WO2001084762A1

WO2001084762A1 - Fast web interface server, network architectures and systems using same

Info

Publication number: WO2001084762A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/004366
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-Marie Gatto; Pierre-Jean Beney; Thierry Brunet De Courssou
Original assignee: Cyberscan Technology, Inc.
Priority date: 2000-05-04
Filing date: 2001-02-09
Publication date: 2001-11-08
Also published as: AU2001238133A1

Abstract

A computer system for carrying out an e-commerce transaction includes a web page server (180) configured to provide access to a web page of an e-commerce vendor and to accept payment request information from a user, the web page server (180) (such as a payment processor) is configured to process payment requests and is coupled to the computer network. A fast web interface server is coupled to the transaction server (170), preferably by a dedicated broadland connection, and is configured to receive payment request information from the web page server, to send the received payment request information to the transaction server (170) and to receive a reply from the transaction server (170) after the transaction server has processed the payment request using the received payment request information, the reply indicating success or failure of the purchase request. The fast web interface server, network architectures and systems using same according to the present invention separate the large concurrent delivery of typically multimedia rich content provided by web page servers from the very small packets of information associated with a commitment to buy or sell goods and services electronically. The present fast web interface server dramatically reduces the delay between the user's commitment and confirmation of the success or failure of the underlying e-commerce transaction by handling these very small packets of information separately from the delivery of content by the web page servers.

Description

FAST WEB INTERFACE SERVER, NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

AND SYSTEMS USING SAME

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of electronic commerce and the servers, computer systems and novel network architectures for providing very fast transactions between users and e-commerce service provider computers.

2. Description of the Related Art

The Internet is continuing its historical rapid growth rate and it is increasingly becoming an important business communications network. Secure electronic commerce applications are becoming available, thanks to powerful encryption techniques and the very large numbers of business and private users accessing the World Wide Web. It is now possible to purchase anything from cars and houses to groceries and flowers on the Internet.

The Internet is a global network of communication channels, routers and computers (servers) configured to provide user access to vast amounts of information. The computer servers are the core of the Internet, with most of them now acting as World Wide Web (hereafter "web") page servers. Web page servers are designed to allow browsing of pages containing textual, graphical and multimedia information. Hence, for the majority of connections, information predominantly flows from the website to the user. The amount of information sent back from the user to the web page server is generally low. Consequently, web site servers are primarily designed to deliver information upstream to the user. In everyday use, a web page server typically holds many data files, which may be quite large (typically hundreds of Kbytes in size), with many users simultaneously accessing these files at any given time. Some popular web sites may experience more than 1,000,000 accesses (hits) per day. Fig. 1 shows a conventional Internet 160 architecture 100. As shown therein, the

Internet 160 currently supports three (sometimes non-distinct) classes of users; namely, home users 102, mobile users 120 and business users 140. Home users 102 and mobile users 120 may access the Internet 160 with a personal computer 104, a web-enabled television 106 (utilizing services such as such as Microsoft Corp's webtv™, for example, offered by WebTV Networks, Inc.) or any other information appliance. Such an information appliance may include any fixed or portable digital device that supports web page browser software and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and/or other suitable standardized communications protocols. Examples of such information appliances include laptop computers 148, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) 124 based upon the Palm computing platform of Palm, Inc. or the WinCE® operating system of Microsoft Corp., for example, game consoles (not shown), interactive televisions, web- enabled portable communication devices such as represented by web-enabled telephone 126, web-enabled pagers 122 and/or other information appliances an individual user (not shown) might use to requests information through the Internet 160. Business users 140 also access the Internet 160, using a variety of devices, such as shown by laptop computer 148 or computer 146 coupled to the corporate network, for example. The Internet architecture shown in Fig. 1 has the advantages of allowing an unlimited number of users universal access to a vast amount of information on virtually any subject. The network 100 is robust, in that the information is packetized and there are typically many independent communication paths between the users and the desired web page server 180 (only one of which is shown in Fig. 1) However, the disadvantage of the Internet architecture shown in Fig. 1 is that its very flexibility and popularity often are at the expense of speed Web page servers such as shown at 180 are designed to allow browsing of pages containing textual, graphical and multimedia information Hence, for the majority of Internet connections, information predominantly flows from the website to the users 102, 120, 140. For that reason, the Internet 160 has evolved mamly to read information from the web servers 180 and to push the read information to the users 102, 120, 140. The practical consequence of this evolution is that users 102, 120, 140 typically must endure long access times when writing to the web server(s) 180, that is, cause information to flow downstream from the users 102, 120, 140 to the web server 180. The access time from a user request for a file to a response from the web server

180 may be approximated by TAccess , which may be calculated as follows:

* Access ^~ -<-X -1 Comms ' -1 Server^""^" Trans

Equation 1 Where 1. T c_omms is the time taken for the signal to traverse the communications channel through the Internet 160 from one the users 102, 120, 140 to the requested server 180. The time elapsed Tc_0mms is a function of the quality and availability of the communications channel. With the current status of the Internet 160, this elapsed time is typically fractions of a second. For small-sized data packets being sent from point-to-point, the round trip delays using the Packet Inter-Network Groper (Ping) utility can be as low as about 20 milliseconds (ms) for servers 180 that are located close to the requesting user 102, 120, 140. Even for very remote servers

180 the delay is typically no more than about 400ms.

