Mobile Web access using eNetwork Web Express

The mobile computing environment poses severe problems for Web browsing and Web-based applications. Mobile communication links are typically slow, expensive, and unreliable. This is especially true of wide-area wireless networks, which are becoming increasingly popular. Furthermore, both voluntary and involuntary disconnections from servers are common in the mobile environment, and the standard browsing model provides no support for disconnected operation. In addition, the usual request/response model of browsing is synchronous, which means that congestion in the network and Web servers cannot be masked from users. This article describes eNetwork Web Express, a software system that addresses these issues. Paired proxies are used to optimize communication in low-bandwidth networks and to enable a browsing model in which both disconnected and asynchronous operations are supported. The resulting environment allows Web-based applications to be used effectively in a mobile setting.