WIRELESS APPLICATION PROTOCOL

    In 1997, several companies organized an industry group called the WAP Forum. This group produces the WAP specification, a (long and detailed) series of technical documents that define standards for implementing wireless network applications. The name "Wireless Application Protocol" (WAP) is misleading. WAP is not actually a protocol at all, in the sense that HTTP and IP are protocols. In fact, WAP involves multiple protocols and a complete network architecture for delivery of wireless content.
 SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE

    WAP specifies an architecture based on layers that follows the OSI model fairly closely.Hundreds of industry firms have given strong backing to the WAP Forum, so the technology should become widely adopted, and it is already well-hyped.At first, the most popular mobile Internet service is likely to be e-mail. SMS (short message service) messages have proved a big success in the Nordic nations and volumes are growing rapidly throughout western Europe”.

ADVANTAGES

    One of the most significant advantages of Internet access from mobile rather that your PC is the ability to instantly identify users geographic location. This opens up a huge opportunity for highly customized services. As Ericsson puts it, “the content providers will know where their users are geographically and will be able to direct them to specific destinations - restaurants or theaters, for example handheld devices are mobile, but their position is instantly identifiable. So think of content that knows where the user is, and offers content tailored to that geography.

WAP APPLICATIONS

    1.Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Nokia are working with a Finnish fashion retailer who plans to send clothing offers direct to mobile telephones using a combination of cursors, touch screen technology and WAP to allow would-be shoppers to hot-link to order-entry pages on the web.2.In Finland, children already play new versions of competitive games such as "Battleships", via the cellular networks. In the music world, Virgin Mobile in the UK offers to download the latest pop hits to customers in a daily offering.

 

 

WAP COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL

    The WAP Protocols cover both the application (WAE), and the underlying transport layers (WSP and WTP, WTLS, and WDP). WML and WMLScript are collectively known as WAE, the Wireless Application Environment. As described earlier the 'bearer' level of WAP depends on the type of mobile network. It could be CSD, SMS, CDMA, or any of a large number of possible data carriers. Whichever bearer your target client is using, the development above remains the same.

WAP PROTOCOL    

    WAP is a protocol created for mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones to allow them access to the internet. Before the protocol was created business people found it difficult to leave the office in case they missed an important e-mail or lost money on their stocks.

    Not just business people were affected by this restraint. People started staying in so they could get sports results and the latest news headlines from their TV.But with the creation of WAP (a series of smaller protocols combined together) all this was thrown into the past. WAP allows users to send and receive emails, get the latest FTSE market prices, receive all the sport results, and keep up with the latest news headlines.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

    The primary language of the WAP specification is WML, the Wireless Markup Language, which has been designed from scratch for handheld devices with phone-specific features following the XML guidelines.The official body developing WAP used to be the WAP Forum. The WAP Forum has consolidated (along with many other forums of the industry) into OMA (Open Mobile Alliance), which covers virtually everything in future development of wireless data services.

WAP 2.0

    The new version of WAP, WAP 2.0, is a re-engineering of WAP using XML. Some observers predict that this next-generation WAP will converge with, and be replaced by, true Web access to pocket devices. Whether this next generation (Wireless Internet Protocol to mobile) will still be referred to as WAP is yet to be decided. XHTML Basic, a subset of XHTML, is made to work in mobile devices.

WAP PUSH

    WAP Push, available since WAP 1.2, has been 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. A WAP Push can be delivered over WAP or 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.

WAP DESIGN   

    WAP, the Wireless Application Protocol, was designed to take advantage of the several data-handling approaches already in use. WAP integrates the Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) and the Handheld Device Transport Protocol (HDTP) developed by Unwired Planet (now known as Phone.com), as well as Nokia's Smart Messaging Protocol (SMP), and Ericsson's Intelligent Terminal Transfer Protocol (ITTP). WAP services can be hosted on Web servers using technologies such as Java servlets and JavaServer Pages(JSP).

WAP PLATFORM  

   The WAP platform is an open specification that addresses wireless network characteristics by adapting existing network technologies (and introducing new ones where appropriate) to the special requirements of handheld wireless devices. Therefore, WAP intends to standardize the way wireless devices (mobile phones, PDAs, and so forth) access Internet data and services. WAP's reuse of existing Internet protocols will ease the development of WAP services for Java and other Web developers.