ISP-Planet: Pending Protocol Promises ISP Revenue Opportunities Mar 29, 2000, 19 :59 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (3448 reads) (Other stories by Lisa Phifer)
"On-board content filtering services can be added to most caches today.
Wireless network proxies transform both protocol and web content,
converting HTML into WML for small-screen display and HTTP into
WDP for wireless delivery. Some proxy firewalls use a content vector
protocol to forward HTML to a scan server which detects and strips
viruses."
"But these point solutions lack a unifying architecture and single, simple
protocol that enables efficient distributed processing for any web service
needing content adaptation. Complex, narrowly-defined, or proprietary
vector protocols don't facilitate rapid deployment of new services.
Monolithic servers that host embedded services don't scale well — in
most cases, it makes good sense to offload adaptation. According to
Taylor, "Edge delivery devices have traditionally been best-of-breed
appliances designed to move bits quickly, not to make application
decisions. With iCAP, edge devices can interface with gateways that are
designed to make application decisions.""
"iCAP is an HTTP-based "remote procedure call" protocol that allows an
edge device like a cache to forward HTTP messages to an application
server for transformation or other processing. There are three ways in
which iCAP can work. Request Modification... Request Satisfaction... Response Modification..."
