous replication of data changes by distributed update requests
US5272628A (en) * 1990-04-16 1993-12-21 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for aggregating tables having dissimilar formats
US5283887A (en) * 1990-12-19 1994-02-01 Bull Hn Information Systems Inc. Automatic document format conversion in an electronic mail system based upon user preference
US5301313A (en) * 1990-07-17 1994-04-05 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Manipulating data in a relational data base having operational manipulations defined in an input table and displayed results in an output table with a line displayed designating direction of data flow
US5315709A (en) * 1990-12-03 1994-05-24 Bachman Information Systems, Inc. Method and apparatus for transforming objects in data models
US5327555A (en) * 1991-02-14 1994-07-05 Hewlett-Packard Company Method for reconciling entries in a plurality of schedules
US5333252A (en) * 1990-04-05 1994-07-26 Claris Corporation Interface for arranging order of fields
US5339434A (en) * 1992-12-07 1994-08-16 Trw Inc. Heterogeneous data translation system
US5355476A (en) * 1990-12-29 1994-10-11 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. File update apparatus for generating a matrix representing a subset of files and the update correspondence between directories and files
US5379057A (en) * 1988-11-14 1995-01-03 Microslate, Inc. Portable computer with touch screen and computer system employing same
US5392390A (en) * 1992-04-10 1995-02-21 Intellilink Corp. Method for mapping, translating, and dynamically reconciling data between disparate computer platforms
US5434994A (en) * 1994-05-23 1995-07-18 International Business Machines Corporation System and method for maintaining replicated data coherency in a data processing system
US5442633A (en) * 1992-07-08 1995-08-15 International Business Machines Corporation Shortcut network layer routing for mobile hosts
US5463772A (en) * 1993-04-23 1995-10-31 Hewlett-Packard Company Transparent peripheral file systems with on-board compression, decompression, and space management
US5475833A (en) * 1991-09-04 1995-12-12 International Business Machines Corporation Database system for facilitating comparison of related information stored in a distributed resource
US5481721A (en) * 1991-07-17 1996-01-02 Next Computer, Inc. Method for providing automatic and dynamic translation of object oriented programming language-based message passing into operation system message passing using proxy objects
US5488685A (en) * 1993-01-27 1996-01-30 Apple Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for providing visual cues in a graphic user interface
US5519606A (en) * 1992-01-21 1996-05-21 Starfish Software, Inc. System and methods for appointment reconciliation
US5537592A (en) * 1989-05-08 1996-07-16 Alphatronix System and method for reading and writing disks formatted for an operating system foreign to the host computer
US5544356A (en) * 1990-12-31 1996-08-06 Intel Corporation Block-erasable non-volatile semiconductor memory which tracks and stores the total number of write/erase cycles for each block
US5546539A (en) * 1993-12-29 1996-08-13 Intel Corporation Method and system for updating files of a plurality of storage devices through propogation of files over a nework
US5572528A (en) * 1995-03-20 1996-11-05 Novell, Inc. Mobile networking method and apparatus
US5574859A (en) * 1991-11-01 1996-11-12 Yeh; Keming W. Method and apparatus for using a software configurable connector to connect a palmtop computer having a custom port to a host having a standard port
US5598536A (en) * 1994-08-09 1997-01-28 Shiva Corporation Apparatus and method for providing remote users with the same unique IP address upon each network access
US5647002A (en) * 1995-09-01 1997-07-08 Lucent Technologies Inc. Synchronization of mailboxes of different types
US5649195A (en) * 1995-05-22 1997-07-15 International Business Machines Corporation Systems and methods for synchronizing databases in a receive-only network
US5666362A (en) * 1995-07-25 1997-09-09 3Com Corporation Method and apparatus for asynchronous PPP and synchronous PPP conversion
US5666530A (en) * 1992-12-02 1997-09-09 Compaq Computer Corporation System for automatic synchronization of common file between portable computer and host computer via communication channel selected from a plurality of usable channels there between
US5673322A (en) * 1996-03-22 1997-09-30 Bell Communications Research, Inc. System and method for providing protocol translation and filtering to access the world wide web from wireless or low-bandwidth networks
US5684990A (en) * 1995-01-11 1997-11-04 Puma Technology, Inc. Synchronization of disparate databases
US5696702A (en) * 1995-04-17 1997-12-09 Skinner; Gary R. Time and work tracker
US5699513A (en) * 1995-03-31 1997-12-16 Motorola, Inc. Method for secure network access via message intercept
