Classifications

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  • H04L63/0428—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
  • H04L63/0442—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption
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  • H04L63/0471—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding
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  • H04L69/04—Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
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  • H04L69/161—Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• • H—ELECTRICITY
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• • H—ELECTRICITY
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• • H—ELECTRICITY
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  • H04L63/0428—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
  • H04L63/045—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply hybrid encryption, i.e. combination of symmetric and asymmetric encryption
• • H—ELECTRICITY
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  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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]

Definitions

• This invention relates generally to the field of information communications.
• the invention relates to a method for providing a user with prior knowledge of certain characteristics of a subsequent action that includes data communications.
• Different types of communications can occur between two communications devices.
• a server and a client can exchange messages wirelessly or in a wired system.
• the communications can require a variety of security measures - including communications that require no security measures.
• security measures including communications that require no security measures.
• the expense and wait time associated with different types of actions can vary greatly.
• the data communication Before the user initiates data communication, the data communication is considered a subsequent action.
• Knowledge of subsequent action characteristics prior to initiating an action enables a user to evaluate cost, security, time, network speed, and data communications message size limitations when determining whether to initiate the subsequent action.
• Methods of informing users of these characteristics known in the art include printed guides and manuals, help directories, and product and service support centers.
• the guides, manuals, and service support centers do not inform the user directly through the communications device.
• the help directories require the user to invoke the help menu, to identify and select the appropriate help topic, and to read and understand the help topic description. Therefore what is desired is an improved system, apparatus, and method that enables users to make an informed selection before initiating data communications.
• the improved method informs the user directly through the communications device with minimal required user action.
• An improved system, apparatus, and method for informing the user of subsequent action characteristics is also desired for handheld device access to Internet information over relative low bandwidth networks.
• 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. For low bandwidth networks this technique does not work well. Too much bandwidth is needed to download the images.
• low bandwidth networks typically charge per byte transmitted and can be very expensive if large amounts of data are downloaded.
• 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.
• 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, California. Examples of the function set supported are address books, calendars, and task lists.
• wireless communications with handheld devices have been performed using wireless modems, such as are available from Novatel Communications, Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, or wireless transceivers for dedicated wireless data access network. Essentially 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, CA.
• 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 with 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.
• a communications device provides a user with a sensory cue that informs the user of certain characteristics of a subsequent action that includes data communication.
• the sensory cue By informing the user of the data communication characteristics before the user initiates the data communication action, the sensory cue appropriately sets user expectations regarding the data communication characteristics.
• one embodiment of the invention is implemented in a portable communications device with a screen.
• the portable communications device simultaneously displays a wireless link icon next to a user interface graphic element.
• the user interface element is used to select a wireless transaction.
• the wireless link icon informs the user that the subsequent action corresponding to the user interface element requires wireless communication and the expense and time associated therewith.
• One aspect of the invention provides a method of indicating to a user, via a sensory cue, characteristics of a subsequent action that includes data communications.
• the method is implemented in a communications device having processing resources.
• the communications device performs the data communications.
• the sensory cue indicates what behavior will occur when a user interface element that initiates the subsequent action is invoked.
• the communications device processing resources provide the sensory cue to the user before the user initiates the subsequent action.
• the sensory cue corresponds to a set of data communication characteristics of the subsequent action. More than one sensory cue can be provided for a particular subsequent action. Each of the sensory cues informs the user of a corresponding set of data communication characteristics.
• an existing operating system object such as a button or a hyperlink or other user interface element indicates the subsequent action and can be selected to initiate the subsequent action.
• the user interface element is accompanied by at least one sensory cue.
• the sensory cue is embedded into the user interface element.
• Subsequent action characteristics can correspond to any feature or combination of features of the data communications included in the subsequent action, or can correspond to any feature or combination of features of the communication path that will be used for exchanging the data. Knowledge of the features enables the user to determine whether to initiate a particular subsequent action, especially where the subsequent action is initiated by transmitting data corresponding to the user interface element from the communications device.
• the subsequent action characteristics can relate to the mode of transmission, the network type, security measures, the speed of the network, whether the communication is asynchronous, the cost of the subsequent action, and/or data communications message size.
• the communications device can include a screen.
• the sensory cue can include an image.
• Each image corresponds to a user interface element.
• the image can comprise an icon.
• each image is disposed proximally to the corresponding user interface element.
• the method can be implemented in a palm-sized computer having wireless data communications capability.
• the screen of the computer shows a user interface graphic element that is selected to initiate the subsequent action data communication.
