System and method for zero latency browsing
A system replicates Internet websites on a large number of user computers having browsers. The system includes a gateway platform having a gateway server and a cache. In the broadcast mode, the gateway server periodically or continuously images broadcast data (e.g., popular websites), compresses the website images, and stores the compressed website images in the gateway cache. The gateway server then broadcasts all of the compressed broadcast data to all (millions) of the user computers over a broadcast device (such as a satellite), for subsequent display by the user in the browser. In the unicast mode, the user requests unicast data (e.g., less-popular websites or websites having highly user-customized information) at the browser. The gateway server images that one web page, compresses the unicast data, and transmits the compressed unicast data over the broadcast device substantially in real time to the one requesting user computer.
1. A system for communicating data from a first computer to a plurality of second computers remotely located from the first computer, the system comprising:
a gateway server, comprising a processor and memory storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
cache, as commonly-viewed video, commonly-viewed web pages, fully-rendered as frames of digital video;
receive a first hypertext transfer protocol request from at least two of the plurality of second computers for a first web page among those stored as one of the commonly-viewed web pages;
receive a second hypertext transfer protocol request from an other of the plurality of second computers for a second web page, not among those stored as one of the commonly-viewed web pages;
transmit to the at least two of the plurality of second computers the commonly-viewed video using a broadcast mode in place of the first web page in response to the first hypertext transfer protocol request;
capture a web page requested by the second hypertext transfer protocol request in a requested digital video comprising at least one digital video frame; and
transmit to the other of the plurality of second computers the requested digital video as unicast data using a unicast mode in place of the second web page in response to the second hypertext transfer protocol request.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second web pages are provided by the first computer in a first format, and the gateway platform captures at least a portion of the first and second web pages are in at least one frame of digital video frame format different from and independent of the first format.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first format is an HTTP format.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the gateway server captures the entirety of the data in multiple frames of digital video.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gateway server is further configured to transmit the requested digital video over a satellite using a differential burst video transmission to no more than one of the second computers for display in substantially real time.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gateway server is further configured to rely upon quality of service designations to ensure faster delivery of the requested digital video.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gateway server is further configured to broadcast the commonly-viewed video and requested digital video over a satellite.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first computer is a server accessible through a global network, and at least one of the plurality of second computers is a dumb terminal.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gateway server further comprises a data storage device for storing the commonly-used video and the requested digital video.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the second computers is configured to receive a user input action command, and in response to the user input action command create a tag file comprising a location of the user input action command on a display screen, a type of the user input action command, and the user input action command.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the location of the user input action command comprises an x coordinate and a y coordinate on the display screen.
12. The system of claim 10 , where in the type of the user input action command comprises a keyboard entry or a mouse entry.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user input action command comprises a mouse click, a scroll, or a typed key command.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the gateway server is further configured to receive the tag file and performs the user input action command on the first computer.
15. A system for virtually replicating a web page of a web server on a user computer remotely located from the web server, the system comprising:
a gateway storage device; and
a gateway processor in communication with said gateway storage device, said gateway processor configured to:
cache, as commonly-viewed video, commonly-viewed web pages, fully-rendered as frames of digital video;
receive a first hypertext transfer protocol request from at least two of the plurality of second computers for a first web page among those stored as one of the commonly-viewed web pages;
receive a second hypertext transfer protocol request from an other of the plurality of second computers for a second web page, not among those stored as one of the commonly-viewed web pages;
transmit to the at least two of the plurality of second computers the commonly-viewed video broadcast data using a broadcast mode in place of the first web page in response to the first hypertext transfer protocol request;
capture a web page requested by the second hypertext transfer protocol request in a requested digital video comprising at least one digital video frame; and
transmit to the other of the plurality of second computers the requested digital video using a unicast mode in place of the second web page in response to the second hypertext transfer protocol request.
16. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the commonly-used video and requested digital video includes at least one frame of digital video and data in at least one form other than video or hypertext transfer markup language.
17. The system of claim 15 wherein at least one of the commonly-used video and requested digital video includes at least one frame of digital video and data in at least one form other than video or hypertext transfer markup language.
18. The system of claim 1 wherein, when the first or second hypertext transfer protocol requests seeks access to a web page that was previously accessed by another of the plurality of second computers, the gateway server directs the request to the another of the plurality of second computers to fulfill the hypertext transfer protocol request.
19. The system of claim 15 wherein, when the first or second hypertext transfer protocol requests seeks access to a web page that was previously accessed by another of the plurality of second computers, the gateway server directs the request to the another of the plurality of second computers to fulfill the hypertext transfer protocol request.
20. The system of claim 15 , wherein at least one of the second computers is configured to receive a user input action command, and in response to the user input action command create a tag file comprising a location of the user input action command on a display screen, a type of the user input action command, and the user input action command.