Tserver is the time to access and download the requested file. The value of T_Server is a function of the number of concurrent accesses on the server 180, the size of files being downloaded by the server 180 and the capacity of the server 180. The value of this elapsed time Ts_erv_er can vary dramatically but it is typically on the order of 10s of seconds up to several minutes.

Tj_rans is the time for the e-commerce transaction to take place. If the user 102, 120, 140 has not requested any e-commerce transaction (e.g., buying, selling, obtaining a quote, for example), T_Trans may be ignored. The T_Trans delay may include the time required to pass the requested transaction to and from a transaction server, such as shown at 170 in Fig. 1 or may simply be the time required by program activity within a software module on the web page server 180. This activity typically has a very short duration, on the order of a few ms. To speed up the total elapsed time for an e-commerce transaction, each of the time delays T comms, Tsener and T_Trans may be minimized, but of these the web page server access time T_Server is the dominant time delay contributor The web page server access time constant T_Servei is long largely because web page servers 180 are primarily designed for sending large amounts of data to multiple users and not to receive and process user requests

One solution that has been devised to provide fast and secure e-commerce transactions has been to employ dedicated terminals as shown at 142 and 144 in Fig. 1 coupled to the transaction server 170 via a non-Internet always-on private network 150, as also shown in Fig. 1 This has been the preferred solution adopted by national lotteries, banking and gaming operations, where high speed, high security transactions are a pre-requisite. These systems exhibit very small-sized data packet transactions and offer little or no information for the user to browse, hence minimizing all the time delays identified in Equation 1. Such dedicated terminals and non-Internet networks 150 are typically not available to home and mobile users 102, 120 Such users 102, 120 must still suffer the large time delays resulting from the underlying architecture of the Internet.

What are needed, however, are network architectures, methods and systems to provide users 102, 120, 140 with universal Internet access, shorter time delays and heightened security when carrying out e-commerce transactions and other transactions over the Internet and/or other computer networks SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide network architectures, methods and systems to provide users 102, 120, 140 with universal

Internet access, shorter time delays and heightened security when carrying out e- commerce transactions and other transactions over the Internet and/or other computer networks

In accordance with the above-described objects and those that will be mentioned and will become apparent below, a computer system for executing an e-commerce transaction initiated by a user having entered transaction information on an e-commerce vendor's web page stored on a web page server, includes a transaction server configured to process the transaction information and to send a reply based on the processed transaction information, and a fast web interface server coupled to the web page server by a first connection and to the transaction server by a second connection, the fast web interface server being configured at least to receive transaction information sent by the web page server over the first connection, to send the received transaction information to the transaction server and to receive the reply from the transaction server over the second connection after the transaction server has processed the transaction information, the reply indicating one of success and failure of the e-commerce transaction

The first and/or second connections may include the Internet and/or one or more dedicated broadband connections The transaction information may include user personal information and/or user payment instrument information and may optionally include other items The transaction information and the reply may be configured as data packets of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size The fast web interface server may be coupled to a plurality of web page servers The fast web interface server may be selectively configurable to send a transaction confirmation based upon the reply received from the transaction server directly to the user via the first connection and/or to the web page server The appearance of the transaction confirmation sent by the fast web interface server may be configured to match the e- commerce vendor's corporate identity The fast web interface server may be configured to time out and to cause the transaction confirmation to indicate failure of transaction when the reply is not received from the transaction server within a selectable period of time For example, the time out period may be selectable within the range of about 1 second to about 6 seconds

According to another embodiment thereof, the present invention is a computer- implemented method of processing an e-commerce transaction after a user has provided purchase request information for a purchase request and committed to an online purchase from an e-commerce vendor's web page stored on a web page server, comprising a first sending step wherein the web page server sends the purchase request information to a fast web interface server, the fast web interface server being dedicated to processing the purchase request information and communicating with a transaction server, a second sending step wherein the fast web interface server sends the purchase request information to the transaction server, a receiving step wherein the fast web interface server receives a reply from the transaction server, the reply indicating one of success and failure of the purchase request and a generating and sending step wherein the fast web interface server generates and sends a purchase request confirmation to at least one of the user and the web page server, the purchase request confirmation being based upon the reply received from the transaction server.

