diff --git a/mercurial/wireprotoserver.py b/mercurial/wireprotoserver.py
--- a/mercurial/wireprotoserver.py
+++ b/mercurial/wireprotoserver.py
@@ -32,10 +32,13 @@
 HGTYPE2 = 'application/mercurial-0.2'
 HGERRTYPE = 'application/hg-error'
 
-class abstractserverproto(object):
-    """abstract class that summarizes the protocol API
+class baseprotocolhandler(object):
+    """Abstract base class for wire protocol handlers.
 
-    Used as reference and documentation.
+    A wire protocol handler serves as an interface between protocol command
+    handlers and the wire protocol transport layer. Protocol handlers provide
+    methods to read command arguments, redirect stdio for the duration of
+    the request, handle response types, etc.
     """
 
     __metaclass__ = abc.ABCMeta
@@ -98,7 +101,7 @@
 
     return ''.join(chunks)
 
-class webproto(abstractserverproto):
+class webproto(baseprotocolhandler):
     def __init__(self, req, ui):
         self._req = req
         self._ui = ui
@@ -327,7 +330,7 @@
 
     return ''
 
-class sshserver(abstractserverproto):
+class sshserver(baseprotocolhandler):
     def __init__(self, ui, repo):
         self._ui = ui
         self._repo = repo