WAP 1.

x Architecture Reference Model

Components, Protocols & Interfaces
 WAP Architecture

Figure gives an overview of the WAP

architecture, its protocols, components &
interfaces

Fig. also gives a comparison of WAP

architecture with the typical internet
architecture using the world wide web

But all components & protocols shown at the

same layer are not comparable
 WAP Architecture
Bearer Services

The basis for x’mission of data is formed by

different bearer services

Bearers comprise all services that enable

smooth x’mission of data b/w different
interfaces to the network using layer 1,2,3 of
ISO/OSI reference model

Many other bearer services are supported

 WAP Architecture
Bearer Services
WAP doesn’t specify bearer services

It uses existing data transfer techniques/

services such as SMS, GPRS etc. & will integrate
further services

Examples are message services such as SMS of

GSM, circuit-switched data such as high-speed
circuit switched data (HSCSD) in GSM or
packet switched data such as GPRS in GSM
 WAP - Transport Layer

The transport layer offers a ‘bearer

independent’ consistent ‘datagram-oriented’
service to the higher layers of the WAP
architecture

The transport layer has its wireless datagram

protocol (WDP) & an additional wireless
control message protocol (WCMP)
 WAP - Transport Layer

Transport layer will do the communication

transparently over one of the available bearer
services

Transport layer Service Access Point (T-SAP)

T-SAP is the common network interface to be

used by higher layers independent of the
underlying layer
 WAP - Security Layer
The security layer has its wireless transport layer
security protocol (WTLS)

The security layer & WTLS offers its services to

higher layers at the network interface security
SAP (SEC-SAP)
WTLS is based on the transport layer security
(TLS) protocol for the ‘www’

TLS is a ‘cryptographic protocol’ designed to

provide communications security over a
computer network
 WAP - Security Layer

TLS formerly known as SSL, secure sockets layer

WTLS has been optimized for use in wireless

networks with narrow-band channels

WTLS can offer

- Data integrity
- Privacy
- Authentication
- Denial-of-service protection
 WAP - Transaction Layer

The WAP transaction layer has its wireless

transaction protocol (WTP)

The WAP transaction layer & WTP offers

transaction service to higher layers at the
network interface transaction SAP (TR-SAP)

This service efficiently provides reliable or

unreliable requests & asynchronous
transactions
 WAP - Session layer

The session layer has the wireless session

protocol (WSP)

It offers 2 services to higher layers at the

network interface session-SAP(S-SAP)

i) a connection-oriented Service
ii) a connection-less Service
 WAP - Session layer

A special service for browsing the web

(WSP/B) has been defined at this layer

It offers HTTP/I.1 functionality, long-lived

session state, session suspend & resume,
session migration & other features needed for
wireless mobile access to the web
 WAP - Application layer

The application layer has the wireless

application environment (WAE)

It offers a framework for the integration of

different ‘www’ & mobile telephony
applications

It offers many protocols & services with special

service access points
 WAP - Application layer

The main issues at this layer are

i) Scripting Languages
ii) Special Markup Languages
iii) interfaces to telephony applications
iv) many content formats adapted to
the special requirements of small
handheld wireless devices
WAP 1.x Architecture Reference Model
Components, Protocols & Interfaces
 WAP architecture
Figure also shows WAP architecture’s relation
to the traditional internet architecture for
www applications

The WAP transport layer together with the

bearers can be compared to the services
offered by TCP over IP & different media in
the internet

If a bearer in the WAP architecture already

offers IP services (eg. GPRS) then that
datagram is used as WDP
 WAP architecture

At the WAP security layer, TLS/SSL layer of

the internet has been adopted for the WAP
architecture with some changes required for
optimization
 WAP architecture

The functionality of the session & transaction

layer can be compared with the role of HTTP
in the web architecture

But HTTP does not offer any additional mechanisms

needed for efficient wireless, mobile access
(eg. session migration, suspend/resume)
 WAP architecture

The application layer offers similar features as

HTML & Java

Special formats & features optimized for the

wireless scenario have been defined

The telephony access has been added

 WAP architecture

WAP doesn’t always force all applications to use the

whole protocol architecture
Applications can use only a part of the
architecture

For e.g., if an application does not require

security but needs the reliable transport of
data, it can directly use a service of the
transaction layer

Simple applications can directly use WDP

WAP model or Network Architecture

Figure illustrates an example of WAP network

architecture

WAP network configuration

 WAP model

A WAP handset or a handheld device

communicates with the origin server through
the mobile network

The origin server is a standard Hyper Text

Transfer Protocol (HTTP) based ‘web server’

The origin server is developed by using tools such

as Perl
 WAP model

The origin server contains the network

resources (web contents/pages)

Here the resources are network data or

service that can be identified by an Internet
standard called URL (Uniform Resource
Locator)

Eg. for a resource is web content (web pages)

to be viewed by the users
 WAP model
The contents received by the WAP handset are
encoded in a compact binary format of
‘Wireless Markup Language’ (WML)

WAP Gateway
The WAP Gateway is located b/w the Internet &
the mobile network

WAP Gateway receives the WAP request from

the handset, decodes the request from binary
format into text format & forwards it to the
origin server
 WAP model
The origin server parses (resolves) the
received WAP request & determines what to
retrieve

If the URL specifies a static file, the origin

server retrieves the file & returns the file to
the WAP Gateway via HTTP

If the URL specifies an application, the origin

server launches that application
The origin server can also provide the WML
contents
 WAP model
Assume the origin server can only provide
HTML contents & it cannot understand WML

HTML Filter
In this case, the HTTP response of the origin
server is 1st sent to an HTML filter

HTML filter translates the HTML text into

WML format
HTML filter is typically built into the WAP
Gateway
 WAP model

Finally, the WAP Gateway verifies the WML

contents & encodes them into WML byte
codes

This is then sent to the WAP handset

 WAP model

The WAP handset & the origin server can

communicate directly using WAP protocols

WAP provides end-to-end security

WAP utilizes a ‘micro-browser’ which is an

optimized Web browser for the wireless
environment
 WAP ‘Micro-Browser’
The micro-browser is a light weight client that
can be accommodated by a handheld device
with limited memory capacity

A micro-browser allows the WAP handset to

browse contents in standard data formats

Internet URLs are used to identify WAP

contents kept on origin servers
WAP micro-browser processes the contents
specified on the URL
 WML language

WML is a page description language

WML is a language designed to be suitable for

use in handheld mobile devices

It describes the WAP content presented in the

WAP handset, the input options available in
the handset & the response of the user agent