Wireless Application Protocol

Priyank Patel
Information Technology
Gujarat University
Gujarat, India

Abstract-The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is the de-

facto world standard for the presentation and delivery of
wireless information and telephony services on mobile phones
and other wireless terminals. The Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) is an important development in the wireless industry
because of its attempt to develop an open standard for wireless
protocols, independent of vendor and airlink.This article provide
overview of The Wireless Application Protocol.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Wireless Application Protocol is a global

standard for bringing Internet content and services to mobile
phones and other wireless devices. WAP's development began
during the middle of the 1990's. During this period the two Fig 1.WAP Protocol Stack
major manufactures Nokia and Ericsson, were interested in
providing such sophisticated technologies to gain a
competitive advantage in the mobile information market. This • Application Layer: Wireless Application
Environment (WAE).
competition resulted in various methods being implemented;
• Session Layer: Wireless Session Protocol (WSP).
Nokia developed Narrow Band Sockets (NBS) and Tagged
Text Markup Language (TTML) where as Ericsson developed • Transaction Layer: Wireless Transaction Protocol
Intelligent Terminal Transfer Protocol (ITTP). (WTP).

A third player was Unwired Planet's who developed
Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML). In 1997 the
WAP forum was founded. The forum’s main aim was to bring
together the various technologies by a standardised protocol.
WAP is a collection of various standards to be used when
developing such wireless systems. It is not a single entity.
II. WAP PROTOCOL STACK
• Security Layer: Wireless Transport Layer Security
(WTLS).
• Transport Layer: Wireless Datagram Protocol
(WDP).
Each stack overlaps with the stack below. This stack
architecture makes it possible for software manufacturers to
develop applications and services for certain stacks. They may
even develop services for stacks which are not specified yet.

The basic construction of WAP architecture can be
explained using the following model. The order of the
independent levels – which are a hierarchy - has the advantage
that the system is very flexible and can be scaled up or down.
Because of the different levels – or stacks - this is called the
"WAP Stack", which is divided into 5 different levels.
The WAP stack is an entity of protocols which cover
the wireless data transfer. The diagram above shows the order
of the different stacks and their protocols. This includes the
stacks responsible for the layout as well as the stacks
resposible for the actual data transfer. The highest level or
stack is the one which deals with the layout.

