Wireless Application Protocol

Prepared by
Sukruti Kaulgud

WAP and the World Wide
Web (WWW)
Wireless application protocol (WAP) is a set of
protocols
WAP incorporates wireless markup language (WML)
WAP is very similar to the combination of hyper text
markup language (HTML) and hyper text transport
protocol (HTTP)
It adds one very important feature: optimization for
low-bandwidth, low-memory, and low-display
capability environment.
WAP and the World Wide
Web (WWW)
WAP approach is content distribution similar to web
approach
Both concentrate on distributing content to remote
devices using inexpensive, standardized client
software.
Both rely on back-end servers to handle user
authentication, database queries, and intensive
processing.
Both use markup languages derived from standard
generalized markup language (SGML) for delivering
content to the client.
Introduction
WAP takes a client server approach

Incorporates a relatively simple microbrowser into
the mobile phone

WAP puts the intelligence in the WAP Gateways

WAP specifies a proxy server that acts as a gateway
between the wireless network and the wireline
Internet, providing Protocol translation and
optimizing data transfer for the wireless handset.

Goals of wireless
application protocol:
Independent of wireless network standards
Interoperability: Terminals from different manufacturers must
be able to communicate with services in the mobile network
Adaptation to bounds of wireless networks: Low bandwidth,
high latency, less connection stability
Adaptation to bounds of wireless devices: Small display, limited
input facilities, limited memory and CPU, limited battery power
Efficient: Provide quality of service (QoS) suitable to the
behavior and characteristics of the mobile world
Reliable: Provide a consistent and predictable platform for
deploying services
Secure: Enable services to be extended over potentially
unprotected mobile networks while preserving the integrity of
data
Goals of wireless
application protocol:
Applications scale across transport options
Applications scale across device types
Extensible over time to new networks and transport
WAP is envisaged as a comprehensive and scalable protocol
designed for use with:
Any mobile device from those with a one-line display to a smart
phone
Any existing or planned wireless service such as the SMS,
circuit-switched data and GPRS
Any mobile network standard such as code division multiple
access (CDMA), global system of mobile communications (GSM),
or universal mobile telephone system (UMTS).
WAP has been designed to work with all cellular standards and
is supported by major worldwide wireless leaders
The WWW Model
Provides a flexible and powerful
programming model.
Applications and content are presented
in standard data formats, and are
browsed by applications known as web
browsers

The WWW Model
Several mechanisms necessary to
build a general-purpose application
environment includes
1. Standard naming model
2. Content typing
3. Standard content formats
4. Standard protocols
The WWW Model
The WWW protocols define three
classes of servers:

1. Origin server
2. Proxy
3. Gateway
The WAP Model
WAP defines a set of standard components
that enable communication between mobile
terminals and network servers, including:
1. Standard naming model
2. Content typing
3. Standard content formats
4. Standard protocols
WAP GATEWAY
1. Protocol gateway

WAP GATEWAY
Content encoders and decoders:
1. Content encoders translate Web content into
compact encoded formats to reduce the size and
number of packets.

2. The WAP Gateway decreases the response time to
the handheld device by caching frequently used
information.

3. The WAP Gateway can also interface with subscriber
databases.


WAP SERVER
A WAP server is simply a combined web
server and WAP gateway.

By combining the web server and the
WAP gateway it is possible to enhance
the overall security in these operations
involved.
The WAP Model
The Network Is Different
Less bandwidth

High latency

Less predictable availability
The Device Is Different
The Device Is Different
Less powerful CPUs
Less memory (ROM and RAM)
Restricted power consumption
Smaller displays
Different input devices (e.g., a phone
keypad, voice input, etc.)
WAP Architecture
They are:
Application Layer
Wireless Application Environment
(WAE)
Session Layer
Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)
WAP Architecture
Transaction Layer
Wireless transaction protocol (WTP)
Security Layer
Wireless Transport Layer Security
(WTLS)
Transport Layer
Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP)

WAP Architecture
WAP Architecture
WAP Architecture
Wireless Application Environment

