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Write up on Example Services

2000-09-11 22:47:58
Hi,

when we mentioned our internal notes on service examples in a proxy
framework similar to EPSF during Michael's visit at Bell Labs last
week, he suggested to forward the notes to the EPSF group for some
discussion.

So, please find attached a preliminary write-up describing some
service examples. Please be aware that the document is NOT an official
Internet draft. We put the document together in quite a hurry, just
out of the heads - no extensive proofreading, nor checking of correct
taxonomy. But it might be useful to have the write up at the workshop
in San Jose.

If the document is of interest to the group and we get some feedback,
we will consider submitting an improved version as Internet draft.

-Markus


Network Working Group                                        M. Hofmann 
Internet Draft                                                  A. Beck 
Expires: February 11, 2001                            Bell Laboratories 
                                                    Lucent Technologies 
Document: draft-hofmann-esfnep-00.txt                September 11, 2000 
Category: Informational                                                 
 
 
    
               Example Services for Network Edge Proxies 
                      draft-hofmann-esfnep-00.txt 
 
    
 
Status of this Memo 
    
   This document is not an official Internet-Draft and is not (yet) in 
   full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026 [1]. 
   This document is a preliminary draft, prepared for informal 
   discussion within the EPFSW group. Its purpose is solicitation for 
   comments and feedback that will be helpful in preparing a final 
   version for possible submission as Internet Draft. 
    
   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of 
   six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other 
   documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts 
   as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in 
   progress."  
    
   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt  
    
   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 
    
    
Table of Contents 
    
   1  Introduction...................................................2 
   2  Content Adaptation for Alternate Web Access Devices............3 
   2.1  Abstract.....................................................3 
   2.2  Business model...............................................4 
   2.3  Technical Challenges.........................................4 
   3  Insertion of Ad Banners........................................4 
   3.1  Abstract.....................................................4 
   3.2  Business model...............................................5 
   3.3  Technical Challenges.........................................5 
   4  Insertion of Regional Data.....................................5 
   4.1  Abstract.....................................................5 
   4.2  Business model...............................................6 
   4.3  Technical Challenges.........................................6 
  
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   5  Language Translation...........................................6 
   5.1  Abstract.....................................................6 
   5.2  Business model...............................................7 
   5.3  Technical Challenges.........................................7 
   6  Bandwidth Adaptation...........................................7 
   6.1  Abstract.....................................................7 
   6.2  Business model...............................................8 
   6.3  Technical Challenges.........................................8 
   7  Virus Scanning.................................................8 
   7.1  Abstract.....................................................8 
   7.2  Business model...............................................8 
   7.3  Technical Challenges.........................................9 
   8  Content Adaptation for Alternate Browser Types.................9 
   8.1  Abstract.....................................................9 
   8.2  Business model..............................................10 
   8.3  Technical Challenges........................................10 
   9  Adaptation of Streaming Media.................................10 
   9.1  Abstract....................................................10 
   9.2  Business model..............................................10 
   9.3  Technical Challenges........................................10 
   10 Caching of Personalized/Customized Web Pages..................10 
   10.1  Abstract...................................................11 
   10.2  Business Model.............................................11 
   10.3  Technical Challenges.......................................11 
   11 Search Engine Index on Cached Web Pages.......................11 
   11.1  Abstract...................................................11 
   11.2  Business model.............................................12 
   11.3  Technical Challenges.......................................12 
   12 Request Filtering.............................................12 
   12.1  Abstract...................................................12 
   12.2  Business model.............................................12 
   12.3  Technical Challenges.......................................13 
   13 Request Filtering through Content Analysis....................13 
   13.1  Abstract...................................................13 
   13.2  Business model.............................................13 
   13.3  Technical Challenges.......................................13 
   14 Creation of Anonymous User Profiles...........................14 
   14.1  Abstract...................................................14 
   14.2  Business model.............................................14 
   14.3  Technical Challenges.......................................14 
   15 Author's Addresses............................................14 
   16 References....................................................16 
    
 
 
 
1  Introduction 
    
   The rapid growth of the Internet and the increasing number of 
   Internet users have led to a wide deployment of network edge caching 
   proxies. These systems have been very successful in accelerating Web 
   content delivery and reducing the load on origin Web servers.  
    

