Wireless Application Protocol
Encyclopedia
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network
.
A WAP browser is a web browser
for mobile devices such as mobile phones (called "cellular phones" in some countries) that uses the protocol.
Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer interactive data services, but needed interactivity to support Internet
and Web applications such as:
The Japanese i-mode
system offers another major competing wireless data protocol.
(also known as CDMA).
The bottom-most protocol in the suite, the WAP Datagram Protocol
(WDP), functions as an adaptation layer that makes every data network look a bit like UDP
to the upper layers by providing unreliable transport of data with two 16-bit port numbers (origin and destination). All the upper layers view WDP as one and the same protocol, which has several "technical realizations" on top of other "data bearers" such as SMS
, USSD, etc. On native IP bearers such as GPRS, UMTS packet-radio service, or PPP
on top of a circuit-switched data connection, WDP is in fact exactly UDP.
WTLS
, an optional layer, provides a public-key cryptography
-based security mechanism similar to TLS
.
WTP
provides transaction support (reliable request/response) adapted to the wireless world. WTP supports more effectively than TCP
the problem of packet loss, which occurs commonly in 2G wireless technologies in most radio conditions, but is misinterpreted by TCP as network congestion.
Finally, one can think of WSP
initially as a compressed version of HTTP.
This protocol suite allows a terminal to transmit requests that have an HTTP or HTTPS
equivalent to a WAP gateway
; the gateway translates requests into plain HTTP.
For WAP version 1.X, the primary language of the WAE is Wireless Markup Language
(WML). In WAP 2.0, the primary markup language is XHTML Mobile Profile
.
In 2002 the WAP Forum was consolidated (along with many other forums of the industry) into Open Mobile Alliance
(OMA]).
WAP Push was specified on top of WAP Datagram Protocol
(WDP); as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS. Most GSM networks have a wide range of modified processors, but GPRS activation from the network is not generally supported, so WAP Push messages have to be delivered on top of the SMS bearer.
On receiving a WAP Push, a WAP 1.2 (or later) -enabled handset will automatically give the user the option to access the WAP content. This is also known as WAP Push SI (Service Indication). A variant, known as WAP Push SL (Service Loading), directly opens the browser to display the WAP content, without user interaction. Since this behaviour raises security concerns, some handsets handle WAP Push SL messages in the same way as SI, by providing user interaction.
The network entity that processes WAP Pushes and delivers them over an IP or SMS Bearer is known as a Push Proxy Gateway
(PPG).
with end-to-end HTTP, dropping the gateway and custom protocol suite used to communicate with it. A WAP gateway can be used in conjunction with WAP 2.0; however, in this scenario, it is used as a standard proxy server. The WAP gateway's role would then shift from one of translation to adding additional information to each request. This would be configured by the operator and could include telephone numbers, location, billing information, and handset information.
Mobile devices process XHTML Mobile Profile
(XHTML MP), the markup language defined in WAP 2.0. It is a subset of XHTML
and a superset of XHTML Basic
. A version of cascading style sheets (CSS
) called WAP CSS is supported by XHTML MP.
WAP at the time of its introduction, leading users to expect WAP to have the performance of fixed (non-mobile) Internet access
. BT Cellnet, one of the UK telecoms
, ran an advertising campaign depicting a cartoon WAP user surfing through a Neuromancer
-like "information space". In terms of speed, ease of use, appearance and interoperability, the reality fell far short of expectations when the first handsets became available in 1999. This led to the wide usage of sardonic phrases such as "Worthless Application Protocol", "Wait And Pay", and so on.
Critics advanced several explanations for the early failure of WAP, possibly not realizing that it was a United Kingdom product which had to comply with the laws of European nations. An example is the requirement to utilize an ITU
message-type that is specific to the French language with appropriate character conversions being deployed by the WAP message transmit-and-receive software.
Between 2003 and 2004 WAP made a stronger resurgence with the introduction of wireless services (such as Vodafone Live!, T-Mobile T-Zones and other easily-accessible services). Operator revenues were generated by transfer of GPRS and UMTS data, which is a different business model than that used by the traditional Web sites and ISPs. According to the Mobile Data Association, WAP traffic in the UK doubled from 2003 to 2004.
