Data communication system and method

• US 9,026,664 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2010
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mobile Devices Ingenierie
• Original Assignee: Mobile Devices Ingenierie
• Inventors: Zarka, Julien, DePhily, Vincent, Solomon, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): KHAN, AFTAB N
• Application Number:
  US13/634,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/389, 370401-402, 370351-356, 370/474, 709/227, 709/228, 709/231
• US Class Current: 709/227
• 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 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168
• 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

Abstract

Data communication system between a wireless mobile device (10), and remote servers (30) connected to the Internet the mobile device having client applications (3), comprising a host server (20) interposed between the client applications (3) and the remote servers (30), a communication channel (4) based on a TCP tunnel and/or UDP protocol between the mobile device and the host server (20), on which are transmitted uplink and downlink data messages, the communication tunnel (4) being connected to a first data concentrator module (1) belonging to the mobile device, and to a second data concentrator module (2) belonging to the host server.

Claims

1. A data communication system, adapted to handle data communication between at least a public domain remote server connected to Internet and a mobile device connected to a wireless network, said mobile device comprising a plurality of client applications, wherein said data communication system comprises:

at least a host server having a memory connected to the Internet and functionally interposed between said client applications and said public domain remote server,

a communication channel between the mobile device and the host server, wherein the client applications are able to transmit uplink data messages to the host server through the communication channel, and able to receive downlink data messages from the host server through the communication channel, each uplink message being labeled by a simple ServiceId identifier, wherein said communication channel comprises a single TCP/IP-based tunnel, comprising only first and second TCP sockets, said first TCP socket being allocated to the mobile device and said second TCP socket being allocated to the host server, said first and second TCP sockets being connected together by said TCP/IP-based tunnel;

a first data concentrator module belonging to the mobile device, interfacing said at least one client application, said first data concentrator module adapted to aggregate the uplink data messages into at least an uplink compressed data structure and to transmit said uplink compressed data structure to said host server,

a second data concentrator module belonging to the host server, adapted to receive the uplink compressed data structure from said mobile device, and adapted to split the uplink compressed data structure into uplink internet messages corresponding functionally to said uplink data messages, each uplink internet message being encapsulated in a HTTP request and forward each of the HTTP request toward a relevant public domain remote server according to the simple ServiceId identifier of the uplink message,

wherein said communication channel includes a wireless network portion, wherein said first data concentrator module is further adapted to compress uplink data messages into the uplink compressed data structure, and said second data concentrator module is further adapted to uncompress and split the uplink compressed data structure into said uplink internet messages,

wherein the second data concentrator module is adapted to receive downlink internet messages from the public domain remote server, further adapted to filter the content of the received downlink internet messages and further adapted to aggregate the filtered downlink internet messages into a downlink compressed data structure, and to transmit said downlink compressed data structure toward the mobile device,

wherein the first data concentrator module is adapted to receive the downlink compressed data structure and split said downlink compressed data structure into downlink data messages and forward said downlink data messages toward the client applications,

wherein said second data concentrator module is further adapted to compress downlink internet messages into the downlink compressed data structure, and said first data concentrator module is further adapted to uncompress and split the downlink compressed data structure into downlink data messages.

2. The data communication system according to claim 1, wherein said communication channel is further adapted to handle UDP datagrams.

3. The data communication system according to claim 1, wherein said public domain remote server is a content provider server, wherein said at least some of the uplink data messages are said client applications requests, wherein said at least some of downlink data messages are public domain server responses, said responses being responsive to said requests.

4. The data communication system according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of public domain remote servers, wherein each of the HTTP request is forwarded toward the most relevant public domain remote server among a list of preregistered public domain servers, according to the simple ServiceId identifier of the uplink message.

5. The data communication system according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of host servers.

6. The data communication system according to claim 1, wherein said TCP/IP-based tunnel is permanently established as long as the mobile device is supplied and connected to said wireless network.