• the data communications can correspond to a request for a hyperlink document.
• the user interface graphic element for this example is a hyperlink corresponding to the hyperlink document.
• the compact representation of the hyperlink document includes a link type bit. Selection of the hyperlink initiates the data communication.
• the subsequent actions corresponding to the hyperlink can include either data communications transmitted wirelessly, or only data transmitted internally within the computer, or data communications transmitted by a wireline connection.
• the communications device responds to the link type bit by displaying a wireless link icon before the user selects the hyperlink.
• the sensory cue comprises a wireless link icon.
• the wireless link icon is also referred to as the "over the air" icon.
• the wireless link icon informs the user that selection of the corresponding hyperlink will result in wireless data communication.
• the wireless link icon thereby sets user expectations to provide a better user experience by reducing confusion about the characteristics of the communication system's subsequent actions.
• the user can select an alternative to the wireless transaction and avoid the expense, in time and money, associated with wireless data communications.
• the user can determine that the wireless data communication is desired despite the greater costs associated therewith.
• the user makes the decision to select the wireless communication only after being informed by the wireless link icon that the time and expense of the wireless communication will be incurred.
• the communications device includes a client that communicates with a server.
• the subsequent action includes a transaction comprising one or more data communications messages between the server and the client.
• the data communications comprise packets of data.
• the packets of data can be securely exchanged between the server and the client.
• the client can be a wireless client and the server can be a proxy server.
• a method for securely exchanging the packets of data includes the wireless client encrypting a data encryption key using a proxy server public key to form an encrypted data encryption key.
• the data encryption key corresponds to a specific transaction between the wireless client and the proxy server.
• the wireless client encrypts the data packets included in the subsequent action using the data encryption key to form an encrypted message.
• the wireless client transmits the encrypted message from the wireless client to the proxy server.
• the user interface graphic element can be a hyperlink corresponding to a hyperlink document.
• the hyperlink document is disposed in a base document.
• the sensory cue can include a secure link icon indicating to the user security measure attributes for the data communications.
• the secure link icon and the wireless link icon can be simultaneously displayed proximally to the corresponding user interface element.
• a second aspect of the invention provides a communications device including a client.
• the client includes processing resources adapted to initiate a subsequent data communications action that has characteristics.
• the subsequent action can include a transaction including transmitting data from the client.
• the client also includes processing resources adapted to provide a sensory cue to a user prior to the user initiating the subsequent action.
• the sensory cue corresponds to a set of the subsequent action characteristics.
• the sensory cue informs the user of a set of the subsequent action characteristics.
• the client can be a wireless client.
• a third aspect of the invention provides a communications system.
• the communication system includes a source of data, a communications device, and a server.
• the communications device includes a client as described in the paragraph above.
• the server communicates with the source of data and the client.
• Figure 1 illustrates a wireless communications device communicating with a web server.
• Figure 2 illustrates a method of communicating between a wireless communications device and a web server.
• Figure 3 illustrates an example user interface for a wireless communications device.
• Figure 4 illustrates a wireless network topology.
• Figure 5 illustrates a wireless network topology including a wireless network interface, a wireless network leased line, and a dispatcher.
• Figure 6 illustrates an example of a wireless communications device exchanging messages in a communications system.
• Figure 7 illustrates a reliable message protocol packet structure.
• Figure 8 illustrates an exchange of a single request packet and a single response packet using the reliable message protocol.
• Figure 9 illustrates an exchange of messages comprising a single request packet and two response packets using the reliable message protocol.
• Figure 10 illustrates an exchange of messages including a retransmit sequence using the reliable message protocol.
• Figure 11 illustrates lower level communication layers.
• Figure 12 illustrates the format of data passed between wireless client software layers.
• Figure 13 illustrates the format of an IP header and a UDP header.
• Figure 14 illustrates an alternative system for communicating between a wireless communications device and a web server.
• Figure 15 is a flow diagram illustrating the basic method for indicating subsequent action characteristics.
• Figure 16 illustrates a screen view including a wireless link icon.
• Figure 17 illustrates a screen view including a secure link icon and a wireless link icon.
• Figure 18 is a flow diagram illustrating the method for indicating subsequent action characteristics when the communications device processing resources include a viewer.
• the RMP Data Area 164 The RMP Data Area 164
• the C-UDP Header 189 The C-UDP Header for Compressed Packets 191
• the subsequent action includes data communications.
• the invention By informing the user of the data communication characteristics before the user selects the data communication action, the invention appropriately sets user expectations regarding the data communication characteristics.
