Will WAP Deliver the Wireless Internet? - TECHNOLOGY NEWS
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TEC H N OL OGY NE WS
fulness, such as whether it will be scalable,
Will WAP Deliver will offer appealing content, or will be
made obsolete by other technologies.
However, said WAP Forum CEO Scott
Goldman, both WAP and the handheld
the Wireless devices themselves will improve and
address these concerns. Meanwhile, he
added, the protocol has already generated
considerable support.
Internet? THE ROAD TO WAP
The phenomenal growth in wireless
Web phones, personal digital assistants
Neal Leavitt (PDAs), and other handheld devices has
provided the momentum behind WAP.
W
Datacomm Research estimates that 350
ith users increasingly adopt- million of these devices will be shipped by
ing Internet-enabled cellu- 2003.
lar phones and other hand- Wireless data subscribers are projected
held devices, vendors are to increase 1,400 percent from 2000 to
looking for platform-inde- 2003, according to Cahners In-Stat
pendent wireless technologies to help Group, a market research firm.
these devices effectively access Internet Internet access via handheld devices
content and services, and communicate was possible before WAP, but the tech-
with each other. nologies never took off commercially
Providing this access is particularly because they used proprietary technolo-
challenging for handheld devices because gies that didn’t work across platforms.
of their small screens, low memory and Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Phone.
power, and differing platform technolo- com launched the WAP Forum in
gies. It is also challenging for wireless net- ware, software, and other wireless-indus- December 1997. The forum currently has
works because of their low bandwidth try vendors—claims that 95 percent of the 335 members worldwide, including such
and high latencies. These limitations keep world’s handset manufacturers are com- major companies as AOL, AT&T Wire-
some older Internet protocols, such as mitted to rolling out WAP-enabled devices less Services, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel,
HTML, from working efficiently and over the next 12 to 24 months. and Microsoft.
effectively for mobile Internet-based com- Vendors have already developed a The WAP Forum released WAP 1.1 in
munications. number of WAP-based applications and June 1999 and ratified version 1.2 last
Now, however, proponents and many devices. However, some observers say the November.
industry observers are touting WAP (the number of devices is small relative to the
Wireless Application Protocol) as the tech- protocol’s hype, and they jokingly say THE PROTOCOL
nology that will become the standardized WAP stands for “where are the phones?” WAP was designed to solve some of the
basis and future of the mobile Internet. Meanwhile, widespread WAP adoption problems caused when small, low-pow-
Before WAP, mobile users could access faces numerous obstacles, such as com- ered devices on different platforms try to
the Web via such technologies as the UP peting technologies. For example, NTT use low-bandwidth wireless network tech-
Browser, by Unwired Planet (now Phone. DoCoMo’s iMode technology has more nology to access services or data-intensive
com), which ran only on AT&T Pocket- than 3.7 million users in Japan. content via the Internet.
Net CDPD (cellular digital packet data) And WAP may face even stiffer compe- For example, said Bob Egan, vice pres-
phones. tition from other sources, said Andrew ident and research director at the Gartner
WAP, on the other hand, is designed to Seybold, senior partner at the Andrew Group, an IT market research firm, “WAP
address small devices’ technical limita- Seybold Group, a wireless and mobile has optimized ways of compressing text
tions and work with a variety of wireless computing consultancy. and making transactions over bandwidth-
platforms. WAP offers a scalable, exten- For example, he said, “Microsoft is constrained networks.”
sible protocol stack that handles security, close to releasing a browser that will sup- For example, WAP uses binary trans-
the establishment of sessions, and other port both WAP and XML, to provide an mission for greater data compression.
aspects of mobile communications. easy transition from one standard to Also, said the WAP Forum’s Goldman,
The WAP Forum (http://www. another.” WAP makes more efficient use of the avail-
wapforum.org)—a consortium of hard- Others question WAP’s long-term use- able bandwidth. WAP removes graphics
16 Computerand other Web site elements that are not
part of the essential material, to reduce
transmission overhead, he explained. Wireless network Internet
Meanwhile, WAP uses proxy technol- Wireless WAP Web
ogy to connect wireless technology with client proxy server server
the Web, said Michael Luna, Phone. com’s
Gateway
director of product-line strategy and chair
of the WAP Forum’s interoperability com- Encoded request Decoded request
mittee.