A step of severing a connection between the user and the web page server may be carried out after the first sending step. The connection between the user and the web page server may then be re-established after the generating and sending steps. The first sending step may be carried out immediately after the user commits to the online purchase. The fast web interface server may further carry out the step of formatting the purchase request information to a format acceptable to transaction server before carrying out the second sending step. The second sending step may be carried out via a dedicated broadband connection established between the fast web interface server and the transaction server. The generating and sending step may generate the purchase request confirmation in a form that matches a selected corporate identity. The first sending step may be carried out via the Internet. The first sending step may be carried out via a dedicated broadband connection between the web page server and the fast web interface server. The second sending step may be carried out by configuring the purchase request information as a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size and sending the first data packet to the transaction server. The reply received from the transaction server may be configured as a second data packet of between 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size. A determining step may be carried out, wherein the fast web interface server determines whether a selectable time out period has been exceeded before the reply form the transaction server is received. A purchase request confirmation generating step may be carried out, the generating step indicating failure of the e- commerce transaction when the determining step determines that the selectable time out period has been exceeded. The time out period may be selectable between about 1 second and about 6 seconds, for example. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the web page server may be relieved of all payment request processing responsibilities after the user commits to the online purchase. Moreover, the e- commerce vendor may incur an obligation to execute the e-commerce transaction only when the received purchase request confirmation indicates success of the payment request.

The present invention is also a computer system for a processing purchase request originating from a web page server and for communicating with a selected transaction server, comprising: at least one processor; at least one data storage device; a plurality of processes spawned by said at least one processor, the processes including processing logic for: processing the purchase request by formatting a purchase request information associated with the purchase request into a format acceptable to the selected transaction server; sending the formatted purchase request information to the selected transaction server via a network; waiting for a reply from the transaction server, the reply indicating success or failure of the purchase request and receiving the reply and generating and sending a purchase request confirmation based upon the received reply to at least one of a user having made the purchase request and the originating web page server. The network may include a dedicated broadband connection connecting the computer system to the web page server The network may include the Internet The formatted purchase request information may be configured as a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size The spawned processes may further include processing logic for selectively limiting a period of time during which the computer system waits for the reply from the transaction server to a selectable time out period The spawned processes may further include processing logic for generating and sending a purchase request confirmation indicating that the purchase request has failed when the period of time during which the computer system waits is exceeded The period of time may be selectable within a range of about 1 second to about 6 seconds The transaction server may include a payment processor

The present invention is also a fast web interface server for accelerating a processing of an electronic transaction originating from a web page server and processed by a transaction server, the fast web interface server being configured to receive transaction information from the web page server, to send the received transaction information to the transaction server over a first broadband dedicated connection, to receive a transaction reply from the transaction server over the first dedicated broadband connection and to send the received transaction reply back to the user in a manner that bypasses the web page server, the transaction reply indicating at least one of acknowledgment of the transaction, a unique identifier for the transaction and a result of the transaction The fast web interface server may be configured to receive transaction information from the web page server over the Internet and/or a second dedicated broadband connection. The fast web interface server may be adapted to send the received transaction reply back to the user via the Internet. The fast web interface server may be adapted to be coupled to a plurality of web page servers via the Internet. The fast web interface server may be adapted to be coupled to a plurality of transaction servers. The fast web interface server may further be configured to process the transaction reply received from the transaction server and to send the processed transaction reply to the user, an appearance of the processed transaction reply matching a corporate identity of a selected electronic vendor. The fast web interface server may be configured to time out when the transaction reply is not received from the transaction server within a selectable period of time and to generate a message at least to the user indicating failure of the electronic transaction. The electronic transaction may include a bet and wherein the transaction information includes user-entered betting information and wherein the transaction reply includes at least one transaction identifier and an indication of whether the user has won or lost the bet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a further understanding of the objects and advantages of the present invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic of a traditional Internet web architecture as used in World Wide Web activities and a non-Internet network architecture as used in secure banking and gaming applications, for example.

Fig. 2 is a schematic of an embodiment of the present invention in which a fast web interface server is used to provide fast and secure Internet transaction processing.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method of carrying out an e-commerce transaction according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

This invention provides the computer and communications network architectures necessary to provide very fast transaction services over communications systems such as the Internet. A transaction, as used herein, may take several forms and is not limited to electronic payments, payment requests and/or purchase requests. For example, a transaction may involve an electronic requests for stock quotes, electronic order placements and/or electronic exchange of business data. All such transaction must be carried out quickly, accurately and securely with a remote server. As presently embodied, the Internet is a communications channel ideally suited to sending large amounts of information to very many concurrent users. It is not yet suited to the rapid two-way transactions that are required by interactive, on-line applications such as shopping, banking, gaming and other e-commerce services. For example, a user wishing to make a financial transaction over the Internet may experience a delay of up to several minutes between their transaction commitment and a confirmation response that the requested transaction has been completed and verified. For a user, who may have committed to purchasing a very expensive article, this delay can be very disconcerting. This delay may cause uncertainty and lead the purchaser to erroneously make several purchase requests in the belief that the original transaction did not "go through". Moreover, such delays may lead to apprehension and mistrust of all electronic transactions in general and may become a barrier to entry to many who would otherwise participate in e-commerce.

