[e2e] Compression of web pages

[Li, Jiang (Leo)]

Some web servers (e.g. Apache) does support this function as long as the
web browsers can deal with it.

Leo
-- 
Li, Jiang (Leo)
Computer Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~lij6

Woojune Kim wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I recently saw an article in the WSJ in the column by Mossberg, describing Sprint PCS 's wireless internet access services. It said that SprintPCS uses some sort of compression / decompression technology to make the user get the look / feel of a 400Kbps connection even though the actual physical data rate is only 50-70Kbps.
> 
> >From the description it looks like they have some sort of compression agent either in their access box or an external box. Something like the WAP servers or a specialized Web Proxy server. My guess is that they also had some special decompress software in their mobile handsets or laptops.
> 
> I was wondering though, wouldn't it be more efficient if the web client were able to request "compressed web pages" in the initial HTTP request ? So instead of having specialized proxy servers etc. the compresssion etc. would be done at the originating server.... (This would not have to be a performance hit as compressed pages could be prepared offline etc.)
> 
> Has this idea been floated around and killed already ? Or is it already out there in some form ?
> 
> thanks