How Internet Works on Mobile Devices

October 2, 2014 By Ashutosh Bhatt

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In today’s age of connectivity, smartphones and tablets are becoming more of a

necessity rather than a luxury. Whether it is not to miss important mails, being updated

with the news or finding directions when lost – connecting to the Internet anytime and

anywhere is becoming an integral part of our lives. It’s now possible to get internet

access in any location as long as your phone gets a good signal from the cellular

network. You can also use public Wi-Fi hotspots to connect to the Internet through a

shared connection. So how exactly does the Internet, which was made for computers,

work on your mobile phone?

First, let’s see what Mobile Internet is. In simple terms, Mobile Internet is a smaller

Internet scaled down to fit the dimensions of a web browser on a mobile phone. The

mobile phone network is an example of a cellular network. A cellular network has a

cluster of geographic locations together known as a ‘cell’ which connect to the Internet

through satellites. Each cell has a transmitting tower at its centre through which

information is passed to and from via digital radio waves.

Connecting to the Internet

There are usually two ways to connect to the internet through your mobile phone – Via a

cellular telephone service provider or by using standard Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi enabled device
lets you surf the Web at free Wi-Fi hotspots, which is helpful when the phone network

connection isn’t that strong. Through a cellular service provider, the phone connects to

the Internet through data transfer the same way a PC does, but with a wireless link. We

can access the same Web applications just like in our PCs if we use a Wireless

Application Protocol (WAP)-enabled cell phone. WAP is the universal standard for

wireless communications and applications.

For operating mobile phone networks, Global System for Mobile Communications

(GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) are the most commonly deployed.

GSM and CDMA use different algorithms which allow multiple mobile phone users to

share the same digital radio frequency without causing interfering for each other. Cell

phones have an in-built antenna which is used to send packets of digital information

back and forth with cell-phone towers via radio waves. Mobile phones connect to a cell

tower in the area, and instead of connecting to another phone it connects to the Internet

and can fetch or retrieve data.

The voice and data channels of cell phones are separated for maximum efficiency –

Mobile Voice goes in one channel and IP or SMS signalling over Mobile Internet in

another. The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network provides a gateway to the

internet through different frequency channels for uploading and downloading.  

Now, let’s see what goes behind the transfer of data between a wireless device and the

Internet. The main component is Radio frequency (RF) energy which can be transmitted

throughout a building passing through walls and other objects. This RF energy is

transmitted to carry the information between your phone and the Internet. A Modem

gets the information onto and off the RF carrier by modulation and demodulation. The

information through the RF carrier is sent in packets which have a source and

destination address, very similar to the postal delivery service.

A router directs each packet to its destination and also provides a wireless access point

to the Internet. A Wireless Access Point enables sharing an Internet connection by

letting several computers wirelessly share Internet access through a single connection. 

The Internet Service Provider administers an Internet access point, for example a

cellular radio tower, which may need to be accessible over long distances.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for Mobile Networks

Different computer networks are linked through a common Internet protocol that lets

them all speak the same language. To accomplish the same for mobile networks, we

use WAP. The need for WAP comes from low data transfer rates of mobile phones,

inferior resolution of a mobile phone display as well as interoperability issues.

The mobile internet mainly utilises lightweight pages written in Extensible Hypertext

Markup Language (XHTML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML) to deliver content to

mobile devices. A markup language is used to add predefined tags or information to

content which informs the device receiving the content what to do with it. WAP also

allows the use of standard Internet protocols for smooth functioning of the Internet on

various platforms.

When using a WAP-enabled device for Internet access, the device sends out radio

waves searching for a connection with the service provider. Once connection is made, a

request is sent to a gateway server using WAP. This server retrieves the required

information from the website in HTTP (standard Internet protocol) form. The gateway

server converts the HTTP data to WML as it is compatible with the mobile web format.

The converted WML data is then sent to the WAP client on the device with the mobile

Internet version of the required Webpage. It is then passed to the web browser which

acts as an interface between the mobile Internet and the user.

The WAP protocol stack determines the handshake between the gateway server and

the WAP client. It also keeps data flow smooth, checks data integrity, authentication and

encryption as well as adaptability to different network providers.

3G Mobile Broadband

With technological advances third-generation (3G) cell phone technology, also known

as Mobile Broadband has evolved. It brings with it near broadband data speeds, with

video conferencing and GPS connectivity. A 3G network is one of the fastest mobile

phone networks available with data transmission rate having around 144

kilobits/second. The SIM card used for accessing the broadband network works using

the 3G standards like EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO etc.  The SIM card is powered by a USB

modem and searches for the mobile signal. The connection manager software helps to

establish a connection between the modem and a transmitting tower. After the sync is

established, the data travels through the mobile signals in an encrypted format and

reaches the tower. From the cell tower it reaches the internet cloud and fetches data.

Mobile Broadband is one of the secured ways of data transmission as it works using a

single IP address.

Wi-Fi

Nowadays, free Wi-Fi is commonly available in a lot of public places such as airports,

cafes, college campuses etc. Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 standard) enabled devices get

connected to the Internet through a wired Access Point which requires telephone lines

or Internet cables to reach Internet routers. The access point is basically a Wi-Fi

network setup to allow guest access to the Internet. A user has more control over Wi-Fi
as it accesses an extension of a wired Local Area Network (LAN). The LAN usually

works over a small distance and might have a cable or radio link connecting the access

point to an ISP through routers. Wi-Fi operates at different frequency than 3G and is

less expensive.

 SMS-Short message Service

 SMS allows for text messages of 160 characters (letters, numbers and symbols) in length. Or for
other alphabets, such as Chinese or Arabic, the maximum message size is limited to just 70
characters