As shown in the figure on this page, the Microbrowser Encoders
or other WAP and Content
WAP proxy server consists of a gateway, user agent decoders
encoders, and decoders. The gateway
translates requests from the WAP protocol Encoded response Response
stack to the WWW stack, so they can be
submitted to Web servers. Encoders and
decoders translate WAP content into com- Source: WAP Forum
pact encoded formats that reduce the
amount of data being sent over the low-
bandwidth wireless network. A request from a wireless WAP-enabled client to a Web server for Internet-based content or ser-
Wireless technology’s bandwidth and vices must first pass through a WAP proxy server. The proxy server translates the request from
latency constraints cannot support such the WAP protocol stack to the WWW stack for use on the Internet. The proxy also handles the
longtime Internet standards as HTML, data encoding and decoding that lets the WAP client transmit and receive standard Internet-
HTTP, IP, TCP, and TLS (transport layer based information in a compact encoded format. This reduces the amount of data that is sent
security), which are inefficient over mobile over the low-bandwidth wireless network.
networks.
For example, HTTP sends its headers establish and terminate reliable sessions, handheld devices, according to Luna.
in a text format, instead of a compressed agree on common protocols to work with, “In the context of today’s early mar-
binary format. Meanwhile, to work with and access HTTP functionality. ket,” said the Gartner Group’s Egan, “it’s
HTTP and HTML, machines must have WSP also includes extensions that facil- considered good enough, but it’s not fool-
fast network connections, powerful itate wireless transmissions. For example, proof.”
processors, and large memories, elements WSP’s compact binary headers reduce the
not currently found in handheld devices. overhead and number of transactions nec- Wireless Application Environment
Proponents say the WAP protocol stack essary to support session services. The WAE’s primary elements are WML
addresses these challenges and, in many (Wireless Markup Language) and
cases, optimizes protocols to function in Wireless Transport Layer Security WMLScript, a lightweight scripting lan-
a wireless environment. WTLS secures, authenticates, and guage based on ECMAScript but modi-
encrypts data transmissions between the fied for the wireless environment.
Wireless Transaction Protocol WAP gateway and mobile devices. To sup- Application and Web-site developers
WTP manages transactions by facili- port mobile networks, WTLS was use WML and WMLScript much as they
tating requests and responses between a designed to be more efficient than TLS, use HTML and ECMAScript.
user agent (such as a WAP microbrowser) which requires client and server to WML. WML has evolved from XML,
and an application server for such activi- exchange many messages. In wireless net- HTML, and Phone.com’s Handheld
ties as browsing and e-commerce trans- works, which frequently experience con- Device Markup Language. WML was
actions. siderable latency, this requirement can designed for developing Web pages that
WTP works well in the low-bandwidth greatly slow response time. can be easily rendered on wireless devices
wireless environment, Luna said, because WAP systems translate WTLS data to with small screens and no keyboards for
it requires the wireless device and the gate- TLS data for transmission over the navigation.
way to send each other relatively few Internet within the WAP gateway. According to Phone.com’s Luna, WML
packets to manage or maintain the con- Therefore, although WTLS doesn’t pro- and its tags permit smaller, more flexible
nection. vide end-to-end security, said the WAP information displays than HTML and let
Forum’s Goldman, the chances of a prob- users input commands without key-
Wireless Session Protocol lem are small because hackers can breach boards.
WSP provides applications with a con- security only when sensitive data passes WML permits the scaling of displays
sistent interface for both connection-ori- through the gateway. for use on the two-line screens found in
ented and connectionless session services. WTLS thus helps provide the security some small devices, as well as the larger
WSP lets client and server applications necessary to conduct e-commerce on screens found on smart phones.
