Page 15 - DCAP512_WAP_AND_WML

Unit 1: Understanding WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)

1.2 WAP Services and Applications Notes

The WAP layered architecture enables other services and applications to utilize the features of
the stack through a set of well-defined interfaces.
External applications may access the session, transaction, and security and transport layers
directly. This permits the WAP stack to be utilized for applications and services not currently
specified by WAP, but deemed to be valuable for the wireless market.

Example: Applications such as electronic mail, calendar, phone book, notepad and
electronic commerce, or services, such as white and yellow pages, may be developed to use the
WAP protocols.

The Future of WAP

The tremendous surge of interest and development in the area of wireless data in recent times
has caused worldwide operators, infrastructure and terminal manufacturers, and content
developers to collaborate on an unprecedented scale, in an area notorious for the diversity of
standards and protocols. The collaborative efforts of the WAP Forum have devised and continue
to develop a set of protocols that provide a common environment for the development of
advanced telephony services and Internet access for the wireless market. If the WAP protocols
were to be as successful as transmission control protocol (TCP)/Internet protocol (IP), the boom
in mobile communications would be phenomenal. Indeed, the WAP browser should do for
mobile Internet what Netscape did for the Internet.
As mentioned earlier, industry players from content developers to operators can explore the
vast opportunity that WAP presents. As a fixed-line technology, the Internet has proved highly
successful in reaching the homes of millions worldwide. However, mobile users until now have
been forced to accept relatively basic levels of functionality, over and above voice communications
and are beginning to demand the industry to move from a fixed to a mobile environment,
carrying the functionality of a fixed environment with it.
Initially, services are expected to run over the well-established SMS bearer, which will dictate
the nature and speed of early applications. Indeed, GSM currently does not offer the data rates
that would allow mobile multimedia and Web browsing. With the advent of GPRS, which
aimed at increasing the data rate to 115 kbps, as well as other emerging high-bandwidth bearers,
the reality of access speeds equivalent or higher to that of a fixed-line scenario become evermore
believable? GPRS is seen by many as the perfect partner for WAP, with its distinct time slots
serving to manage data packets in a way that prevents users from being penalized for holding
standard circuit-switched connections.

Task
1. Contrast the WAP protocol layers with Internet protocol layers.
2. What are some of the services and applications that may be developed to use the
WAP protocol?

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
11. ………………… applications may access the session, transaction, and security and transport
layers directly.

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