From CryptoDox, The Online Encyclopedia on Cryptography and Information Security
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open international standard for applications that use wireless communication, for example Internet access from a mobile phone. WAP was designed to provide services equivalent to a Web browser with some mobile-specific additions, being specifically designed to address the limitations of very small portable devices. It is now the protocol used for the majority of the world's mobile internet sites, otherwise known as wap-sites. WAP uses WML (Wireless Markup Language) for its content and not HTML.
The WAP protocol stack is quite similar to the TCP protocol stack. Refer the image below.
Commercial Failure
WAP was hyped too much during its early days and this lead to its eventual downfall since the protocol and the WAP Forum could not keep up pace with the hype that was being created around it.
The major constraints early on were:
- Limited Content: Websites had to have special versions of their pages in the WML format. Standard HTML pages were not supported. Not too many websites liked the idea of creating "wapsites".
- Security Issues: With the WAP Gateway responsible for converting WTLS to TLS requests, there was a possibility of secure information being available in plaintext for a brief moment in the WAP Gateway. With gateways hosted by service providers, users were not willing to do financial transactions over WAP
- Images: WAP had its own format for images and that do in black-and-white format. There was no support for colour images!
WAP Gateway Implementations
References
See Also
External Links
