Multiplex communications – Communication techniques for information carried in plural... – Adaptive
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-30
2001-11-06
Olms, Douglas (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Communication techniques for information carried in plural...
Adaptive
C370S401000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314108
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless networks, and more particularly, to providing network access over different wireless networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The tremendous growth of the Internet in recent years has fueled the need to provide wireless devices such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like with access to information and services available on the Internet. However, providing wireless devices with access to the Internet is complicated by the fact that various different carrier networks with different wireless network characteristics are used domestically and world wide to communicate with the wireless devices. Examples of wireless networks include Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to name a few, and each of these wireless networks has different data transfer characteristics such as latency, bandwidth, protocols and connection methods. As examples, protocols can be Internet Protocol (IP), Short Messaging System (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and connection methods can include packet switched or circuit switched.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram of a conventional communication system
100
suitable for coupling a mobile communication device to the Internet. Specifically, the communication system
100
includes a mobile communication device
102
that couples through a carrier network
104
to a network gateway
106
. The network gateway
106
facilitates the coupling of the mobile communication device
102
with the Internet
108
. As is common, various computer systems including computers supporting application server A
110
and application server B
112
are coupled to or form part of the Internet
108
. The primary function of the network gateway
106
is to receive data requests from the carrier network
104
and convert them into Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests for use with the Internet
108
. Likewise, the network gateway
106
also receives HTTP responses from the Internet
108
and converts them to data responses with a format (e.g., protocol) suitable for use with the carrier network
104
.
Conventionally, the network gateway
106
is able to couple a single carrier network
104
to the Internet
108
. In such cases, the network gateway
106
is specifically designed and constructed for the particular type of network and its protocols used by the carrier network
104
. The network gateway
106
thus provides the various mobile communication devices utilizing the carrier network
104
with Internet access.
However, in the wireless communication world, particularly with mobile telephones, there are a wide variety of carrier networks that are used to provide telephone and data transmission services to mobile telephones. These various carrier networks often have different network types as well as different protocols for transporting data. Hence, the construction of a network gateway for use with one particular carrier network often means that the same network gateway will not support other carrier networks. Consequently, a particular carrier network will need its own network gateway to facilitate the coupling of its associated mobile communication devices with the Internet.
Such limitations are particularly problematic in the case in which a company has several carrier networks that are used to support its various subscribers having mobile communication devices. In such a case, the company will require multiple network gateways in order to couple the various carrier networks to the Internet. Each of these network gateways will be constructed somewhat differently to accommodate the wireless characteristics of the particular carrier network. Besides the general burden of providing multiple network gateways, there are other disadvantages of such an approach. One such disadvantage is that by requiring different carrier networks or information providers to provide their own gateway network is not only an inefficient use of resources but also complicates the management and servicing requirements. Another disadvantage of using multiple network gateways to support the different carrier networks is that software development costs substantially increase.
Thus, there is a need for improved ways to couple different carrier networks to the Internet in an efficient and cost effective way.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Broadly speaking, the invention relates to centralized network access for wireless network carriers providing network access to wireless communication devices. The invention provides a network gateway (or proxy server) that provides access to a network of computers to various wireless network carriers having different wireless network characteristics. In one embodiment, the invention uses airlinks (or network drivers) to support the communications between the network gateway and the various wireless network carriers.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, an apparatus, and a computer system. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.
As a system for delivery of information from a network of computers to wireless communication devices, an embodiment of the invention includes: a plurality of wireless communication devices, the wireless communications devices including a processing unit and a display screen; a plurality of wireless network carriers, each of the wireless network carriers providing wireless communication services to the plurality of wireless communication devices, and a plurality of the wireless network carriers using a different combination of network type and transport protocol; a network of computers, one or more of the computers of the network of computers contains information; and a multi-network gateway, the multi-network gateway couples the wireless network carriers to the network of computers to facilitate data transfer therebetween, each of the plurality of the wireless network carriers using the different combination of network type and protocol are coupled to the network of computers by an airlink configured for the particular combination of network type and protocol, and each of the airlinks operate to exchange data with certain of the wireless communication devices via the wireless network carriers associated therewith.
As a gateway between a plurality of wireless network carriers and the Internet, where each of the wireless network carriers provide wireless communication services to a plurality of wireless communication devices, an embodiment of the invention includes: a HTTP interface module coupled to the Internet, a push agent, and a pull agent. The HTTP interface module interconnects the gateway with the Internet. The push agent is coupled to the HTTP interface module and includes a network driver for each of the wireless network carriers. The push agent operates to receive notification messages for particular ones of the wireless communication devices, and to forward the notification messages to the particular ones of the wireless communications devices by the network driver associated with the wireless network carrier respectively used by the particular ones of the wireless communications devices. The pull agent is coupled to the HTTP interface module and includes a network driver for each of the wireless network carriers. The pull agent operates to receive information requests for information from the Internet from particular ones of the wireless communications devices, to form HTTP requests to request the information from the Internet via the HTTP interface module, to thereafter receive HTTP responses from the Internet containing the information requested, to form information replies for the particular ones of the wireless communications devices based on the HTTP responses, and then to send the information replies to the particular ones of the wireless communications devices as per the information requests using the network driv
Boyle Steven S.
Fox Mark A.
Ramasubramani Seetharaman
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Nguyen Brian
Olms Douglas
Openwave Systems Inc.
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for providing network access over... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for providing network access over..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for providing network access over... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2616385