US5704029A (en) * 1994-05-23 1997-12-30 Wright Strategies, Inc. System and method for completing an electronic form
US5703581A (en) * 1996-06-14 1997-12-30 Lucent Technologies Inc. Method and apparatus for data compression and decompression
US5706509A (en) * 1995-04-28 1998-01-06 Intel Corporation Application independent record level synchronization
US5710922A (en) * 1993-06-02 1998-01-20 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for synchronizing and archiving information between computer systems
US5724510A (en) * 1996-09-06 1998-03-03 Fluke Corporation Method of configuring a valid IP address and detecting duplicate IP addresses in a local area network
US5727202A (en) * 1995-10-18 1998-03-10 Palm Computing, Inc. Method and apparatus for synchronizing information on two different computer systems
US5727159A (en) * 1996-04-10 1998-03-10 Kikinis; Dan System in which a Proxy-Server translates information received from the Internet into a form/format readily usable by low power portable computers
US5729452A (en) * 1995-03-31 1998-03-17 Envirotest Acquisition Co. Method and system for diagnosing and reporting failure of a vehicle emission test
US5742668A (en) * 1994-09-19 1998-04-21 Bell Communications Research, Inc. Electronic massaging network
US5742820A (en) * 1995-07-06 1998-04-21 Novell, Inc. Mechanism for efficiently synchronizing information over a network
US5745699A (en) * 1993-09-24 1998-04-28 Apple Computer, Inc. Dynamic address assignment in an arbitrarily connected network
US5758354A (en) * 1995-04-28 1998-05-26 Intel Corporation Application independent e-mail synchronization
US5761439A (en) * 1995-09-25 1998-06-02 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for synchronizing communications between networked computers
US5802312A (en) * 1994-09-27 1998-09-01 Research In Motion Limited System for transmitting data files between computers in a wireless environment utilizing a file transfer agent executing on host system
US5812819A (en) * 1995-06-05 1998-09-22 Shiva Corporation Remote access apparatus and method which allow dynamic internet protocol (IP) address management
US5819274A (en) * 1994-12-16 1998-10-06 Xcellenet, Inc. Methods, systems and computer program products for transferring files from a data processing server to a remote/mobile data processing node
US5821927A (en) * 1996-07-25 1998-10-13 International Business Machines Corporation Web browser display indicator signalling that currently displayed web page needs to be refereshed from remote source
US5835061A (en) * 1995-06-06 1998-11-10 Wayport, Inc. Method and apparatus for geographic-based communications service
US5857191A (en) * 1996-07-08 1999-01-05 Gradient Technologies, Inc. Web application server with secure common gateway interface
US5861883A (en) * 1997-05-13 1999-01-19 International Business Machines Corp. Method and system for portably enabling awareness, touring, and conferencing over the world-wide web using proxies and shared-state servers
US5907801A (en) * 1995-09-22 1999-05-25 At&T Wireless Services, Inc. Apparatus and method for optimizing wireless financial transactions
US5911141A (en) * 1995-11-07 1999-06-08 International Business Machines Corporation On-line hierarchical form records identification
US5918013A (en) * 1996-06-03 1999-06-29 Webtv Networks, Inc. Method of transcoding documents in a network environment using a proxy server
US5948066A (en) * 1997-03-13 1999-09-07 Motorola, Inc. System and method for delivery of information over narrow-band communications links
US6006258A (en) * 1997-09-12 1999-12-21 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Source address directed message delivery
US6035325A (en) * 1998-05-13 2000-03-07 International Business Machines Corporation Retrieval, saving and printing in a computer network system environment
US6115754A (en) * 1997-12-29 2000-09-05 Nortel Networks Limited System and method for appending location information to a communication sent from a mobile terminal operating in a wireless communication system to an internet server
US6115384A (en) * 1996-06-20 2000-09-05 Fourelle Systems, Inc Gateway architecture for data communication bandwidth-constrained and charge-by-use networks
US6119167A (en) * 1997-07-11 2000-09-12 Phone.Com, Inc. Pushing and pulling data in networks
US6119155A (en) * 1995-12-11 2000-09-12 Phone.Com, Inc. Method and apparatus for accelerating navigation of hypertext pages using compound requests
US6138009A (en) * 1997-06-17 2000-10-24 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson System and method for customizing wireless communication units
US6144997A (en) * 1994-06-27 2000-11-07 Xerox Corporation System and method for accessing and distributing electronic documents
US6173316B1 (en) * 1998-04-08 2001-01-09 Geoworks Corporation Wireless communication device with markup language based man-machine interface
