System and method for providing remote data access for a mobile communication device

• US 7,526,572 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2002
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Little, Herbert A, Rybak, Tomasz K., Yach, David P., Brown, Michael S., Owen, Russell N., Omar, Salim H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone; Jason D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack; Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US10/483,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20040170155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,482 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 709/246, 709/249, 707/10, 707/104.1, 370/312, 370/395.5, 379/88.17, 715513-516, 715/760, 715/864
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• 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 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/03 Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

In one exemplary embodiment, a system for providing data access between an information source and a mobile communication device includes a transcoding system and a first network device. The transcoding system includes a plurality of transcoders, and each transcoder is operable to transcode information content from a respective first content type into a respective second content type. The first network device is in communication with the transcoding system and includes a connection handler system. The connection handler system is operable to receive connection data for a connection between the information source and the mobile communication device and to select a corresponding connection handler. The connection handler is operable to select one or more transcoders from the plurality of transcoders to transcode the information content.

Claims

1. A system for providing information content received from an information source over a network via a gateway to a wireless mobile device, comprising:

an IP proxy system configured within a private network and behind a security firewall for communicating with a wireless mobile device that is outside of the private network, the IP proxy system communicating with the wireless mobile device via a gateway and through a network server that is also configured within the private network and behind the security firewall, the network server enabling secure communication to the wireless mobile device by encrypting communications directed to the wireless mobile device and decrypting communications from the wireless mobile device, the IP proxy system comprising;

a transcoding system having a plurality of transcoders, each transcoder operable to transcode information content from a respective input content type into a respective output content type; and

a connection handler system external to the transcoding system and having a plurality of connection handlers, the connection handler system being operable to receive a connection request from the wireless mobile device for a connection between the information source and the wireless mobile device and to select a corresponding connection handler based on the connection request from the wireless mobile device, the selected connection handler being operable to request information content from the information source, to transmit information content received from the information source to the transcoding system and operable to specify to the transcoding system one or more transcoders from the plurality of transcoders to use to transcode the information content, the connection handler system further being operable to receive transcoded information content from the transcoding system and to send the transcoded information content to the network server for encryption and transmission to the wireless mobile device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the connection handler system comprises a connection handler directory, the connection handler directory storing connection handler data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the connection handler data comprises connection handler data associated with at least one connection handler.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the connection handler data comprises a network address specifying the location of a connection handler.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the connection handler system is operable to access the location specified by the network address, retrieve the connection handler, and store connection handler data associated with the connection handler in the connection handler directory.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the IP proxy system is operable to receive connection data from the wireless mobile device and the connection data includes accept data indicating an acceptable content type that the wireless mobile device is operable to receive.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the connection handler is operable to determine a received content type of the information content received from the information source and determine whether the received content type matches the acceptable content type.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the connection handler is further operable to select one or more transcoders to transcode the information content where the received content type does not match the acceptable content type.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the connection handler is further operable to send an error message to the wireless mobile device if the information content cannot be transcoded into the acceptable content type.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the transcoding system is operable to generate and store mapping data comprising transcoding chains, each transcoding chain selecting one or more transcoders to transcode the information content from an input content type into an output content type.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the mapping data is updated upon the addition or deletion of transcoding data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the connection handler is operable to specify a list of content types in order of preference and to provide the list of content types to the information source.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the information content includes multiple different content types; and

the connection handler is operable to specify a respective transcoder to transcode the information content of each of the multiple different content types.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the information source is configured for operation on the private network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the information source is configured for operation outside of the private network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the IP proxy system is adapted to support a secure communication scheme to allow secure access of information at the information source.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the secure communication scheme comprises secure HTTP (HTTPS).

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the secure communication scheme comprises Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is operable to store on an email system by the network server information content forwarded to the wireless mobile device by the IP proxy system via the network server.

40. The system of claim 10, wherein the connection handler is operable to determine a received content type of the information content received from the information source, to determine an acceptable content type that the wireless mobile device is operable to receive, and to specify one of the transcoding chains to transcode the information content from the received content type into the acceptable content type.

