Embedded Web Servers for Devices

Users of embedded devices need the convenience of a standard browser interface to manage and control devices easily. Indeed in several segments, (E.g. Communications) an embedded web server is already a standard expectation.

You cannot just use any web server in a device. Enterprise web servers were not designed for embedded use. The have been designed to scale to hundreds of simultaneous users. An embedded web server has a different set of requirements and should exhibit the following qualities:

Embedded Web Server Qualities

Strong security
Fast and efficient
Compact with a small memory footprint
Easy to create web user interfaces in a standards-based way
Run from ROM if required
Be optionally single or multithreaded

Most embedded web servers were designed before the security threat reached its current level. Indeed, five years ago, the web was a much kinder place. Most embedded web servers were also designed for the very small memory footprints of five or more years ago. Consequently, old web servers have usually compromised on features and security.

The requirements for an embedded web server today have changed significantly. Secure with efficient standard-based designs are now paramount. Mbedthis AppWeb is such a 2nd generation embedded web server that fulfills today's requirements. It is secure, compact and embeddable. It has an extensive set of features but is still one of the fastest web servers.

AppWeb Web Server Specifications

AppWeb will run in as little as 110K RAM and will consume less than 1% of the CPU when serving an active user. (It can serve over 3,500 requests per second on a PC class device). AppWeb has a modular architecture where you can select the feature set you require and only load those modules.

The AppWeb embedded web server has the following features:

Embedded Server Pages for dynamic content
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
Server-side Embedded JavaScript
In-process CGI as well as traditional CGI
Digest Authentication
Dynamically loadable modules
HTTP Client program and library
Extensive logging
Fastest performance in its class
Cross-platform and portable
Full source code and documentation provided