US6243739B1 (en) * 1997-07-11 2001-06-05 Phone.Com, Inc. Reducing perceived latency in servicing user requests on low-bandwidth communication channels
US6247048B1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2001-06-12 Openwave Systems Inc Method and apparatus for transcoding character sets between internet hosts and thin client devices over data networks
US6253326B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2001-06-26 Palm, Inc. Method and system for secure communications
US6343318B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2002-01-29 Palm, Inc. Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks
US6397259B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2002-05-28 Palm, Inc. Method, system and apparatus for packet minimized communications
US6430409B1 (en) * 1995-12-11 2002-08-06 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and architecture for an interactive two-way data communication network
US20020122061A1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2002-09-05 Bruce K. Martin Configurable man-machine interface
US6457060B1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2002-09-24 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and apparatus for flexibly linking to remotely located content on a network server through use of aliases
US7025209B2 (en) * 1998-05-29 2006-04-11 Palmsource, Inc. Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Family Cites Families (12)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5754774A (en) * 1996-02-15 1998-05-19 International Business Machine Corp. Client/server communication system
US6108655A (en) * 1996-07-19 2000-08-22 Cisco Technology, Inc. Method and apparatus for transmitting images and other objects over a computer network system
US6202060B1 (en) * 1996-10-29 2001-03-13 Bao Q. Tran Data management system
US6182127B1 (en) * 1997-02-12 2001-01-30 Digital Paper, Llc Network image view server using efficent client-server tilting and caching architecture
US6816880B1 (en) * 1997-03-26 2004-11-09 Concerto Software, Inc. Browser user inter face for client workstation
US6286045B1 (en) * 1997-05-19 2001-09-04 Matchlogic, Inc. Information storage and delivery over a computer network using centralized intelligence to monitor and control the information being delivered
US6564250B1 (en) * 1997-08-21 2003-05-13 Planetweb, Inc. Miniclient for internet appliance
US6594682B2 (en) * 1997-10-28 2003-07-15 Microsoft Corporation Client-side system for scheduling delivery of web content and locally managing the web content
US6088718A (en) * 1998-01-15 2000-07-11 Microsoft Corporation Methods and apparatus for using resource transition probability models for pre-fetching resources
US6263437B1 (en) * 1998-02-19 2001-07-17 Openware Systems Inc Method and apparatus for conducting crypto-ignition processes between thin client devices and server devices over data networks
US6353839B1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2002-03-05 Openwave Systems Inc. Method for inline variables management in a hypermedia display language
US6138158A (en) * 1998-04-30 2000-10-24 Phone.Com, Inc. Method and system for pushing and pulling data using wideband and narrowband transport systems

Patent Citations (93)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4432057A (en) * 1981-11-27 1984-02-14 International Business Machines Corporation Method for the dynamic replication of data under distributed system control to control utilization of resources in a multiprocessing, distributed data base system
US4807182A (en) * 1986-03-12 1989-02-21 Advanced Software, Inc. Apparatus and method for comparing data groups
US4956809A (en) * 1986-11-24 1990-09-11 Mark Williams Company Method for canonical ordering of binary data for portable operating systems
US4866611A (en) * 1987-01-29 1989-09-12 International Business Machines Corporation Method for automatically reconciling entries on two copies of independently maintained electronic calendars
US5001628A (en) * 1987-02-13 1991-03-19 International Business Machines Corporation Single system image uniquely defining an environment for each user in a data processing system
US5237678A (en) * 1987-05-08 1993-08-17 Kuechler William L System for storing and manipulating information in an information base
US5261045A (en) * 1987-12-18 1993-11-09 International Business Machines Corporation Method of exchanging entries from a plurality of different electronic calendars based on interactively entered criteria
US4875159A (en) * 1987-12-22 1989-10-17 Amdahl Corporation Version management system using plural control fields for synchronizing two versions of files in a multiprocessor system
US5124909A (en) * 1988-10-31 1992-06-23 Hewlett-Packard Company Software program for providing cooperative processing between personal computers and a host computer