1. Addressing model
2. Wireless markup language
3. WML Script
WAP Architecture
Wireless Telephony Application

WAP Architecture
Wireless Telephony Application

1. Wireless telephony application
interface (WTAI)
2. Repository
3. Event Handling
4. WTA service indication
WAP Architecture
Wireless Session Protocol
1. Establish a reliable session from the client to
the server and release the session in an orderly
manner.
2. Agree on a common level of protocol
functionality using capability negotiation.
3. Exchange content between client and server
using compact encoding.
4. Suspend and resume the session.
5. Provide HTTP 1.1 functionality.
6. Exchange client and server session headers.

WAP Architecture
Wireless Transaction Protocol

1. Class 0
2. Class 1
3. Class 2
WAP Architecture
Wireless Transport Layer Security

1. Data integrity
2. Privacy
3. Authentication
4. Denial-of-service protection
WAP Architecture
Wireless Datagram Protocol
The services offered include application
addressing by port numbers, optional
segmentation and reassembly, and optional
error detection.
Supports several simultaneous communication
instances from a higher layer over a single
underlying WDP bearer service.
Adaptation layer
Wireless control message protocol (WCMP)
Optimal WAP Bearers
The bearers offer differing levels of
quality of service with respect to
throughput, error rate, and delays.

1. Short message service (SMS)
2. Circuit switched data (CSD)
3. Unstructured supplementary services
data (USSD)
4. General packet radio service (GPRS)
Traditional WAP Networking
Environment
Traditional WAP Networking
Environment
The major players are the wireless
service provider (WSP) and the
enterprise
Role of the WSP is to provide access to
back-end resources for wireless users
WSPs space contains a modem bank,
remote access service (RAS) server,
router, and potentially a WAP gateway.

Traditional WAP
Networking Environment
The modem bank receives incoming phone
calls from the users mobile device
RAS server translates the incoming calls from
a wireless packet format to a wired packet
format
The router routes these packets to correct
destinations.
The WAP gateway is used to translate the
WAP into traditional Internet protocol
(TCP/IP)

WAP Advantages
Implementation near to the
Internet model
Most modern mobile telephone
devices support WAP
Real-time send/receive data
No hardware obsolescence
WAP Advantages
Advantages of using WAP CSS on mobile
Internet sites:
Because of WAP 2.0 (XHTML MP/WAP CSS), web
programming and WAP programming converge
You can have greater control on the appearance of
WAP pages with WAP CSS than with WML
A single cascading style sheet to the whole mobile
Internet site
WAP CSS has the advantage that the content and
presentation can be separated.

WAP Disadvantages
Low speeds, security, and very small
user interface
Not very familiar to the users
Business model is expensive

WAP Disadvantages
Disadvantages of using WAP CSS style
sheets on mobile Internet sites are
Different WAP browsers have varied
levels of support for WAP CSS
If you make use of a single WAP CSS
file the file size of the WAP CSS file can
be quite large

Applications of WAP
Accessing the Internet from mobile devices
Games can be played from mobile devices
To locate WAP customers geographically
WAP also provides short messaging, e-mail,
weather, and traffic alerts based on the
geographic location of the customer
Biggest applications of WAP under
consideration is banking from mobile devices

imode
imode is a proprietary mobile ISP and
portal service from NTT DoCoMo, Japan
imode uses compact HTML (cHTML) as
a page description language
imode sites can be inspected with
ordinary Internet web browsers

imode
imode is a packet-switched service
users are charged per packet of
downloaded information
imode uses packet-switched technology
for the wireless part of the
communication.
The wired part of the communication is
carried over TCP/IP.
imode
DoCoMo has developed a data transmission
protocol specific to imode
This protocol is used with the PDC-P system
The PDC-P network includes a mobile
message packet gateway (M-PGW) to handle
conversions between the two protocol
formats
Connection between the imode server and
the Internet uses TCP/IP
imode
imode versus WAP
Availability
Different graphic capabilities
Switching technique
always-on capabilities
Markup language used