• one embodiment of the invention is implemented in a portable communications device with a screen.
• the portable communications device simultaneously displays a wireless link icon next to a user interface graphic element.
• the user interface element is used to select a wireless transaction.
• the wireless link icon informs the user that the subsequent action corresponding to the user interface element requires wireless communication and the expense and time associated therewith.
• the communications device is a palm-sized computer having wireless communications capability.
• the user interface element is an operating system object.
• the sensory cue is embedded in the user interface element.
• the subsequent action includes a request for a hyperlink document.
• the compact representation of the hyperlink document includes a link type bit that causes the link type icon to be simultaneously displayed next to a corresponding hyperlink on the palm-sized computer screen.
• the subsequent action can include data transmitted by the communications device over a wireless connection, or only data transmitted internally within the computer, or data transmitted over a wireline connection.
• the communications device responds to the link type bit by displaying the appropriate link type icon. For hyperlink documents requiring wireless data transmission the link type icon is a wireless link icon.
• the wireless link icon informs the user that the corresponding subsequent action will result in wireless communication.
• the wireless link icon thereby sets user expectations to provide a better user experience by reducing confusion about the characteristics of the communication system's subsequent actions.
• a wireline link icon can be displayed for subsequent actions that require transmission of data over a wireline connection.
• 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 second goal of some aspects 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.
• 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.
• a third goal of some aspects 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. Thus, some of the more important features of various embodiments of the invention have been described. The following provides an overview of the sections in the detailed description.
• the Definitions section provides definitions of terms used in the detailed description.
• 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 Indicating Subsequent Action Characteristics section describes how the communications device provides sensory cues to users to indicate features of data communications included in a subsequent action and/or features of paths used to communicate the data.
• 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 (Palmtop or Palm-sized Computer)- 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.
• Figure 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.
• Figure 1 includes a wireless communications device 100, a base station 170, a proxy server 180, the Internet
• the wireless communications device 100 includes a screen 101 and is running an operating system 102. Displayed on the screen 101 is a "Lookup" user interface graphic element 110 that is user for selecting a corresponding subsequent action. A first wireless link icon 120 is displayed on the screen 101 to the right of the "Lookup" user interface graphic element 110.
• the first wireless link icon 120 informs the user that the data communications that will be initiated by selecting the "Lookup" user interface graphic element 110 include wireless communications. Further discussion of the use of sensory cues, such as the first wireless link icon 120, to inform the user of subsequent action characteristic is provided in the Indicating Subsequent Action Characteristics section of this document.
• 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
• the CGI program 142 is responsible for generating the HTML page 144.
• Figure 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.
• 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 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, California.
• 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 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
• 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.
• 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.
• CTP compact transfer protocol
• 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
• 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. For some embodiments, this layout and size are the only differences between content rendered for a wireless communications device 100 and existing desktops. Thus, 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.
• HTML compatibility of one embodiment of the browser 104.
• Other embodiments of the invention have different features.
• the browser 104 supports the most common features of HTML.
• some HTML features may be limited in functionality or not supported at all.
• a number of font sizes and styles map to the same font on the wireless communications device 100.
• the proxy server 180 as directed by the wireless communications device
• the 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.
• CGI Common Gateway Interface
• 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).
• Figure 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 Figure 1.
• the example method of Figure 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 L00 for example, can be connected to a computer via a cradle and the wireless application 106 can be loaded from the computer. Alternatively, 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 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.
• Figure 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 browser 104 displays the example query form 105.
• the example query form 105 is a CML page in the wireless application
• the user can select/enter various field values for a query.
• 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
• 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.
• Figure 1 and Figure 4 show the general topology of a wireless communications network.
• the wireless client 405 in Figure 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.
• Figure 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.
• HTTP, TCP standard Internet protocols
• 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.
• Figure 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 Readers 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 IP header and UDP header are reconstructed, and the packets are then forwarded to the proxy server 180 through a TCP connection. Because an unreliable network (LAN or Internet) is used between the wireless network tunneler 430 and the proxy server
• 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 Figure 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.
• Figure 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
• Wireless client 405 processing resources send messages through the reliable message layer 635. Since the wireless client 405 is on a wireless network, 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 Figure 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.
• WLNP wireless network protocol
• Figure 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
• the first tunneler is part of the wireless packet data network infrastructure and is referred to as the "Internet Access Server" or IAS.
• IAS Internet Access Server
• 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 are the wireless client 405 application software, reliable message layer 635 and all of the software on the proxy server 180.