US5379057A (en) * 1988-11-14 1995-01-03 Microslate, Inc. Portable computer with touch screen and computer system employing same
US5065360A (en) * 1989-01-10 1991-11-12 Kelly Douglas J Portable data storage and editing device
US5537592A (en) * 1989-05-08 1996-07-16 Alphatronix System and method for reading and writing disks formatted for an operating system foreign to the host computer
US5235679A (en) * 1989-06-14 1993-08-10 Hitachi, Ltd. Guidance method and apparatus upon a computer system
US5187787A (en) * 1989-07-27 1993-02-16 Teknekron Software Systems, Inc. Apparatus and method for providing decoupling of data exchange details for providing high performance communication between software processes
US5187787B1 (en) * 1989-07-27 1996-05-07 Teknekron Software Systems Inc Apparatus and method for providing decoupling of data exchange details for providing high performance communication between software processes
US5251291A (en) * 1989-10-13 1993-10-05 International Business Machines Corporation Method of selectively transferring video displayed information
US5210868A (en) * 1989-12-20 1993-05-11 Hitachi Ltd. Database system and matching method between databases
US5142619A (en) * 1990-02-21 1992-08-25 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for visually comparing files in a data processing system
US5333252A (en) * 1990-04-05 1994-07-26 Claris Corporation Interface for arranging order of fields
US5272628A (en) * 1990-04-16 1993-12-21 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for aggregating tables having dissimilar formats
US5301313A (en) * 1990-07-17 1994-04-05 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Manipulating data in a relational data base having operational manipulations defined in an input table and displayed results in an output table with a line displayed designating direction of data flow
US5159592A (en) * 1990-10-29 1992-10-27 International Business Machines Corporation Network address management for a wired network supporting wireless communication to a plurality of mobile users
US5315709A (en) * 1990-12-03 1994-05-24 Bachman Information Systems, Inc. Method and apparatus for transforming objects in data models
US5283887A (en) * 1990-12-19 1994-02-01 Bull Hn Information Systems Inc. Automatic document format conversion in an electronic mail system based upon user preference
US5355476A (en) * 1990-12-29 1994-10-11 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. File update apparatus for generating a matrix representing a subset of files and the update correspondence between directories and files
US5544356A (en) * 1990-12-31 1996-08-06 Intel Corporation Block-erasable non-volatile semiconductor memory which tracks and stores the total number of write/erase cycles for each block
US5592669A (en) * 1990-12-31 1997-01-07 Intel Corporation File structure for a non-volatile block-erasable semiconductor flash memory
US5327555A (en) * 1991-02-14 1994-07-05 Hewlett-Packard Company Method for reconciling entries in a plurality of schedules
US5261094A (en) * 1991-04-08 1993-11-09 International Business Machines Corporation Asynchronous replication of data changes by distributed update requests
US5481721A (en) * 1991-07-17 1996-01-02 Next Computer, Inc. Method for providing automatic and dynamic translation of object oriented programming language-based message passing into operation system message passing using proxy objects
US5475833A (en) * 1991-09-04 1995-12-12 International Business Machines Corporation Database system for facilitating comparison of related information stored in a distributed resource
US5574859A (en) * 1991-11-01 1996-11-12 Yeh; Keming W. Method and apparatus for using a software configurable connector to connect a palmtop computer having a custom port to a host having a standard port
US5519606A (en) * 1992-01-21 1996-05-21 Starfish Software, Inc. System and methods for appointment reconciliation
US5392390A (en) * 1992-04-10 1995-02-21 Intellilink Corp. Method for mapping, translating, and dynamically reconciling data between disparate computer platforms
US5442633A (en) * 1992-07-08 1995-08-15 International Business Machines Corporation Shortcut network layer routing for mobile hosts
US5666530A (en) * 1992-12-02 1997-09-09 Compaq Computer Corporation System for automatic synchronization of common file between portable computer and host computer via communication channel selected from a plurality of usable channels there between
US5339434A (en) * 1992-12-07 1994-08-16 Trw Inc. Heterogeneous data translation system
US5488685A (en) * 1993-01-27 1996-01-30 Apple Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for providing visual cues in a graphic user interface
US5463772A (en) * 1993-04-23 1995-10-31 Hewlett-Packard Company Transparent peripheral file systems with on-board compression, decompression, and space management