7. The data communication system according to claim 1, further comprising the mobile device and the at least public domain remote server, wherein the public domain remote server is adapted to handle primary downlink internet messages, wherein the public domain remote server or the host server includes a content adapter module adapted to filter primary downlink internet messages and extract relevant downlink internet messages from said primary downlink data messages, wherein the content adapter module is configured to strip the primary downlink internet messages in order to discard all data useless to the mobile device.

8. The data communication system according to claim 7, further comprising at least an auxiliary mobile device connected to the mobile device, and wherein said mobile device comprises a client application of the plurality of client applications in connection with the auxiliary mobile device.

9. A method of handling data communication in a data communication system between a mobile device connected to a wireless network, and at least a public domain remote server connected to Internet, wherein said mobile device comprises a plurality of client applications,

said data communication system comprising:

at least a host server having a memory connected to the Internet and functionally interposed between said client applications and said public domain remote server,

a communication channel between the mobile device and the host server, said communication channel including a wireless network portion wherein said communication channel comprises a single TCP/IP-based tunnel, comprising only first and second TCP sockets, said first TCP socket being allocated to the mobile device and said second TCP socket being allocated to the host server, said first and second TCP sockets being connected together by said TCP/IP-based tunnel, wherein the method comprises an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission, wherein the uplink transmission comprises the steps of;

a. on the mobile device side, receiving uplink data messages from the client applications, each uplink message being labeled by a simple ServiceId identifier, aggregating the uplink data messages and compressing the result thereof into a uplink compressed data structure,

b. on the mobile device side, transmitting said uplink compressed data structure to the host server through said communication channel,

c. on the host server side, uncompress and splitting the uplink compressed data structure into an uplink internet messages, and forwarding the uplink internet messages encapsulated in a HTTP request corresponding functionally to said uplink data messages to a relevant public domain remote server on the Internet, according to the simple ServiceId of each uplink message, wherein the downlink transmission comprises the steps of;

d. on the host server side, receiving downlink internet messages from the public domain remote server,

e. on the host server side, filtering the content of the received downlink internet messages, aggregating the filtered downlink internet messages and compressing the result thereof into a downlink compressed data structure and transmitting said downlink compressed data structure to the mobile device through said communication channel,

f. on the mobile device side, uncompress and splitting the downlink compressed data structure into the downlink internet messages and transferring the downlink internet messages respectively to the relevant client applications.

10. A method of handling data communication according to claim 9, wherein said communication channel comprises the single TCP/IP-based tunnel, wherein said method further comprises a preliminary step of:

opening a single TCP socket on the mobile device side, and establishing a TCP-based tunnel between the mobile device and the single TCP socket on the host server.

11. A method of handling data communication according to claim 9, wherein said communication channel comprises the single TCP/IP-based tunnel and is further adapted to handle UDP datagrams, wherein said uplink and said downlink compressed data structure are transmitted through the communication channel, wherein said method comprises the steps of, for each uplink and downlink compressed data structure to be sent:

deciding, according to a set of predefined criteria, to select either a TCP/IP message or a UDP datagram to send said uplink and downlink compressed data structure according to the set of predefined criteria,

sending said uplink and downlink compressed data structure as the TCP/IP message or the UDP datagram, according to selection made.

12. A method of handling data communication according to claim 9, further comprising the step of:

g. maintaining the communication the single TCP/IP-based tunnel between the mobile device and the host server, by periodically transmitting ‘

keep-alive’

messages into the single TCP/IP-based tunnel, in the case of absence of data traffic.

13. A method of handling data communication according to claim 9 comprising the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission wherein the downlink transmission is responsive to the uplink transmission.

14. A method of handling data communication according to claim 13, further comprising the step of:

on the host server side, filtering primary downlink data messages and extract relevant downlink data messages from primary downlink data messages, wherein a content adapter module is configured to strip the primary downlink internet messages in order to discard all data useless to the mobile device.