Also crucial to making net access
viable from mobile wireless devices is WAP, the Wireless Application
Protocol. WAP is an open, global specification that empowers mobile users
with wireless devices to easily access and interact with information and
services instantly. It works with most wireless networks - including CDMA,
Global System for Mobile Communications, Time Division Multiple Access and
Mobitex - and is intended to cover a wide range of wireless devices,
including mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smartphones and PDAs.
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Technology
WAP embraces and extends the previously conceived and developed wireless
data protocols. Phone.com created a version of the standard HTML designed
specifically for effective and cost-effective information |
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transfer across mobile networks. Wireless terminals incorporated a HDML
(Handheld Device Markup Language) micro-broswer, and Phone.com's Handheld
Device Transport Protocol (HDTP) then linked the terminal to the Internet
or intranet where the information being requested resided . This
technology was incorporated into WAP - and renamed using WAP-related
acronyms
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The WAP Device
The key utility on WAP devices will be the microbrowser, which will allow
access to any WAP-supporting Web site. Content providers are expected to
support WAP enthusiastically since, for a minimum of effort, the
technology will provide them access to a huge untapped market of mobile
customers. Consequently, there should be no lack of such sites. Indeed,
WAP's WML (wireless markup language) uses the XML standard that is already
widely used by current Web sites.
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WML is designed to optimise
Internet text data for delivery over limited-bandwidth wireless networks
and onto small device screens. It is specifically devised to support
one-hand navigation without a keyboard. WAP is scalable from two-line text
displays up through graphic screens found on items such as smart phones
and communicators. It also supports WMLScript. This is similar to
JavaScript, but is designed to make minimal demands on system resources
such as memory and CPU power. It is unlikely that WML will provide support
for features such as colour, audio and video for a number years.
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The process will operate as follows. Someone with a WAP-compliant phone
uses the in-built microbrowser to make a request in WML. This request is
passed to a WAP Gateway that then retrieves the information from an
Internet server either in standard HTML format or preferably directly
prepared for wireless terminals using WML. If the content being retrieved
is in HTML format, a filter in the WAP Gateway may try to translate it
into WML. The requested information is then sent from the WAP Gateway to
the WAP client, using whatever mobile network bearer service is available
and most appropriate.
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Nokia and Ericsson have written their own microbrowsers; more than 20
other vendors license the UP.Browser developed by Phone.com (formerly
Unwired Planet). Much of the impetus in this area has been European, with
Symbian’s EPOC OS expected to run smart-phones. |