US5710922A (en) * 1993-06-02 1998-01-20 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for synchronizing and archiving information between computer systems
US5745699A (en) * 1993-09-24 1998-04-28 Apple Computer, Inc. Dynamic address assignment in an arbitrarily connected network
US5546539A (en) * 1993-12-29 1996-08-13 Intel Corporation Method and system for updating files of a plurality of storage devices through propogation of files over a nework
US5704029A (en) * 1994-05-23 1997-12-30 Wright Strategies, Inc. System and method for completing an electronic form
US5434994A (en) * 1994-05-23 1995-07-18 International Business Machines Corporation System and method for maintaining replicated data coherency in a data processing system
US6144997A (en) * 1994-06-27 2000-11-07 Xerox Corporation System and method for accessing and distributing electronic documents
US5598536A (en) * 1994-08-09 1997-01-28 Shiva Corporation Apparatus and method for providing remote users with the same unique IP address upon each network access
US5742905A (en) * 1994-09-19 1998-04-21 Bell Communications Research, Inc. Personal communications internetworking
US5742668A (en) * 1994-09-19 1998-04-21 Bell Communications Research, Inc. Electronic massaging network
US5802312A (en) * 1994-09-27 1998-09-01 Research In Motion Limited System for transmitting data files between computers in a wireless environment utilizing a file transfer agent executing on host system
US5819274A (en) * 1994-12-16 1998-10-06 Xcellenet, Inc. Methods, systems and computer program products for transferring files from a data processing server to a remote/mobile data processing node
US5684990A (en) * 1995-01-11 1997-11-04 Puma Technology, Inc. Synchronization of disparate databases
US5572528A (en) * 1995-03-20 1996-11-05 Novell, Inc. Mobile networking method and apparatus
US5699513A (en) * 1995-03-31 1997-12-16 Motorola, Inc. Method for secure network access via message intercept
US5729452A (en) * 1995-03-31 1998-03-17 Envirotest Acquisition Co. Method and system for diagnosing and reporting failure of a vehicle emission test
US5696702A (en) * 1995-04-17 1997-12-09 Skinner; Gary R. Time and work tracker
US5706509A (en) * 1995-04-28 1998-01-06 Intel Corporation Application independent record level synchronization
US5758354A (en) * 1995-04-28 1998-05-26 Intel Corporation Application independent e-mail synchronization
US5649195A (en) * 1995-05-22 1997-07-15 International Business Machines Corporation Systems and methods for synchronizing databases in a receive-only network
US5812819A (en) * 1995-06-05 1998-09-22 Shiva Corporation Remote access apparatus and method which allow dynamic internet protocol (IP) address management
US5835061A (en) * 1995-06-06 1998-11-10 Wayport, Inc. Method and apparatus for geographic-based communications service
US5742820A (en) * 1995-07-06 1998-04-21 Novell, Inc. Mechanism for efficiently synchronizing information over a network
US5666362A (en) * 1995-07-25 1997-09-09 3Com Corporation Method and apparatus for asynchronous PPP and synchronous PPP conversion
US5647002A (en) * 1995-09-01 1997-07-08 Lucent Technologies Inc. Synchronization of mailboxes of different types
US5907801A (en) * 1995-09-22 1999-05-25 At&T Wireless Services, Inc. Apparatus and method for optimizing wireless financial transactions
US5761439A (en) * 1995-09-25 1998-06-02 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for synchronizing communications between networked computers
US5727202A (en) * 1995-10-18 1998-03-10 Palm Computing, Inc. Method and apparatus for synchronizing information on two different computer systems
US5911141A (en) * 1995-11-07 1999-06-08 International Business Machines Corporation On-line hierarchical form records identification
US6430409B1 (en) * 1995-12-11 2002-08-06 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and architecture for an interactive two-way data communication network
US6119155A (en) * 1995-12-11 2000-09-12 Phone.Com, Inc. Method and apparatus for accelerating navigation of hypertext pages using compound requests
US5673322A (en) * 1996-03-22 1997-09-30 Bell Communications Research, Inc. System and method for providing protocol translation and filtering to access the world wide web from wireless or low-bandwidth networks
US5727159A (en) * 1996-04-10 1998-03-10 Kikinis; Dan System in which a Proxy-Server translates information received from the Internet into a form/format readily usable by low power portable computers
US5918013A (en) * 1996-06-03 1999-06-29 Webtv Networks, Inc. Method of transcoding documents in a network environment using a proxy server
US5703581A (en) * 1996-06-14 1997-12-30 Lucent Technologies Inc. Method and apparatus for data compression and decompression
US6115384A (en) * 1996-06-20 2000-09-05 Fourelle Systems, Inc Gateway architecture for data communication bandwidth-constrained and charge-by-use networks