The present invention utilizes a fast web interface server dedicated only to the processing of transaction commitment and verification signals. This fast web interface server is connected directly to one or more transaction servers via one or more dedicated broadband connections to provide near instantaneous communication between the web page server and the transaction server. Within the context of the present invention, the term "broadband" connotes any transmission medium able to simultaneously carry a wide range of frequencies in a plurality of independent channels. The fast web interface server according to the present invention can provide transaction commitment and verification signal processing services to many conventional web page servers located anywhere in the world. Thus, the invention separates the large concurrent information delivery communications normally provided by traditional web page servers from the very small packets of information associated with the commitment to buy or sell goods and services electronically. According to one embodiment, the system of the present invention a commitment confirmation or rejection to the user within about 3 seconds. The invention also offers the opportunity for a transaction service provider to simultaneously provide secure electronic commerce transaction services to many e- commerce vendors

The challenge in the modern Internet enabled world of e-commerce is to design an Internet based system that has the benefits of Internet information delivery, universal user access and fast access times The present invention shows that the elapsed time TA_ccess fro user request of a file to delivery thereof to the user can be significantly reduced by changing the web architecture to separate the delivery of large information files from the delivery and receipt of very small data packets necessary to process online purchase requests Fig 2 shows an embodiment 200 of the present invention Communications with the Internet 260 and the dedicated broadband network (non- Internet) 250 may utilize standard HTTP and/or other suitable communications protocol, such as Remote Method Invocation (RMI), internet mter-ORB Protocol (HOP), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), for example As shown m Fig 2, the three classes of users, namely, home users 202, mobile users 220 and business users 240 each connect to the one or both of the networks 250, 260 to carry out e-commerce transactions Within the business class 240 of users, some users 242, 244 (the users m Fig 2 being represented by the devices with which they connect to the networks 250, 260) are only connected to the network 250, and carry out highly specific functions, such as lottery terminal 242 coupled to the transaction server(s) 270 or e-commerce booth or kiosk 244 For example, the e-commerce booth 244 may form part of a system to implement a real time face to face dialog between a human broker and a shopper, as disclosed in copending and commonly assigned US patent application entitled "Method, System And Apparatus For Electronic Face-To-Face Business And Retail Brokerage", filed on February 25, 200 and assigned serial number 09/514,042, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Other business users 246, 248 are connected to both the non-Internet network 250 as well as to the Internet 260. The mobile users 222, 224, 226 and the home users 204, 206, 224 connect to the web page servers 280 through the Internet 260. The dedicated broadband connection (non-Internet) 250 may also be coupled to the Internet 260, as shown at 255, to allow such information appliances such as the booth or kiosk 244 to access the web page servers 280 coupled to the Internet 260. According to the present invention, an information appliance 204, 206, 222, 224,