• 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 bojh scalability and fault tolerance. If any one of the proxy servers 180 become inoperative, the dispatcher 530 can stop sending requests to the inoperative proxy server 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.
• the wireless client 405 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.
• CML provides the framework required for graphically oriented messaging applications.
• 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. HTML 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>.
• the wireless client 405 and the proxy server 180 use a special format for transferring screen 101 contents from the proxy server 180 to the wireless client 405.
• This format named Compact Markup Language (CML)
• 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.
• CML compresses all text.
• 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.
• HTML tags such as paragraph formatting commands
• 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 indication includes a user interface element, and is typically a text representation of the hyperlink.
• 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:
• UlntV and IntV are also 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.
• UlntV and IntV are defined as follows:
• 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: 5-bit Characters:
• Bit[5] char 1 1 //'f which, as a binary bit stream is:
• Bit[5] char 28 //'w' where the 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. Multiple sequences of non-lower case alpha or international characters can also be included in the stream by including the appropriate text encoding tag in the stream followed by the 8 or 16 bit (unicode) character text string. CML tags are described in the next section.
• 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 OxFFFF 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). For example, the Tag textBold is used to turn on bold formatting. It has no parameters.
• a d ⁇ g would be represented in CML as:
• 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 textEncoding ⁇ Bit 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 ObOOOOOOOO
• the startTag character becomes the 8 bit sequence ObOOOOOOOl .
• 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.
• the endTag character is sometimes used in CML to separate two elements or to indicate the end of a block level element.
• CML CML
• the list items are separated from each other by the endTag.
• the first endTag character needed to end the 8-bit encoded text, would be 8 bits long.
• 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 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.
• 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:
• 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.
• This image will be tiled to fill the entire window.
• Tag tag tagBGImage
• Tag tag tagTextBold
• Tag tag tagTextltalic
• Tag tag tagTextUnderline
• Bit [4] format // one of mono Spaced, strike, // bigger, smaller, sub, sup,
• Tag tag tagMeta TextZ "History”
• the dateLo field contains low 32 bits of this value and the dateHi field contains the upper 32 bits of this value (usually 0).
• time value Used to specify a time value. It takes either a valid time, or if 0 is specified, the current time is assumed. The time is specified as the number of seconds since midnight.
• Tag tag tagTimePicker UlntV seconds - 3600 // 1 :00 am.
• Bit[3] align // one of alignCenter, alignLeft, or // alignRight.
• 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.
• Tag tag tagBlockQuote
• Bit[3] type // one of listTl, listTa, listTA,
• Tag tag tagListOrdered
• Each item in the list is ended either by a endTag character or a tagListltemCustom tag with parameters.
• the end of the list is indicated by the endTag character.
• Bit[3] type // one of listTDisk, listTSquare, or // HstTCircle Bit compact // compact spacing between items
• tagListltemCustom tag Used to mark the beginning of a custom list item in either an ordered or unordered list. Most items in lists are separated by endTag characters, but if the bullet style, numbering style, or sequence number of an item is not the default, the tagListltemCustom tag is used instead.
• Bit[3] type // The bullet or number style UlntV value // ignored for unordered lists.
• Tag tag tagListltemCustom
• Tag tag tagListltemDefinition
• a form encloses one or more input items and ends with an endTag character.
• wireless communications device 100 There are essentially 2 classes of forms for the wireless communications device 100 as described in the Forms Processing section below: standalone forms (like in standard HTML) and server dependent forms. 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 proxy server 180 When this type of form is sent to the proxy server 180, the proxy server 180 first references the original HTML form off the internet before it can actually submit the request to the CGI script.
• the Encoding Server Dependent Form submissions section below describes how to send a server dependent form submission to the proxy server 180.
• the form Index is assigned by the proxy and starts at 0 for the first form in a document.
• the post attribute is 0 if the form should be submitted to the CGI script using the HTTP GET method or 1 if the form should be submitted using the HTTP POST method. Currently, only the GET method is supported.
• 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.
• Tag tag taglnputRadio
• Tag tag taglnputRadio
• 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 se 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.
• Tag tag tagForm Text "Enter Name:”
• Tag ta : taglnputTextLine -
• 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.
• Tag tag taglnputTextArea
• a maxLength parameter of 0 means no limit on the number of characters entered.
• 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.
• 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.
• Tag tag taglnputSubmit
• Bit[3] align // one of alignTop, alignMiddle, // alignBottom, alignLeft, // alignRight' Bit hasName if (hasName)
• the hasValue parameter may be set to indicate the text that should appear inside the button. If the hasValue parameter is omitted, the default text of "reset" will be placed in the button.