Today WAP use has largely disappeared. All modern handsets support full HTML, and do not use any kind of WAP markup. The list of handsets supporting HTML is extensive, and includes all Android handsets, all Blackberry devices, all versions of the iPhone handset, all devices running Windows Phone, and many Nokia handsets. WAP has not been the mainstream technology for web on mobile for a number of years.
has famously disdained WAP in favor of its in-house system i-mode
, rival operators KDDI
(au
) and SoftBank Mobile (previously Vodafone Japan
) have both successfully deployed WAP technology. In particular, J-Phone's Sha-Mail
picture mail and Java (JSCL) services, as well as (au
)'s chakuuta/chakumovie (ringtone song/ringtone movie) services are based on WAP. After being shadowed by the initial success of i-mode, the two smaller Japanese operators have been gaining market share from DoCoMo since Spring 2001.
In recognition of the problem, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) issued an order on 31 July 2007 which mandated that licensees of the 22-megahertz wide "Upper 700 MHz C Block" spectrum will have to implement a wireless platform which allows customers, device manufacturers, third-party application developers, and others to use any device or application of their choice when operating on this particular licensed network band.
(MMS), a combination of WAP and SMS, have further driven the protocol. An enhanced appreciation of device diversity, supported by the concomitant changes to WAP content to become more device-specific rather aiming at a lowest common denominator, allowed for more usable and compelling content. As a result, the adoption rate of WAP technology is on the upswing.
(WML) and WAP. Technical criticisms include:
Other criticisms address the wireless carriers' particular implementations of WAP:
Considerable discussion has addressed the question whether the WAP protocol design was appropriate. Some have suggested that the bandwidth-sparing simple interface of Gopher would be a better match for mobile phones and Personal digital assistants (PDAs).
The initial design of WAP specifically aimed at protocol independence across a range of different protocols (SMS, IP over PPP
over a circuit switched bearer, IP over GPRS, etc.). This has led to a protocol considerably more complex than an approach directly over IP might have caused.
Most controversial, especially for many from the IP side, was the design of WAP over IP. WAP's transmission layer protocol, WTP, uses its own retransmission mechanisms over UDP
to attempt to solve the problem of the inadequacy of TCP over high-packet-loss networks.
Wireless network
Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment...
.
A WAP browser is a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
for mobile devices such as mobile phones (called "cellular phones" in some countries) that uses the protocol.
Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer interactive data services, but needed interactivity to support Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and Web applications such as:
- EmailEmailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
by mobile phone - Tracking of stock-market prices
- Sports results
- News headlines
- Music downloads
The Japanese i-mode
I-mode
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
system offers another major competing wireless data protocol.
Technical specifications
The WAP standard described a protocol suite allowing the interoperability of WAP equipment and software with different network technologies, such as GSM and IS-95IS-95
Interim Standard 95 is the first CDMA-based digital cellular standard by Qualcomm. The brand name for IS-95 is cdmaOne. IS-95 is also known as TIA-EIA-95....
(also known as CDMA).
| Wireless Application Environment (WAE) | WAP protocol suite |
| Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) |
| Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) |
| Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) |
| Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP) |
| *** Any Wireless Data Network *** |
The bottom-most protocol in the suite, the WAP Datagram Protocol
WAP Datagram Protocol
Wireless Datagram Protocol defines the movement of information from receiver to the sender and resembles the User Datagram Protocol in the Internet protocol suite....
(WDP), functions as an adaptation layer that makes every data network look a bit like UDP
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
to the upper layers by providing unreliable transport of data with two 16-bit port numbers (origin and destination). All the upper layers view WDP as one and the same protocol, which has several "technical realizations" on top of other "data bearers" such as SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
, USSD, etc. On native IP bearers such as GPRS, UMTS packet-radio service, or PPP
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
on top of a circuit-switched data connection, WDP is in fact exactly UDP.
WTLS
Wireless Transport Layer Security
Wireless Transport Layer Security is a security protocol, part of the Wireless Application Protocol stack. It sits between the WTP and WDP layers in the WAP communications stack.- Overview :...
