WAP

A-Jesuraj

BM08530

MCA-III

Over view

• WAP - Introduction • WAP - The Model• WAP - Architecture • WAP - Environment• WAP - WML Syntax • WAP - WML Script• WAP - Core Services • WAP - Key Benefits • WAP - Modern • WAP - Future Prospects

Contents• Introduction

– What is WAP?

– History

• WAP - The Model

– The Internet Model

– The WAP Model

– How WAP Model Works?

• WAP - Architecture

– Application Layer

– Session Layer

– Security layer

– Transport Layer

1. Introduction

1.1 What is WAP?

• WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol

• WAP is an application communication protocol

• WAP is used to access services and information

• WAP is inherited from Internet standards

• WAP is for handheld devices such as mobile phones

• WAP is a protocol designed for micro browsers

• WAP enables the creating of web applications for mobile

devices.

• WAP uses the mark-up language WML (not HTML)

• WML is defined as an XML 1.0 application

1.2. The Wireless Application Protocol

• The WAP is the leading standard for information

services on wireless terminals like digital mobile

phones.

• The WAP standard is based on Internet standards

(HTML, XML and TCP/IP).

1.3. History of WAP

• WAP is published by the WAP Forum, founded in 1997

by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet.

• Forum members now represent over 90% of the global

handset market, as well as leading infrastructure

providers, software developers and other

organizations.

ClientClient ServerServerreq.

resp.

2. WAP Model2.1 Web-Model

2.1 Internet Model

• The Internet model makes it possible for a

client to reach services on a large number of

origin servers.

• Each services is addressed by a unique

Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

• The content stored on the servers is of various

formats, but HTML is the predominant. HTML

provides the content developer with a means to

describe the appearance of a service in a flat

document structure. If more advanced features like

procedural logic are needed, then scripting languages

such as JavaScript or VB Script may be utilised.

2.1WEB Model

• The figure above shows how a WWW client request a resource

stored on a web server. On the Internet, standard communication

protocols, like HTTP and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol (TCP/IP) are used.

• The content available at the web server may be static or dynamic.

Static content is produced once and not changed or updated very

often, for example a company presentation.

• Dynamic content is needed when the information

provided by the service changes more often, for

example timetables, news, stock quotes and account

information. Technologies such as Active Server Pages

(ASP), Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and Servlets

allow content to be generated dynamically.

2.2 WAP Model

• The figure below shows the WAP

programming model. Note the similarities

with the Internet model. Without the WAP

Gateway/Proxy the two models would have

been practically identical.

GatewayGatewayencoded req.

encoded resp.

req.

resp.

Encode&

Decode

WAP I WEB

ClientClient ServerServer

WAEUser

Agent

cgi scripts

etc.

WAP I model: Translator WAP - WEB

• WAP Gateway/Proxy is the entity that connects

the wireless domain with the Internet. We

should make a note that the request that is sent

from the wireless client to the WAP

Gateway/Proxy uses the Wireless Session

Protocol (WSP). In its essence, WSP is a binary

version of HTTP.

• A markup language - the Wireless Markup

Language (WML) has been adapted to develop

optimized WAP applications. In order to save

valuable bandwidth in the wireless network,

WML can be encoded into a compact binary

format. Encoding WML is one of the tasks

performed by the WAP Gateway/Proxy.

2.3 How WAP Model Works?

When it comes to actual use, WAP works like this:

• The user selects an option on their mobile

device that has a URL with Wireless Markup

language (WML) content assigned to it.

• The phone sends the URL request via the phone

network to a WAP gateway, using the binary

encoded WAP protocol.

• The gateway translates this WAP request into a conventional

HTTP request for the specified URL, and sends it on to the

Internet.

• The appropriate Web server picks up the HTTP request.

• The server processes the request, just as it would any other

request. If the URL refers to a static WML file, the server delivers

it. If a CGI script is requested, it is processed and the content

returned as usual.

• The Web server adds the HTTP header to the WML content and

returns it to the gateway.

• The WAP gateway compiles the WML into binary form.

