Open architecture of accessing Internet and its content providers for the Web InfoShop Node

Abstract

In order to use Internet services, the user should subscribe to an Internet service provider and content provider (CP). This procedure requires a monthly fixed sum of money for using the Internet and CP; this is a barrier to suppress the growth of Internet users. To promote high quality commercial Internet services, we must simplify the users' subscribing procedures and charging system. We designed and implemented the Web InfoShop Node (WiN) System. The WiN system has an open architecture for accessing the Internet and CP resources. The users of the WiN system can access the Internet and CP resources without a regular subscribing procedure. Additionally the WiN system can provide various services such as authentication resolution, billing agency and filtering of resources. In this paper, we describe the system configuration, the services provided, and the communication protocols of the WiN system.