Monday, November 6, 2000		On Hardware

Dunia hamari jeb mein, say WAP users

THE pet dialogue of the powerful and the mighty, dunia meri jeb mein, is now being mouthed by every common man who has a WAP-enabled cellular phone in his pocket.

WAP or Wireless application protocol is an open, global specification that empowers mobile users with the wireless devices to easily access and interact with the information and services instantly. Basically, WAP enables fast and easy delivery of relevant information and services to mobile users through the Internet.

The term does not refer to the cellular phone users only but also includes Palmtop and other WAP-enabled handheld and digital wireless devices such as pagers, two-way radios, smartphones and communicators, both from the low-end to the high-end. However, due to the popularity of cellular phones worldwide, WAP has become synonymous with them. Thus, WAP-enabled GSM mobile phones can help see the Net content in special text format. It can send and receive e-mail and also browse the Web for any information using specialised browser.

WAP is powerful and makes the user feel so. By using WAP services, one can gain access to a large range of information, which is otherwise either not possible to collect or is very difficult to obtain on phone. For example, if you have to rush to Mumbai, you can view the traffic situation on the mobile (if the services are being provided in the city), browse the flight schedule and also availability of seats on various airlines. Seats can be booked on any flight and hotel accommodation can be taken care of. Use WAP to avail the facility of Net banking, right from knowing the bank balance to operating an account. Send and receive e-mail through WAP.

Besides planning a trip, WAP can be used for other value-added services like message notification and call management, telephony value-added services and unified messaging, mapping and locator services, weather and traffic alerts, news, sports and information services, e-commerce transactions and banking services, online address books, directory services, and corporate intranet applications.

Technology wise, though WAP uses some of the existing Internet standards, yet it has some specialised Internet standards like XML, UDP, and IP. These are based on the Internet standards, such as HTTP and TLS, but are optimised for the unique constraints of the wireless environment. The need for WAP-specific Internet standards like XML, UDP was felt primarily because the common Internet standard like HTML, HTTP, TLS and TCP are inefficient over the mobile networks, requiring large amounts of text-based data to be sent. Moreover, the standard HTML Web content generally cannot be displayed in an effective way on the small-size screens of pocket-sized mobile phones and pagers used for WAP-based services.

WAP is optimised to solve all these problems, utilising binary transmission for greater compression of data and for long latency and low to medium bandwidth. Therefore, these services may prove beneficial in virtually all parts of the country irrespective of the state of bandwidth.

There is one more term – Bluetooth, which is relevant to the WAP and is becoming popular in some advanced countries. Bluetooth is actually a local area low-powered radio link between mobile devices. Among many of the usage, scenario for Bluetooth also involves one of the devices communicating over the air using WAP. While many Bluetooth members are also WAP members, it is expected that many future handheld wireless devices will deploy both Bluetooth and WAP technology. The two technologies fundamentally address different problems. Thus, a combination of both would be the second stage in the WAP revolution.

Unlike previous technologies, WAP is being developed as a suitable option for multimedia applications for mobile services. As of now, WAP is an open protocol that allows the transport of many forms of multimedia content. However, some multimedia services, especially those based on streaming media and live broadcast require further enhancements to the current technology.

The WAP-based services have already been introduced in India and all major cellular service providers are now providing them. For using WAP services, a special cellular phone and other handheld and digital devices are needed, as these services may not work on a ordinary cellular phone. Some popular WAP-enabled cellular phones are Ericsson R320s, Ericsson r280lx, Nokia 7110, Motorola v2282, Motorola Timeport p7389, Motorola V2260, Motorola V8162, Motorola V8160, Motorola Talkabout T8167, Motorola Talkabout T8160, Nokia 6250, Nokia 6210, Samsung SCH-3500, Samsung SCH-8500, and NeoPoint NP1000. All these phones have a micro browser or WAP browser, which allows Web surfing, sending and receiving e-mails and latest news update.

—V.V