Management of time and expense when communicating between a host and a communication network

• US 6,587,877 B1
• Filed: 03/25/1997
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.), Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Douglis, Frederick, Schilit, William N., Kristol, David Morris, Sienicki, James Paul, Trotter, John Andrew, Krzyzanowski, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US08/823,564
• Time in Patent Office: 2,289 Days
• Field of Search: 380/49, 709/139, 709/217, 709/202, 709/203, 709/232, 709/219, 709/224, 709/226, 709/247, 709/220, 209/124, 209/229, 209/202, 704/8, 370/331, 370/313, 370/58, 370/329, 370/261, 370/351, 379/93.12, 379/27, 379/207, 379/114, 364/401, 701/201, 340/825.49, 710/6, 455/466, 705/26, 705/32, 705/44, 700/11, 713/201
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A system and method for managing time and expense when communicating between a host and multiple network connections. A server program, inserted between an information requesting device and the network connections, reconfigures the information requesting device forcing the information requesting device to pass all requests through the server program. The server program then determines what type of network is being connected. Additionally, the server program makes costs visible to the user, warns the user when pre-specified budgets are exceeded, postpones actions to a later time when conditions are met, and automatically adapts user customization and system configuration values to the changing conditions of use. This allows asynchronous style browsing in which users can work disconnected from a cache of documents or trade off communication cost against information needs.

Claims

1. A method of accessing information over multiple network connections using a host, said method comprising:

a) installing an information requesting device on the host for requesting information from multiple network connections;

b) installing software on the host for reconfiguring the information requesting device, the installing software including installing a caching proxy for receiving a request from the information requesting device;

c) sending all requests from the information requesting device to the multiple network connections through the installed software, the installed software automatically controlling the sending of all requests from the information receiving device to the multiple network connections in accordance with preset conditions, the installed software checking whether the request can be satisfied from the cache proxy.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said installed software is a server program.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the host is a mobile host.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein installing the specialized server program includes the steps of:

i) installing a user interface for managing the caching proxy and checking network availability;

ii) creating conditional actions, notifying a user if conditions are not met and allowing the user to perform an operation of one continuing, canceling, and postponing a request;

iii) installing a communications manager for setting up and tearing down connections between the host and the multiple network connections and informing the system of any changes; and

iv) installing variables regarding actions the server program is to perform under particular conditions.

5. A method of accessing information over multiple network connections through the use of a host including an information requesting device [and connected to one of the multiple network connections], said method comprising the steps of:

a)

receiving a request, from the information requesting device;

b) checking whether the request can be satisfied from a cache;

c) checking if the network is available;

d) evaluating a budget-monitor expression supplied by the user and checking whether the budget condition defined by the budget-monitor expression is met;

e) retrieving information from the World Wide Web if both of said steps c) and d) are met;

f) redirecting the request, if either or both of said steps c) and d) are not met; and

g) producing a conditional action form showing that the request is redirected, and allowing a user to continue, cancel or postpone a request.

6. A host system for information access over multiple network connections, comprising:

an information requesting device for requesting information over multiple network connections; and

a server program including;

a caching proxy having associated therewith a cache, the caching proxy receiving a request from said information requesting device and checking whether the request can be satisfied from the cache p2 a user interface server for receiving the request from said caching proxy if the request cannot be satisfied by said caching proxy for notifying a user that the request cannot by satisfied by said caching proxy and for allowing the user to continue, cancel or postpone the request; and

a communication manager for setting up and tearing down connections.

7. A mobile host connectable to a network comprising:

an information requesting device for requesting information from a network; and

a server program configured with a set of parameters including user-defined budget conditions that are acceptable for various requests, transactions and network communications, the server program mediating communications between the information requesting device and the network in accordance with the set of parameters.

8. In a communication device for managing time and expense of communications between a mobile host and one of multiple networks connections, a method comprising the steps of:

a) storing a plurality of variables for each multiple network connection defining one or more of user-defined budget conditions for a network connection;

b) notifying a user that one or more of the conditions for a network connection are violated; and

c) continuing, canceling or postponing communications between the mobile host and one of the multiple network connections dependent on the violated condition.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said step b) includes displaying a page when a condition is violated.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the page includes selecting other variables including overriding the violated condition.

