Method and apparatus for improving wireless data networks performance

• US 20050182826A1
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rao, Nataraj, Knittel, Steven F., Moganti, Madhav
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/04 Interfaces between hierarchically different network devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus for data communications over a wireless network. A user contacts an Internet gateway over the wireless network. When the user requests an Internet resource it sends an improved HTTP command to the gateway. The improved HTTP command causes the internet gateway to access a resource file and obtain not only the requested resource, but also all of the resources embedded in the requested resource. The requested resource and embedded resources are bundled into a file and sent to the user. By eliminating parsing of the requested resource by the user and subsequent requests for embedded information, the wireless network does not have to make multiple supplemental communication channel assignments, which improves overall performance.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use in a communication network, comprising:

a gateway operable within said network for receiving a request for a resource having embedded data, in response to said request, said gateway further for obtaining said resource and said embedded data, for bundling said resource and said embedded data into a file, and for sending said file.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request is a uniform resource identifier.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the request is received from a wireless access network.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the request is from a client device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the gateway obtains the resource and the embedded data using resource index files.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the gateway updates the resource index files based on said obtained resource and on said embedded data.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the resource index files include the resource and its embedded data.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the resource index files include links to embedded data.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the gateway produces a listing of the links to the embedded data, sends uniform resource location requests for the embedded data, and receives the embedded data from the links.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the link listing is in order of the pre-determined time required to obtain the embedded data.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said gateway performs data acceleration, compression, trans-coding, or application-based optimization on said resource and said embedded data.

12. An apparatus for use in a communication network, comprising:

a gateway for receiving a request for a resource having embedded data, in response to said request, said gateway further for obtaining said resource and said embedded data using a resource index file having information regarding said resource and said embedded data, for bundling said resource and said embedded data into a response file, and for updating said resource index file.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said resource index file includes said resource and said embedded data.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said resource index file includes links to said embedded data.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said gateway produces a listing of said links to said embedded data, sends uniform resource location requests for said embedded data, and receives said embedded data from said links.

16. A method of operating a gateway, comprising:

receiving a request for a resource having embedded data;

obtaining information regarding the resource and embedded data from a resource index file;

obtaining the resource and embedded data using the obtained information;

bundling the obtained resource and obtained embedded data into a response file; and

sending the response file.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the request is received and the response file is sent over a wireless access network.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the resource index file includes a pre-compiled copy of the resource.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the resource index file includes links to the embedded data.

20. A method, comprising:

transmitting a client request over a wireless network for a resource having embedded data;

receiving the request;

obtaining the resource and its embedded data;

bundling the obtained resource and obtained embedded data into a file; and

sending that file to the client over the wireless network.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the resource is an internet resource.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the information includes links to the embedded data.

23. The method of claim 22, further including the steps of forming a list of addresses for the embedded data, sending requests for the embedded data, and receiving the embedded data from the requests.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of forming a list of addresses includes ordering those addresses based on pre-determined times required to obtain the embedded data.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein obtaining the resource and the embedded data includes forming a resource index file based.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the formed resource index file includes a listing of the embedded files and the times required to obtain each of the embedded files.

27. The method of claim 20, further including the step of updating the resource index file.