A SIP-based web client for HTTP session mobility and multimedia services

This work leverages Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) transportation and mobility mechanism to transfer session data between two Web browsers. In addition, a Web browser can now act as an adaptive User Agent Client to surf the Internet and make voice calls as a SIP client. It is a novel work that uses SIP to transfer session data between Web browsers and borrows SIP Mobility types to introduce new service namely, content sharing and session hand-off, to the Web browsing experience. Referred to as a SIP-based HTTP session mobility service, it offers personal mobility to end users, and facilitates session mobility in Web browsing. While content sharing refers to the ability to view the same Web resource on two Web browsers and does not require moving session data, session hand-off refers to the migration of a Web session with its session data (cookies, hidden form elements and rewritten URL) to another Web browser. Results showed that the integration of SIP into a Web browser does not degrade the performance of a Web browser. Results also showed that the service could not work on all websites because of the Same Origin Policy (SOP) used by Web browsers to transfer cookies. The hybrid-based architectural scheme proposed and implemented here is compared with other existing Web session migration schemes. On the service commercialization, if the privacy and security of session data could be guaranteed by the implementers, a flat rate could be periodically charged regardless of the varying session data sizes. In another sense, it could be rendered as a Value Added Service (VAS) to customers. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.