WAP Full Form

The WAP wireless application protocol is a set of technologies used in mobile networks and mobile devices that allow the delivery of content to wireless and mobile devices, including smart phones and PDAs, over wireless networks, such as the GPRS, GSM, and EDGE networks. The WAP protocol allows content such as web pages, text, and images to be transmitted over the Internet and allows the pages to be viewed in a mobile interface. The WAP protocol allows developers to build applications that are accessed over mobile networks, but that are natively coded for the mobile networks. The concept of using a wireless network to access the phone network is the idea behind using wireless application protocols (WAP). WAP is used to create a wireless web client. The WAP client can access web pages over a wireless network and transfer them to the phone. WAP was standardised and is used to create WAP-enabled phones by a wide range of phone companies.

Wireless Application Protocol 

A wireless application protocol (WAP) is a set of protocols used when connecting to the Internet via wireless telecommunications devices. The WAP protocol utilises the markup language WML called Wireless Markup Language. The term “WAP” is sometimes used to describe both the overall technology and the protocols that make up the technology. WAP is the protocol for the wireless broadband Internet access service delivered by some mobile phone networks.

The WAP protocol is the result of the joint efforts of the members of the WAP forum. The WAP forum is a collaboration of the software department of many flagship mobile companies, also called the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). 

Uses and Pros of Wireless Application Protocol WAP

• The Wireless Application  protocol is developed mainly for mobile devices. The protocol is capable of being used in mobile and wireless devices that connect to the Internet in order to share their capabilities. The Wireless Application  protocol is capable of transferring files such as picture, music, and video files, or any files that can be transferred to a mobile device. The protocol is a method of transmitting data in files that are sent through a wireless device.

• In today’s world people are using technology in many ways. From email to the internet, to cell phones, wireless application protocol (WAP) is now used for many purposes. But did you know that WAP is being used to send people to certain websites. This is done through technology called Short Message Service (SMS) that can be done wirelessly through a cell phone.

• WAP is a protocol that is used to communicate between a mobile device and a wireless network. The mobile device may be a cellular telephone or a wireless personal digital assistant. The wireless network may be provided by a cellular service provider, a public safety service, an emergency services provider, or any other service provider.

• The application of Wireless Application Protocol is a very important part of the wireless communication industry. With WAP, all of the data required to use wireless devices can be transferred over the internet. This technology has revolutionised the way people communicate and modern communication would be highly complex without it.

The Primary Purpose of the Wireless Application WAP protocol

The primary purpose of this protocol is to provide a means of transferring files with an easy method between two or more devices that are wirelessly linked to a local area network (LAN) so that a device can send files to any other device of the network, whether it be on the wireless or wired configuration of the network.

Wireless Application protocol WAP is designed to allow any type of files(multimedia or text message) to be sent from one wireless communication device to the other or from one device to many other devices at the same time, even when the two devices are not connected to the same Internet network. The role of wireless application protocol (WAP) to do this is by providing a wireless gateway even in the absence of Internet connectivity. 

How does a Wireless Application Protocol work?

The working of Wireless Application Protocol is demonstrated by a working model which defines the individual role of the components involved in the wireless application protocol.  Wireless Application protocol possesses 3 components known as the Client, Wireless Application Protocol WAP gateway, and the Origin Server. 

• When a user or tester opens an internet browser in their handset and types a website they want to surf, their handset sends the respective URL encoded request by their network to a Wireless Application Protocol WAP gateway with the assistance of the WAP protocol. 
• The request sent by the user or tester or client in this situation is called an encoding request. 
• The encoding request which is sent to the WAP gateway gets translated and is further converted into an HTTPS URL over the network.
• When the econdoing request reaches a prioritised web server, the server processes the encoding request as it would interpret any other network oriented request. 
• After interpreting the encoding request by a web server or called as the origin server in this WAP model, the counter response is sent back to the client’s handset enabling them exchange data through a wireless networking service.  

The Wireless Application Protocol Stack 

The WAP protocol stack defines the many communication and data transportation layers that are employed in the WAP model. The main layers of the WAP protocol stack are  mentioned below:

Application Layer of WAP protocol stack

The Wireless Application Environment (WAE), mobile handset standards, and content creation programming languages, such as WML, are all part of this layer.

Session Layer of WAP protocol stack 

The Wireless Session Protocol makes up the session layer (WSP). It is in charge of quick connection, connection termination and reconnecting.

Transaction layer of WAP protocol stack 

Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) is used in the transaction layer, which is built on the site of UDP (User Datagram Protocol). The transaction layer is a component of TCP/IP that provides secure transaction support.

Conclusion

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a programming model or application environment, as well as a collection of communication protocols, based on the notion of the World Wide Web (WWW), and its hierarchical architecture is very similar to that of the TCP/IP protocol stack. WAP is the most efficient standard or protocol for micro-browsers that allows mobile devices to interact, trade, and send data over the Internet.