Communications network

• US 6,810,409 B1
• Filed: 06/02/1998
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Fry, Michael, Ghosh, Atanu
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang, Paul H.
• Application Number:
  US09/088,727
• Time in Patent Office: 2,338 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200, 395/610, 380/49, 709/246, 709/201, 709/202, 709/203.217, 709/219, 709/228, 709/230, 709/236, 709/310, 709/311, 709/317
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Data is transmitted from a first server computer to a client computer by transmitting the data from the first server computer to a second server computer in a first encoding format, transforming the data from the first encoding format to a second encoding format at the second server computer and transmitting the transformed data in the second encoding format to the client computer from the second server computer.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data from a first server computer to a client computer via a computer network, the method comprising:

requesting a dynamic proxy server computer to run a proxylet for transforming data, which proxylet is referred to by an address within a data store connected to the computer network from where the proxylet is available for dynamic downloading by proxy server computers connected to the computer network;

requesting the first server computer to transmit the data to said dynamic proxy server computer;

transmitting data from the first server computer to the dynamic proxy server computer in a first encoding format;

transforming said data from said first encoding format to a second encoding format at the dynamic proxy server computer utilizing the proxylet dynamically downloaded to the dynamic proxy server computer without substantially changing the information content of said data; and

transmitting the transformed said data in said second encoding format to the client computer from the dynamic proxy server computer.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein:

said data is transmitted from the first server computer to the dynamic proxy server computer using a first transport protocol and the transformed data is transmitted from the dynamic proxy server computer to the client computer using a second transport protocol.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein:

the first server computer is a World Wide Web server.

4. A method of transmitting data from a first server computer to a client computer, the method comprising:

transmitting data from the first server computer to a second server computer in a first encoding format,

transforming said data from said first encoding format to a second encoding format at the second server computer without substantially changing the information content of said data; and

transmitting the transformed said data in said second encoding format to the client computer from the second server computer;

wherein said data is transmitted from the first server computer to the second server computer using a first transport protocol and the transformed data is transmitted from the second server computer to the client computer using a second transport protocol; and

wherein said data is transmitted by the first computer server to the second computer server using Transport Control Protocol, the data is transformed by the second server and the transformed data is transmitted to the client computer using User Datagram Protocol.

5. A method of transmitting data from a first server computer to a client computer via a computer network, the method comprising:

requesting a dynamic proxy server computer to tun a proxylet for transforming data, which proxylet is referred to by an address within a data store connected to the computer network from where the proxylet is available for dynamic downloading by proxy server computers connected to the computer network;

requesting the first server computer to transmit the data to said dynamic proxy server computer;

transmitting data from the first server computer to the dynamic proxy server computer in a first encoding format;

transforming said data from said first encoding format to a second encoding format at the dynamic proxy server computer without substantially changing the information content of said data; and

transmitting the transformed said data in said second encoding format to the client computer from the dynamic proxy server computer;

the transforming performed by the dynamic proxy server computer is determined by the content of a protocol of the proxylet dynamically downloaded to the dynamic proxy server computer from a third server computer.

6. A dynamic proxy server computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being located in a computer network such that it is in a communications route intermediate a server computer and a client computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being configured to run a proxylet for transforming data, which proxylet is referred to by an address within a data store connected to the computer network from where the proxylet is available for dynamic downloading by proxy server computers connected to the computer network;

the dynamic proxy server computer being configured to receive data transmitted in a first data format from said server computer, to transform received data to a second data format from said first data format utilizing the dynamically downloaded proxylet without substantially changing the information content of said data and to transmit the transformed said data to the client computer in said second data format.

7. A dynamic proxy server computer as in claim 6 wherein the first server computer is a World Wide Web server.

8. A dynamic proxy server computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being located in a computer network such that it is in a communications route intermediate a server computer and a client computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being configured to run a proxylet for transforming data, which proxylet is referred to by an address within a data store connected to the computer network from where the proxylet is available for dynamic downloading by proxy server computes connected to the computer network;

the dynamic proxy server computer being configured to receive data transmitted in a first data format from said server computer, to transform received data to a second data format from said first data format utilizing the dynamically downloaded proxylet without substantially changing the information content of said data and to transmit the transformed said data to the client computer in said second data format;

the transformed performed by the dynamic proxy server computer is determined by the content of a protocol of the proxylet, the proxylet being dynamically downloaded from a third server computer.

9. A dynamic proxy server computer as in claim 8, wherein:

the dynamic proxy server computer is configured to receive data transmitted from the server computer using a first transport protocol and to transmit the transformed data to the client computer using a second transport protocol.

10. A dynamic proxy server computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being located in a communications network such that it is in a communications route intermediate a server computer and a client computer,

the dynamic proxy server computer being configured to receive data transmitted in a first data format from said server computer, to transform received data to a second data format from said first data format without substantially changing the information content of said data to transmit the transformed said data to the client computer in said second data format;

wherein the transforming performed by the dynamic proxy server computer is determined by the content of a protocol downloaded from a third server computer;

wherein the dynamic proxy server computer is configured to receive data transmitted from the server computer using a first transport protocol and to transmit the transformed data to the client computer using a second transport protocol; and

wherein the data is transmitted by the first computer server to the dynamic proxy server computer using Transport Control Protocol, the data is transformed by the dynamic proxy server computer and the transformed data is transmitted to the client computer using User Datagram Protocol.

11. A computer network comprising:

a World Wide Web server,

a client computer, and

at least one dynamic proxy server computer,

the dynamic proxy server computer being located between the World Wide Web server and the client computer,

said dynamic proxy server computer being configured to run a proxylet for transforming data, which proxylet is referred to by an address within a data store connected to the computer network from where the proxylet is available for dynamically downloading by proxy server computers connected to the computer network;

the dynamic proxy server computer being arranged to transform data transmitted from the World Wide Web server to the client computer from one format to another using the dynamically downloaded proxylet without substantially changing the information content of said data.