Wireless Application Protocol WAP Dr Alison Griffiths C203 Ext: Credit to: Justin Champion
Mobile Internet Originally perceived as one of the primary motivators for wireless data applications Hyped as “Internet Anywhere” Result was WAP Specified by handset manufacturers & leading industry providers (WAP Forum now called Open Mobile Alliance) Version 1 – 1998 Not a success so far
Wired Internet HTTP at its simplest Designed without concern for bandwidth, persistence or delay Assumes TCP over IP Utilises DNS for logical to physical mapping Sophisticated Caching Posting assumes connection available
Wired Internet Application Layer HTML allows Rich content Dynamic content Plug-ins Extensible Ignores heterogeneity of end-user systems Display sizes, resolutions User Interfaces Performance Audio support STORAGE
Wireless Internet Almost antithesis of wired Bandwidth, persistence, delay are major problems TCP extremely inefficient over-the-air Caching cannot be guaranteed on client devices Device profiles extremely varied Displays Browsers Plug-ins Operating systems may be fixed at point of manufacture Device storage very limited Low processing power Need for new wireless-oriented protocol
WAP Myth WAP IS NOT…
WAP as a Protocol (1.0)
Wireless Application Environment (WAE) ClientGatewayOrigin servers WTA user agent WML user agent Other WAE user agents Encoders & Decoders Encoded Request Content Servers Web Server Request Response with content Encoded response with content Push contentEncoded Push content
WAP Stack Example
WAP 2.0 July 2001 Retains WAP 1.x Aspects of i-mode Full IP support TCP wireless profile TLS HTTP wireless profile 2 nd generation browsers (WML, XHTMLMP) Composite Capabilities/Preference Profiles framework (CC/PP) For identifying device capabilities & user preferences
WAP Stack Example Protocol Framework Bearer Transport Transfer Session IPv6 IPv4 SMS CSD FLEX GPRS MPAK USSD… Datagrams (WDP, UDP) Connections (TCP wireless profile) Hypermedia Transfer (WTP+WSP, HTTP) StreamingMMS Push OTA Capability Negotiation Synchronization Cookies Application Framework WAE/WTA User Agent (WML, XHTMLMP) Multi-media Messaging ( ) Push Content formats Service Discovery Service Discovery Crypto Libraries Authentication Identification PKI Secure Transport Secure Bearer EFI Provisioning Navigation Discovery Service Lookup
Review Overview of WAP
Questions?