May 2000 17Te c h n o l o g y N e w s Currently, if users want a Web site ren- PLATFORM INDEPENDENCE WAP’s long-term success. dered properly on WAP-enabled devices, The Wireless Datagram Protocol “It’s a way to merge the industry and it must be written in WML or translated (WDP) lets WAP support many network get everyone to work together,” Nilsson by a server that converts HTML to WML. technologies, explained Luna. said. “There has to be a common denom- Meanwhile, because it is based on WAP works with the major wireless inator so all portable devices will be inter- XML, WML is scalable and extensible. network technologies used in different operable.” This is because WML, like XML but parts of the world, including CDMA unlike earlier versions of HTML, lets users (code-division multiple access), GSM ADOPTION add new markup tags to meet changing (global system for mobile communica- Vendors have begun rolling out WAP- needs. tion), and TDMA (time-division multiple enabled applications and devices. The WAP Forum is working with the access). WAP also supports the major Craig Mathias, principal of Farpoint World Wide Web Consortium to ensure operating systems used in handheld de- Group, a firm that provides advisory and that WML and XHTML (the most recent vices, including Epoc, JavaOS, PalmOS, systems-integration services for commu- version of HTML, reformulated as an and Windows CE. nications technologies, said WAP tech- XML application) will work together. When working with IP bearer services, nology could well reach a mass market WMLScript. WMLScript is an ECMA- Luna said, WDP functions just like the because the protocol is based on numer- Script-based language for writing pro- User Datagram Protocol. With non-IP ous existing Internet standards. grams that work within the WAP bearer services, such as CDMA, he said, Also, he said, “Manufacturers of WAP- environment’s bandwidth, memory, and WDP performs the adaptation necessary enabled devices are building what will be other limitations. to carry transmissions. a huge installed base, which, by its very Designers dropped many of ECMA- Goran Nilsson, technical director of nature, dictates a de facto standard.” Script’s advanced features to make WML- EHPT (a Swedish joint software venture The browsing experience is not as rich Script smaller, easier to compile into between Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard), with handheld devices as with PCs, and bytecode, and easier to learn. said platform independence is critical to this disappointment could hurt long-term
adoption, he said. However, WAP will handheld devices real-time access to erators worldwide so they can perform tri-
have many users, at least for a couple of account information. And in some parts als in preparation for commercial services.
years, until more mainstream protocols, of Scandinavia, insurance companies are As shown in the figure on the next page,
like HTML and XML, can be used effec- using WAP to let customers adjust cover- Phone.com predicts that a rapidly grow-
tively with mobile devices. age and handle other transactions. ing percentage of handsets will be WAP-
But adoption will be triggered only in Finland’s Sonera Oy company has even enabled through 2003.
part by the technology, he said. According rolled out a WAP-enabled soft-drink
to Mathias, what will drive WAP are pric- machine that lets users purchase bever- CONCERNS
ing, marketing, and merchandising issues. ages via WAP-enabled mobile telephones Despite the investment that companies
and charge purchases to their phone bill. are beginning to make in WAP, there are
WAP-enabled applications concerns about the technology’s useful-
Vendors are rolling out such WAP- WAP-enabled devices ness and appeal.
enabled applications as browsers and cor- Several WAP-enabled devices are on the For example, the text-based content
porate clients, as well as e-mail, calendar, market. The first was Nokia’s 7100 that fits on small-screen WAP devices may
and extranet programs. phone, released in November 1999. not be very appealing to many users, said
Also, vendors are rolling out WAP- Ericsson and Motorola have also recently Seybold.
based e-commerce applications, particu- introduced WAP-enabled phones. Furthermore, he said, because wireless
larly in Europe, where the use of GSM as Although vendors have been slow to network coverage is not as robust in the
a continent-wide wireless standard has led ship WAP-enabled devices, that may soon US as elsewhere, many US users may
to faster overall wireless adoption than in change. become frustrated trying to access the
the US, which uses several standards. For example, Skip Bryan, director of Web when they need information.
Deutsche Bank, Swiss Handelsbank, Ericsson’s North American Cellular Ter- Jacob Christfort, chief technology offi-
and some other European banks are start- minals Group, said his company has deliv- cer of OracleMobile.com, Oracle’s wire-
ing to use WAP to give customers with ered more than 50 WAP systems to op- less-Internet-technology subsidiary, said
May 2000 19Te c h n o l o g y N e w s
Wide Web Consortium.