226, 242, 244, 246 or 248 accesses an e-commerce vendor's information through the Internet 260 from one of the e-commerce vendor's web pages stored on the web page server(s) 280. The web page accessed from the server 280 may, for example, provide the e-commerce vendor's marketing, user interface and service information. When the user has selected goods and/or services for purchase and/or lease and commits to a financial transaction through a normal hyperlink request on the e-commerce web page, the transaction (purchase request, for example) information (including, for example, the user's personal information and the user's payment instrument information - credit card information, account information or any form of electronic money - as entered by the user) is immediately sent to the fast web interface server 290, a server that is dedicated solely to the receipt and processing of purchase requests from the web page servers 280. The user's personal and payment instrument information are packetized into one or more data packet that may be as small as small as about 100 bits to about 20 Kbytes in size, for example The packet(s) containing the user's personal and payment instrument information may then be sent from the fast web interface server 290 to the transaction server 270 (a payment processor, for example, such as CyberCash, VeπFone and the like) for processing of the payment request using the user-provided purchase request information The fast web interface server 290 is preferably connected to the transaction server 270 by a dedicated broadband connection, such as a local high speed, non-TCP/IP connection The transaction server 270 processes the payment request a sends a reply back to the fast web interface server 290 indicating success or failure of the user's purchase request After the payment request information is sent to the fast web interface server 290 through the network 260, the user's connection with the web page server 280 may be severed and the remaining user interaction may be mediated and carried out by the fast web interface server 290 Alternatively, the user's connection to the web page server 280 through the network 260 may be maintained during the time in which the fast web interface server 290 communicates with the transaction server 270 and the fast web interface server 290 provides the user and/or the web page server 280 with a purchase request confirmation message based upon the reply received from the transaction server 270, which purchase request confirmation indicates either success or failure of the purchase request for the underlying e-commerce transaction In this manner, the purchase request confirmation indicating success or failure of the user's purchase request may originate directly from the fast web interface server 290 through the network 260 or from the web page server 280, after the web page server 280 has received the purchase request confirmation from the fast web interface server 290. In terms of delay, the fastest alternative for the user is to receive the purchase request confirmation (on his or her web browser such as the Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Explorer, for example) directly from the fast web interface server 290. However, the e-commerce vendor may prefer that the user's connection to the web page server 280 through the network 260 not be severed and that any purchase request confirmation indicating success or failure of the user's purchase request originate from their web site stored on the web page server 280. To preserve corporate identity throughout all phases of the transaction, the purchase request confirmation from the fast web interface server 290 may include the same appearance (fonts, graphics, color schemes, etc.) as the web site that originated the e-commerce transaction. Indeed, the origination server (i.e., either the fast web interface server 290 or the web page server 280 from which the user receives the purchase request confirmation) may be wholly transparent to the user as he or she shops on the e-commerce vendor's web site. The reply from the transaction server 270 to the payment request from the fast web interface server 290 is a small-sized packet, on the order of about 100 bits to about 20 Kbytes, for example. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the reply from the transaction server to the fast web interface server 290 may be about 100 bits to about 1 Kbyte in size. With this very small data packet size, the round trip communication delay TAccess between the user's purchase commitment and the receipt by the user of the purchase request confirmation (based upon the reply received from the transaction server 270) from the fast web interface server 290 or the web page server 280 will be shorter than is believed to be possible using the conventional web architecture illustrated in Fig 1 For example, the round trip communication delay T_Access using the web architecture and system illustrated in Fig 2 may be on the order of about 20ms, rather than the 10s of seconds to minutes possible in the conventional web architecture of Fig 1 Indeed, due to the small size of the packet(s) transmitted from the fast web interface server 290 to the transaction server 270 and the speed of the local connection between the two (resulting in a round trip between 290 and 270 of a few milliseconds), the transaction server computer 270 may potentially process thousands of transactions per second The deployment of fast web interface server 290, therefore, allows the servicing of a very large number of individual users with very fast, short data packet communications To protect the security of the e-commerce transactions, the system may employ any form of data encryption utilizing a large keyspace (at least 128 bits and preferably at least 1024 bits), such as the Data Encryption Standard (DES), or any variant thereof, or may employ public key encryption protocols, such as those marketed by RSA, Inc

The system 200 may be set-up to provide a guaranteed transaction response time For example, the system 200 may be configured to provide a reply to the user (confirming either success or failure of the purchase request of the underlying e- commerce transaction) within a predetermined time, such as 3 seconds. Under normal conditions the total delay from request to response (T_Access) may be less than 1 second The system 200 may then be selectively configured to time-out after 3 seconds, for example, and to provide the user with a purchase request confirmation indicating the failure of the purchase request and, therefore, of the underlying e-commerce transaction. Upon failure of the transaction, the transaction may be cancelled and/or the user may be prompted to try again. Therefore, the maximum time delay between the users committing to an e-commerce transaction and receiving the purchase request confirmation may be set to 3 seconds (for example), thereby providing the user with a much higher degree of confidence in the e-commerce transaction.

The decrease in the time delay from commitment to confirmation is decreased, as the web page server(s) 280 are relieved from the task of handling payment requests and forwarding them through the internet 260 to a transaction server (such as shown at 170 in Fig. 1), leaving them to carry out their primary function of sending requested (usually high volume and multimedia-based) content information upstream through the Internet 260 to the users. The information associated with the payment request is sent to a server optimized to receive and process small-sized packets (the fast web interface server 290) and to send those small-sized packets to the transaction server 270 via a dedicated high- speed connection 275. Thus, the payment request information entered by the user (or otherwise entered or provided to the web page server 280) is no longer queued along with other requests for content from the web pages stored on the web page servers 280 ,but instead is shunted directly to the fast web interface server 290 for processing and forwarding to the transaction server 270. In this manner, the major time delay contributor Ts_erver of Equation 1 is all but eliminated once the user commits to an e- commerce transaction, thereby dramatically reducing the delay to receipt of a purchase request confirmation. The fast web interface server 290 may be configured to receive and process the payment requests for many web pages stored on many web page servers 280. Owing to the fast, small data packet architecture, the combination of the fast web interface server 290 and the transaction server 270 may provide payment processing facilities for many different e-commerce web pages. This allows the establishment of a secure e-commerce transaction service provider able to offer a plurality e-commerce businesses and vendors a high security, fast response transaction system. Thus, such a system including a fast web interface server 290 and a transaction server 270 may support a great many geographically separated e-commerce businesses. Indeed, such a system 200 may support the processing of payment requests on behalf of e-commerce web servers 280 located anywhere on the globe.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method of carrying out an e-commerce transaction according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown therein, step SO calls for the user to connect to an e-commerce vendor's web page(s) stored on a web page server 280 (or a cached version thereof on another server). In step SI, the user shops, selects goods and/or services for purchase and/or lease form the e-commerce vendor whose web page(s) the user accessed in step SO. In step S2, the user may be prompted to enter his or her personal purchase request information such as his or her personal information and/or his or her payment instrument information, such as credit card number, expiration date, etc. Alternatively, such purchase request information may be automatically entered for the user by the web site accessed if the user is a returning customer, by reading a cookie (for example) stored within the user's information appliance 204, 206, 222, 224, 226, 242, 244, 246 or 248 (Fig. 2). Alternatively still, other means of automatically populating the required fields of the e-commerce vendor's payment request web page may be employed, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Passport system, for example. According to step S3, the user may then click or otherwise select the hyperlink on the e-commerce vendor's web site that commits the user to carry out the e- commerce transaction to purchase the selected goods and/or services.

