On Proxy Agents, Mobility, and Web Access

Abstract

With the emerging need for ubiquitous access to information, web access from mobile clients is gaining increasing importance. Unfortunately, the underlying protocols of the web are not designed to support operations from a resource poor platform in a low bandwidth, disconnection prone environment. Efforts to create systems to support mobile browsing have typically been proxy‐based. However, such solutions have recently been criticized due to their non‐scalability. Developments in ad hoc networking also threaten the viability of proxy‐based approaches. In this paper, we critically examine the proxy‐based approach and its place in mobile access to the web in particular, and networked multimedia information in general. We argue for a hybrid approach that uses both proxy‐based and end–end techniques as appropriate, suggest when each is more appropriate, and present a preliminary implementation.