Performance comparison of WAP and I-mode

1. WAP (The Wireless Application Protocol) :
The internet and mobile phones have become very common and so it is a brilliant idea to combine them. With such a combination, a mobile phone will have a built-in screen for wireless access to e-mail and the web. The idea was proposed by a consortium initially led by Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and phone.com and the system is called a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).

A WAP device can be one of the following:

• A mobile phone
• PDA or
• Notebook computer without voice capability

The existing digital wireless structure is to be used. The users can call up a WAP gateway over the wireless link and send web page requests to it. The gateway then checks its cache for page requested. If present it sends it, if absent it fetches it over the wired Internet. WAP has two version: WAP 1.0 and WAP 2.0 The WAP 1.0 is a circuit switched system but it has a very high per minute connect charge. Due to high charges and small screens. WAP 1.0 was not a huge success. But, WAP 2.0 and I-mode converging on the similar technology are likely to be successful.

2. Information Mode (I-Mode) :
The long form of I-mode is information mode. It is a different approach invented by  Japanese women Mari Matsunaga. It stands for Internet Mode.

The I-mode system has following three major components :

• A new transmission system
• A new handset
• A new language for web page design

The transmission system is made up of two separate networks namely the existing circuit switched mobile phone network and a new packet switched network constructed specifically for I-mode service. Voice mode makes use of the circuit switched network and its bill is charged on per minute basis. I-mode makes use of packet switched network and it is always on. There is no billing for connect time in I-mode instead there is a charge for each packet being sent.

Currently, it is not possible to use both networks simultaneously.

Performance comparison of WAP and I-mode.

S NO.	WAP	I-mode
1.	WAP uses WML which is subset of XML.	I-mode uses cHTML which is subset of HTML.
2.	It is a  Protocol stack	It is a Service
3.	It is used by devices such as Handset, PDA, notebook	It is used by Handset only
4.	WAP has a Dial up connection	I-mode is always connected
5.	Type of circuit used in this is circuit switched .	in this the type of circuit used circuit switched + packet switched
6.	In this the screen type  is Monochrome (B&W)	In this the screen type  is Color.
7.	it uses Scripting language WML script	It uses  Compact HTML (C-HTML)
8.	In WAP Billing occurs Per minute	In this Billing occurs Per packet.
9.	WAP is used in Europe, Japan	I-mode is used in Japan
10.	WAP is mostly used by Businessmen	It is mostly used by Young people
11.	WAP is more extensible .Since it uses WML	I-mode is less extensible but easier to develop from web-designer stand-point
12.	No Pictograms are used	Pictograms are used
13.	WAP forum open standard Standardization is used	NTT D0 C0 M0 proprietary Standardization is used.