• The gateway then sends the WML response back to the phone.

• The phone receives the WML via the WAP protocol.

• The micro-browser processes the WML and displays the content

on the screen.

3. WAP- Architecture

Application (WAE)

Session (WSP)

Security (WTLS)

Transport (WDP)

Transaction (WTP)

Medium: GSM, CDMA, UMTS ...

WAP

Application

HTTP

Security (TLS)

IP/UDP

TCP

Medium: ...

WEB

WAP I – protocol stack

• WAP is designed in a layered fashion so that it can be extensible,

flexible, and scalable. As a result, the WAP protocol stack is divided

into five layers.

Application Layer

• Wireless Application Environment (WAE). This layer is of most

interest to content developers because it contains, among other

things, device specifications and the content development

programming languages, WML and WMLScript.

Session Layer

• Wireless Session Protocol (WSP). Unlike HTTP, WSP

has been designed by the WAP Forum to provide fast

connection suspension and reconnection.

• WSP-The WAP session protocol (WSP) layer provides a

lightweight session layer to allow efficient exchange

of data between applications.

Transaction Layer

• Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP). The WTP runs on top of a

datagram service such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and is

part of the standard suite of TCP/IP protocols used to provide a

simplified protocol suitable for low bandwidth wireless stations.

• WTP -- The WAP transaction protocol (WTP) layer provides

transaction support, adding reliability to the datagram service

provided by WDP.

• WDP -- The WAP datagram protocol (WDP) is

the transport layer that sends and receives

messages via any available bearer network,

including SMS, USSD, CSD, CDPD and GPRS.

Security Layer

Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS). WTLS incorporates security

features that are based upon the established Transport Layer Security

(TLS) protocol standard. It includes data integrity checks, privacy, service

denial, and authentication services.

• WTLS -- Wireless transport layer security (WTLS), an optional security

layer, has encryption facilities that provide the secure transport service

required by many applications, such as e-commerce.

Transport layer

Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP). The WDP

allows WAP to be bearer-independent by adapting

the transport layer of the underlying bearer. The WDP

presents a consistent data format to the higher layers

of the WAP protocol stack, thereby offering the

advantage of bearer independence to application

developers.

• Each of these layers provides a well-defined interface to

the layer. This means that the internal workings of any

layer are transparent or invisible to the layers. The layered

architecture allows other applications and services to

utilize the features provided by the WAP-stack as well. This

makes it possible to use the WAP-stack for services and

applications that currently are not specified by WAP.

The WAP protocol architecture is shown below alongside a typical Internet Protocol stack.

What is the purpose of WAP?

• To enable easy, fast delivery of relevant

information and services to mobile users.

• It consists of a WML language specification, a

WMLScript specification, and a Wireless

Telephony Application Interface (WTAI)

specification.

What type of devices will use WAP?

• Handheld digital wireless devices such as

mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios,

smartphones, and communicators -- from

low-end to high-end.

Which wireless networks does WAP work with?

• WAP is designed to work with most wireless

networks such as CDPD, CDMA, GSM, PDC,

PHS, TDMA, FLEX, ReFLEX, iDEN, TETRA,

DECT, DataTAC, Mobitex.

What operating systems are compatible with WAP?

• WAP is a communications protocol and an

application environment. It can be built on any

operating system including PalmOS, EPOC,

Windows CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, JavaOS, etc. It

provides service interoperability even between

different device families.

WAP Micro Browsers

• To fit into a small wireless terminal, WAP uses a Micro Browser.

• A Micro Browser is a small piece of software that makes minimal

demands on hardware, memory and CPU. It can display

information written in a restricted mark-up language called WML.

• The Micro Browser can also interpret a reduced version of

JavaScript called WMLScript.

Why are network operators behind WAP?

• With minimal risk and investment, WAP

enables operators to decrease churn, cut

costs, and increase revenues by improving

existing, value-added services and offering

exciting new informational services.

Why are equipment manufacturers interested in WAP?

• Being a global open specification suite, WAP

has generated the critical mass for

manufacturers. This has opened up new

product and marketing opportunities in the

wireless industry and provides new revenue

to participating companies.

