What's the most relevant server-push technique for my web application project?

I will try first to explain my web application goal.

It is dedicated to an intranet and the architecture will consist in a server connected to the web and less than 10 clients.

The application will be used to give aeronautical information. This will be achieved by retrieving with cURL requests (php scripts) launched every X minutes (CRON jobs) on remote sites (meteorology,airways and airport information) and saved in an XML file or a DB. The information gathered is then presented on a web page(a kind of well-organised synthesis) to air trafic controllers to enhance their situation awareness.

As data gathered must reach the client in real-time, I cannot rely on browser interaction : if an airport is closing due to bad weather,that piece of information has to be displayed as soon as possible without any user interaction.

The number of airport monitored will be around 30 (thus giving you an idea of the server load, knowing that meteorology reports are stored on the X website, airport data on the Y website etc..) .

After reading a lot on Reverse Ajax (Server-Push), I really need a professional experience to help me choose the best approach to develop this application.

The Server-Push technologies I discovered on the net are:

1) APE (Ajax Push Engine) -> This one makes me feel like trying to op开发者_JAVA百科en a door with a bazooka (can handle thousands of connections).

2) Long polling (Comet) -> I fear this one could put to much stress on the server load.

3) Web sockets -> I must first wait for it to get mature and supported by firefox 6 (no more security issues)

As I am completely new to server-push, I hope you will help me find the appropriate way to achieve displaying these data in a close to real-time manner. It would certainly be a pity if I ended up setting "refresh" buttons to update the air pressure at the location of airport "A" using Ajax.

Thanks for reading.

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If you speak C, there is an example of how to do pushing here. This 3-calls API is much simpler than others so it might match your relatively simple needs.