  
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   However, the specific role of these network edge caching proxies as 
   a gateway between Web users and content providers suggests utilizing 
   them for intelligent services beyond simple caching. 
    
   There are already a variety of existing or proposed approaches that 
   implement particular services on top of a proxy platform. ICAP [3] 
   extends the basic idea of implementing value-added services on 
   proxies by handling transport of web objects between proxies and 
   content modification servers, thus, enabling remote call out 
   mechanisms. EPSF [2] describes an extended framework to provide 
   general services on top of an open proxy platform. 
    
   This document discusses several service examples possibly being 
   implemented on top of an open proxy platform as described in [2]. 
   Each of the following service description consists of three 
   subsections: a short abstract that describes the service idea, a 
   description of the underlying business model, and finally a section 
   that mentions technical challenges to be addressed when implementing 
   these services. 
    
    
2  Content Adaptation for Alternate Web Access Devices 
    
   2.1 Abstract 
    
   Recently there has been an increasing diversity and heterogeneity in 
   terms of the types of client devices and network connections that 
   people use to access the Web.  Especially cell phones and PDAs are 
   being used more and more often to access the Internet. However, 
   these appliances are characterized by relatively limited display 
   capabilities, storage, processing power, as well as slow network 
   access. As a result, Internet access is still constrained on these 
   devices and users are limited to only a small fraction of the total 
   number of Web pages available in the Internet today. Users of non-
   desktop access devices can only view those pages that have been 
   adapted to the specific limitations of the access device the user 
   holds. Since the number of different access devices is growing 
   constantly content providers cannot be expected to provide different 
   versions of their Web pages for each and every Web access device 
   that is available in the market. 
    
   Therefore it seems reasonable to adapt the general full-fledged Web 
   pages at some point on their way from the origin server to the user 
   so that they are optimized for (or at least adapted to) the end 
   users? specific requirements. 
    
   Possible adaptations to meet the special requirements of different 
   Web access devices are: 
    
   - Conversion of HTML pages to WML (Wireless Markup Language) pages  
   - Conversion of JPEG images to black and white GIF images 
   - Conversion of HTML tables to plain text  
   - Reduction of image quality 
  
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   - Removal of redundant information 
   - Stripping of Java applets / JavaScript 
   - Audio to text conversion 
   - Video to key frame or video to text conversion 
   - Content extraction 
    
   2.2 Business model 
    
   With the above-mentioned service in place, Web content providers 
   could reach a much wider audience and the manufactures of novel Web 
   access devices could offer potential customers access to a bigger 
   part of the Internet content, which should make a very good selling 
   point. It would encourage more people to buy non-desktop Web access 
   devices like cell phones and PDAs. 
    
   Once installed this service can be offered as an additional feature 
   to ISP customers who want to access the Web through different Web-
   enabled devices. Also, content providers might be willing to pay for 
   this service if that meant that they could serve their existing 
   content to more users. 
    
   2.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   We have to ensure that the automatic adaptation process will not 
   make changes to a Web page that are unwanted by either the content 
   provider or the recipient. One approach to achieve this would be to 
   allow the content provider as well as the client to define their 
   preferences as to how they want Web pages to be adapted. The actual 
   adaptation decisions would then be made based on the given 
   preferences and a set of transformation rules. If neither the 
   content provider nor the client has expressed his preferences, it 
   would probably be best to not adapt the requested Web page. 
    
   If we wanted to allow the Web users and content providers to express 
   their preferences, we would have to find a way of doing this. ISP 
   customers could set their preferences through a Web interface on the 
   ISP Web site. Content providers could express their preferences by 
   adding meta tags to their Web pages. The content provider could for 
   instance offer the content adaptation server a number of 
   alternatives and the content adaptation server could then pick the 
   most appropriate one. The drawback would be the increase in size of 
   Web pages. Another possibility for the content provider would be to 
   provide an adaptation policy to all ISPs that want to adapt Web 
   pages for alternate Web access devices. This policy could consist of 
   general transformation rules or actual code modules that perform the 
   adaptation.  
    