How does Bluetooth relate to WAP?• Bluetooth is a local area low power radio link between

devices. Many of the usage scenarios for Bluetooth will also

involve one of the devices communicating over the air using

WAP.

• While many Bluetooth members are also WAP members, and

it is expected that many future handheld wireless devices will

deploy both Bluetooth and WAP technology, the two

technologies fundamentally address different problems.

Will WAP comply with Third Generation wireless standards?

• Yes, WAP has been designed to be as

independent as possible from the underlying

network technology.

Is WAP necessary with higher bandwidth 3G networks?

• Even as bandwidths increase, the cost of that bandwidth does not

fall to zero. These costs result from higher power usage in the

terminals, higher costs in the radio sections, greater use of RF

spectrum, and increased network loading. In addition, the original

constraints WAP was designed for -- intermittent coverage, small

screens, low power consumption, wide scalability over bearers and

devices, and one-handed operation -- are still valid in 3G networks.

• Finally, we can expect the bandwidth required by application users

to steadily increase.

• Therefore, there is still a need to optimize the

device and network resources for wireless

environments. We can expect WAP to optimize

support for multimedia applications that continue

to be relevant. If WAP is very successful in mass-

markets on 2.5G networks, 3G networks may be

needed purely for capacity relief.

How does Bluetooth relate to WAP?

• Bluetooth is a local area low power radio link between devices.

Many of the usage scenarios for Bluetooth will also involve one of

the devices communicating over the air using WAP.

• While many Bluetooth members are also WAP members, and it is

expected that many future handheld wireless devices will deploy

both Bluetooth and WAP technology, the two technologies

fundamentally address different problems.

Can we use WAP in other country?

• Yes, if the service provider in that country

supports roaming & WAP on their network.

Can we access all WAP sites?

• We can only access WAP sites available on

WAP server of our service provider.

•

How can we configure my mobile for WAP?

• Before configure please, make sure that our

SIM card is enabled for this facility & our

phone is having WAP browser.

•

Is WAP service expensive and how we can activate it?

• WAP service is very cheap (check with our

service provider). We need to have a WAP

enabled phones & our SIM card should

support data/fax communications. Check with

our service provider regarding WAP services.

Examples of WAP use

• Checking train table information

• Ticket purchase

• Flight check in

• Viewing traffic information

• Checking weather conditions

• Looking up stock values

• Looking up phone numbers

• Looking up addresses

• Looking up sport results

Sayeed Ahmed

BM08536

MCA-III

Contents

• Environment• WML Syntax • WML Script

WAP-Environment

• The Wireless Application Environment (WAE) provides an

environment that enables a wide range of applications to be

used on wireless devices.

• "WAP - The wireless service enabler" the WAP WAE

programming model was introduced.

Addressing model

• A syntax suitable for naming resources stored on servers.

• WAP use the same addressing model as the one used on the

Internet.

• ie: Uniform Resource Locators (URL).

Wireless Markup Language

• A lightweight markup language designed to meet

the constraints of a wireless environment with low

bandwidth and small handheld devices.

• The Wireless Markup Language is WAP’s analogy to HTML

used on the WWW. WML is based on the Extensible

Markup Language (XML).

WML Script• WMLScript is based on ECMA Script, the same scripting language that

JavaScript is based on.

• It can be used for enhancing services written in WML in the way that it

to some extent adds intelligence to the services, for example

procedural logic, loops, conditional expressions, and computational

functions.

Wireless Telephony Application (WTA)

• A framework and programming interface for telephony

services.

• The Wireless Telephony Application (WTA) environment

provides a means to create telephony services using WAP.

Hardware and Software Requirement

• At minimum, developing WAP applications requires a web server and a

WAP simulator. Using simulator software while developing a WAP

application is convenient as all the required software can be installed

on the development PC.

• Although software simulators are good in their own right, no WAP

application should go into production without testing it with actual

hardware.

