Method and apparatus for providing network access over different wireless networks

Claim 2

A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said multi-network gateway comprises:- a pull agent; wherein said pull agent operates to receive a request from a particular one of said wireless communication devices via a particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers for information residing on said network of computers, then operates to formulate a network request for the information using a protocol associated with said network of computers and then sends the network request to said network of computers and awaits a network reply, and once the network reply is received, the network reply is converted to a device reply and then sends the device reply to the particular one of said wireless communication devices via the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers in accordance with a protocol associated with the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers.

Claim 3

A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said pull agent comprises at least one airlink for receiving the request from the particular one of said wireless communication devices and for sending the device reply to the particular one of said wireless communication devices via the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers in accordance with the protocol associated with the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers.

Claim 4

A system as recited in claim 2 or 3, wherein said pull agent comprises a plurality of airlinks, each of the airlinks being used for one of said plurality of wireless network carriers using the different combination of network type and protocol, and each of said airlinks operate to receive the request from the particular one of said wireless communication devices associated therewith and to send the device reply to the particular one of said wireless communication devices via the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers associated therewith in accordance with the protocol associated with the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers.

Claim 6

A system as recited in claim 5, wherein said push agent comprises a plurality of airlinks, each of the airlinks being used for one of said plurality of wireless network carriers using the different combination of network type and protocol, and each of said airlinks operate to send the device notification message to the particular one of said wireless communication devices via the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers associated therewith in accordance with the protocol associated with the particular one of said plurality of wireless network carriers.

Claim 7

A system as recited in claim 5 or 6 as dependent on claim 3 or 4, wherein said push agent provides at least one narrowband communication channel between said network of computers and said wireless network carriers, and wherein said pull agent provides at least one wideband communication channel between said network of computers and said wireless network carriers.

Claim 9

A gateway between a plurality of wireless network carriers and the Internet, each of the wireless network carriers providing wireless communication services to a plurality of wireless communication devices, said gateway comprising:- a HTTP interface module coupled to the Internet, said HTTP interface module interconnects said gateway with the Internet; a push agent coupled to said HTTP interface module and including a network driver for each of the wireless network carriers, said push agent operates to receive notification messages for particular ones of the wireless communication devices, and to forwarded the notification messages to the particular ones of the wireless communications devices by the network driver associated with the wireless network carrier respectively used by the particular ones of the wireless communications devices; and a pull agent coupled to said HTTP interface module and including a network driver for each of the wireless network carriers, said pull agent operates to receive information requests for information from the Internet from particular ones of the wireless communications devices, to form HTTP requests to request the information from the Internet via said HTTP interface module, to thereafter receive HTTP responses from the Internet containing the information requested, to form information replies for the particular ones of the wireless communications devices based on the HTTP responses, and then to send the information replies to the particular ones of the wireless communications devices as per the information requests using the network driver associated with the wireless network carrier respectively used by the particular ones of the wireless communications devices.

Claim 11

A method as recited in claim 10, wherein said associating step (b) comprises:- (b1) receiving a source identifier from the incoming request for data, the source identifier uniquely identifies the first wireless communication device; and (b2) determining the first network driver from a plurality of network drivers based on the source identifier.

Claim 12

A method as recited in claim 11, wherein said determining step (b2) operates to retrieve the identity of the first network driver from an account information table based on the source identifier.

Claim 15

A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the notification message includes a target address, and wherein the notification message is directed to the target address by the first network driver via the first carrier network, thereby directing the notification message to the first wireless communication device.

Claim 16

A computer readable medium containing program code for interactive data exchange between a wired network and wireless communication devices, said computer readable medium comprising:- first program code for identifying an incoming request for data from the wired network from a first wireless communication device of a plurality of wireless communication devices, the incoming request being via a first carrier network of a plurality of carrier networks of different network types which use different protocols, the first carrier network having a first network type and using a first protocol; second program code for associating the incoming request for data with a first network driver configured to receive requests for data from the first carrier network in accordance with the first network type and the first protocol; third program code for receiving the incoming request for data at the first network driver; fourth program code for forming a wired network request for data based on the received request for data; and fifth program code for forwarding the wired network request for data to the wired network.

Claim 17

A computer readable medium containing program code for providing data from a wired network to wireless communication devices, said computer readable medium comprising:- program code for receiving a notification from the wired network that is to be directed to a first wireless communication device of a plurality of wireless communication devices via a first carrier network of a plurality of carrier networks of different network types which use different protocols, the first carrier network having a first network type and using a first protocol; program code for formulating a notification message to inform the first wireless communication device of the notification; program code for determining a first network driver associated with the first wireless communication device from a plurality of network drivers, the first network driver being configured to send notification messages to the first wireless communication device via the first carrier network in accordance with the first network type and the first protocol; and program code for sending the notification message to the first wireless communication device using the first network driver.