As shown in step S4, the user's purchase request information (however entered) is then sent to the fast web interface server 290. The fast web interface server 290 receives and processes the received purchase request information (packages the received purchase request information in a format acceptable to the selected transaction server 270 and/or creates one or more tables corresponding to the payment request in a database, for example), as shown in step S5. In optional step S5', the user's connection to the web page server 280 may be severed, as detailed above. The purchase request information may then be sent to the transaction server 270 (or to a selected transaction server 270 - e.g., payment processor - that accepts the payment instrument designated by the user in his or her payment request information) in step S6. The payment request is then processed by the transaction server 270 in the usual manner. In step S7, it is determined whether a reply has been received (over the connection 275 of Fig. 2 or through another communication channel) by the fast web interface server 290 from the transaction server 270. If a reply has been received, step S8 is then carried out, calling for the generation of a purchase request confirmation and transmittal of same to the user and or the e-commerce vendor's web page server 280, the purchase request confirmation indicating the success or failure of the purchase request associated with the underlying e- commerce transaction. If no reply is received from the transaction server 270 before a predetermined time out period (3 seconds, for example) shown in step S9, the transaction may be considered a failure and cancelled The user and/or the e-commerce vendor's web page server 280 may then be notified as shown in step S10 by returning a purchase request confirmation indicating failure of the underlying transaction to the usei and/or to the web page server 280, thereby causing a corresponding notification to appear on the e-commerce vendor's web page, for example If step S5' has been carried out, the user connection with the web page server 280 may be re-established, as shown in step Sl l '

The present invention is also readily applicable to electronic transactions other than purchase and payment requests. Indeed, the present application finds utility in most any electronic transaction in which a fast response time from a remote transaction server is desired. Such applications may use the Internet as a communication medium, and/or may rely upon a private and dedicated network. In generic terms, the present application is applicable to any electronic transaction in which a transaction requestor supplies transaction information to remote server over a network and expects a timely reply therefrom. The reply may include a confirmation of the placement of a transaction request, the execution of a transaction and/or the results thereof. For example, the present inventions find particular utility in electronic (Internet-based, for example) gaming applications. For example, the present invention may enhance the network responsiveness for a player making a bet on a weekly lottery draw, a player betting on a sporting event (such as a horse race, for example) to take place in the future (the following Saturday, for example) or a player participating m an instant lottery draw, for example

In the case wherein a player makes a bet on a weekly lottery draw or on a future event (such as a sporting event), at least two separate electronic transactions take place, separated in time The first transaction involves the transaction requestor (the player) logging onto a remote web page server 280, selecting to participate m a selected transaction (the bet) and entering appropriate transaction information (selected numbers, scores or other transaction appropriate data needed to complete the transaction) For example, the player (transaction requestor) may click on an appropriate radio button (for example) on a web page from a web page server 280 to participate in a weekly lottery drawing (the selected transaction) and may enter identification data and his or her chosen numbers (the transaction information) The player's transaction information may then be transferred by the web page server 280 to the fast web interface server 290, either via a dedicated broadband connection 285 therebetween and/or via the computer network 260 (including the Internet, for example) In turn, the fast web interface server 290 may then send the received to a transaction server 270 via a dedicated broadband connection 275. In turn, the transaction server 270 may process the received transaction information and may store a record of the transaction including the received transaction information in a database The transaction server 270 may then generate a transaction reply including, for example, an acknowledgment of the execution of the transaction and an identifier uniquely identifying the transaction (in this case, the bet) The transaction reply may be passed back to the fast web interface server 290 via the broadband connection 275 and thereafter back to the player via the network 260. Alternatively, the transaction reply may be sent to the dedicated, non-Internet network 250 and thereafter back to the player via communication channel 255 between the dedicated non-Internet network 250 and the Internet 260. In the case wherein the player uses a dedicated gaming terminal, for example, the transaction reply may be sent directly through the non-Internet network 250 to the dedicated terminal (shown at 244, for example) that is coupled thereto.