The following list gives the necessary hardware and software to test and develop

WAP applications:

a Web server with connection to the Internet

a WML to develop WAP application

a WAP simulator to test WAP application

a WAP gateway

a WAP phone for final testing

Microsoft IIS or Apache on Windows or Linux can be used as the web server

and Nokia WAP Toolkit version 2.0 as the WAP simulator.

Configure Web Server for WAP• In the WAP architecture, the web server communicates with the

WAP gateway, accepting HTTP requests and returning WML code to

the gateway.

• The HTTP protocol mandates that each reply must include

something called a Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

type.

• In normal web applications, this MIME type is set to text/html,

designating normal HTML code.

• Images, on the other hand, could be specified as image/gif or

image/jpeg, for instance. With this content type specification, the

web browser knows the data type that the web server returns.

• In WAP applications a new set of MIME types must be used,

as shown in the following table:

File type MIME type

WML (.wml) text/vnd.wap.wml

WMLScript (.wmls) text/vmd.wap.wmlscript

WBMP (.wbmp) image/vnd.wap.wbmp

WAP - WML Syntax

• The topmost layer in the WAP architecture is made up of WAE (Wireless

Application Environment), which consists of WML and WML scripting

language.

• WML scripting language is used to design applications that are sent over

wireless devices such as mobile phones. This language takes care of the

small screen and the low bandwidth of transmission.

• WML is an application of XML, which is defined in a document-type

definition.

• WML pages are called decks. They are constructed as a set of cards,

related to each other with links.

• When a WML page (decks) is accessed from a mobile phone, all the cards

in the page are downloaded from the WAP server to mobile phone

showing the content.

• WML commands and syntaxes are used to show content and to navigate

between the cards. Developers can use these commands to declare

variables, format text, and show images on the mobile phone.

WAP Program Structure

A WML program is typically divided into two parts: the document prolog

and the body. Consider the following code.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD WML 1.2//EN"

"http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml12.dtd">

<wml>

<card>

...

</card> .

..more cards...

</wml>

WAE - WML

InputElements

Deck

CardNavigation

Variables

<WML> <CARD> <DO TYPE=“ACCEPT”> <GO URL=“#eCard”/> </DO Welcome! </CARD> <CARD NAME=“eCard”> <DO TYPE=“ACCEPT”> <GO URL=“/submit?N=$(N)&S=$(S)”/> </DO> Enter name: <INPUT KEY=“N”/> Choose speed: <SELECT KEY=“S”> <OPTION VALUE=“0”>Fast</OPTION> <OPTION VALUE=“1”>Slow</OPTION> <SELECT> </CARD></WML>

• The first line of this text says that this is an XML document and the version

is 1.0.

• The second line selects the document type and gives the URL of the

document type definition (DTD). This DTD gives the full XML definition of

WML.

• The DTD referenced is defined in WAP 1.1, but this header changes with

the versions of the WML. The header must be copied exactly so that the

tool kits automatically generate this prolog.

• The body is enclosed within a <wml>...</wml> tag pair as shown above.

The body of a WML document can consist of one or more of the following:

• Deck

• Card

• Content to be shown

• Navigation instructions

Decks and Cards

WML pages are often called "decks". A deck contains a set of cards. A card

element can contain text, markup, links, input-fields, tasks, images and

more. Cards can be related to each other with links.

Navigation between the cards is done by the phone computer - inside the

phone - without any extra access trips to the server.

WML Commands:

• The commands used in WML are summarized as follows:

Formatting:Command Description

<p> Paragraph

<b> Bold

<big> Large

<em> Emphasized

<I> Italicized

<small> Small

<strong> Strongly Emphasized

<u> Underlined

<br> Line Break

• Inserting images:

• Using Tables:

<img src="image-path/image - name" alt="Picture not available" />

Command Description

<table> Definition of a table

<tr> Defining a row

<td> Defining a column

<Thead> Table header

• Variables:

• Declared as

• Used as:

$ defines as identifier

<setvar name="x" value="xyz"/>

• Forms:

Command Description

<select> Define single or multiple list

<input> Input from user

<option>Defines an option in a

selectable list

<fieldset> Defines a set of input fields

<optgroup>Defines an option group in a

selectable list

• Task Elements

Command Description

<go>Represents the action of

switching to a new card

<noop> Says that nothing should be done

<prev>Represents the action of going

back to the previous card

<refresh>Refreshes some specified card

variables.

