Wireless data transport
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Wireless gateways
Java® applications for BlackBerry® devices can use standard HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP socket protocols to establish connections
over the wireless network. When an application establishes a connection over the wireless network, it can use one of two wireless
gateways to proxy the connection to the Internet or to the corporate intranet. You can design your application to rely on the
default gateway that is available to the BlackBerry device user, or you can customize your code to choose a preferred gateway.
Design your application to explicitly choose the preferred gateway for the connection and use the default gateway if the preferred
method is not available. This might minimize the number of network connection issues that your customers face and let your
application use a consistent connectivity model across all network types and wireless operators.
Using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as an network gateway
When you use the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server as a network gateway, all traffic between your application and the BlackBerry
Enterprise Server is encrypted using AES or triple DES encryption. Because the BlackBerry Enterprise Server is located behind
the organization's firewall and provides inherent data encryption, applications can communicate with application servers and
web servers that are located on the organization's intranet. The BlackBerry® Mobile Data System component of the BlackBerry
Enterprise Server includes the BlackBerry MDS Services, which provides an HTTP and TCP/IP proxy service to allow the
BlackBerry® Java® Application to use it as a secure gateway for managing HTTP and TCP/IP connections to the intranet.
If your application connects to the Internet, you might be able to use the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as a gateway. Network
requests travel behind the organization's firewall to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which makes the network request to the
Internet through the corporate firewall. Administrators can set an IT policy to make sure that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server
is the gateway for all wireless network traffic, including traffic destined for the Internet.
If your application connects to the Internet, you can also use either the BlackBerry® Internet Service or the Internet gateway of
the wireless server provider to manage connections.
Using the wireless service provider's Internet gateway
Most wireless service providers provide an Internet gateway that offers direct TCP/IP connectivity to the Internet. Some wireless
service providers also provide a WAP gateway that allows HTTP connections to occur over the WAP protocol. A BlackBerry® Java®
Application can use either of these gateways to connect to the Internet. If your application is for BlackBerry device users who
are on a specific wireless network, using the wireless service provider's Internet gateway can often yield good results. If your
application is for BlackBerry device users on a variety of wireless networks, testing your application against the different Internet
gateways and achieving a consistent and reliable experience can be challenging. You might find it useful to use the BlackBerry®
Internet Service, and use the wireless service provider’s Internet gateway as a default connection type if the BlackBerry Internet
Service is not available.
Fundamentals Guide
Wireless data transport
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