    
3  Insertion of Ad Banners  
    
   3.1 Abstract 
    

  
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   Many Internet companies rely heavily on revenue made by selling 
   advertisement space on their Web pages. In fact, nearly all 
   commercial Web sites have one or more ad banners on their Web pages. 
   Whenever advertisement banners are inserted dynamically depending on 
   who requests the page, they cannot be cached, even when the content 
   of the page itself is static. This behavior prevents Web pages from 
   being cached, although their static content would allow for it. 
    
   Therefore it seems reasonable to cache the static part of those Web 
   pages at a caching proxy near the client and to insert ad banners 
   into the cached Web pages before serving them to the client.  
    
   3.2 Business model 
    
   This service could be sold to Internet advertising networks. They 
   could profit from less traffic on their own Web servers by 
   distributing the banner images to caching proxies. Also, content 
   providers who do not want to outsource their ad space management and 
   sales might be interested in providing banner images and insertion 
   rules to proxies/content adaptation servers to accelerate the 
   delivery of their Web pages. 
    
   Recently there have also been a number of ISPs that offer free 
   Internet access to customers. These so-called Free ISPs usually 
   provide Internet access through a special kind of software that 
   displays ad banners on the customers? desktops whenever they are 
   online. An ad insertion module at the caching proxy of the Free ISP 
   could insert ad banners (in addition to any ad banners from the 
   content provider) into every Web page requested by a customer. That 
   way the customers of the Free ISP will not have to install any 
   special software in order to use its service. 
    
   3.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The caching proxy would have to recognize when and where to insert 
   ad banners into a Web page before serving it to the client. The 
   proxy could for instance scan the Web page for a specific marking 
   (e.g. a special tag). In the case of a Free ISP ad banners would 
   probably always be inserted at the same position (e.g. in a frame at 
   the top of each page) or in a separate pop-up window. 
    
   If we wanted to insert advertisements based on the user and his 
   interests, we would have to identify the user (by using cookies for 
   example) and create user profiles. The user profiles could also be 
   provided by the content provider. 
    
    
4  Insertion of Regional Data 
    
   4.1 Abstract 
    
   If a content provider wants to add user-specific regional 
   information (weather forecasts for certain areas for example) to his 
  
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   Web pages, he has little choice but to have the user select his 
   location from a list of regions. Usually it is not possible for 
   origin servers to reliably detect from where Web users connect to 
   Web sites because user requests can get routed through a number of 
   proxy servers on their way from the client to the origin server.  
    
   In a network edge caching proxy environment user requests are 
   usually redirected to the nearest proxy that is available to respond 
   to the request.  Regional information that is relevant to all users 
   who are likely to connect to a certain proxy could be stored at the 
   corresponding caching proxy. Whenever the proxy receives a user 
   request, a module on the caching proxy could insert the regional 
   information into the requested Web page. If the Web page does not 
   contain any user-specific non-cacheable content other than the 
   inserted regional information, the Web page content can now be 
   cached for future requests. 
    
   4.2 Business model 
    
   This service could be sold to content providers who want to offer 
   regional information on their Web sites and want to accelerate the 
   delivery of their Web content. There are many cases in which a 
   content provider could profit from knowing the location of the user. 
   Users could be targeted with regional advertisement banners (see 
   also ad insertion scenario). Regional distinctions (e.g. sales 
   taxes, differing laws etc.) could be taken into consideration when 
   the Web pages are prepared for the client. It would not be necessary 
   any more to ask the user for his location prior to presenting him 
   relevant information. 
    
   4.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The regional content that is to be inserted into the Web pages would 
   have to be distributed to the corresponding caching proxies. Since 
   the regional content represents only a component of a whole Web 
   page, it cannot be cached in the same way a complete Web page can be 
   cached (unless it is an image). We have to find a mechanism to 
   determine when a regional text component needs to be updated (or if 
   the content provider should be responsible for this). 
    
    
5  Language Translation 
    
   5.1 Abstract 
    
   Soon the majority of all Internet users will be non-English 
   speaking. As most of the current Web content is written in English, 
   it becomes desirable to be able to translate the English content to 
   the Web user?s local language, even if the content provider does not 
   offer translations of his Web content. An automatic translation 
   service for all Web pages could be implemented with an IPWorX 
   content adaptation server. 
    