The second transaction may occur after the first transaction described immediately above has taken place. The second transaction may include the player inquiring whether his or her bet has won, for example. In this case, the player may again log onto the web page server 280 and input the received unique identifier. The unique identifier may then (optionally packaged along with the player's identification data) be sent to the fast web interface server 290 either through the dedicated broadband connection 285 or through the network 260. The fast web interface server, thereafter, may send the unique identifier to the transaction server 27, which may then retrieve the corresponding transaction record and determine whether a win has occurred. The reply (win, lose and/or amount won in this gaming example) from the transaction server 270 to the player may occur in the same manner and via the same route(s) as the transaction reply described above. In contrast, a player may place a bet against an instant lottery draw. For example, a player may log onto a web page server, and select an "instant lottery" button or selection therefrom. The player may then be prompted to place his or her bet or wager by entering transaction information appropriate for this type of transaction (for example, his or her choice of numbers). The transaction information may also include some form of identification data, as appropriate. The player's transaction information may then be sent to the fast web interface server 290, via the network 260 and/or via broadband connection 285. The fast web interface server 290 may then send the received transaction information to the transaction server 270 via dedicated broadband connection 275. Upon receipt of the transaction information, the transaction server 270 may store a record of the transaction in a database, assign a unique identifier to the transaction, and apply the received transaction information against a predetermined standard to determine whether the player has won or has lost. For example, the transaction information may include player-selected numbers and the transaction server 270 may compare these player-selected numbers against a series of randomly generated numbers output, for example, from a random number generator within the transaction server 270. The transaction reply issued from the transaction server 270 may then be immediately sent back to the player via the fast web interface server 290 and the network 260 and/or directly via the dedicated broadband connection 250 and/or the network 260. The transaction reply may include the unique transaction identifier and an indication whether the player has won or lost. This may be treated as a single transaction, with the transaction requestor (the player) receiving a fast reply from the transaction server as to the receipt, execution and outcome of the transaction. This transaction reply, according to the present invention may be sent back to the transaction requestor (the player) far more rapidly than would be the case if all communications flowed through the web page server 280, which is not optimized for that purpose.

While the foregoing detailed description has described preferred embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that the above description is illustrative only and not limiting of the disclosed invention. Modifications may occur to those of skill in this art. For example, transactions other than purchase requests and wagers or bets may be carried out according to the present invention. Still other modifications may occur to those of skill in this art. Thus, the present invention to be limited only by the claims as set forth below.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A computer system for executing an e-commerce transaction initiated by a user having entered transaction information on an e-commerce vendor's web page stored on a web page server, the system comprising:

a transaction server configured to process the transaction information and to send a reply based on the processed transaction information, and

a fast web interface server coupled to the web page server by a first connection and to the transaction server by a second connection, the fast web interface server being configured at least to receive transaction information sent by the web page server over the first connection, to send the received transaction information to the transaction server and to receive the reply from the transaction server over the second connection after the transaction server has processed the transaction information, the reply indicating one of success and failure of the e-commerce transaction.

2. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the first connection includes the Internet.

3. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the first connection includes a first dedicated broadband connection.

4. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the second connection includes the Internet.

5. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the second connection includes a second dedicated broadband connection.

6. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the transaction information includes at least one of user personal information and user payment instrument information.

7. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the transaction information is configured as a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size.

8. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the reply is configured as a second data packet of between 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size.

9. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the fast web interface server is coupled to a plurality of web page servers.

10. The computer system of Claim 1, wherein the fast web interface server is selectively configurable to send a transaction confirmation based upon the reply received from the transaction server at least one of directly to the user via the first connection and to the web page server.

11. The computer system of Claim 10, wherein an appearance of the transaction confirmation sent by the fast web interface server is configured to match an appearance of a corporate identity of the e-commerce vendor.

12. The computer system of Claim 10, wherein the fast web interface server is configured to time out and to cause the transaction confirmation to indicate failure of transaction when the reply is not received from the transaction server within a selectable period of time.

13. The computer system of Claim 12, wherein the time out period is selectable within a range of about 1 second to about 6 seconds.

14. A computer-implemented method of processing an e-commerce transaction after a user has provided purchase request information for a purchase request and committed to an online purchase from an e-commerce vendor's web page stored on a web page server, comprising:

a first sending step wherein the web page server sends the purchase request information to a fast web interface server, the fast web interface server being dedicated to processing the purchase request information and communicating with a transaction server;

a second sending step wherein the fast web interface server sends the purchase request information to the transaction server;

a receiving step wherein the fast web interface server receives a reply from the transaction server, the reply indicating one of success and failure of the purchase request; and

a generating and sending step wherein the fast web interface server generates and sends a purchase request confirmation to at least one of the user and the web page server, the purchase request confirmation being based upon the reply received from the transaction server.