transfer and the security through WTLS (Wireless

Transport Layer Security). All stacks lower than this one are
being called network stack. Due to this hierarchy of stacks any
changes made in the network stacks will have no influence
over the stacks above
A. Application Layer (WAE and WTA)
The environment for wireless applications (Wireless
Application Environment WAE) and the application for
wireless phones (Wireless Telephony Application WTA) are
the highest layer in the hierarchy of WAP architechture. These
two are the main interface to the client device, which gives
and controls the description language, the script language of
any application and the specifics of the telephony. WAE and
WTA have only a few easy functions on the client device, like
the maintenance of a history list.
The WAE defines the user interface on phone.The
application development environment to facilitate the
development of services that support multiple earers. To
achieve this, the WAE contains the Wireless Markup anguage
(WML), WMLScript - a scripting icro-language similar to
JavaScript - and the Wireless elephony Application (WTA).
These are the tools that allow WAP-based applications to be
developed.
B. Session Layer (Wireless Session Protocol WSP)
A sandwich layer that links the WAE to two session
services - one connection oriented operating above the
Wireless Transaction Protocol and a connectionless service
operating above the Wireless Datagram Protocol
The Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) has all the
specifications for a session. It is the interface between the
application layer and the transfer layer and delivers all
functions that are needed for wireless connections. A session
mainly consists of 3 phases: start of the session, transfering
information back and forth and the end of the session.
Additionally, a session can be interrupted and started again
(from the point where it was interrupted.)
C.Transaction Layer (Wireless Transaction Protocol WTP)
Runs on top of a datagram service such as User
Datagram Protocol (UDP); part of the standard suite of
TCP/IP protocols, to provide a simplified protocol suitable for
low bandwidth mobile stations. WTP offers three classes of
transaction service: unreliable one way request, reliable one
way request and reliable two way request respond.
Interestingly, WTP supports Protocol Data Unit concatenation
and delayed acknowledgement to help reduce the number of
messages sent.
The specifications for the transfer layer are in the
Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP). Like the User
Datagramm Protocol (UDP), the WTP runs at the head of the
datagramm service. Both the UDP and the WTP are a part of
the standard application from the TCP/IP to make the
simplified protocol compatible to mobile terminals. WTP
supports chaining together protocol data and the delayed
response to reduce the number of transmissions. The protocol
tries to optimize user interaction in order that information can
be received when needed.
D. Wireless Transport Layer Security WTLS
WTLS incorporates security features that are based
upon the established Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol
standard. Includes data integrity checks, privacy on the WAP
Gateway to client leg and authentication.
The Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) is a
optional layer or stack which consists of description devices.
A secure transmission is crucial for certain applications such
as e-commerce or WAP-banking and is a standard in these
days. Furthermore WTLS contains a check for data integrity,
user authentification and gateway security.
E. Transport Layer (Wireless Datagram Protocol WDP)
The Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP) represents
the transfer or transmission layer and is also the interface of
the network layer to all the above stacks/layers. With the help
of WDP the transmission layer can be assimilated to the
specifications of a network operator. This means that WAP is
completely independent from any network operator. The
transmission of SMS, USSD, CSD, CDPD, IS-136 packet data
and GPRS is supported. The Wireless Control Message
Protocol (WCMP) is an optional addition to WAP, which will
inform users about occurred errors.
Allows WAP to be bearer independent by adapting
the transport layer of the underlying bearer. WDP presents a
consistent data format to the higher layers of the WAP
protocol stack thereby conferring the advantage of bearer
independence to application developers.
III.WAP ARCHITECTURE
Fig 2. WAP Architecture
A. Programming Model
The WAP Programming Model, closely aligned with
the Web Programming Model, uses the Pull Model, (which is
where the client requests content from the server). However,
WAP also extends the Web architecture by adding telephony
support with WTA and enabling a Push Model, where a server
can proactively send content to the client.
Applications and content are presented in standard
data formats, and are browsed by applications known as web
browsers. The web browser is a networked application, i.e., it
sends requests for named data objects to a network server and
the network server responds with the data encoded using the
standard formats.
Fig 3.WAP Programming Model
In previous versions of WAP, a WAP proxy (often
referred to as a WAP gateway) was required to handle the
protocol interworking between the client and the origin server.
The WAP proxy communicated with the client using the WAP
protocols that are based largely on Internet communication
protocols, and it communicated with the origin server using
the standard Internet protocols.
At the receiver side, network (IP) layer removes IP header,
then IPSec removes IPSec header and trailer and decrypts
payload.
B. Feature/Performance-Enhancing Proxies
Fig 4. Feature/Performance-Enhancing Proxy
WAP utilises proxy technology to optimise and
enhance the connection between the wireless domain and the
WWW.The WAP proxy may provide a variety of functions,
including:
Protocol Gateway – The protocol gateway translates requests
from a wireless protocol stack (e.g., the WAP 1.X stack—
WSP, WTP, WTLS, and WDP) to the WWW protocol stack
(HTTP and TCP/IP). The gateway also performs DNS
lookups of the servers named by the client in the request
URLs.
ontent Encoders and Decoders – The content encoders
translate WAP content into compact encoded formats to
reduce the size of data over the network.
User Agent Profile Management – User agent profiles
describing client capabilities and personal preferences
[UAProf] are composed and presented to the applications.
Caching Proxy – A caching proxy can improve perceived
performance and network utilisation by maintaining a
cache of frequently accessed resources.
This infrastructure ensures that mobile terminal users
can access a wide variety of Internet content and applications,
and that application authors are able to build content services
and applications that run on a large base of mobile terminals.
While the nominal use of WAP will include a web
server, WAP proxy and WAP client, the WAP architecture
