Method of and system for transferring data over a wireless communications network

• US 7,349,955 B1
• Filed: 02/11/2000
• Issued: 03/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Purple Communications Incorporated (CSDVRS LLC)
• Original Assignee: Purple Communications, Inc.
• Inventors: Odom, Jesse, Rein, David, Korb, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino; Joseph E.
• Application Number:
  US09/503,037
• Time in Patent Office: 2,965 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/203, 709/246, 709227-232, 455418-419
• 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 67/303 Terminal profiles
• 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 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/085 specially adapted for interworking of IP-based networks with other networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

A method of and system for transferring data over a wireless communications network are provided. A wireless device user desiring to browse a World-Wide-Web page or other data sends a request over the wireless network to a Web server. The Web server receives the request and transmits the request over the Internet to the destination server containing the desired Web page. The destination server receives the request and returns the requested Web page to the Web server. The Web server parses the Web page to remove data that is not displayable on the wireless device and transmits the parsed Web page over the wireless network to the wireless device for display to the user.

Claims

1. A web server for transferring data from the Internet to mobile wireless devices that have limited display capabilities, comprising:

a web server that is connected to wireless devices via one or more corresponding wireless communications networks of the wireless devices, and is also connected to the Internet, and

wherein the web server is further configured to

receive requests from users of the wireless devices to view Internet web pages, wherein the requests, which are formatted in a transport protocol by a requesting wireless device to be suitable for transmission over its corresponding wireless communication network, are received by the web server in accordance with that transport protocol, wherein the transport protocol inserts an element that identifies the type of wireless device that is making the request,

reformat the requests into IITTP requests,

send the HTTP requests to destination servers on the Internet in accordance with an Internet transport protocol,

receive the requested web pages from the destination servers,

pause data elements contained in the received web pages and remove non-displayable data elements from the web pages to generate displayable web pages based on the wireless device type of the requesting wireless device, and

send the web pages, without including the removed data elements, over the wireless communications networks to the requesting wireless device.

2. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server is configured to receive a request for an Internet web page that is sent in accordance with the transport protocol that includes the wireless device type.

3. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server determines the wireless device type to be the type of device identified in the transport protocol.

4. The web server of claim 3 wherein the web server comprises a server process and a child process wherein the child process reformats the requests into HTTP requests.

5. The web server of claim 4 wherein the child process parses data elements contained in the received web pages and removes non-displayable data elements from the web pages.

6. The web server of claim 5 wherein the child process reformats a requested web page by building tags containing remaining data elements.

7. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server compresses and encrypts the web pages after the web server parses and removes non-displayable data elements from the web pages.

8. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server is configured to generate a plurality of data packets for sending the data elements of a particular web page to a requesting wireless device.

9. The web server of claim 8 wherein the web server is configured to send that particular web page by pacing the transmission of the data packets from the web server to the requesting wireless device.

10. The web server of claim 9 wherein the pacing is performed based on a bandwidth capability of a corresponding wireless communications network on which the requesting wireless device is operating.

11. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server is configured to convert the web pages from HTML to another tag language.

12. The web server of claim 1 wherein the web server receives a wireless network type as part of the transport protocol.

13. A system comprising the web server of claim 1 and a client process implemented on the wireless devices, wherein the client sends the requests to the web server in accordance with the transport protocol of the corresponding wireless communications network in which the wireless device is configured to operate.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the transport protocol is for low bandwidth networks.

15. A system comprising the web server of claim 1 and one or more browser applications implemented on the wireless devices that allows users to input a URL of a web page of interest to the user as their request.

16. A method for transferring data from the Internet to mobile wireless devices that have limited display capabilities, comprising:

connecting a web server to wireless devices via one or more corresponding wireless communications networks of the wireless devices, and also connecting the web server to the Internet;

receiving requests from users of the wireless devices to view Internet web pages, wherein the requests, which are formatted in a transport protocol by a requesting wireless device to be suitable for transmission over its corresponding wireless communication network, are received in accordance with a transport protocol used by a requesting wireless device in its corresponding wireless communications network, wherein the transport protocol inserts an element that identifies the type of wireless device that is making the request,

reformatting the requests into HTTP requests,

sending the HTTP requests to destination servers on the Internet in accordance with an Internet transport protocol,

receiving the requested web pages from the destination servers,

parsing data elements contained in the received web pages and removing non-displayable data elements from the web pages to generate displayable web pages based on the wireless device type of the requesting wireless device, and

sending the web pages, without including the removed data elements, over the wireless communications networks to the requesting wireless devices.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein receiving requests comprises receiving a request for an Internet web page that is sent in accordance with the transport protocol that includes the wireless device type.

18. The method of claim 16 comprising determining the wireless device type to be the type of device identified in the transport protocol.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising implementing a server process and a child process on the webs server, wherein the child process reformats the requests into HTTP requests.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the child process parses data elements contained in the received web pages and removes non-displayable data elements from the web pages.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the child process reformats a requested web page by building tags containing remaining data elements.

22. The method of claim 16 further comprising compressing and encrypting the web pages after parsing and removing non-displayable data elements from the web pages.

23. The method of claim 16 further comprising generating a plurality of data packets for sending the data elements of a particular web page to a requesting wireless device.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising sending that particular web page by pacing the transmission of the data packets from the web server to the requesting wireless device.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the pacing is performed based on a bandwidth capability of a corresponding wireless communications network on which the requesting wireless device is operating.

26. The method of claim 16 wherein the web server is configured to convert the web pages from HTML to another tag language.

27. The method of claim 16 wherein the web server receives a wireless network type as part of the transport protocol.

28. The method of claim 16 further comprising implementing a client process on the wireless devices, wherein the client process sends the requests to the web server in accordance with the transport protocol of the corresponding wireless communications network in which that wireless device is configured to operate.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the transport protocol is for low bandwidth networks.

30. The method of claim 16 wherein the receiving comprises implementing one or more browser applications on the wireless devices that allows the users to input a URL of web page of interest to the user as their request.