Wireless Application Protocol

• Wireless Application Protocol or WAP is a programming model or an

application environment and set of communication protocols based
on the concept of the World Wide Web (WWW)
• Its hierarchical design is very much similar to TCP/IP protocol stack
design
• WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol.
• It is a protocol designed for micro-browsers and it enables access to
the internet in mobile devices.
• It uses the markup language Wireless Markup Language (WML) to
access the WAP services over mobiles devices while WWW uses
HTML as a markup language.
• WML is defined as XML 1.0 application.
• WAP Forum was founded by Ericson, Motorola, Nokia whose aim was
to standardize the various wireless technologies via protocols.
 WAP Model

• The user opens the mini-browser in a mobile device.

• He selects a website that he wants to view. The mobile device sends
the URL encoded request via network to a WAP gateway using WAP
protocol.
• The WAP gateway translates this
WAP request into a
conventional HTTP URL request and
sends it over the internet.
• The request reaches to a
specified web server and it
processes the request just as it
would have processed any other
request and sends the response
back to the mobile device through
WAP gateway in WML file which can
be seen in the micro-browser.
 WAP Protocol stack
• Application Layer: This layer contains the
Wireless Application Environment (WAE). It
contains mobile device specifications and
content development programming languages
like WML.
• Session Layer: This layer contains Wireless
Session Protocol (WSP). It provides fast
connection suspension and reconnection.
• Transaction Layer: This layer contains Wireless
Transaction Protocol (WTP). It runs on top
of UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and is a part
of TCP/IP and offers transaction support.
• Security Layer: This layer contains
Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS). It
offers data integrity, privacy and authentication.
• Transport Layer: This layer contains Wireless
Datagram Protocol. It presents consistent data
format to higher layers of WAP protocol stack.
Applications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
• The following are some most used applications of Wireless
Application Protocol or WAP:
• WAP facilitates you to access the Internet from your mobile devices.
• You can play games on mobile devices over wireless devices.
• It facilitates you to access E-mails over the mobile Internet.
• Mobile hand-sets can be used to access timesheets and fill expenses
claims.
• Online mobile banking is very popular nowadays.
• It can also be used in multiple Internet-based services such as
geographical location, Weather forecasting, Flight information, Movie
& cinema information, Traffic updates etc. All are possible due to WAP
technology
 MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
• It is the standard way to send messages from one device to another through
a network.
• As the name Multimedia, we can suggest from here that it is not only for
sending text messages, we can also send multimedia like images, audio clips
and video clips, and many more things.
• It is the extension used for SMS(Short Message Service) where we send and
receive text messages only with the limitation of only 160 characters in one
SMS.
• Most of the smartphones support MMS messaging nowadays. Basically it is
the advanced version of the text messaging with the additional feature of
multimedia.
• MMS can deliver various media, including 40 seconds of video, single
image, multi-image slideshow, or audio

• The first powerful MMS phones were introduced in 2002 in

conjunction with the first GSM network. The Sony Ericsson T68i is
commonly regarded as the first MMS-enabled mobile phone,
 How does MMS work?

• MMS messages are sent in a different way as compared to SMS. The first step
is that the sending tool incorporates multimedia content in the same way as
sending a MIME message (MIME content formats are defined in the MMS
Message Encapsulation adjective).
• The message is subsequently sent to the MMS storage and finally to the
MMSC (Multimedia Messaging Service Center). If the recipient's MMSC is
different from the sender's, MMSC operates as a transmission and sends the
message over the Internet to the recipient's MMSC.
• When an MMSC recipient receives a message, it first checks whether or not
the device is "MMS compatible." The content is downloaded to the
temporary cache via HTTP front-end if it supports MMS receiving speeds.
• An SMS "control message" with the content's URL is delivered to the
recipient's device, causing the recipient's WAP browser to open and accept
the material from the embedded URL.

• Many other messages are exchanged to indicate the nature of the delivery
effort. Some MMSCs offer a translation service that attempts to translate
multimedia content into a format suited for the recipient before
transmitting it.

• If the recipient handset does not support MMS, the message is usually sent
to a web-based service, where the content can be viewed using a standard
Internet browser.
Advantages of MMS
• MMS messages are simple to send and receive.
• We can save and forward the MMS messages that we have received.
• These services are popular among users because they are simple to
use.
• These are interactive services.
• Better branding is possible using an image, video, and other media-
rich content.
Disadvantages of MMS
• The MMS service isn't available on every phone. As a result, we won't
be able to use this service on all phones.
• Due to the various display sizes of different phones, certain
multimedia content has some resolution difficulties.
• Although it is a service supplied to us, there are additional fees
associated with it. If we need to use this service, we will have to pay
additional fees.