Hierarchical client detection in a wireless portal server

摘要

A wireless portal system having a wireless portal server with a hierarchical client detection mechanism. The hierarchical client detection mechanism includes logic for identifying client wireless devices connecting to the wireless portal server by using a hierarchical search path of predefined client profile information stored in the wireless portal server. In searching for client profile information, the client detection logic first looks for an exact match for a connecting device and if that fails, attempts to find an approximate match of the predefined profile information for the connecting device. A failure in finding either an exact or approximate match results in the client detection logic looking for a match within the profile information of a class of devices similar to the connecting client wireless device. In one embodiment of the invention, the client detection mechanism is capable of being extended by the client to add-on client information characteristics which are not already pre-stored in the wireless server. In this way, the client detection logic of the invention is extensible to recognize new devices without requiring software version updates or complex programming tasks.