, an optional layer, provides a public-key cryptography
Public-key cryptography
Public-key cryptography refers to a cryptographic system requiring two separate keys, one to lock or encrypt the plaintext, and one to unlock or decrypt the cyphertext. Neither key will do both functions. One of these keys is published or public and the other is kept private...
-based security mechanism similar to TLS
Transport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...
.
WTP
Wireless transaction protocol
Wireless transaction protocol is a standard used in mobile telephony. It is a layer of the Wireless Application Protocol that is intended to bring Internet access to mobile phones.-External links:*...
provides transaction support (reliable request/response) adapted to the wireless world. WTP supports more effectively than TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
the problem of packet loss, which occurs commonly in 2G wireless technologies in most radio conditions, but is misinterpreted by TCP as network congestion.
Finally, one can think of WSP
Wireless Session Protocol
Wireless Session Protocol is an open standard for maintaining high level session. Wireless session is nothing but a normal Web browsing session that starts when the user connects to one URL and ends when the user leaves that URL. By establishing the session means that the session wide properties...
initially as a compressed version of HTTP.
This protocol suite allows a terminal to transmit requests that have an HTTP or HTTPS
Https
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS protocol to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server...
equivalent to a WAP gateway
WAP gateway
A WAP gateway sits between mobile devices using the WAP protocol and the World Wide Web, passing pages from one to the other much like a proxy. This translates pages into a form suitable for the mobiles, for instance using the Wireless Markup Language...
; the gateway translates requests into plain HTTP.
Wireless Application Environment (WAE)
The WAE space defines application-specific markup languages.For WAP version 1.X, the primary language of the WAE is Wireless Markup Language
Wireless Markup Language
Wireless Markup Language , based on XML, is a markup language intended for devices that implement the Wireless Application Protocol specification, such as mobile phones. It provides navigational support, data input, hyperlinks, text and image presentation, and forms, much like HTML...
(WML). In WAP 2.0, the primary markup language is XHTML Mobile Profile
XHTML Mobile Profile
XHTML Mobile Profile is a hypertextual computer language standard designed specifically for mobile phones and other resource-constrained devices....
.
History
The WAP Forum dates from 1997. It aimed primarily to bring together the various wireless technologies in a standardised protocol.In 2002 the WAP Forum was consolidated (along with many other forums of the industry) into Open Mobile Alliance
Open Mobile Alliance
The Open Mobile Alliance is a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry.- Principles :Mission: To provide interoperable service enablers working across countries, operators and mobile terminals....
(OMA]).
WAP Push
WAP Push was incorporated into the specification to allow WAP content to be pushed to the mobile handset with minimum user intervention. A WAP Push is basically a specially encoded message which includes a link to a WAP address.WAP Push was specified on top of WAP Datagram Protocol
WAP Datagram Protocol
Wireless Datagram Protocol defines the movement of information from receiver to the sender and resembles the User Datagram Protocol in the Internet protocol suite....
(WDP); as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS. Most GSM networks have a wide range of modified processors, but GPRS activation from the network is not generally supported, so WAP Push messages have to be delivered on top of the SMS bearer.
On receiving a WAP Push, a WAP 1.2 (or later) -enabled handset will automatically give the user the option to access the WAP content. This is also known as WAP Push SI (Service Indication). A variant, known as WAP Push SL (Service Loading), directly opens the browser to display the WAP content, without user interaction. Since this behaviour raises security concerns, some handsets handle WAP Push SL messages in the same way as SI, by providing user interaction.
The network entity that processes WAP Pushes and delivers them over an IP or SMS Bearer is known as a Push Proxy Gateway
Push Proxy Gateway
A Push Proxy Gateway is a component of WAP Gateways that pushes URL notifications to mobile handsets. Notifications typically include MMS, email, IM, ringtone downloads, and new device firmware notifications. Most notifications will have an audible alert to the user on the device. The notification...
(PPG).
WAP 2.0
A re-engineered 2.0 version was released in 2002. It uses a cut-down version of XHTMLXHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
with end-to-end HTTP, dropping the gateway and custom protocol suite used to communicate with it. A WAP gateway can be used in conjunction with WAP 2.0; however, in this scenario, it is used as a standard proxy server. The WAP gateway's role would then shift from one of translation to adding additional information to each request. This would be configured by the operator and could include telephone numbers, location, billing information, and handset information.