41. The system of claim 12, wherein the connection handler is operable to determine a received content type of the information content received from the information source, to determine an acceptable content type that the wireless mobile device is operable to receive, and to specify the one or more transcoders to transcode the information content from the received content type into the acceptable content type.

42. The system of claim 1 wherein the transcoder system is situated at a location remote from the location of the connection handler system.

20. A method for providing information content received from an information source over a network via a gateway to a wireless mobile device, comprising the steps of:

providing a transcoding system having a plurality of transcoders, each transcoder configured to transcode information content from a respective input content type into a respective output content type;

providing a connection handler system that is external to the transcoding system having a plurality of connection handlers for different communication protocols for communicating with an information source;

receiving by the connection handler system in a private network behind a security firewall a connection request from a wireless mobile device, wherein the connection request is decrypted by a network server in the private network behind the security firewall;

selecting a connection handler and establishing a connection using the selected connection handler;

requesting information content from the information source using the selected connection handler;

receiving information content from the information source by the selected connection handler;

sending the information content received by the selected connection handler to the transcoding system;

selecting via the connection handler system a particular transcoder from the plurality of transcoders and transcoding the received information content using the selected transcoder to generate transcoded information content;

sending the transcoded information content from the transcoding system to the connection handler system; and

sending via the connection handler system the transcoded information content received from the transcoder system to the network server for encrypting and forwarding to the wireless mobile device via the gateway.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the connection request identifies the information source.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of establishing a connection with an information source responsive to the connection request comprises the step of sending an information request to the information source.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the connection request conforms to a first communication protocol; and

the information request conforms to a second communication protocol.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the second communication protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the connection request identifies one or more accepted content types the method further comprising the steps of:

determining whether any of the plurality of transcoders are configured to transcode any further content types into any of the one or more accepted content types; and

including the one or more accepted content types and the further content types in the information request.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein:

the connection request identifies one or more accepted content types; and

the step of specifying to the transcoding system one or more transcoders to use comprises the step of determining if a received content type of the information content may be transcoded into one or more accepted content types.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of determining if a received content type of the information content may be transcoded into one or more accepted content types comprises the steps of:

determining whether any of the plurality of transcoders are configured to transcode the received content type into the one or more of the accepted content types; and

selecting a transcoder for transcoding the information content into one of the accepted content types where any of the plurality of transcoders are configured to transcode the received content type into the one or more of the accepted content types.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of discarding the information content where none of the plurality of transcoders are configured to transcode the received content type into the one or more of the accepted content types.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of passing the information content where none of the plurality of transcoders are configured to transcode the received content type into the one or more of the accepted content types.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein:

the information content comprises multiple content types; and

the step of determining if a received content type of the information content may be transcoded into one or more of the accepted content types comprises the step of;

determining whether any of the transcoders are configured to transcode any of the multiple content types into the one or more of the accepted content types; and

selecting a respective transcoder for transcoding the information content of each of the multiple content types into one of the accepted content types where a plurality of the transcoders are configured to transcode a plurality of the multiple content types into the one or more of the accepted content types.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the connection request identifies one or more accepted content types, and wherein the step of establishing a connection comprises the steps of:

searching a configuration file for a set of transcoders configured to transcode information content into the one or more accepted content types;

generating a list of respective input content types corresponding to the set of transcoders; and

sending the list of respective input content types and the one or more accepted content types to the information source.

32. The method of claim 20, wherein the network server in response to the step of sending the transcoded information content to the network server compresses the transcoded content.

33. The method of claim 20, wherein the information source is configured to operate within the private computer network behind the security firewall.

34. The method of claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

generating a list of transcoders according to an order of preference; and

selecting one of the transcoders in the list of transcoders based on the order of preference.

35. The method of claim 20, wherein the input content types and output content types include content types selected from the group consisting of Wireless Markup Language (WML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), compiled WML (WMLC) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).

36. The method of claim 20, wherein the information source is configured for operation outside of the private network.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of establishing a connection using the selected connection handler comprises establishing a connection using a secure connection scheme to allow secure access to information at the information source.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the secure communication scheme comprises secure HTTP (HTTPS).

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the secure communication scheme comprises Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

43. The method of claim 20 wherein the transcoder system is situated at a location remote from the location of the connection handler system.