WP

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W_at_P

• By Christopher M. Logan
• Date April 19, 2001

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What is WAP?

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What is WAP?

• Wireless Application Protocol
• Based on HTTP and XML
• An open global specification
• Empowers mobile users with wireless devices to
  access and interact with information and services
  instantly
• Backbone protocol that lest you connect to the
  Internet across any digital wireless network and
  through any wireless device,application, and
  service provider

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What is WAP (contd)

• Global multi-layered protocol that is designed to
  bring content to thin-client devices
• A thin-client device can range from low-end,
  display limited cellular telephones, to full
  functionality, high-speed laptop computers.
• A client is termed thin based on any one of the
  following attributes
• Display and data entry constraints
• Memory or CPU processing constraints.
• The WAP protocol is designed to address the needs
  of this full range of client devices

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What is WAP contd

• Standardized by the W_at_P Forum
• www.wapforum.org

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WAP History

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Wireless Beginnings

• Detroit police using crude mobile radios as early
  as 1921
• Mobile communication slowly developed through out
  the 20s, 30s and 40s
• Mid 40s cellular came to light
• Researchers knew that air wave would be filled
  with voice traffic and interference
• Discovered that service area could be divided
  into small cells
• Radio frequencies could ne reused which increased
  call capacity
• 1947 ATT proposed that the Fedral Communication
  Commission (FCC) allot a large band of radio
  frequencies for mobile telephones.
• 1969 the frequencies were available

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Wireless Beginnings (contd

• 1971 ATT submitted how a cellular system could
  be established over the extended radio
  frequencies to the FCC
• Delayed until 1977
• 1978 2000 Bell Telephone customers in Chicago
  tested the first mobile phones operating on a
  cellular system.
• Analog system called Advanced Mobile Phone
  Service (AMPS)
• Still in use today.
• 1996 Three major digital systems are available.
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• ATT Wireless, and Southwestern Bell
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

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Wireless Beginnings contd

• SprintPCS, GTE, Air Touch, and Verizon
• 1994 FCC opened up the Personal communication
  Services (PCS) frequencies to 1900MHz which
  unlike other services using AMPS, PCS spectrum is
  all digital
• Voice mail, FAX, paging, and Short Messaging
  Service (SMS) are now available
• Cell phones can act like modems
• Paved the way for a direct connection between the
  wireless world and the WWW.
• Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
• Pacific Bell and Omnipoint
• They all process voice signals differently but
  sounds virtually identical.

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WAP History

• How WAP came into being

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WAP History

• Before July 1997 each telecommunication giant was
  developing their own protocols and markup
  languages for wireless Internet access.
• Nokia Narrow Band Sockets (NBS).
• Using Tagged Text Markup Language (TTML).
• Aimed at bringing HTML content to the handset.
• Supported in the Nokia 8010i.
• Ericsson Intelligent Terminal Transfer Protocol
  (ITTP).
• Aimed at providing enhanced call control.

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WAP History (contd

• Phone.com Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML)
• Aimed at providing a web-like environment for
  the development of network based applications and
  services.
• Created WAP.
• The diversity threatened to fragment the wireless
  data access market.
• Along with Motorola, they believed that is was in
  their best interest to create a forum to discuss
  wireless Internet data access standards.

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WAP History (contd

• The W_at_P Forum was created on July 27, 1994
• Primary goal is to insure interoperability and
  growth of the wireless market.
• Over 500 members
• Dues 27,500/yr to join as a full member
• Dues 7,500/yr to join as an associate member.

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Wireless Peculiarities

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Wireless Peculiarities

• Basically, wireless networks are flaky.
• Devices can go in and out of range.
• When they do come back in they could be on a
  totally different network.
• Small Bandwidth.
• Technologies boast 40Mbits/sec.
• You basically need to be near a powerful antenna
  to get this data rate
• (and a dose of radiation) if you really want it!
• Vulnerable to interference, distance and load.
• All effecting transmission speeds.

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WAP Features

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WAP Features

• WAP is designed for wireless networks.
• Designed to deal with wireless peculiarities.
• Wireless Sessions
• wireless devices may go in and out of range.
• Wireless sessions give the wireless device the
  opportunity to suspend an application session on
  the content server before the device goes out of
  range.
• Content server saves application specific data.
• When coming back into range the device can resume
  the wireless session and continue where it last
  left off.

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Wireless Features contd

• Device Abstraction
• WAP has the concept of User Agent Profiles which
  is a representation of the client device on the
  application server.
• Allows a wireless application to server a
  wireless client differently depending on the
  device being used.
• Some devices might require different content
  because their displays are small or their input
  device is limited in some way.

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WAP Features contd

• Bearer Abstraction
• Devices dont always use the Internet Protocol
  (IP).
• WAP provides a way for the underlying protocol to
  be abstracted, whether it is IPv4, IPv6, SMS,
  Bluetooth, or Mobittex.
• WAP can suspend sessions over bearers.
• A device can suspend a session on one bearer and
  resume on another.

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WAP Features contd

• Data/Header Compression
• All data and headers are compressed to ensure
  optimal bandwidth of wireless bandwidth.
• Reliability
• WAP provides reliable transport over any bearer
  in the same way Transmission Control Protocol
  (TCP) does, but with low bandwidth.
• Supports Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) for
  bearers which do not support it natively.

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Why not HTTP/HTML?

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Why not HTTP/HTML?

• Lost Pages
• Slow responses
• No push ability
• Bad content

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WAP Architecture

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WAP Architecture

• WAP Stack Takes into consideration, Low
  bandwidth, Need for push, Unpredictable
  networks, and many different bearers.
• Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)
• Wireless Transport Protocol (WTP)
• Wireless Transport Layer Protocol (WTLP)
• Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP)

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WAP Architecture (contd

• WML Browser Front end to the stack on the CLIENT
• Parses the Wireless Markup Language (MWL) and
  Wireless Markup Language (WMLS).
• Displays formatted text and graphics on the
  client device.
• This is the IE and Netscape of wireless devices.

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WAP Architecture (contd

• WAP Gateway Front end to the stack on the SERVER
• Primary goal is to emulate the behavior of a web
  browser.
• It allows the wireless device to communicate over
  the IP-based web.
• Encodes content for the low bandwidth telecom
  network.
• Content can be WML, HTML, or streamed data.

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WAP Architecture (contd

• Origin Server AKA the Content Server
• Received HTTP requests from the WAP Gateway from
  the user.
• Returns content based on the request.

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Internet Vs WAP
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WAP layers
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WAP Network
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WAP Example.
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Apache Configuration
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The End