11. In a communications system, a communications device for managing time and expense of communications between a mobile host and one of multiple network connections, comprising:

memory for storing a plurality of variables for each one of the multiple network connections, the plurality of variables defining user-defined budget conditions;

a server program for notifying a user that one or more of the variable for a network connection is violated and allowing the user to continue, cancel or postpone an action dependent on the violated variable.

12. A method for managing time/cost of information requests over multiple network connections including a budget monitor, said method comprising the steps of:

a) initiating transmission of a request from a host to one of the multiple network connections; and

b) mediating communications, associated with the request, between a host and any one of the multiple network connections, the step b) performing one of the following steps;

i) canceling the request; and

ii) informing the user of time/costs of the communications and prompting the user regarding how to proceed, based on one of the characteristics of the request, changing variables that reflect the availability and costs of communication channels, quality of service of the channels, usage and accumulated costs of the channels, and user'"'"'s pre-specified budget policies,

wherein the step b) further performs the substeps of;

iii) postponing user requests for documents; and

iv) triggering the postponed user requests at a future time when the time/cost of retrieval satisfies the user'"'"'s requirements.

13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of:

c) indicating to the user the time/cost after traversing a hypertext link.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said step c) comprises the substep of showing which hypertext links are in a local cache.

15. A host system for accessing information across multiple network connections, the system comprising:

an information requesting device for requesting information across any one of multiple network connections; and

a server program, configured to receive requests from the information requesting device, for automatically controlling a sending of the requests over any one of the multiple network connections in accordance with user-defined budget conditions.

16. A host system according to claim 15 further comprising multiple network interfaces for establishing respective multiple network connections, the server program automatically switching among the multiple network interfaces based on the budget conditions to establish a network connection from the multiple network connections.

17. A host system according to claim 15 wherein the server program is configured to receive all requests from the information requesting device and to control a sending of all requests over any one of the multiple network connections.

18. A host system for accessing information across multiple network connections, the system comprising:

an information requesting device for transmitting a request for information across any one of multiple network connections; and

a server program for mediating communications, associated with the request, between the information requesting device and any one of the multiple network connections in accordance with user-defined budget conditions, the server program notifying the user if at least one budget condition is violated.

19. A host system according to claim 18, wherein the server program enables the user to perform an action selected from the group consisting of continuing the request, canceling the request, postponing the request and implementing a new action to be performed by the information requesting device, if at least one budget condition is violated.

20. A host system according to claim 18, wherein communications is further mediated according to communication constraints selected from the group consisting of availability of communication channels, costs of the communication channels, quality of service of the channels, and usage and accumulated costs of the channels.

21. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer usable program code embodied therein, said computer usable program code containing executable instructions that when executed, cause a host system including an information requesting device for requesting information over multiple network connections to perform the following;

automatically controlling a sending of a request from the information requesting device over any one of the multiple network connections in accordance with user-defined budget conditions.

22. The article of manufacture according to claim 21, wherein the automatically controlling automatically switches among the multiple network connections in accordance with the budget conditions.

23. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer usable program code embodied therein, said computer usable program code containing executable instructions that when executed, cause a host system including an information requesting device for requesting information over multiple network connections to perform the following;

evaluating whether the information request from the information requesting device violates any user-defined budget conditions; and

notifying the user if at least one budget condition is violated.

24. The article of manufacture according to claim 23, wherein the evaluating includes monitoring communications between the information request and the multiple network connections associated with the request to determine whether at least one budget condition is violated.

25. The article of manufacture according to claim 23, wherein said computer usable program code containing executable instructions that when executed, cause a host system including an information requesting device for requesting information over multiple network connections to perform further the following:

enabling the user to perform an action selected from the group consisting of continuing the request, canceling the request, postponing the request and implementing a new action to be performed by the information requesting device, if at least one budget condition is violated.

26. The article of manufacture according to claim 23, wherein said computer usable program code containing executable instructions that when executed, cause a host system including an information requesting device for requesting information over multiple network connections to perform further the following:

performing an action selected from the group consisting of continuing the request, canceling the request and postponing the request, depending on the violated budget condition.