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Nokia turns cellphones into webservers
Jun. 02, 2006
Nokia
has ported the Apache webserver to Symbian, in order to enable mobile
phones to serve content on the World Wide Web. Many mobile phones today
have more processing power than early Internet servers, suggesting that
"there really is no reason anymore why webservers could not reside on
mobile phones," according to the company. The technique could also be
used on Linux mobile phones.
Nokia says it's "Raccoon" project
started out with the Unix version of Apache, and exploited Symbian's
POSIX layer in making the port. In addition to the basic Apache httpd
daemon, Nokia ported mod_python, in order to enable dynamic pages
generated from both Python scripts and PSP (python server pages). Other
built-in modules include mod_alias, mod_auth, mod_autoindex, mod_dav,
mod_dav_fs, mod_dir, mod_log_config, mod_mime, mod_rewrite, and
mod_setenvif.
Nokia says it installed its experimental port,
initially, on a Nokia 6630, which it then accessed over a Bluetooth PAN
(personal area network). This proved somewhat useful, in that it
brought "the possibility of accessing functionality on the phone using
a big screen and proper keyboard." However, the project's goal was to
enable access to the phone of the cellular network. This proved
challenging due to firewalls explicitly deployed by operators to
prevent such access.
Ultimately, Nokia says it was able to
develop a gateway application, released under the open source Apache2
license, said to be capable of providing a webserver on a mobile phone
with a URL accessible from any Internet browser. "In a sense, the
mobile phone has now finally become a full member of the Internet,"
Nokia says.
Raccoon project architecture (Click to enlarge)
Users
with Internet-connected PCs can install the gateway application
themselves. A single gateway can support somewhere between 100 and
1,000 concurrent users, and many more actual accounts -- making it
suitable for university trials, Nokia says.
Alternatively, Nokia offers a Gateway service, which it says it is committed to providing "for the foreseeable future."
The implications of mobile phone-based websites
Nokia
notes that websites hosted on mobile phones enable phone owners to
inter-actively participate in content generation. For example, Nokia
has written an application that prompts the phone owner to take a
picture, which is then relayed to the requester as a JPEG.
Another
touted advantage is that the amount of personal information stored on
mobile phones makes it easy to "semi-automatically generate a personal
home page."
So far, Nokia's "concept demonstration applications" include:
Interactive, contextual, and location-dependent content
Use the phone as a webcam
Find other mobile web sites in the proximity
Find out the location of a mobile website (cellid)
Enabling new communication means without operator involvement
Send instant message
Leave instant message in the inbox
Leave a note on a mobile weblog
Access core data
Access favorites, contacts, calendar, logs, and messages
Download images
Mount a read-write view of the root webserver directory and edit pages directly using WebDAV
Nokia's Raccoon project believes mobile phone webservers could have
large implications for the Internet. It says, "If every mobile phone or
even every smartphone initially is equipped with a webserver, then very
quickly most websites will reside on mobile phones."
An Internet
comprised largely of mobile phone-based servers could challenge search
engines to keep pace, however, because of the "dynamism" of an Internet
where site content can change from minute to minute.
Availability
The Raccoon Project's Symbian port of apache and gateway software can be freely downloaded under an Apache2 license from the project's Sourceforge website.
The apache port was developed using a Nokia 6630, but should work on
any "S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 2" phone. The gateway application
comes with Linux install scripts, but may also work on Windows. It
requires a static IP, but may also work with dynamic DNS services.
Users
wishing to use Nokia's gateway services, instead of running their own
gateway, may request an account via email; additional details can be
found here.
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