Can I strongly recommend the following paper. An excellent summary
and a really powerful demolition of WAP.
http://www.4k-associates.com/IEEE-L7-WAP-BIG.html
W* Effect Considered Harmful
Abstract
The Wireless Application Forum has developed an entire stack of
network protocols parallel to, and only marginally compatible with,
the existing Internet architecture. They are convinced handheld
wireless devices are -- and will remain -- four orders of magnitude
less powerful than conventional Internet hosts and thus require
optimized transport, applications, and content. At each turn, WAP
Forum has chosen to reinterpret existing Internet standards -- often
incompatibly. The shift from UDP to WDP, TLS to WTLS, HTTP to WTP,
HTML to WML, ECMAScript to WMLScript -- termed 'the W* Effect' -- is
disingenuous at best,
and at worst, locks in early WAP adopters to today's lowest common denominator.
This report presents a summary of WAP, its history and key players, a
layer-by-layer tour of its standards (and its competitors at each
layer), and its market potential for handset providers, network
operators, application servers, and content providers. This provides
context for understanding the strategic conflict between WAP and a
host of other, more established Standards Development Organizations
(SDOs).
___________________________________________________________________________
Anthony Finkelstein (Prof.) | TEL: +44 (0)20 7679 7293 (Direct Dial)
University College London | FAX: +44 (0)20 7387 1397
Dept. of Computer Science | EMAIL: [log in to unmask]
Gower Street, | http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/A.Finkelstein
London WC1E 6BT | OFFICE: G20, Pearson Building
United Kingdom | PGP Key on request
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