Mobile devices process XHTML Mobile Profile
XHTML Mobile Profile
XHTML Mobile Profile is a hypertextual computer language standard designed specifically for mobile phones and other resource-constrained devices....
(XHTML MP), the markup language defined in WAP 2.0. It is a subset of XHTML
XHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
and a superset of XHTML Basic
XHTML Basic
XHTML Basic is an XML-based structured markup language primarily used for simple user agents, typically mobile devices.XHTML Basic is a subset of XHTML 1.1, defined using XHTML Modularization including a reduced set of modules for document structure, images, forms, basic tables, and object support...
. A version of cascading style sheets (CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
) called WAP CSS is supported by XHTML MP.
Europe
Marketers hypedHyperbole
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....
WAP at the time of its introduction, leading users to expect WAP to have the performance of fixed (non-mobile) Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
. BT Cellnet, one of the UK telecoms
Telephone company
A telephone company is a service provider of telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies...
, ran an advertising campaign depicting a cartoon WAP user surfing through a Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...
-like "information space". In terms of speed, ease of use, appearance and interoperability, the reality fell far short of expectations when the first handsets became available in 1999. This led to the wide usage of sardonic phrases such as "Worthless Application Protocol", "Wait And Pay", and so on.
Critics advanced several explanations for the early failure of WAP, possibly not realizing that it was a United Kingdom product which had to comply with the laws of European nations. An example is the requirement to utilize an ITU
Itu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...
message-type that is specific to the French language with appropriate character conversions being deployed by the WAP message transmit-and-receive software.
Between 2003 and 2004 WAP made a stronger resurgence with the introduction of wireless services (such as Vodafone Live!, T-Mobile T-Zones and other easily-accessible services). Operator revenues were generated by transfer of GPRS and UMTS data, which is a different business model than that used by the traditional Web sites and ISPs. According to the Mobile Data Association, WAP traffic in the UK doubled from 2003 to 2004.
Today WAP use has largely disappeared. All modern handsets support full HTML, and do not use any kind of WAP markup. The list of handsets supporting HTML is extensive, and includes all Android handsets, all Blackberry devices, all versions of the iPhone handset, all devices running Windows Phone, and many Nokia handsets. WAP has not been the mainstream technology for web on mobile for a number of years.
Asia
Unlike in Europe, WAP has seen huge success in Japan. While the largest operator NTT DoCoMoNTT DoCoMo
is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone , i-mode , and mail services...
has famously disdained WAP in favor of its in-house system i-mode
I-mode
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
, rival operators KDDI
KDDI
is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed in October 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp., KDD Corp., and IDO Corp. It has its headquarters in the Garden Air Tower in Iidabashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo....
(au
Au (mobile phone operator)
, or au by KDDI, is a mobile phone brand in Japan marketed by KDDI Corporation in the main islands of Japan and Okinawa Cellular in Okinawa.-Naming:...
) and SoftBank Mobile (previously Vodafone Japan
Vodafone Japan
, previously as Vodafone K.K. and J-PHONE, is the Japanese subsidiary company of mobile phone operator SoftBank.Masayoshi Son is CEO and Representative Director.-Technology:...
) have both successfully deployed WAP technology. In particular, J-Phone's Sha-Mail
Sha-Mail
Sha-Mail is a kind of mailing service of J-Phone . This term is made from Sha, which is the front part of a Japanese word Shashin meaning photograph, and Mail...
picture mail and Java (JSCL) services, as well as (au
Au (mobile phone operator)
, or au by KDDI, is a mobile phone brand in Japan marketed by KDDI Corporation in the main islands of Japan and Okinawa Cellular in Okinawa.-Naming:...
)'s chakuuta/chakumovie (ringtone song/ringtone movie) services are based on WAP. After being shadowed by the initial success of i-mode, the two smaller Japanese operators have been gaining market share from DoCoMo since Spring 2001.