  
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   The proxy server will recognize the Web user's native language and 
   ask whether the foreign content requested should be translated into 
   the user's native language. If the content is to be translated, the 
   proxy will forward the Web content to a translation server where the 
   page then is automatically translated. The proxy could also locally 
   store translated content eliminating the need to repeat translations 
   for different users. 
    
   5.2 Business model 
    
   The automatic language service will help break language barriers and 
   open new markets for e-commerce. The average non-English speaking 
   Web user will have access to more Web content. ISPs, especially 
   those with customers in non-English speaking countries, could offer 
   this service to their customers.  
    
   5.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The automatic translation of text found on Web pages is not a 
   trivial task. It will not be possible to translate a Web page 
   automatically without running the risk of rendering parts of it 
   incomprehensible. Worse yet, the original meaning could be changed 
   and it is not said the reader of the translated page will notice the 
   change in meaning. It is questionable whether content providers 
   would even tolerate this kind of translation service.  
    
   Therefore it is very important that the client authorizes this 
   translation service and is fully aware of its potentially faulty 
   behavior. It should also be considered to mark translated pages in a 
   specific way to remind the user of the machine translation.  
    
   Other technical challenges include the automatic detection of the 
   language used in the original document and the client?s local 
   language.  
    
    
6  Bandwidth Adaptation 
    
   6.1 Abstract 
    
   Today, Internet users can choose from a wide variety of Internet 
   connection speeds. Therefore it seems desirable to adapt the 
   requested Web content to the user?s bandwidth.  
    
   Possible adaptations to reduce the size of Web objects are: 
    
   - Reduction of image quality 
   - Replacement of images by their ALT text 
   - Removal of redundant information 
   - Removal of HTML comments 
   - Stripping of Java applets / JavaScript 
   - Audio to text conversion 
   - Video to key frame or video to text conversion 
  
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   - Text summarizing 
   - Content extraction 
    
    
   6.2 Business model 
    
   One of the main benefits is to decrease the Web access time for 
   users. If a Web site loads too slowly, users tend to leave the site 
   even before it has completed loading the home page. The improved 
   perceived quality of service by adaptive content delivery means that 
   users are more likely to stay and return, thus resulting in a 
   greater profit for e-commerce sites. This can also result in higher 
   hit rates and return rates, which can lead to higher sales for e-
   commerce sites and higher advertising revenues. 
    
   6.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   We would have to find a reliable way of measuring the bandwidth 
   between the client and the proxy cache. One way of doing this would 
   be to measure the round trip time (RTT) to determine the connection 
   speed. It is crucial that this bandwidth detection method works more 
   or less exact or otherwise the client will either experience very 
   slow Web browsing or be cut off of some (or all) of the rich Web 
   content. This service requires authorization by the user like any 
   other adaptation service that changes the content and or format of 
   Web pages. 
    
   The mapping of a user?s connection speed to appropriate page 
   adaptations requires defining a set of adaptation rules. 
    
    
7  Virus Scanning 
    
   7.1 Abstract 
    
   Viruses, Trojan Horses, and worms have always posed a threat to 
   Internet users. Just recently we have seen a number of e-mail based 
   worms that have hit millions of Internet users worldwide within a 
   few hours.  
    
   With the help of a content scanning and filtering system at the 
   caching proxy level, Web pages and also file transfers could be 
   scanned for malicious content prior to sending them to the user. In 
   Web pages active content like ActiveX, Java and JavaScript could be 
   scanned for harmful code (e.g. code exploiting security holes). File 
   transfers could be scanned for known viruses. If a virus is found, 
   the adaptation server could try to remove it or deny the delivery of 
   the infected content. A general rule could be that the caching proxy 
   may store and/or deliver content only, if it has been scanned by the 
   content adaptation server and no viruses are found.  
    
   7.2 Business model 
    
  
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   This service could be offered as an additional feature to ISP 
   customers who are concerned about security issues. Likewise 
   enterprises could be interested in this solution to prevent any 
   malicious content from entering the company network. 
    
   7.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   Web pages/files should be scanned for viruses by sending them to a 
   separate server where virus-scanning software would analyze them. 
   That way the virus scanning operations will not affect the 
   performance of the caching proxy. 
    