US5857191A (en) * 1996-07-08 1999-01-05 Gradient Technologies, Inc. Web application server with secure common gateway interface
US5821927A (en) * 1996-07-25 1998-10-13 International Business Machines Corporation Web browser display indicator signalling that currently displayed web page needs to be refereshed from remote source
US5724510A (en) * 1996-09-06 1998-03-03 Fluke Corporation Method of configuring a valid IP address and detecting duplicate IP addresses in a local area network
US5948066A (en) * 1997-03-13 1999-09-07 Motorola, Inc. System and method for delivery of information over narrow-band communications links
US5861883A (en) * 1997-05-13 1999-01-19 International Business Machines Corp. Method and system for portably enabling awareness, touring, and conferencing over the world-wide web using proxies and shared-state servers
US6138009A (en) * 1997-06-17 2000-10-24 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson System and method for customizing wireless communication units
US6119167A (en) * 1997-07-11 2000-09-12 Phone.Com, Inc. Pushing and pulling data in networks
US6243739B1 (en) * 1997-07-11 2001-06-05 Phone.Com, Inc. Reducing perceived latency in servicing user requests on low-bandwidth communication channels
US6006258A (en) * 1997-09-12 1999-12-21 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Source address directed message delivery
US6115754A (en) * 1997-12-29 2000-09-05 Nortel Networks Limited System and method for appending location information to a communication sent from a mobile terminal operating in a wireless communication system to an internet server
US6173316B1 (en) * 1998-04-08 2001-01-09 Geoworks Corporation Wireless communication device with markup language based man-machine interface
US6247048B1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2001-06-12 Openwave Systems Inc Method and apparatus for transcoding character sets between internet hosts and thin client devices over data networks
US6457060B1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2002-09-24 Openwave Systems Inc. Method and apparatus for flexibly linking to remotely located content on a network server through use of aliases
US20020122061A1 (en) * 1998-04-30 2002-09-05 Bruce K. Martin Configurable man-machine interface
US6035325A (en) * 1998-05-13 2000-03-07 International Business Machines Corporation Retrieval, saving and printing in a computer network system environment
US6397259B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2002-05-28 Palm, Inc. Method, system and apparatus for packet minimized communications
US6343318B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2002-01-29 Palm, Inc. Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks
US6253326B1 (en) * 1998-05-29 2001-06-26 Palm, Inc. Method and system for secure communications
US7025209B2 (en) * 1998-05-29 2006-04-11 Palmsource, Inc. Method and apparatus for wireless internet access

Cited By (34)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8935326B2 (en) * 2000-11-03 2015-01-13 Truphone Limited Cooperative network for mobile internet access
US8862736B2 (en) * 2000-11-03 2014-10-14 Truphone Limited Cooperative network for mobile internet access
US20100115103A1 (en) * 2000-11-03 2010-05-06 Tagg James P Cooperative network for mobile internet access
US20100115104A1 (en) * 2000-11-03 2010-05-06 Tagg James P Cooperative network for mobile internet access
US20080046547A1 (en) * 2003-04-21 2008-02-21 International Business Machines Corporation System for Low Power Operation of Wireless LAN Interfaces
US8484611B2 (en) 2007-10-15 2013-07-09 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for simplified assembly of information processing applications
US20090100407A1 (en) * 2007-10-15 2009-04-16 Eric Bouillet Method and system for simplified assembly of information processing applications
US8312426B2 (en) 2008-01-07 2012-11-13 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for simplified service composition in web environment
US8245122B2 (en) * 2008-01-08 2012-08-14 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for modeling user requests, applications and components used in dynamic application assembly
US8239828B2 (en) 2008-01-08 2012-08-07 International Business Machines Corporation Method of recovering from software failures using replanning
US20090177910A1 (en) * 2008-01-08 2009-07-09 Zhen Liu Method of recovering from software failures using replanning
US20090177955A1 (en) * 2008-01-08 2009-07-09 Zhen Liu Method and system for modeling user requests, applications and components used in dynamic application assembly
US8640149B2 (en) 2008-03-26 2014-01-28 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for dynamic web service composition and invocation
US8949140B2 (en) 2008-04-21 2015-02-03 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for dynamic software reconfiguration triggered by component- or system- initiated events