• Tag tag taglnputReset
• 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 tagSelectltemCustom tags.
• the tagSelectltemCustom tag only needs to be used for pre-selected items.
• An additional endTag character follows the last item and indicates the end of the select menu.
• Tag tag taglnputSelect
• 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 tagSelectltemCustom tag is used instead.
• Tag tag tagSelectltemCustom
• the width parameter Used to mark the start of a table. If the width parameter is 0, the width of the table will be calculated from the contents.
• the border parameter can be 0 to suppress the border. If cellspacing is non-zero, then borders will be draw around every cell. The cellPadding sets the padding in pixels between the border around each cell and the cell's contents - default is 0.
• 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.
• 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. Parameters:
• All cells within a table row are separated by either endTag 's or tagTableColumn tags.
• 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.
• Bit headerCell // 1 for header cell, // 0 for data cell
• Tag tag tagTableColumn
• 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.
• the internal bit will be set to 1 and the anchorlndex parameter indicates the index of a local tagAnchor to jump to.
• the internal bit is also referred to herein as the "link type bit", especially in the "Indicating Subsequent Action Characteristics" section.
• the first tagAnchor in the document is index 0; the next one is index 1, etc.
• the recordlndex 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 its own record.
• Tag tag tagHyperlink
• Tag tag tagHyperlink
• tagAnchor Here is an example of an internal link that is used to jump to another location within the same document. It indicates to jump to anchor #4, which is the 5 th tagAnchor tag in the current document (the first tagAnchor is given index #0).
• Tag tag tagHyperlink
• the tagAnchor tag is only used to define local anchors.
• 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.eom/#anchorName).
• Image imageData // image data [TBD...]
• Bit[3] align // one of alignLeft, alignCenter, or
• Some embodiments of the invention include a method of converting an HTML message into a second message.
• the method comprises translating the
• 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.
• the head start and end tags enclose the document head and are optional.
• Every CML document is defined to start with a title string terminated by an endTag character.
• a place holder for future versions of HTML which may support style sheets.
• the tagStyle tag and associated endTag character are The tagStyle tag and associated endTag character.
• a place holder for future versions of HTML which may support client-side scripts.
• the ISINDEX element is a simple way to implement a single line text input field. The same behavior can be accomplished through use of a single field FORM element in the body.
• ISINDEX elements are translated into CML representations for a form in the body portion - there is no dedicated CML tag for ISINDEX.
• the BASE element gives the base URL for dereferencing relative URLs.
• CML documents do not contain hotlink URLs so no equivalent to this field is necessary.
• 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.
• the proxy server 180 looks up the appropriate URL using the original document.
• the META element can be used to include name/value pairs describing properties of a document such as author, expiration date, etc.
• the NAME attribute specifies the property name while the CONTENT attribute specifies the property value.
• META elements are represented by tagMeta CML tags.
• the LINK element provides a media independent method for defining relationships with other documents and resources. Very few browsers take advantage of it.
• the body start and end tags enclose the document body and may be omitted.
• the body section starts immediately after the endTag-character terminated title in a CML document and does not have an associated tag.
• the TEXT, BGCOLOR, LINK, VLINK, and BACKGROUND attributes are represented by the standalone CML tags tagTextColor, tagBGColor, tagLinkColor, tagLinkColor, and tagBGImage respectively.
• the HI through H6 tags are used for document headings. Start and end tags are required. HI elements are more important than H2 elements, and so on.
• Heading elements are represented by the corresponding tagHl..tagH6 CML tags.
• the BR element forces a line break.
• the CLEAR attribute can be used to move down past floating images on either margin.
• BR elements are represented in CML as 1 or more imbedded line- break characters in the text.
• 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.
• the P tag will be replaced with 1 or more imbedded linebreak characters in the text. If the align attribute is specified, then a tagParagraphAlign CML tag will also be placed at the beginning (and possibly end) of the paragraph.
• the DIV element can be used to stmcture an HTML document as a hierarchy of divisions.
• the CENTER element is equivalent to DIV with an ALIGN attribute of CENTER. This element differs from the P element in that it doesn't generate 2 line breaks (with the accompanying blank line).
• the HR element renders a horizontal line across the page and is used to indicate a change in topic.
• This element is represented by the tagHorizontalRule CML tag.
• type enum Can be any one of DISC, SQUARE, or CIRCLE compact void Render list in a more compact style
• the UL tag is used for unordered lists.
• the LI element is used for individual list items within the list.

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