Specifications

Appendix A – TAP Interface Specifications
This appendix is included for those who want to develop their own paging control software or add an interface for the
WaveWare v9 Series Paging Encoder to their existing software applications.
A simple definition of the TAP Protocol is that the TAP Protocol normally requires a connect and disconnect process and
normally assumes that the Host system maintains a database of pager reference numbers called IDs, and that the paging
system maintains a database of all paging parameters associated with each ID. The TAP Interface supports paging
messages up to 244 characters in length. The actual maximum length of transmitted messages in the WaveWare SPS-5
v9 Series TAP Interface is 245 minus the ID field length. With an ID value of 5, you can transmit up to 245 characters per
message. With an ID value of 1233425120, you can transmit up to 235 characters per message.
To configure your WaveWare v9 Series Paging Encoder to use the TAP Paging Protocol, you may be required to
configure the com port settings in the paging encoder. Please refer to Appendix B – Com Port Settings, for details on
configuring communication protocols.
Your WaveWare v9 Series Paging System typically communicates with a PC or other host device via RS-232 at 9600
Baud, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. The eighth data bit is ignored (no parity). You can configure the paging system for other
serial communication parameters. Please refer to Appendix B – Com Port Settings, for details on serial communication
parameters.
The WaveWare v9 Series Paging Encoder maintains an input buffer which can receive commands from the PC while a
page is being transmitted. The input buffer should be able to contain approximately ten paging messages before getting
full. When a command is received from the PC, the paging system responds with a message that includes error
messages if the command was not understood or not properly transmitted. The first three digits of each paging system
response conform to the response codes defined in the TAP v1.8 specification.
See Appendix D – TAP Response Codes for a listing of the response codes.
The WaveWare v9 Series Paging Encoder encodes paging messages into POCSAG paging format and transmits the
encoded paging message. If the Carrier Detect function is enabled, transmissions will be delayed while interfering signals
are detected.
Control characters recognized by the WaveWare v9 Paging System in TAP Protocol mode include:
CARRIAGE RETURN <CR> $0D
START OF TEXT <STX> $02
END OF TEXT <ETX> $03
END OF TRANSMISSION <EOT> $04
SUBSTITUTE <SUB> $1A
ESCAPE <ESC> $1B
Control characters generated by the
WaveWare v9 Paging System in TAP Protocol mode include:
LINE FEED <LF> $0A
CARRIAGE RETURN <CR> $0D
ACKNOWLEDGE <ACK> $06
NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE <NAK> $15
ABANDON TRANSACTION <RS> $1E
ESCAPE <ESC> $1B
END OF TRANSMISSION <EOT> $04
XON <XON> $13
XOFF <XOFF> $11
Tap Interface Specifications Continued on next page…