USA
The adoption of WAP in the US suffered because many cell phone providers required separate activation and additional fees for data support, and also because telecommunications companies have sought to limit data access to only approved data providers operating under license of the signal carrier.In recognition of the problem, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) issued an order on 31 July 2007 which mandated that licensees of the 22-megahertz wide "Upper 700 MHz C Block" spectrum will have to implement a wireless platform which allows customers, device manufacturers, third-party application developers, and others to use any device or application of their choice when operating on this particular licensed network band.
Spin-off technologies
Spin-off technologies, such as Multimedia Messaging ServiceMultimedia Messaging Service
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length.The most popular use is to send photographs from...
(MMS), a combination of WAP and SMS, have further driven the protocol. An enhanced appreciation of device diversity, supported by the concomitant changes to WAP content to become more device-specific rather aiming at a lowest common denominator, allowed for more usable and compelling content. As a result, the adoption rate of WAP technology is on the upswing.
Criticism
Commentators have criticized several aspects of Wireless Markup LanguageWireless Markup Language
Wireless Markup Language , based on XML, is a markup language intended for devices that implement the Wireless Application Protocol specification, such as mobile phones. It provides navigational support, data input, hyperlinks, text and image presentation, and forms, much like HTML...
(WML) and WAP. Technical criticisms include:
- The idiosyncraticIdiosyncrasyAn idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person . The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be .-Etymology:...
WML language: WML cut users off from the conventional HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
Web, leaving only native WAP content and Web-to-WAP proxi-content available to WAP users. However, others argue that technology at that stage would simply not have been able to give access to anything but custom-designed content which was the sole purpose of WAP and its simple, reduced complexity interface as the citizens of many nations are not connected to the web at the present time and have to use government funded and controlled portals to WAP and similar non-complex services. - Under-specification of terminal requirements: The early WAP standards included many optional features and under-specified requirements, which meant that compliant devices would not necessarily interoperate properly. This resulted in great variability in the actual behavior of phones, principally because WAP-service implementers and mobile-phone manufacturers did not obtain a copy of the standards or the correct hardware and the standard software modules. As an example, some phone models would not accept a page more than 1 Kb in size; others would downright crash. The user interface of devices was also underspecified: as an example, accesskeys (e.g., the ability to press '4' to access directly the fourth link in a list) were variously implemented depending on phone models (sometimes with the accesskey number automatically displayed by the browser next to the link, sometimes without it, and sometimes accesskeys were not implemented at all).
- Constrained user interface capabilities: Terminals with small black-and-white screens and few buttons, like the early WAP terminals, face difficulties in presenting a lot of information to their user, which compounded the other problems: one would have had to be extra careful in designing the user interface on such a resource-constrained device which was the real concept of WAP.
- Lack of good authoring tools: The problems above might have succumbed in the face of a WML authoring tool that would have allowed content providers to easily publish content that would interoperate flawlessly with many models, adapting the pages presented to the User-Agent type. However, the development kits which existed did not provide such a general capability. Developing for the web was easy: with a text editor and a web browser, anybody could get started, thanks also to the forgiving nature of most desktop browser rendering engines. By contrast, the stringent requirements of the WML specifications, the variability in terminals, and the demands of testing on various wireless terminals, along with the lack of widely available desktop authoring and emulation tools, considerably lengthened the time required to complete most projects. , however, with many mobile devices supporting XHTML, and programs such as Adobe Go Live and Dreamweaver offering improved web-authoring tools, it is becoming easier to create content, accessible by many new devices.
- Lack of user agent profiling tools: It quickly became nearly impossible for web hosts to determine if a request came from a mobile device, or from a larger more capable device. No useful profiling or database of device capabilities were built into the specifications in the unauthorized non-compliant products.