can quite easily support other configurations. So in the
transport mode the attacker can interpret the final source and
destination. But it can’t interpret actual information.
C.Supporting Servers
Fig 5. Supporting Services
The WAP Architecture also includes supporting
servers, which provide services to devices, proxies, and
applications as needed. These services are often specific in
function, but are of general use to a wide variety of
applications. The supporting servers defined by the WAP
Forum include, but are not limited to:
PKI Portal—The PKI Portal (shown in Figure 4) [WPKI]
allows devices to initiate the creation of new public key
certificates.
UAProf Server—The UAProf Server [UAProf] allows
applications to retrieve the client capabilities and personal
profiles of user agents and individual users.
Provisioning Server—The Provisioning Server [ProvArch] is
trusted by the WAP device to provide its provisioning
information.
D. Wap Network Elements
Fig 6. Example WAP Network
WAP clients communicate with application servers
through a number of different proxies or directly. WAP clients
support the proxy selection mechanism that allows them to
utilise the most appropriate proxy for a given service or to
connect directly to that service as necessary. Proxies translate
WAP requests to WWW requests thereby allowing the
WAP client to submit requests to the web server
Proxies may be located at the wireless carrier in order to
provide feature enhancements coupled to the wireless network
(e.g., telephony, location and provisioning) or to optimise the
communication between device and application server (e.g.,
protocol translation and cookie caching). Proxies may be
located in a secure network to provide a secure channel
between wireless device and the secure network.
In some instances, the device might make direct
connections to application servers, for example to provide a
secure connection directly between the device and application
server. The supporting servers provide support functions
required by or generally useful to devices, proxies, and
application servers. These functions include Provisioning,
PKI, user agent profiles, etc.
E. Device Architecture
Fig .7 WAP Client Architecture
The architecture for WAP devices is shown in Fig 7.
The Application Framework provides the device execution
environment for WAP applications. WAP applications are
comprised of markup, script, style sheets and multimedia
content, all of which are rendered on the device.
The WAP Application Environment (WAE)
processing model defines the structure in which these various
forms of executable and non-executable content interact.The
network protocols on the WAP client are shared between
client and server. They are described in further detail below.
Content renderers interpret specific forms of content and
present them to the end user for perusal or interaction.
Common functions are defined to be utilised by the
application framework, including persistence and data
synchronisation.
The Wireless Identity Module (WIM), as specified in
[WIM], contains the identity of the device and the
cryptographic means to mutually authenticate WAP devices
and servers. The architecture also provides a mechanism to
access external functions that are embedded or attached to the
devices via the External Functionality Interface (EFI).
F. Security Model
WAP enables a flexible security infrastructure that
focuses on providing connection security between a WAP
client and server. WAP can provide end-to-end security
between protocol endpoints. If a browser and origin server
desire end-to-end security, they can communicate directly
using the security protocols. Moreover, the WAP
specifications include support for application-level security,
such as signed text.
IV. WAP SERVICES
A. Wap Security Services
Security forms a fundamental part of the WAP Architecture,
and its services can be found in many of its layers. In general
the following security facilities offered are:
Privacy – facilities to ensure that communication is private
and cannot be understood by any intermediate parties that may
have intercepted it.
Authentication – facilities to establish the authenticity of
parties to the communication.
Integrity – facilities to ensure that communication is
unchanged and uncorrupted.
Non-Repudiation – facilities to ensure parties to a
communication cannot deny the communication took place.
The Security Services span all the various layers of the WAP
Architecture. Some specific examples of the security
services include:
Cryptographic Libraries – This application framework level
library provides services for signing of data for integrity and
non-repudiation purposes. See [WMLScriptCrypto] for more
information.
Authentication – The Security Services provide various
mechanisms for client and server authentication. At the
Session Services layer HTTP Client Authentication
[RFC2617] may be used to authenticate clients to proxies and
application servers. At the Transport Services layer, WTLS
and TLS handshakes may be used to authenticate clients and
servers.
Identity – WIM provides the functions that store and process
information needed for user identification and
authentication [WIM]
PKI – The set of security services that enable the use and
management of public-key cryptography and certificates
[WPKI], [WAPCert].
Secure Transport – At the Transport Services layer protocols
are defined for secure transport over datagrams and
connections. WTLS is defined for secure transport over
datagrams. WTLS and TLS are defined for secure transport
over connections. TLS is the preferred method for secure
transport over connections (i.e. TCP). See [WTLS] and
[RFC2246] for more information.
Secure Bearer – Some bearer networks provide bearer level
security. For example, IP networks (especially in the context
of IPv6) provide bearer-level security with IPSec [RFC2401].
B. Service Discovery
Service discovery forms a fundamental part of the WAP
Architecture and its services can be found at many layers.
Some specific examples of Service Discovery services
include:
EFI – The External Functionality Interface (EFI) allows
applications to discover what external functions/services
are available on the device.
Provisioning – The Provisioning service allows a device to be
provisioned with the parameters necessary to access network
services. See [ProvArch] for more information.
Navigation Discovery – The Navigation Discovery service
allows a device to discover new network services (e.g. secure
pull proxies) during the course of navigation such as when
downloading resources from a hypermedia server. The WAP
Transport-Level End-to-End Security specification
[TransportE2ESec] defines one navigation discovery protocol.
Service Lookup – The Service Lookup service provides for
the discovery of a service’s parameters through a directory
lookup by name. One example of this is the Domain Name
System (DNS) [STD0013].
V.WAP TECHNOLOGY
Because several of the services in the WAP stack can
be provided using different protocols based on the
