Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD)

TCP/IP has emerged in recent years as the wide-area networking protocol of choice. By supporting TCP/IP, CDPD allows developers to use existing network applications and tools when designing for the wireless environment.

TCP/IP, however, is not unique to CDPD. TCP/IP applications can also operate over circuit-switched analog cellular connections and will be able to operate over future digital cellular and PCS connections as well.

Given this broad support for TCP/IP, application developers who develop efficient and optimized wireless applications using TCP/IP will be rewarded by multiple wireless transport opportunities. CDPD offers the best choice of wireless networks today for TCP/IP. Should another network offer particular advantages in the future, the application can be used on that network as well, thus minimizing the risk of obsolescence.

Industry-standard protocols SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) and PPP (Point-to- Point Protocol) are typically used between the mobile computer and the wireless modem, as shown in Figure 1.

CDPD uses industry-standard networking protocols. By routing IP datagrams (Network Layer packets), CDPD facilitates connection to existing corporate and public data networks. The intermediate server (IS) shown in Figure 1 is an IP router resident within the CDPD service provider’s network.