WAP is another three letter acronym (TLA) and it stands for the
Wireless Application Protocol. It is a initiative started by Unwired
Planet, Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson to develop a standard for wireless
content delivery on the next generation of mobile communicators.
What is the WAP stack of protocols?
The WAP stack is a set of protocols that covers the whole process
of wireless content delivery: from the definition of WML and WMLScript
for creating and layout of the actual content, the specification of
security measures in the WTLS to the lowest parts of the stack dealing
with the actual transport of content.
How is WAP technology similar
to the Internet?
The WAP stack has many similarities to the Internet set of technologies.
For instance, the Wireless Markup Language used to create WAP pages
is very similar to HTML used to create WWW pages. Similarly, the WMLScript
is based on JavaScript. It should be noted that both WML and WMLScript
are adapted and optimised for a wireless environment (e.g. compression
to save bandwidth).
The same story goes for the lower parts of the stack (e.g. WSP and
WTP). They are in general similar to the Internet protocols (e.g.
HTTP) but with optimisation for use in a wireless environment.
Why is WAP important for Internet
Service Providers (ISPs)?
WAP will be the way people on the move will access information sources
using a mobile phone device. If you are an ISP and you are aware of
the mobile data forecasts, you might want to look into how WAP will
change your industry and your business model. Your clients use you
to access the Internet - who will they use to access the WAP services
of the future?
Why is WAP important for Content
Providers?
You are delivering content or, for instance, selling your products,
via the Internet channel. You are also aware that the number of people
using mobile access to the Internet (e.g. via GSM and their laptop
or PDA) is increasing rapidly. You know that the number of mobile
phone users in growing much more rapidly than the number of Internet
users (there are more than 120 million GSM users today). Shouldn't
these people have access to your services and products using WAP?
Why is WAP important for Internet
Developers?
If you are a developer of internet sites you may soon find yourself
and your colleagues developing WAP sites. Investing in getting familiar
with the (im)possibilities of WAP (or more specifically WML and WMLScript)
now can give you the leading edge in the future.
WML and WMLScript are not difficult to learn if you already have experience
with HTML and JavaScript. Developers' tools are available as we speak
(e.g. DSR's WAP Developer Toolkit).
Is WAP secure?
Yes. WAP includes a specification called WTLS which implements options
for authentication and encryption. It is optimized for use in the
mobile environment. SSL or Secure Sockets Layer which is widely used
in the "web" world to encrypt the data stream between the browser
and the webserver is actually also used in the WAP environment. However,
SSL is only used between the webserver and the WAP gateway. Between
the WAP gateway and the WAP device, a similar system called WTLS or
Wireless Transport Layer Security is used.
Although no systems are totally secure, SSL and WTLS on their own
provide adequate security for most applications. However, there is
a potential security problem where the two protocols meet, and that's
inside the WAP gateway.
SSL is not directly compatible with WTLS, so the WAP gateway must
decrypt the SSL protected data stream coming from the webserver and
then re-encrypt it using WTLS before passing the data on to the WAP
device. Inside the memory of the WAP gateway, the data is unprotected.
All the major WAP players are developing solutions to this problem,
but for now these solutions create other problems. Developers of so
called "WAP servers", or webservers with WAP gateway capabilities
provide end-to-end security in a way because the data stream leaves
the content server (the "WAP server") already encrypted with WTLS.
However, the mobile operator's WAP gateway can now no longer be
part of the chain, and the user has to reconfigure his WAP device
to point to the "WAP server" which will become the WAP gateway for
this session. But, this WAP gateway only provides access to this one
service, and when the user wants to access his other favourite WAP
sites, he has to reconfigure his phone again.