Other criticisms address the wireless carriers' particular implementations of WAP:
- Neglect of content providers: Some wireless carriers had assumed a "build it and they will come" strategy, meaning that they would just provide the transport of data as well as the terminals, and then wait for content providers to publish their services on the Internet and make their investment in WAP useful. However, content providers received little help or incentive to go through the complicated route of development. Others, notably in Japan (cf. below), had a more thorough dialogue with their content-provider community, which was then replicated in modern, more successful WAP services such as i-modeI-modeNTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
in Japan or the Gallery service in France. - Lack of openness: Many wireless carriers sold their WAP services as "open", in that they allowed users to reach any service expressed in WML and published on the Internet. However, they also made sure that the first page that clients accessed was their own "wireless portal", which they controlled very closely. Some carriers also turned off editing or accessing the address bar in the device's browser. To facilitate users wanting to go off deck, an address bar on a formForm (web)A webform on a web page allows a user to enter data that is sent to a server for processing. Webforms resemble paper or database forms because internet users fill out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields...
on a page linked off the hard coded home page page was provided. It makes it easier for carriers to implement filtering of off deck WML sites by URLs or to disable the address bar in the future if the carrier decides to switch all users to a walled garden model. Given the difficulty in typing up fully qualified URLUniform Resource LocatorIn computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
s on a phone keyboard, most users would give up going "off portal" or out of the walled gardenWalled garden (media)A walled garden is an analogy used in various senses in information technology. In the telecommunications and media industries, a "walled garden" refers to a carrier or service provider's control over applications, content, and media on platforms and restriction of convenient access to...
; by not letting third parties put their own entries on the operators' wireless portal, some contend that operators cut themselves off from a valuable opportunity. On the other hand, some operators argue that their customers would have wanted them to manage the experience and, on such a constrained device, avoid giving access to too many services.
Protocol design lessons from WAP
The original WAP model provided a simple platform for access to web-like WML services and e-mail using mobile phones in Europe and the SE Asian regions. it continues with a considerable user base. The later versions of WAP, primarily targeting the United States market, were designed for a different requirement - to enable full web XHTML access using mobile devices with a higher specification and cost, and with a higher degree of software complexity.Considerable discussion has addressed the question whether the WAP protocol design was appropriate. Some have suggested that the bandwidth-sparing simple interface of Gopher would be a better match for mobile phones and Personal digital assistants (PDAs).
The initial design of WAP specifically aimed at protocol independence across a range of different protocols (SMS, IP over PPP
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
over a circuit switched bearer, IP over GPRS, etc.). This has led to a protocol considerably more complex than an approach directly over IP might have caused.
Most controversial, especially for many from the IP side, was the design of WAP over IP. WAP's transmission layer protocol, WTP, uses its own retransmission mechanisms over UDP
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
to attempt to solve the problem of the inadequacy of TCP over high-packet-loss networks.
See also
- .mobi.mobiThe domain name mobi is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile, indicating its use by mobile devices for accessing Internet resources via the Mobile Web....
- i-modeI-modeNTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
- MicrobrowserMicrobrowserA mobile browser, also called a microbrowser, minibrowser, or wireless internet browser , is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices...
- Mobile developmentMobile developmentMobile application development is the process by which application software is developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones...
- Mobile webMobile WebThe Mobile Web refers to the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser-based access to the Internet from a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer, connected to a wireless network....
- RuBeeRuBeeRuBee is a two way, active wireless protocol designed for harsh environment, high security asset visibility applications. RuBee utilizes Long Wave magnetic signals to send and receive short data packets in a local regional network...
- WAP Identity ModuleWAP Identity ModuleWIM is based on the WAP 1.2 specification enabling secure transactions and non-repudiation based on a digital signature....
- Wireless Internet ProtocolWireless Internet ProtocolWireless Internet Protocols are the suite of wireless protocols after Wireless Application Protocol 2.0 . It includes XHTML Basic, Nokia's XHTML Mobile Profile, and future developments of WAP by the Open Mobile Alliance....
- Wireless transaction protocolWireless transaction protocolWireless transaction protocol is a standard used in mobile telephony. It is a layer of the Wireless Application Protocol that is intended to bring Internet access to mobile phones.-External links:*...
- WURFLWurflWURFL stands for Wireless Universal Resource FiLe. It is a community effort focused on mobile device detection: the problem of presenting content on the wide variety of wireless devices. WURFL is a set of proprietary API's and an XML configuration file which contains information about device...
- Wikipedia access via WAP
External links
NOTE: OMA website only works properly using Internet Explorer- Open Mobile Alliance
- OMA – Wireless Application Protocol Downloads (specification documents in PDF format)
- Wap (Wireless Application Protocol)