FAQs: Wireless-Related Questions

• What is a wireless (mobile) device?
• Can WebLogic Server support wireless devices?
• What should I consider when writing an application for wireless devices?
• What is WAP and what is i-Mode?
• Will my solution work on different networks such as CDMA, GPRS, TDMA and PDC-P?
• What changes do I need to consider for 3G wireless networks?

Q. What is a wireless (mobile) device?

A. A wireless device in this context is a device that has connectivity to the Internet without being physically plugged into a network with a wire. The most common examples of these are the Internet-enabled cell phone such as a WAP Phone or i-Mode phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) such as Palm VII, Pocket PC such as Wireless iPaq, and pager such as RIM Blackberry.

Q. Can WebLogic Server support wireless devices?

A. Yes. For information on wireless support, see Using WAP with WebLogic Server. Wireless examples, if installed, are located in the /samples/examples directory of your WebLogicServer installation and are available from the Start menu.

Q. What should I consider when writing an application for wireless devices?

A. The following is a list of factors to consider when writing applications for wireless clients:

• Content should be personalized based on the location of the device and/or the type of the device.
• Device microbrowsers are usually not HTML-based; some are WML-based, some are cHTML-based, some are HDML-based, some use Web Clipping, etc.
• Some devices have additional features such as Bluetooth, power keys and SMS messaging that can be used to enhance an application.
• Often the devices can be used with voice portals using voice recognition and text-to-speech.
• Most of the devices have smaller screens that may or may not display color or graphical images.
• These screens range in form from a vertically-oriented rectangle to a square to a horizontally-oriented rectangle.
• Many of the devices have a difficult data entry and selection mechanism with numeric keypads or styli.
• Connectivity is often lost when the device is mobile.
• The devices usually have no PKI security capability.
• A few of the devices are limited in the amount of data that can be transmitted to them for a page.

For more information see Wireless, Internet and Email.

Q. What is WAP and what is i-Mode?

A. WAP and i-Mode are the two major over-the-air (OTA) protocols for wireless Internet communication with cell phones and some other devices. WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol and is found predominantly in Europe and North America. i-Mode is the protocol used in Japan by NTT DoCoMo. A new protocol called WAP-NG (WAP Next Generation) is being considered as a replacement for both of these protocols.

Both WAP and i-Mode are comprised of both the OTA protocol and a markup language understood by their microbrowsers. The WAP markup language is WML (Wireless Markup Language) and cHTML (Compact HTML) is the markup language specified by i-Mode. WML and cHTML may be superseded by XHTML (Basic) in the future.

Note that other wireless carriers and devices use protocols and markup languages other than WAP and i-Mode. For example, the Palm VII uses web clipping over a proprietary protocol.

For more information about WAP, see http://www.wapforum.org/faqs.

Q. Will my solution work on different networks such as CDMA, GPRS, TDMA and PDC-P?

A. Yes. WAP and i-Mode were designed to hide the network details from the application developer. They will both work equally well on any underlying network. Therefore, as carriers upgrade their networks, applications written for either WAP or i-Mode will continue to work without any need for modifications. As the networks are upgraded to higher speeds, the performance of wireless applications written in either WML or cHTML should improve as well.

Q. What changes do I need to consider for 3G wireless networks?

A. None. As described in the previous answer, neither WAP nor i-Mode is dependent on the underlying network. However, a developer may consider enriching an application with streaming media or other content that requires greater bandwidth.