Mobile Applications - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 493

that are the elements that can be used to create or interact with a number of
different services. The OMA Web Services Enabler (OWSER) specification
capitalizes on all the benefits of Web Services technologies to simplify the
task of integrators, developers, and implementers of service enablers by pro-
viding them with common mechanisms and protocols for interoperability of
service enablers. Examples of functionality common across service enablers
range from transport and message encoding definitions to security concerns,
service discovery, charging, definition, and management of SLAs, as well as
management, monitoring, and provisioning of the service enablers that exist
within a service provider's network.
The OMA Web Service interfaces are intended to enhance a service pro-
vider's data for a particular mobile subscriber. A common scenario starts
with a data request from some application (perhaps a mobile browser) to
a service provider. The service provider then uses Web Services to interact
with a subscriber's mobile operator to retrieve some relevant data about the
subscriber such as location or presence. These data can be used to enhance
the service provider's response to the initial request. Mobile Web Services
are envisioned to support server-to-server, server-to-mobile terminal, mobile
terminal-to-server, and mobile terminal-to-mobile terminal (or peer-to-peer)
interactions.
Similarly, the objective of the mobile Web Services framework is to meet
the requirements for bridging stationary enterprise infrastructure and the
mobile world, and it enables the application of Web Services specifications,
SOA implementations, and tools to the problem of exposing mobile network
services in a commercially viable way to the mass market of developers. The
focus of the work concentrates on mechanisms to orchestrate the calls to
mobile Web Services.
The mobile Web Services framework places particular emphasis on core
mechanisms such as security, authentication, and payment. Core security
mechanisms are offered that apply WS-Security to mobile network secu-
rity services, such as the use of a GSM-style SIM security device within a
Web Services end point to provide a means for authentication. In addition,
a set of core payment mechanisms within the WSs architecture have been
proposed that understand how to interact with the participating WS end
points. It is expected that a number of services dependent on the mobile
Web Services framework and that rely on its core mechanisms will be
developed. SMS services, MMS services, and location-based services have
been identified as common services that are candidates for specification
activity. Specification work will include profiling and optimization of the
core Web Services protocols so that they can easily be realized over any
bearer, on any device, or both. This addresses the inefficiencies that current
Web Services specifications exhibit when used over a narrowband and pos-
sibly intermittent bearer or when being processed by a low-performance
mobile device.