circumstances, there are more than one possible stack
configurations. The following figures depict several possible
protocol stacks using WAP technology. These are for
illustrative, informative purposes only and do not constitute a
statement of conformance or interoperability,
Fig 8. Example WAP 1.X Gateway
Fig 8 depicts the protocol stacks for the original
WAP architecture. The WAP Gateway converts the
hypermedia transfer service between the datagram-based
protocols (WSP, WTP, WTLS, WDP) and connection-
oriented protocols commonly used on the Internet (HTTP,
SSL, TCP).
 Fig 9. Example WAP HTTP Proxy with Profiled TCP
Fig 9 depicts a WAP HTTP proxy. The proxy
configuration is widely used in the Internet for ordinary web
access, multimedia data, e.g. music, video clip downloading
and soon. This configuration locates the WAP Proxy between
wireline and wireless networks to enhance performance by
using the wireless profile of TCP.
Fig 10. Example WAP Proxy Support for TLS Tunneling
Fig 10 depicts a WAP HTTP proxy that has
established a connection-oriented tunnel to the web server
(e.g., in response to a CONNECT command). This
configuration is used to allow TLS to provide end-to-end
security between mobile terminal and origin server. E-
commerce is a compelling use case for end-to-end security.
Fig 11. Example Direct Access
Fig 11 depicts a WAP device directly accessing a
Web Server via the Internet. The wireless IP router is a
standard part of an IP network that is used to transfer IP
packets from one link layer (e.g., the wireless link) to another
(e.g., the wired link). This configuration can apply to the case
where bearer-level security (such as IPSec) is utilised.
Figure 12. Dual Stack Support
While the previous configurations show single
protocol stacks for each of WAP configuration, Fig 12 depicts
a device that supports both the 1.x and 2.x protocol stacks.
This is useful in cases where a device needs to interoperate
with both old a new WAP servers.
VI. WIRELESS MARKUP LANGUAGE
A.What is the Wireless Markup Language (WML)?
WML is a markup language designed especially for
specifying and displaying content on WAP (Wireless
sApplication Protocol) devices. WML is part of the WAP
application environment, which requires the use of WML.
 WML is the wireless equivalent of HTML for the
Web. WML is based on XML and derived from xHTML (the
XML version of HTML). There are many differences between
WML and HTML. For example, WML has a different
mechanism for linking between its pages called “cards” as
compared to linking between HTML pages. WML browsers
are stricter than HTML browsers by not being tolerant of
errors. WML browsers enforce the WML requirement of
matching closing “tags”, an XML characteristic.
WML works with the WAP micro browsers found on
WAP devices. This browser is cognizant of the limited
capabilities of WAP devices such as small displays, limited
processing power, limited memory, narrow bandwidth
connection, and limited battery use without recharging.
To address the limitations of WAP devices, WML
uses the metaphor of card decks, and each page is referred to
as a card. The card is the basic unit of navigation and user
interface. The user can view only card at a time. WML
browsers read the whole deck (complete document) from the
server to minimize interaction with the server. Consequently,
when flipping (navigating) between the cards in a deck, the
browser does not contact the server. This eliminates delays
(because each card contains very little text and users are likely
to move quickly from one card to another).
A WAP deck is the equivalent of a Web page, the
card being the portion of the Web page that can be seen on the
screen. Navigation within the cards of a deck is done within
the WAP device just as scrolling a Web page is done within
the Web device. (without contacting servers in both cases).
An HTML writer does not worry about screen or
display boundaries. Instead, the Web browser manages issues
relating to the screen boundaries. But a WML writer must be
aware of screen boundaries of WAP devices when writing
code for cards.
Web server requests are routed through WAP
gateways proxies). A Web server may generate WML content
for WAP devices or it may simply dish out HTML (XML). In
case the Web server generates HTML (XML), the WAP
gateways must convert the HTML (XML) to WML. Before
sending the WML to the WAP device, the gateway
compresses it to WMLC (the C in WMLC is for compressed).
If the WML generated by the Web sever is WMLC, then the
compression step is skipped.
B.What are the Advantages of WML?
Like HTML, WML is easy to use. However, compared to
HTML, WML has the following advantages in the context of
wireless:
WML is part of the WAP standard and its use is
required. Transmission of WML (WMLC) documents requires
less bandwidth compared to HTML documents because WML
documents are simpler and WML is compressed before it is
sent to the WAP device.
Compared to HTML documents, displaying WML
documents requires less processing power and memory.
Consequently, a WAP device can work with a less powerful
(cheaper) CPU and the use of less power means that the
battery can operate longer without recharging. WML provides
support for limited graphics with a limited gray scale.
C.What are Some Limitations of WML?
Like HTML, WML does specify how the content is to be
displayed. Thus micro browsers on different WAP devices are
likely to display the WML content differently.
WAP devices such as WAP phones will not accept
large decks (1.4K for some WAP phones). There are many
variations between WAP phones, for example Screen sizes,
keypads, and soft keys can be different. Consequently, WML
decks should be tested on at least the important WAP devices.
This variation is similar to the variation found with
Web browsers and their platforms. The problem is harder in
case of WML because there are many more WAP devices
than Web browsers and their platforms. Also, it is harder to
figure out the “least common denominator”, i.e., set of
features that will work reasonably well on all or most WAP
devices.
VII. MULTIMEDIA MESSEGING SERVICE
The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), as its
name implies, is intended to provide a rich set of content to
subscribers in a messaging context. It supports both sending
and receiving of such messages by properly enabled client
devices.
The Multimedia messaging service is viewed as a
non-real-time delivery system. This is comparable to many
messaging systems in use today. Prime examples include
traditional email available on the Internet and wireless
messaging systems such as paging or SMS. These services
provide a store-and-forward usage paradigm and it is expected
that the MMS will be able to interoperate with such
systems.Real-time messaging also exists in various forms. For
example, instant messaging available from various vendors or
various chat services (e.g. text, voice) are becoming popular.
Such services are not currently supported with the MMS
system but may be considered for future releases. VIII. WAP APPLICATION

