Proxy Server

• US 20110125833A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Persson, Per, Persson, Patrik
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Methods and a preprocessing proxy server in a communication system can support any mode of web browser operation and enable a user selectively to bypass or enable the proxy server'"'"'s translation of requested web content. For example, a translation selection decision can be made based on the requested content (e.g., active HTML) or user input. Selection is made between the original representation of a web page and a translated one, i.e., a representation that is adapted to one or more characteristics of the receiving device, such as a smaller screen, lower screen resolution, low communication bandwidth, etc. The decision on whether to translate is preferably made by a proxy server in the network, and the decision is based on one or more of the following criteria: requested-page content, user preferences, and statistics. An advantage of interposing a proxy server in this arrangement is that all web servers can remain unchanged.

Claims

1. A method in a communication system of selectively preprocessing web pages, comprising:

receiving a web page request, wherein the request indicates at least one communication preference;

in response to the request, retrieving a web page corresponding to the request from a web server;

determining whether to translate the retrieved web page based on the at least one communication preference and content of the retrieved web page; and

serving either the retrieved web page or a translated web page in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication preference includes type of communication subscription, current communication bandwidth, retrieved page size, and manual indication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication preference is indicated by one or more meta-tags or comments in the retrieved page or header information in the page request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication preference is indicated by at least one hypertext transfer protocol header included in a web page request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting statistics with respect to respective retrieved web pages.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the collected statistics concern at least one of the following:

how often translated web pages are served compared to how often untranslated web pages are served; and

type of translation made for respective web pages or initiator of the web page request.

7. A preprocessing proxy server for a communication network, comprising:

an electronic processor configured to receive web pages requested by a user equipment (UE) and information indicating at least one communication preference of the UE, to determine whether to translate a requested web page based on the at least one communication preference and content of the received web page, and to serve to the UE either the requested web page or a translated web page.

8. The proxy server of claim 7, wherein the processor includes a processing mechanism that replaces the requested web page with a reformatted, rescaled, dynamically generated page based on based on at least one of a type of network subscription, bandwidth of a current network connection to the UE, a network-operator preference, and a UE user'"'"'s request.

9. The proxy server of claim 7, wherein the information indicating at least one communication preference of the UE includes one or more meta-tags or comments in a received web page or header information in a web page request.

10. The proxy server of claim 7, wherein the information indicating at least one communication preference of the UE is at least one hypertext transfer protocol header included in a web page request.

11. The proxy server of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to collect statistics with respect to respective received web pages.

12. The proxy server of claim 11, wherein the collected statistics concern at least one of the following:

how often translated web pages are served compared to how often untranslated web pages are served; and

type of translation made for respective web pages or the UE that requested the web page.

13. The proxy server of claim 8, wherein the processing mechanism includes computer program code that configures the processor to do the following:

inspect a requested web page and at least one of a UE user'"'"'s preference and an applicable policy;

translate the requested web page and serve the translated web page to the UE if the applicable policy specifies that the UE user can view only translated pages, or if the UE user'"'"'s preference is to require translation; and

serve the requested web page to the UE if the UE user'"'"'s preference is to require no translation or if the requested web page includes active code.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method in a communication system of selectively preprocessing web pages, wherein the method comprises:

receiving a web page request, wherein the request indicates at least one communication preference;

in response to the request, retrieving a web page corresponding to the request from a web server;

determining whether to translate the retrieved web page based on the at least one communication preference and content of the retrieved web page; and

serving either the retrieved web page or a translated web page in response to the request.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one communication preference includes type of communication subscription, current communication bandwidth, retrieved page size, and manual indication.

16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one communication preference is indicated by one or more meta-tags or comments in the retrieved page or header information in the page request.

17. The medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one communication preference is indicated by at least one hypertext transfer protocol header included in a web page request.

18. The medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises collecting statistics with respect to respective retrieved web pages.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the collected statistics concern at least one of the following:

how often translated web pages are served compared to how often untranslated web pages are served; and

type of translation made for respective web pages or initiator of the web page request.