• Events:

Command Description

<do> Defines a do event handler

<onevent> Defines an onevent event handler

<postfield> Defines a postfield event handler

<ontimer> Defines an ontimer event handler

<onenterforward> Defines an onenterforward handler

<onenterbackward> Defines an onenterbackward handler

<onpick> Defines an onpick event handler

Sample WML Program

• <?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD WML 1.1//EN"

"http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml_1.1.xml">

<wml>

<card id="no1" title="Card 1">

<p>Hello World!</p>

</card>

<card id="no2" title="Card 2">

<p>Welcome to our WAP Tutorial!</p>

</card>

</wml>

• The result will look something like this in a mobile

phone (note that only one card is displayed at a time):

------ Card 1 ------

Hello World!

Parthiapan

BM08535

MCA-III

Contents

• WAP - WML Script• WAP - Core Services• WAP - Key Benefits

WAP - WML Script

• WMLScript (Wireless Markup Language Script) is the

client-side scripting language of WML (Wireless

Markup Language). A scripting language is similar to a

programming language, but is of lighter weight. With

WMLScript, the wireless device can do some of the

processing and computation. This reduces the number

of requests and responses to/from the server.

WML Script Components:

• WML Script is very similar to Java Script. Almost

WML Script components have similar meaning as

they have in Java Script. A WML Script program

components are summarized as follows:

WML Script Operators:

• WML Script supports following type of operators.

• Arithmetic Operators

• Comparison Operators

• Logical (or Relational) Operators

• Assignment Operators

• Conditional (or ternary) Operators

WML Script Control Statements:

• Control statements are used for controlling the sequence and

iterations in a program.

Statement Description

if-else Conditional branching

forMaking self-incremented fixed

iteration loop

while Making variable iteration loop

break Terminates a loop

continueQuit the current iteration of a

loop

• URL: The URL library contains functions that help us manipulate URLs.

Example Function: getPath(), getReferer(), getHost(), getBase(),

escapeString(), isValid(), loadString(), resolve(), unescapeString(),

getFragment()

• WMLBrowser: The WMLBrowser library provides a group of functions to

control the WML browser or to get information from it.

Example Function: go(), prev(), next(), getCurrentCard(), refresh(), getVar(),

setVar()

• Dialogs: The Dialogs library Contains the user interface functions.

Example Function: prompt(), confirm(), alert()

WML Scripts Comments:

• There are two types of comments in WMLScript:

Single-line comment: To add a single-line comment, begin a line

of text with the // characters.

Multi-line comment: To add a multi-line comment, enclose the

text within /* and */.

• These rules are the same in WMLScript, JavaScript,

Java, and C++. The WMLScript engine will ignore all

comments. The following WMLScript example

demonstrates the use of comments:// This is a single-line comment.

/* This is a multi-line comment. */

/* A multi-line comment can be placed on a single line.*/

WML Script Case Sensitivity:

• The WMLScript language is case-sensitive. For example, a WMLScript

function with the name WMLScript_Function is different from

wmlscript_function. So, be careful of the capitalization when defining or

referring to a function or a variable in WMLScript.

Whitespaces in WMLScript:

• Except in string literals, WMLScript ignores extra whitespaces like spaces,

tabs and newlines. Hence, the code in the earlier "Hello World" example

can be typed in the following way and the result will remain the same:

WML Script Statement Termination by Semicolons:

• A semicolon is required to end a statement in

WMLScript. This is the same as C++ and Java. Note

that JavaScript does not have such requirement but

WML Script makes it mandatory.

WML Script Functions:

• The user-defined functions are declared in a separate file

having the extension .wmls. Functions are declared as

follows:

function name (parameters) { control statements; return var; }

• The functions used are stored in a separate file with the

extension .wmls. The functions are called as the filename

followed by a hash, followed by the function name:

maths.wmls#squar()

WML Scripts Standard Libraries

• There are six standard libraries totally. Here is an overview of

them:

• Lang: The Lang library provides functions related to the

WMLScript language core.