   If HTTP file transfers are to be scanned for viruses and the 
   requested file cannot be found in the cache, we have to use a 
   different approach than for Web pages. It would not be feasible, if 
   the proxy waited for the requested file to be received completely 
   before sending it over to the content adaptation server for the 
   virus scan. This approach would lead to a long delay at the user?s 
   end, which is not acceptable. Instead, we would have to scan the 
   file transfer continuously, as it is being sent to the user (similar 
   to streaming media). 
    
    
8  Content Adaptation for Alternate Browser Types 
    
   8.1 Abstract 
    
   The two commonly used Web browsers ? Microsoft Internet Explorer and 
   Netscape Navigator ? both have proprietary extensions that are not 
   part of any Web standard, but are yet widely used and considered 
   essential by many Web page authors. As these proprietary extensions 
   differ between the Internet Explorer and the Navigator (and even 
   between different browser versions), Web pages have to be adapted in 
   order to work well with both browsers. In the past this has been 
   achieved by either writing two or more versions of the same page or 
   by adding JavaScript to the Web page to alter the page at the client 
   depending on what browser type and version the user is running. 
   Although the Internet Explorer is used by far more users than any 
   other browser type, there is still a substantial number of people 
   who want to or must (UNIX) use alternative browser types. Yet, not 
   all service providers write their Web pages so that they can be 
   viewed with different browser types.  
    
   A content adaptation module at the caching proxy could provide a 
   remedy for this problem. Prior to serving a page (from the cache or 
   the origin server) to the client, the proxy would send it to the 
   adaptation module along with some client information (browser type 
   and OS) received with the request. The content adaptation module 
   would then make the necessary changes to the page to adapt it to the 
   user?s browser type and send it back to the proxy from where it is 
   served to the client.  
    

  
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   8.2 Business model 
    
   This service could be offered to ISPs who in turn could offer their 
   customers a browser adaptation service. They could be sure to always 
   receive pages that are optimized for their browser types. The 
   customer should have the option to turn this service off at any 
   time. This approach has the potential of leading to objections by 
   content providers as they lose control over the final layout of 
   their pages. Allowing for a mechanism to mark pages that are not to 
   be touched by the content adaptation server could reduce these 
   concerns. 
    
    
   8.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   We would have to find general rules of how to convert pages. In 
   order to do this we would have to identify all incompatibilities 
   between the supported browser types and different versions thereof. 
   These rules would have to be fail-safe, especially when they are 
   applied to all requested pages without the page owner?s approval. We 
   would have to recognize if a page contains JavaScript to adapt it to 
   different browser types. If that should be the case, we could either 
   remove the JavaScript and optimize the page for the client?s browser 
   type or leave the page unchanged. 
    
    
9  Adaptation of Streaming Media 
    
   9.1 Abstract 
    
   Some of the above-mentioned services could not only be applied to 
   Web pages but also to streaming media like audio and video streams. 
   In particular, media streams could be adapted to meet the bandwidth 
   of the user?s connection. It would also be possible to insert pre-
   recorded advertisements into audio or video streams. Even content 
   analysis and content filtering could be applied to streaming media.  
    
   9.2 Business model 
    
   The business models for streaming media adaptation are similar to 
   those for Web page adaptation services.  
    
   9.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The adaptation of streaming media will add more complexity to the 
   caching proxy platform and the technical challenges of these kind of 
   services have yet to be explored. 
    
    
10 Caching of Personalized/Customized Web Pages 
    


  
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   10.1 Abstract 
    
   Many Web sites (e.g. Yahoo) offer a service where users can create 
   their own personalized version of the Web site (e.g. MyYahoo). It 
   basically means that a user can choose from a number of components 
   (e.g. stock information, weather forecasts, news etc.) and create a 
   personalized Web page with them. This leads to dynamic Web pages 
   that usually cannot be cached. If, however, the components of the 
   personalized Web page could be cached, then it would be possible to 
   have a service module on the server create the user-specific Web 
   pages by assembling the cached Web site components. In that case the 
   origin server would not have to be contacted again and the page 
   could be served to the client directly from the network edge caching 
   proxy. 
    