US8898624B2 (en) 2008-05-05 2014-11-25 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for simplified assembly of parametric information processing applications
US20090276753A1 (en) * 2008-05-05 2009-11-05 Eric Bouillet Method and apparatus for simplified assembly of parametric information processing applications
US8972551B1 (en) * 2010-04-27 2015-03-03 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Prioritizing service requests
US20150172134A1 (en) * 2010-04-27 2015-06-18 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Prioritizing service requests
US9258197B2 (en) * 2010-04-27 2016-02-09 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Prioritizing service requests
US11036557B2 (en) 2011-04-27 2021-06-15 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development Lp Dynamic transaction-persistent server load balancing
US20120278440A1 (en) * 2011-04-27 2012-11-01 Aruba Networks, Inc. Dynamic Transaction-Persistent Server Load Balancing
US10169094B2 (en) * 2011-04-27 2019-01-01 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development Lp Dynamic transaction-persistent server load balancing
US20220210695A1 (en) * 2011-12-14 2022-06-30 Seven Networks, Llc Mobile device configured for operating in a power save mode and a traffic optimization mode and related method
US20130339543A1 (en) * 2012-06-14 2013-12-19 Qualcomm Incorporated Avoiding unwanted tcp retransmissions using optimistic window adjustments
US10009445B2 (en) * 2012-06-14 2018-06-26 Qualcomm Incorporated Avoiding unwanted TCP retransmissions using optimistic window adjustments
US8965274B2 (en) * 2012-07-16 2015-02-24 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Session continuity in wireless local area networks with internet protocol level mobility
US20140017990A1 (en) * 2012-07-16 2014-01-16 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Session continuity in wireless local area networks with internet protocol level mobility
US9286032B2 (en) 2013-03-15 2016-03-15 International Business Machines Corporation Automated software composition
US9635148B2 (en) * 2014-10-31 2017-04-25 Aruba Networks, Inc. Partitioning data sets for transmission on multiple physical links
US10887291B2 (en) 2016-12-16 2021-01-05 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Secure data distribution of sensitive data across content delivery networks
US10664648B2 (en) * 2017-12-08 2020-05-26 Ca, Inc. Webpage rendering using a remotely generated layout node tree
US20190179879A1 (en) * 2017-12-08 2019-06-13 Symantec Corporation Webpage rendering using a remotely generated layout node tree
US11159498B1 (en) 2018-03-21 2021-10-26 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Information security proxy service
US10979403B1 (en) * 2018-06-08 2021-04-13 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Cryptographic configuration enforcement

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US7025209B2 (en) 2006-04-11
US20010032254A1 (en) 2001-10-18
US20060046686A1 (en) 2006-03-02

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US6397259B1 (en) Method, system and apparatus for packet minimized communications
US7025209B2 (en) Method and apparatus for wireless internet access
US6253326B1 (en) Method and system for secure communications
USRE40459E1 (en) Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks
US8001485B2 (en) Method, system and apparatus using a sensory cue to indicate subsequent action characteristics for data communications
CA2333033C (en) Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks
US7603408B1 (en) Method and system for network management
US7747782B2 (en) System and method for providing and displaying information content
US6119167A (en) Pushing and pulling data in networks
US6148340A (en) Method and system for differencing container files
EP0779759B1 (en) A method and architecture for an interactive two-way data communication network
US20030009583A1 (en) Protocol for accelerating messages in a wireless communications environment
US20020046343A1 (en) System for broadcasting to, and programming, a mobile device in a protocol
CA2634681C (en) System and method for communicating state management between a browser user-agent and a server
WO2002023463A1 (en) System, method, and computer program product for optimization and acceleration of data transport and processing
US20020116500A1 (en) Protocol for wireless devices
Steinberg et al. A web middleware architecture for dynamic customization of content for wireless clients
US20010005884A1 (en) Communication method and communication system
WO2002098108A1 (en) A protocol for accelerating messages in a wireless communications environment

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
STCB Information on status: application discontinuation

Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION