Ubiquitous Web Access: Collaborative Optimization and Dynamic Content Negotiation

Abstract

Traditionally, cellular wide area networks like UMTS are used as Internet access networks for particular users but, in some cases, they can be employed to provide Internet access to other smaller networks as well. The main inconvenient is that cellular networks have not the same bandwidth than wired networks and therefore, the cellular channel becomes a network bottle-neck. To help to mitigate this situation and in order to improve the user's experience different optimization techniques exist, especially in web traffic. This paper studies first the existing synergies at HTTP layer between device capabilities expression, content negotiation, channel optimization and content adaptation. And secondly, it presents a system where HTTP requests transmission is optimized, showing a significant improvement in response time by means of HTTP header reduction over the cellular channel. In order to obtain a successful browsing experience, headers should be restored when reaching the Internet. This dynamic header reconstruction allows giving enriched and more expressive information about user's device and browser capabilities. Thus navigation speed and user's QoE can be enhanced by means of dynamic content negotiation in order to obtain adapted (and lighter) content and responses from web servers and adaptation proxies alike.