   10.2 Business Model 
    
   This service would be another method of accelerating the delivery of 
   Web content to the user, particularly the delivery of 
   personalized/customized Web pages that would not be cacheable 
   otherwise. 
    
   Content providers who offer their customers the possibility of 
   personalizing their Web pages are likely to be willing to pay for 
   this kind of service.  
    
   10.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   We would have to find a caching mechanism for the separate 
   components of the personalized Web pages (unless a component 
   consists of an image only). These components could be stored at the 
   caching proxy. 
    
   The page components would have to be refreshed just like complete 
   Web page whenever they become stale. 
    
    
11 Search Engine Index on Cached Web Pages  
    
   11.1 Abstract 
    
   A proxy usually contains the most frequently requested Web pages of 
   the Web users whose Web requests are routed through it. If we 
   indexed the content of all Web pages currently contained in one or 
   more proxies, we would have an index of Web pages that Web users are 
   very likely to request (since they have been the most popular in the 
   past). A search engine based on this index could therefore yield a 
   high hit rate when used by a group of users who have similar 
   interests and usually connect to the same caching proxies. The 
   benefit of this approach would be that the index could be created 
   very fast (there is no Web crawling to do) and that the search 
   results could be returned to the user directly from the network edge 
   caching proxy. The drawback, however, is that this search engine 
  
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   would index only a small fraction of the existing Web pages. Web 
   users have to be aware of this fact when they use the cache-based 
   search index service. Another approach would be to display the proxy 
   search results first while a global search engine prepares the 
   results of a global search in the meantime. As soon as the global 
   search results become available, they will be sent to the user. 
    
   11.2 Business model 
    
   The search engine service described above could be sold to big 
   companies who have users with similar interests and want to provide 
   a fast search engine. Companies offering traditional search engines 
   could be interested in combining their services with a cache-based 
   search engine service to accelerate the delivery of their search 
   results. 
    
   11.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   If the cached Web pages of more than one caching proxy were to be 
   indexed, we would have to find a way of replicating the search index 
   to all affected caching proxy servers.  
    
    
12 Request Filtering 
    
   12.1 Abstract 
    
   The success of Web filtering/blocking systems like NetNanny 
   (http://www.netnanny.com) and WebSense (http://www.websense.com) 
   shows that there is a great need for solutions that let the owner of 
   a Web access device control what kind of Web content can be accessed 
   with his device. Parents, for instance, often demand a means of 
   blocking off offending material when their children browse the Web. 
   Also, companies might want to have control over what kind of Web 
   pages their employees can have access to. Companies might also want 
   to prevent their employees from using the available bandwidth 
   excessively for non-work related activities.  
    
   A request filtering service could provide a solution for all of the 
   above. If all Web page requests of a specific user are routed 
   through a caching proxy server, the content adaptation server could 
   analyze the requests prior to fulfilling them. The service module 
   would have to identify the user and determine the user?s access 
   level. The next step would be to look up the classification of the 
   requested Web page in a database. 
    
    
   12.2 Business model 
    
   This service could be offered to enterprises and to ISPs. A database 
   of Web pages that contain offending material could be obtained from 
   companies that have specialized in Web blocking systems. 
    
  
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   12.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The database on the proxy caching platform that contains the Web 
   page classifications needs to be updated on a regular basis. If the 
   database is provided by third parties, we have to provide them with 
   a secure way of updating the database. 
    
   If a Web access device is shared among different users who have 
   different access levels, it is not sufficient to identify the Web 
   access device. Therefore it will probably be necessary that 
   different users of a Web access device use different user accounts. 
    
   The owner of a Web access device must be able to define and change 
   the access rights of the user(s) of his device. This could be done 
   through a Web interface provided by the ISP/company. 
    
