Mobile Computing and Networking

Generations of Mobile Commerce        

Along with the rapid progress of mobile communication technology, the evolution of mobile commerce has gone through three generations. The first generation of mobile commerce brought access technology based on SMS. The first two cell phones involved in mobile commerce authorized Coca-Cola to build vending machines in Finland in 1997 for payment through SMS text message (Nawab). Poor real-time performance and size limitations created the need for innovation.
The second generation of mobile commerce adopted a method based upon Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology so mobile phones could access the WAP web pages via browser to search information just as a PC would. As Russ Housley, the current chair of the Internet Architecture Board, mentioned, “WAP is an open global specification for providing Internet communications and advanced service to mobile users with wireless devices (Paro).” This new technology partially solved the problems of the first generation of mobile commerce with the capabilities of the internet. However, a disadvantage of the second generation mainly manifested itself in encryption. This is primarily due to the fact that the encryption authentication of Wireless Transport Layer Security protocol establishes a secure channel, which must be terminated within the WAP gateway that could potentially cause a number of security threats. The needs of customers were not met as a result of the WAP web access security issues (Paro).
The current generation of mobile commerce uses a web service built on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), smart mobile terminals, and mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology to greatly improve the system’s security and interactive ability. This generation provides e-commerce personnel a safe and modern mobile business office founded on the private network and wireless communication environment. This technology is widely used around the world and offers a more efficient and effective platform to do business via mobile devices (Newab).