Mobile Computing

Dr. Ayman Alhelbawy , 21st March 2023

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Mobile Application
Development and
Protocols
 Mobile Devices as Web Clients
• Web access using mobile devices would be
frustrating and meaningless because :

• Slow network due transmission media

compared to wired networks

• Small screen size

• frequent disconnections and signal fading
that occur when a user moves around.
Mobile Devices as Web Clients (cont.)
• First two problems may solve each other.
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a nonpro it group
that oversees the formation of various Web standards.

• In 1998 W3C announced the creation of a special version of

HTML for mobile devices. which was called compact
HTML (C-HTML).

• in C-HTML, the advanced features of web such as fonts,

frames, tables, graphics, and dynamic content were omitted
with the intent of not only saving bandwidth but also freeing
the handheld devices of computational overload.
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Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
• WAP is not a markup language like CHTML, It
it is a complete stack of protocols.

• It is more complicated and more effective.

• WAP architecture de ines an optimized
protocol stack for communication over
wireless media, a content description
language, and a browser.
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Traditional and WAP based web access

Traditional http web access

WAP based web access

 WAP gateway
• WAP gateway is responsible to convert a WAP
request/response to an HTTP request/response.
This conversion is very compute-intensive. To
handle this computational workload, the WAP
gateway needs to be a powerful computer.

• WAP is often described as a network-centric

protocol—most of the intelligence and
computations associated with the WAP protocols
are embedded in the network rather than the phone
 WAP protocol stack
• It is designed to be compatible with the Internet
• Pages in WAP are converted to the http and TCP
protocol at the gateway

• WAP 2.0 provides support for the protocols that are

counterparts of IP, TCP, and HTTP

• WAP 2.0 is also lexible and bearer independent—

meaning that WAP services can run over any speci ic
wireless data bearer technologies such as SMS,
GSM, GPRS, 3G, etc.
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WAP Protocol Stack
 WAP Architecture
Wireless Application Environment (WAE)

It includes

• micro-browser on the device,

• WML (the Wireless Markup Language),
• WMLS (a client-side scripting language),
• Telephony service,
• A set of formats for the commonly used data such
as images, phone books, and calendars.
 WAP Architecture
Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)

WSP helps establish a web browsing session from

a mobile handset.

It is based on the HTTP protocol and provides

the basic session state management
 WAP Architecture
Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP)

• It considered to be the equivalent of the TCP layer of the TCP/IP

stack, but it takes into account the availability of low bandwidth by
providing different classes of transaction services.
• WTP transaction services include reliable request and response that
have been adapted to the wireless world.
• WTP handles the problem of packet loss more effectively than TCP.
Packet loss is a fairly common phenomenon in wireless technologies
due to factors such as atmospheric noise, signal fading, and handoff.
The packet losses are often misinterpreted by TCP as network
congestion, thereby drastically reducing the network throughput.
 WAP Architecture
Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS)

• WTLS is the security layer that is used to

transfer data securely between a mobile device
and a server.
• It provides support for data security and privacy,
authentication, as well as protection against
denial-of-service (DOS) attacks.
 WAP Architecture
Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP)

• WDP is the bottom-most protocol in the WAP

protocol suite. It functions as an adaptation layer
in a wireless communication environment that
makes every data network look like UDP to the
upper layers by providing services for transport of
data in the unreliable wireless environment. WDP
invokes services of one or more data bearers such
as SMS, GPRS, CDMA, UMTS, etc.
 WAP Architecture
Bearer Interfaces

• A bearer is a low-level transport mechanism for network messages.

• Considering the diversity of transport technologies, WAP is
designed to operate with SMS (Short Message Service) to GPRS
(General Packet Radio System), UMTS and IP.
• WAP supports circuit-switched bearer services such as dial-up
networking using IP and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). However,
packet-switched bearer services are much better suited than
circuit-switched bearer services for mobile devices as they can
provide more reliable services in the unreliable wireless
connection environment.
 Thank You
Questions?????