    
13 Request Filtering through Content Analysis 
    
   13.1 Abstract 
    
   While this service is very similar to the one previously described, 
   it works more dynamically in that the content adaptation server 
   analyzes the Web content once it has been retrieved from either the 
   proxy cache or the origin server prior to sending it to the client.  
   Through the use of sophisticated content analysis algorithms it 
   should be possible to classify the analyzed Web content. If the 
   classification of the Web page matches the user?s access level, the 
   page will be delivered to the client. Otherwise, the client will be 
   denied the page. The analyzed page along with its classification 
   should be stored in the proxy cache so that future requests for the 
   same page do not require the cached Web to be analyzed again. This 
   will result in a better Web page delivery performance for popular 
   Web pages. The main benefit of this approach is that there is no 
   need to provide or maintain lists of forbidden Web sites, a process 
   that per definition must always lag behind the creation of new Web 
   sites. If common characteristics of a category of unwanted Web pages 
   can be defined, it should be possible to automatically detect 
   whether a requested Web page falls in a forbidden category.  
    
   13.2 Business model 
    
   This service could be offered to enterprises and ISPs. The content 
   analysis software could be obtained from software companies that 
   have specialized in this field. 
    
   13.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   In addition to the technical challenges described in the previous 
   service scenario, we would have to find a way of storing the 
   classification information of Web pages once they have been 
   analyzed. One way to do this would be to add a meta tag (possibly 
   using the Resource Description Framework (RDF, 
  
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   http://www.w3.org/RDF) specification) with content rating 
   information to a Web page before it is cached. Subsequent requests 
   of the same Web page would then require the request filtering 
   service module to scan the cached Web page for this metadata in 
   order to determine the content rating of the requested page.  
    
    
    
14 Creation of Anonymous User Profiles 
    
   14.1 Abstract 
    
   If all Web requests of a certain Web user were routed through a 
   certain caching proxy platform, it would be easy to log them in 
   order to create a profile of the user?s Web browsing behavior. These 
   user profiles could be created anonymously with no personal data 
   (e.g. name or e-mail address) stored in the access log files. 
    
   Once a sufficient number of requests has been logged by the content 
   adaptation server, we could start analyzing the log files. In most 
   cases it should be possible to derive the user?s interests by 
   analyzing what kind of Web sites the user visits and how often he 
   goes there. 
    
   14.2 Business model 
    
   Companies that want to advertise on Web pages are very interested in 
   knowing more about the recipients of their advertisement campaigns 
   so that they can target their advertisements at people who are 
   interested in the kind of products/services that the company wants 
   to sell. These companies are also willing to pay for information 
   that can help them targeting their campaigns at interested users. As 
   explained above, we could derive the user?s interests from his Web 
   browsing behavior and use this information to send the user only 
   those advertisements that match his interests/needs. This will most 
   likely result in a higher ad banner click-rate per user.  
    
   This service could be sold separately or in combination with the ad 
   insertion service. 
    
   14.3 Technical Challenges 
    
   The creation of anonymous user profiles requires a mechanism to 
   identify Web users. The ISP could provide a mapping from the user?s 
   (possibly dynamic) IP number to some unique user ID. Another 
   alternative would be to use cookies, provided that the user has not 
   disabled them in his Web browser. 
    
    
    
15 Author's Addresses 
    
   Markus Hofmann 
  
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   Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies 
   101 Crawfords Corner Rd. 
   Holmdel, NJ 07733 
   Phone: (732) 332-5983 
   Email: hofmann(_at_)bell-labs(_dot_)com 
    
   Andre Beck 
   Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies 
   101 Crawfords Corner Rd. 
   Holmdel, NJ 07733 
   Phone: (732) 949-1241 
   Email: abeck(_at_)bell-labs(_dot_)com 
    
    








































  
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Full Copyright Statement 
 
   Copyright (C) Lucent Technologies 2000. All Rights Reserved. 
   Copyright will be adjusted when document is submitted as Internet 
   Draft. 
    
16 References 
 
   1  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 
      9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 
    
   2 Tomlinson G., Orman H., Condry M., Kempf J. and Farber D., 
     "Extensible Proxy services Framework?, Internet-Draft draft-
     tomlinson-epsfw-00.txt, work in progress, July 2000. 
    
   3  Elson J., Martin J., Sharp E., Schuster J. Cerpa A., Danzig P., 
      Neerdaels C. and Tomlinson G., "ICAP, the Internet Content 
      Adaptation Protocol", external Reference http://www.i-
      cap.org/icap_v1-25.txt, work in progress, January 2000. 


































  
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