Example Function: abs(),abort(), characterSet(),float(),

isFloat(), isInt(), max(), isMax(), min(), minInt(), maxInt(),

parseFloat(), parseInt(), random(), seed()

• Float: The Float library contains functions that help us perform

floating-point arithmetic operations.

Example Function: sqrt(), round(), pow(), ceil(), floor(), int(),

maxFloat(), minFloat()

• String: The String library provides a number of functions that help

us manipulate strings.

Example Function: length(), charAt(), find(), replace(), trim(),

compare(), format(), isEmpty(), squeeze(), toString(), elementAt(),

elements(), insertAt(), removeAt(), replaceAt()

WAP - Core Services

Banking:

• Accessing account statements

• Paying bills

• Transferring money between accounts

Finance:

• Retrieving stock and share prices

• Buying and selling stocks and shares

• Looking up interest rates

• Looking up currency exchange rates

Shopping:

• Buying everyday commodities

• Browsing and buying books

• Buying CDs

Ticketing:

• Booking or buying airline tickets

• Buying concert tickets

• Booking theatre tickets

Entertainment:

• Retrieving restaurant details

• Looking up clubs

• Finding out what is playing in what cinemas

• Playing solitaire games

• Playing interactive games

Weather:

• Retrieving local weather forecasts

• Looking up weather at other locations

E- Messaging:

• Voice mail

• Unified Messaging

• Enhanced support of legacy SMS services

WAP - Key Benefits

Subscribers:• It is crucial that the subscribers will benefit from using WAP based

services, otherwise there will be no incentive neither for WAP as a whole nor for any of the other groups mentioned below. The key-benefits can be summarised as:

• Portability• Easy to use• Access to a wide variety of services on a competitive market• The possibility of having personalised services• Fast, convenient, and efficient access to services• To fulfil as many customers needs as possible, WAP devices will be

available in various form factors, e.g. pagers, handheld PCs, and phones

Operators:

• Many of the advantages mentioned under "Service Providers" are be

applicable to operators as well. The operator's benefits may include:

• Address new market segments of mobile users by enabling a wider range

of mobile VAS.

• Deploy telephony services that in contrast to traditional telephony

services are easy to create, update, and personalise

• Use the flexibility of WAP as a tool to differentiate from competitors

• Attractive interface to services will increase usage

• Increased revenues per user due to higher network utilization

• Convenient service creation and maintenance, including short time-to-market

• Replace expensive customer care centers with WAP based services (E-care)

• WAP services are designed to be independent of the network, implying that an

operator who runs different types of networks only have to develop its services

ones

• An open standard means that equipment will be provided by many manufacturers

Service Providers:

• WAP opens new possibilities for service and content providers since they

not necessarily have to come to an agreement with a specific operator

about providing services to their customers. The gains are for example:

• Create a service once, make it accessible on a broad range of wireless

networks

• Address new market segments by launching innovative mobile VAS. Keep

old customers by adapting existing Internet services to WAP

• Keep old customers by adapting existing Internet services to WAP

• Convenient service creation and maintenance

• Creating a WAP service is no harder than creating an Internet service

today since WML and WMLScript are based on well-known Internet

technology

• Use standard tools like ASP or CGI to generate content dynamically

• Utilise existing investments in databases etc that are the basis of existing

Internet services

Manufacturers:

• Mobile devices supporting WAP will be available in many different form

factors, e.g. cellular phones, pagers, and handheld PCs. Hardware

manufacturers will also need to supply operators etc with equipment,

such as WAP Gateway/Proxys and WTA servers. Manufacturer benefits

are for example:

• WAP scales across a broad range of mobile networks, meaning that WAP

implementations can be used in devices supporting different types of

networks.