250 The WAP Forum also plans to make its
WAP-enabled handsets protocol work with the upcoming third-
Total handsets generation (3G) wireless networking stan-
200 dards that are expected to emerge in the
next couple of years.
Handsets (millions)
And to enable interoperability, the WAP
150 Forum is working on compliance specifi-
cations and interoperability test suites for
products.
100 According to the WAP Forum’s
Goldman, manufacturers have agreed to
test their products and services against a
50 standardized test suite developed by the
Open Group, an organization that pro-
motes conformance to open standards
0 through product testing and certification.
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Source: Phone.com
he Gartner Group’s Egan said WAP
Phone.com, a provider of software that enables the delivery of Internet-based services to wire-
less phones, predicts that an increasing percentage of all handsets will be WAP-enabled. T will be useful for about 24 months
because it will serve only as a tech-
nical bridge.
that while WAP helps mobile phones quently to the markup language sup- Industry observers expect that within
access the Internet, having to write Web ported by the user’s device. two years, developers will focus on 3G
sites in native WML is not a good wireless technologies, which promise to
approach. With this approach, Christfort FUTURE offer mobile-network bandwidth up to 2
said, organizations would have to main- WAP 1.3 will be released within six Mbits per second, which would eliminate
tain separate sites written in WML, as well months, according to the WAP Forum’s many of handheld devices’ current per-
as sites written in HTML. Goldman. “It will address interoperabil- formance limitations.
However, said Roger Snyder, senior ity testing and update security, graphics, Added Seybold, “WAP will be a very
product marketing manager for Phone. and multimedia issues,” he said. short-lived technology and will be
com, “There are going to be more and WAP 1.3 will also help increase e-com- replaced by XML. Unlike WAP, XML will
more WAP-enabled devices, and writing merce security by letting users navigate require no [proxy] server between the
WML content for them isn’t an issue. We from the WAP gateway to e-commerce wireless user and the Internet.”
have about 47,000 registered developers applications’ secure gateways. However, proponents say, WAP will
currently doing this.” Ultimately, said Iain Gillott, vice presi- still be useful because it was designed
Nonetheless, WAP may have to com- dent of worldwide consumer and small- specifically for handheld devices, which
pete in the marketplace with other tech- business telecommunications for IDC, a will continue to have small screens, low
nologies. market research firm, WAP will support power, and input restrictions. Meanwhile,
For example, Aether Software has multimedia, potentially an important con- Goldman said, WAP already uses WML,
released ScoutWeb, which dynamically sideration for the technology’s future. which is based on XML, and will support
converts existing Web content so it will “Video, in particular videophones, will be 3G wireless technologies.
work with the browser used by a request- a major WAP multimedia application,” Because of this, he said, “We’re confi-
ing handheld client. ScoutWeb works with he said. “As bandwidth improves we’ll dent that WAP will be the preeminent
WML, as well as HTML, XML, and also see video e-mail devices from manu- technology for mobile devices.” ✸
XHTML. It thus gives users an alterna- facturers like Nokia and Ericsson.”
tive to deploying WAP. Meanwhile, the WAP Forum is work- Neal Leavitt, president of Leavitt Com-
Meanwhile, Oracle has released Portal- ing on formal standardization of the pro- munications, writes frequently on Inter-
to-Go, server software that lets any device tocol with several major standards bodies: net and other technology-related issues.
connected to the Internet—including the European Computer Manufacturers’ Contact him at neal@leavcom.com.
those that don’t use WAP—access data- Association (ECMA), the European
bases and Internet applications. Portal-to- Telecommunications Standards Institute Editor: Lee Garber, Computer, 10662 Los
Go renders the applications device- (ETSI), the Internet Engineering Task Vaqueros Circle, PO Box 3014, Los Alami-
independent by extracting the output, and Force (IETF), the Telecommunications tos, CA 90720-1314; l.garber@computer.org
then converting it to XML and subse- Industry Association (TIA), and the World
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