1) INTRODUCTION :
The Advancements in the field of Mobile Technologies has resulted in enabling different services that can be made available in Wireless Platform. The existing services that are available have many constraints which can be dealt with an importance in overcoming them. "A major problem facing these devices is that the web has been standardized for wired computers not wireless communication devices. Converting, maintaining, and interfacing the Web Sites and Web Applications for use with mobile devices is an important priority to allow the data and applications stored on the Internet to be available by any means, anytime and anywhere"[1].
The ability and resources that are available in existence can help us to bring some adaptable solutions to make the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) compete with the nature of WWW (World Wide Web). These solutions can bring forward many improvements in the different services that are available in existence. The main deal in accomplishing the above goal is "how to accommodate small screens, how to make devices smarter, how to design faster input mechanisms, how to establish more reliable communications, etc. In ten years, we have quickly reached the point where we can no longer afford to consider devices in isolation, but must take into account the larger social and contextual factors surrounding mobile device use"[2].
As WAP services are launched in countries all over the world, some people are getting their first experiences of Mobile Internet. There is an incredible activity among WML developers today, and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Still one can hear some HTML-developers being grumpy about abandoning their favorite markup language, and learning a new one that is extremely unforgiving to syntax errors. Others say that higher bitrate technologies, like GPRS and 3G will take away the need for WAP in the future and also the use of PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) [3].
In this project I have decided to focus on bringing the different web services available in wired platform to the wireless platform and making it easy to access as it was in the wired platform like WWW. I have planned to use WAP as a platform to implement the application development in WAP enabled mobile devices. .NET is considered to be an opted package to develop this application.
Key Words Used :
WAP, WWW, Mobile Devices, GPRS, PHP, Web Services, Platform, etc.
2) PROJECT BACKGROUND:
The Basic idea for this project is inspired from seeing the latest trends and developments in the field of wireless technologies and how well it is effectively utilized in the industries. Now a days there is no field which do not need mobility in data and communication facilities. The future is facing towards bringing these facilities into reality. The global usage of mobile devices is increasing tremendously that needs an immediate vision on it. That gives us idea what is needed and how well it can be implemented and how feasible it would be. The background of this project is basically derived from the following factors.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF WAP SERVICES:
The Wireless Application Protocol is a global standard for bringing Internet content and services to mobile phones and other wireless devices. The WAP standards suite is maintained by an industry consortium called the "WAP Forum"[5]. Founded by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Openwave (then known as Unwired Planet) in June 1997, the WAP Forum now includes hundreds of member companies that are infrastructure providers, software companies, and content providers. The goal of the WAP Forum is to address the problems of wireless Internet access, ensuring that access is not limited by vendor or underlying network technology.[4].
WAP can solve the following problems that are faced in wireless Technologies. : [4]
> Protocol Mismatch: Unlike the Internet, mobile networks (such as GSM and TDMA) are not inherently IP-based; they do not support the protocol of the Internet.
> Device Limitations: Mobile devices (cellular phones, pagers, and palmtops) are not ideal Web clients.
> Usability: Usability is an issue, particularly with the limited size of mobile phones and pagers.
In the recent years WAP has developed its standards tremendously to suit its performance to compete with the upcoming trends and needs of the world.
NEED FOR MOBILITY IN DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS:
With advances in wireless networking and application technologies, Organizations are increasingly challenged to deliver critical business applications and real time data for the workers in the fields. Remote access to business critical data and applications is quickly becoming the standard, and business are rising to meet the challenges of enabling their mobile work force. While remote access capability brings with it new opportunities for business, such technologies also present significant management challenges for enterprise IT departments.[6]
Organizations are facing the growing challenges of mobilizing the business applications and data to their remote workforce. Moving critical data between remote devices and corporate networks is quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception as business begins to take advantage of advances in networking and application technologies. Enabling remote access to business applications presents new opportunities for business growth, as well as new challenges for IT managers as they struggle to implement and maintain new mobilization technologies. [6]
DIFFERENCES IN FUNCTIONALITIES BETWEEN WAP & I-MODE :
The main reason for taking this study is to show that both platforms has same basic functionalities but has some major differences that makes WWW more convenient they are :[7]
1) The first important difference is the programming language used. WAP uses the markup language WML (Wireless Markup Language) while i-mode uses CHTML (Compact HTML). Compact HTML has an advantage over WML in that a large majority of WML developers come from the "Web" world where they are used to HTML. However, the future of Internet content serving is XML, and from XML the step to WML is hardly noticeable. It's much more noticeable with Compact HTML or HTML.
E-mail will become as instant as Short Message Service (SMS), and as phone technology advances, we will be able to send, receive and store large files on our wireless devices. This difference also pressures the billing rates imposed, that is while Imode billing consists of how much you are as i-mode is based on a packet-data (9600bps) transmission system, subscribers will be charged according to the volume of data transmitted, not the time spent on line. With the 'always on' connection, this method is necessary as the time spent is unlimited.
2) The second important difference between WAP and i-mode is that i-mode is an always-on connection. This means that you do not have to 'dial up' to access a site and email is instantly sent to your phone. This uses GPRS technology and will be made available to us some time next year.
3) Thirdly, I-mode can support a high amount of graphic on smaller displays while WAP, supporting hardly a small bmp standard (WBMP) is nowhere I-mode comparison. The proof of this is latest tie-up between NTT DoComo and SEGA to provide online gaming to wireless users. This is because I-mode uses packet based data network as compared to WAP's circuit switched network.
4) An important point in WAP's favor is the fact that it is an open standard while I-mode is still thought to be a proprietary Japanese standard
3) PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES :
The main aim of this project is to find the functionalities that are missing in an mobile web application when compared with an WWW application and bring out with an course work that can be implemented in WAP enabled mobile phones with more enhanced features that can make an mobile platform compete with WWW.
The objectives of the project can be summarized as follows :
> To study in depth about the facilities that are available in WAP that can be implemented for the improvements of the project.
> To find the existing facilities that are available in the WAP applications.
> To decide a solution to enhance the found functionalities and make it easy for navigation.
> To implement the found enhancements to the mobile platform.
> To test the interface using different devices for its functionality and performance.
> Final valuation and presentation report.
4) INTELECTUAL CHALLENGE :
The main challenge for this proposal is to find the differences between the existing facilities available in the WAP applications and the web applications. Then to design a template to implement the ideas decided to be implemented and to indulge in the software engineering tasks and to proceed with testing the application tremendously and evaluating the total process and providing the report. There are some key challenges that are considered to be the context where to concentrate first and they are :
> The existing mobile devices have very small screen size. So, bringing web applications to such a small screen size is a big task. More over the application should be developed in such a way that it is equally competing WWW.
> The developed application must be having very good accessibility and very easy for navigation. With in few clicks the task should be accomplished.
> The application must be very user friendly so that it makes the usage very easy.
> The big task is that the application must be capable of adapting any type of mobile phones. Since there are minimal number of keys and its operations.
> The developed application must be faster in performance so that the navigation will be faster.
5) RESEARCH PROGRAMME :
5.1) METHADOLOGY :
The methodology that is going to be followed in developing this Application is summarized as follows. :
> Discussing with IT professionals about the various Functionalities of WAP and the enhancements in the services needed.
> Discussing about the feasibility of the project with various experts opinion and proceed with the implementation.
> Developing a Design that will be more compatible for future application developments.
> Developing interface using Microsoft .NET package (With License).