15. The computer- implemented processing method of Claim 14, further comprising the step of severing a connection between the user and the web page server after the first sending step.

16. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the connection between the user and the web page server is re-established after the generating and sending steps.

17. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the first sending step is carried out immediately after the user commits to the online purchase.

18. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the fast web interface server further carries out the step of formatting the purchase request information to a format acceptable to transaction server before carrying out the second sending step.

19. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the second sending step is carried out via a dedicated broadband connection established between the fast web interface server and the transaction server.

20. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the generating and sending step generates the purchase request confirmation in a form that matches a selected corporate identity.

21. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the first sending step is carried out via the Internet.

22. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the first sending step is carried out via a dedicated broadband connection between the web page server and the fast web interface server.

23. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the second sending step is carried out by configuring the purchase request information as a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size and sending the first data packet to the transaction server.

24. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the reply received from the transaction server is configured as a second data packet of between 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size.

25. The computer- implemented processing method of Claim 14, further comprising a determining step wherein the fast web interface server determines whether a selectable time out period has been exceeded before the reply form the transaction server is received.

26. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 25, further comprising the step of generating a purchase request confirmation that indicates failure of the e-commerce transaction when the determining step determines that the selectable time out period has been exceeded.

27. The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 25, wherein the time out period is selectable between about 1 second and about 6 seconds.

28 The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the web page server is relieved of all payment request processing responsibilities after the user commits to the online purchase.

29 The computer-implemented processing method of Claim 14, wherein the e-commerce vendor incurs an obligation to execute the e-commerce transaction only when the received purchase request confirmation indicates success of the payment request

30 A computer system for a processing purchase request originating from a web page server and for communicating with a selected transaction server, comprising

at least one processor,

at least one data storage device;

a plurality of processes spawned by said at least one processor, the processes including processing logic for¹

processing the purchase request by formatting a purchase request information associated with the purchase request into a format acceptable to the selected transaction server;

sending the formatted purchase request information to the selected transaction server via a network;

waiting for a reply from the transaction server, the reply indicating success or failure of the purchase request; receiving the reply and generating and sending a purchase request confirmation based upon the received reply to at least one of a user having made the purchase request and the originating web page server.

31. The computer system of claim 30, wherein the network includes a dedicated broadband connection connecting the computer system to the web page server.

32. The computer system of claim 30, wherein the network includes the Internet.

33. The computer system of claim 30, wherein the formatted purchase request information is configured as a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size.

34. The computer system of claim 30, wherein the spawned processes further include processing logic for selectively limiting a period of time during which the computer system waits for the reply from the transaction server to a selectable time out period.

35. The computer system of claim 34, wherein the spawned processes further include processing logic for generating and sending a purchase request confirmation indicating that the purchase request has failed when the period of time during which the computer system waits is exceeded.

36. The computer system of claim 34, wherein the period of time is selectable within a range of about 1 second to about 6 seconds.

37 The computer system of claim 30, wherein the transaction server includes a payment processor.

38 A fast web interface server for accelerating a processing of an electronic transaction originating from a web page server and processed by a transaction server, the fast web interface server being configured to receive transaction information from the web page server, to send the received transaction information to the transaction server over a first broadband dedicated connection, to receive a transaction reply from the transaction server over the first dedicated broadband connection and to send the received transaction reply back to the user in a manner that bypasses the web page server, the transaction reply indicating at least one of acknowledgment of the transaction, a unique identifier for the transaction and a result of the transaction.

39. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is configured to receive transaction information from the web page server over one of the Internet and a second dedicated broadband connection

40. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is adapted to send the received transaction reply back to the user via the Internet

41. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is adapted to be coupled to a plurality of web page servers via the Internet.

42. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the transaction information received from the web page server includes a first data packet of between about 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes m size

43. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the transaction reply includes a second data packet of between 100 bits and about 20 Kbytes in size.

44. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is adapted to be coupled to a plurality of transaction servers.

45. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is further configured to process the transaction reply received from the transaction server and to send the processed transaction reply to the user, an appearance of the processed transaction reply matching a corporate identity of a selected electronic vendor.

46. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the fast web interface server is configured to time out when the transaction reply is not received from the transaction server within a selectable period of time and to generate a message at least to the user indicating failure of the electronic transaction.

47. The fast web interface server of Claim 46, wherein the time out period is selectable within a range of about 1 second to about 6 seconds.

48. The fast web interface server of Claim 38, wherein the electronic transaction includes a bet and wherein the transaction information includes user-entered betting information and wherein the transaction reply includes at least one transaction identifier and an indication of whether the user has won or lost the bet.