• The expected wide adoption of WAP implies that economies of scales can

be achieved, meaning that the huge mass-market can be addressed

• The fact that WAP is designed to consume minimal amount of memory,

and that the use of proxy technology relieves the CPU, means that

inexpensive components can be used in the handsets

• Reuse the deep knowledge about wireless network infrastructure to

develop advanced servers that seamlessly integrates mobile VAS with

telephony

• Seize the opportunity to introduce new innovative products

Tools Providers:

• Today there is a large amount of tools available for creating

applications for the web. Content developers have become

used to the convenience that tools like FrontPage and

DreamWeaver provides. Tools providers will be able to:

• Reuse and modify existing products to support WAP, or even

integrate WAP support in existing tools.

• Address a new customer base in the wireless community.

Sagaya Raj

BM08538

MCA-III

Contents

• WAP - Modern Devices• WAP - Future Prospects

WAP - Modern Devices

• AWAP device is a combination of hardware and software capable of

running a WAP-compliant microbrowser such as a WAP-enabled mobile

phone or a PDA.

• APC can also be used as a WAP device if you download a WAP phone

emulator from one of the developer sites. The emulator allows you to use

a virtual phone on your desktop. Some major suppliers, such as Ericsson,

Nokia, and Openwave, have developer sites where you can download

software development kits (SDKs) containing WAP emulators.

• AWAP phone can run any WAP application in the same way that a Web

browser can run any HTML application. Once you have a WAP phone, you

can access the Internet simply by entering URLs and following the links

that appear.

• Using these devices, easy and secure access to Internet content and

services such as banking, leisure, and unified messaging is made available.

Furthermore, access is not restricted to the Internet; WAP devices will be

able to deal with intranet information in the same way as Internet content

because both are based upon HTML.

WAP - Future Prospects

• The future of WAP depends largely on whether consumers decide to use

WAPdevices to access the Web, and also on whether a new technology

comes along that would require a different infrastructure than WAP.

• On the consumer side, the factors largely involve the limitations of WAP

and of handheld devices: the low bandwidth, the limited input ability, and

the small screens all require users to adapt from their regular Web-

browsing expectations.

• In the next few years, mobile phones will start to benefit from

very high bandwidth capabilities. The 2.5G/3G systems will

allow much higher capacity and data rates than can be

offered by the restricted bandwidth currently available.

• These wireless devices will be supported by a number of

emerging technologies, including GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD and

UMTS:

• So what is the future for WAP? It has been designed to be independent of the

underlying network technology. The original constraints WAP was designed for -

intermittent coverage, small screens, low power consumption, wide scalability over

bearers and devices, and one-handed operation - are still valid in 2.5G and 3G

networks.

• The bottom line is that WAP is not and can never be the Web on your mobile

phone.WAP is great as long as developers understand that it's what's inside the

applications that matters, and the perceived value of the content to the user. The

browser interface itself, while important, will always be secondary to the content.

•

WAP in The Future

• Handset Manufacturers and WAP Services WAP characteristics will shape

the development of handheld devices

• Real-time applications and services demand small and key pieces of

information that will fuel the success of WAP in the mobile marketplace.

e.g. Stock prices, news, weather, and travel information can be provided

via WAP

• Telephony Integration The Wireless Telephone Application (WTA)

framework adds this feature to WAP.

• WAP in the Competitive Environment

• Competition for WAP protocols could come from a number of sources:

subscriber identity module (SIM) toolkit.The use of SIMs or smart cards in

wireless devices is already widespread and used in some of the service

sectors.

• Windows CE.This is a multitasking, multithreaded operating system from

Microsoft designed for including or embedding mobile and other space-

constrained devices.

• JavaPhone..Sun Microsystems is developing PersonalJava. and

a JavaPhone. API, which is embedded in a Java. virtual

machine on the handset. NEPs will be able to build cellular

phones that can download extra features and functions over

the Internet; thus, customers will no longer be required to

buy a new phone to take advantage of improved features.

• The advantages that WAP can offer over these other methods

are the following: open standard, vendor independent

network-standard independent transport mechanism

optimised for wireless data bearers application downloaded

from the server, enabling fast service creation and

introduction, as opposed to embedded software