Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open international standard[1] for

application-layer network communications in a wireless-communication environment.

Most use of WAP involves accessing the mobile web from a mobile phone or from a
PDA.

A WAP browser is a commonly used web browser for small mobile devices such as cell
phones or PDAs, developed to allow a realistic browsing experience to users. Given the
then inherent physical and technical limitations of these devices such as size and data
transfer speeds, new code was created, and the WAP browser accesses websites written
in, or dynamically converted to, WML (Wireless Markup Language).

Before the introduction of WAP, service providers had extremely limited opportunities to
offer interactive data services, but needed interactivity to support now-commonplace
activities such as:

• Email by mobile phone

• Tracking of stock-market prices
• Sports results
• News headlines
• Music downloads

Technical specifications
OSI Model
7 Application Layer
6 Presentation Layer
5 Session Layer
4 Transport Layer
3 Network Layer
Data Link Layer

2 • LLC sublayer

MAC sublayer
•
1 Physical Layer
• The WAP standard[1] describes a protocol suite allowing the interoperability of
WAP equipment and software with many different network technologies, thus
allowing the building of a single platform for competing network technologies
such as GSM and IS-95 (also known as CDMA) networks.

+------------------------------------------+
| Wireless Application Environment (WAE) |
 +------------------------------------------+ \
| Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) | |
+------------------------------------------+ |
| Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) | | WAP
+------------------------------------------+ | protocol
| Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) | | suite
+------------------------------------------+ |
| Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP) | |
+------------------------------------------+ /
| *** Any Wireless Data Network *** |
+------------------------------------------+

• The bottom-most protocol in the suite, the WAP Datagram Protocol (WDP),
functions as an adaptation layer that makes every data network look a bit like
UDP to the upper layers by providing unreliable transport of data with two 16-bit
port numbers (origin and destination). All the upper layers view WDP as one and
the same protocol, which has several "technical realizations" on top of other "data
bearers" such as SMS, USSD, etc. On native IP bearers such as GPRS, UMTS
packet-radio service, or PPP on top of a circuit-switched data connection, WDP is
in fact exactly UDP.

• WTLS, an optional layer, provides a public-key cryptography-based security

mechanism similar to TLS.

• WTP provides transaction support (reliable request/response) adapted to the

wireless world. WTP supports more effectively than TCP the problem of packet
loss, which occurs commonly in 2G wireless technologies in most radio
conditions, but is misinterpreted by TCP as network congestion.

• Finally, one can think of WSP initially as a compressed version of HTTP.

This protocol suite allows a terminal to transmit requests that have an HTTP or HTTPS
equivalent to a WAP gateway; the gateway translates requests into plain HTTP.

[edit] Wireless Application Environment (WAE)

The WAE space defines application-specific markup languages.

For WAP version 1.X, the primary language of the WAE is WML. In WAP 2.0, the
primary markup language is XHTML Mobile Profile.

[edit] History
The WAP Forum dates from 1997. It aimed primarily to bring together the various
wireless technologies in a standardised protocol.[2]
In 2002 the WAP Forum was consolidated[by whom?] (along with many other forums of the
industry) into OMA (Open Mobile Alliance)[3], which covers virtually everything in
future development[citation needed] of wireless data services.

[edit] WAP 1.X

The WAP 1.0 standard, released in April 1998, described a complete software stack for
mobile internet access.[4].

WAP version 1.1 came out in 1999.[5]. WAP 1.2, the final update of the 1.X series was
released in June 2000.[6]. The most important addition in version 1.2 was WAP push.[7]

[edit] WAP Push

WAP Push Process

WAP Push 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.[8]

WAP Push is specified on top of WDP; as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-
supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS.[9] Most GSM networks have a wide range of
modified processors, but GPRS activation from the network is not generally supported, so
WAP Push messages have to be delivered on top of the 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. This is also known as WAP Push SI
(Service Indication).[9]
The network entity that processes WAP Pushes and delivers them over an IP or SMS
Bearer is known as a Push Proxy Gateway (PPG).[9]

[edit] WAP 2.0

WAP 2.0[1], released in 2002, a re-engineered WAP, uses a cut-down version of XHTML
with end-to-end HTTP (i.e., dropping the gateway and custom protocol suite used to
communicate with it). A WAP gateway can be used in conjunction with WAP 2.0;
however, in this scenario, it is used as a standard proxy server. The WAP gateway's role
would then shift from one of translation to adding additional information to each request.
This would be configured by the operator and could include telephone numbers, location,
billing information, and handset information.

Mobile devices process XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML MP), the markup language
defined in WAP 2.0. It is a subset of XHTML and a superset of XHTML Basic. A
version of cascading style sheets (CSS) called WAP CSS is supported by XHTML MP.

[edit] Commercial status

[edit] Europe

Marketers hyped WAP at the time of its introduction[10], leading users to expect WAP to
have the performance of the Web. BT Cellnet, one of the UK telecoms, ran an advertising
campaign depicting a cartoon WAP user surfing through a Neuromancer-like
"information space".[11] In terms of speed, ease of use, appearance and interoperability,
the reality fell far short of expectations when the first handsets became available in
1999[12][13]. This led to the wide usage of sardonic phrases such as "Worthless Application
Protocol"[14], "Wait And Pay"[15] and so on.

Critics advanced several explanations for the early failure of WAP, possibly[original research?]
not realizing that it was a United Kingdom product which had to comply with the laws of
European nations. An example is the requirement to utilize an ITU message-type that is
specific to the French language with appropriate character conversions being deployed by
the WAP message transmit-and-receive software.

Between 2003 and 2004 WAP made a stronger resurgence with the introduction of
Wireless services (such as Vodafone Live!, T-Mobile T-Zones and other easily-
accessible services). Operator revenues were generated by transfer of GPRS and UMTS
data, which is a different business model than the traditional Web sites and ISPs use.
According to the Mobile Data Association, the WAP traffic in the UK doubled from 2003
to 2004.[16]

[edit] Asia
Unlike in Europe, WAP has seen huge success in Japan. While the largest operator NTT
DoCoMo has famously disdained WAP in favor of its in-house system i-mode, rival
operators KDDI (au) and SoftBank Mobile (previously Vodafone Japan) have both
successfully deployed WAP technology. In particular, J-Phone's Sha-Mail picture mail
and Java (JSCL) services, as well as (au)'s chakuuta/chakumovie (ringtone song/ringtone
movie) services are based on WAP. After being shadowed by the initial success of i-
mode, the two smaller Japanese operators have been gaining market share from DoCoMo
since Spring 2001.[17]

Korea also provides advanced WAP services.

[edit] USA

The adoption of WAP in the US has suffered because many cell phone providers require
separate activation and additional fees for data support, and also because
telecommunications companies have sought to limit data access to only approved data
providers operating under license of the signal carrier.

In recognition of the problem, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

issued an order on July 31, 2007 which mandates that licensees of the 22-megahertz wide
"Upper 700 MHz C Block" spectrum will have to implement a wireless platform which
allows customers, device manufacturers, third-party application developers, and others to
use any device or application of their choice when operating on this particular licensed
network band.[18][dead link] [19]

[edit] Spin-off technologies

Spin-off technologies, such as MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) (picture-

messaging), a combination of WAP and SMS, have further driven the protocol. An
enhanced appreciation of device diversity, supported by the concomitant changes to WAP
content to become more device-specific rather aiming at a lowest common denominator,
has allowed for more usable and compelling content. As a result, the adoption rate of
WAP technology is on the upswing.[citation needed]

[edit] Criticism