Mobile middleware:
The major purpose of mobile middleware is to seamlessly and transparently map Internet contents to handheld devices that support a wide variety of operating systems, markup languages, microbrowsers, and protocols.
Most mobile middleware also encrypts the communication in order to provide security for transactions.
There are two major kinds of mobile middleware:
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and
i-mode from NTT DoCoMo.
WAP is widely adopted and flexible, while i-mode has the highest number of users and is easy to use.
Wireless networks:
It uses radio frequencies to transmit information between the individual computers; each computer requires a wireless network adapter.
This component is the major difference between electronic commerce and mobile commerce.
It is not required for the former, but it is necessary for the latter.
Mobile commerce is possible only if the wireless networks are available.
User requests are delivered to either the closest wireless access point (in a wireless local area network environment) or a base station (in a cellular network environment).
Wired networks: This component is optional for a mobile commerce system. However, most computers (servers) usually reside on wired networks such as the Internet, so user requests are routed to these servers using transport and/or security mechanisms provided by wired networks.
Host computers:
This component is similar to the one used in electronic commerce, which includes three kinds of software:
a Web server,
a database server, and
application programs and support software.
User requests are generally acted upon in this component.