A key feature of MMS is the ability to support Locationbased services – Realtime traffic reporting,
messaging activities with other available messaging systems. Event/restaurant recommendation
This is shown in Figure 2 below which shows an abstract view
of an MMS network diagram. It is expected that specific Enterprise solutions – Email access, Database access, “global”
MMS networks may have one or more such connections as intranet access – Information updates “pushed” to WAP
well as include specific messaging services not directly devices
represented (e.g. fax or voice mail systems).
Financial services – Banking, Billpaying, Stock trading,
Funds transfers

Travel services – Schedules and rescheduling, Reservations

Gaming and Entertainment , Online, realtime,multiplayer
Games ,Downloadable horoscopes, cartoons, quotes, advice

MCommerce – Shopping on the go ,Instant comparison

shopping, Locationbased special offers and sales

REFERENCES
[1] “Mobile Computing” by Ashok k telud kar
[2] “Mobile communications” by Jochen Schiller, Addison Wesley 2000

Fig 13 MMS Network Representation

The system elements shown in Fig 13 can be summarised as
follows:

MMS Client – This is the system element that interacts with

the user. It is expected to be implemented as an application on
the user’s wireless device.

MMS Proxy-Relay – This is the system element that the MMS

Client interacts with. It provides access to the components that
provide message storage services, and it is responsible for
messaging activities with other available messaging systems.
Some implementations may combine this component with the
MMS Server.

MMS Server – This system element provides storage services

for MM messages. Some implementations may combine this
component with the MMS Proxy -Relay.

Email Server – This system element provides traditional

Internet email services. It supports the SMTP protocol to send
messages as well as POP and/or IMAP protocols to retrieve
messages.

Legacy Wireless Messaging Systems – This system element

represents various systems that currently exist in support of
wireless messaging systems. This would include paging and
SMS systems that provide