WebExpress is a client/intercept system for optimizing wireless Web browsing. It is a product of IBM's wireless program and one that I have worked, and continue to work, during my summer visit at IBM. The objective of WebExpress is to facilitate the use of Web technology to run typical commercial transaction processing applications over wireless networks. The predictability of this type of usage makes it possible to employ optimizations that make wireless Web access practical from both a usability and cost perspective. WebExpress demonstrates one set of optimizations that has proven successful for Web applications. In particular, by employing the client/intercept model it reduces data volume and latency by intercepting the HTTP data stream and performing various optimizations including: file caching, forms differencing, protocol reduction, and the elimination of redundant HTTP header transmission. The differencing and virtual socket functions are especially critical, since they effectively extend caching to work with continually updated objects without requiring that the entire object (response) be transferred. The work published in "WebExpress: A Client/Intercept Based System for Optimizing Web Browsing in a Wireless Environment" describes the WebExpress system as an application of the Client/Intercept computational model. The successful deployment of WebExpress as an industrial strength system extends Web technology to a new usage domain.

Related Publications