Specifications
PAGING OPERATION
Paging transactions are transmitted in blocks of characters, where one transaction is sent per block. Each block sent by
the Host Device is acknowledged by the paging system. The Host Device must wait for this acknowledgement before
sending the next block. The WaveWare v9 Series Paging Systems provide acknowledgement in the form of an <ACK>
character.
The WaveWare v9 Series Paging Systems supports TAP message blocks up to 253 characters in length, with a 235 to
244 character message, from 1 to 10 characters for ID (pager number), plus 5 control characters, and a 3 character
checksum. (Message field length is restricted as follows: when a 1 character ID is used, a 244 character message can be
accommodated, and so on, for a total of 253 characters, such that when a 4 character ID is used, a 241 character
message can be accommodated. The maximum ID field length of 10 causes a maximum message field length of 235
characters). A block always carries two fields with their associated carriage returns. The message field may be empty,
but its carriage return must be included in the data block. The TAP message block format is as follows:
<STX>ID<CR>Message<CR><ETX>Checksum<CR>
The ID Field is a one to ten character pager number. Leading zeroes are not required. The Message field accommodates
up to 235 alphanumeric characters. The Checksum field provides a checksum for the previous portion of the TAP
message block. See Appendix C – TAP Checksum Calculation, for sample code to create the checksum field.
The Message field can be formatted as follows:
For Alphanumeric paging messages, all 7-bit ASCII “non-control” characters are valid except ^, ~, and _
(underscore)
For Numeric paging messages, valid characters are the numbers 0 through 9, - (hyphen), and space
Control Characters can be embedded into paging messages so that high end alpha pagers and paging data
receivers can respond with formatted screen displays and with formatted serial output, as required. Control
characters (typically <CR> and <LF>) can be embedded in messages by using the Transparency Option.
The Transparency Option replaces a non-printable control character with the SUB (Hex 1A) character
immediately followed by the control code offset by 40 Hex. See Appendix F - Embedded Control
Characters for details on how to embed control characters in paging messages.
The WaveWare v9 Series TAP Interface supports ID field lengths from 1 to 10 digits. The ID field can be formatted using
two different methods, as follows:
Method 1 - ID field lengths from 1 to 4 digits will cause a pager database lookup. ID fields of this format must
contain numeric digits only. The numeric ID value will be compared to the ID values stored in the WaveWare
v9 Series Paging System’s onboard Pager Database.
Method 2 - ID field lengths from 5 to 10 digits will cause Extended ID processing. Extended ID processing
assumes that the last 3 digits of the ID field define paging message encoding attributes, while the preceding
digits define the pager cap code. Extended ID processing allows you to avoid the process of configuring a
pager database in the WaveWare v9 Series Paging Systems. See Appendix E – Extended ID Processing
for details on how to format the ID field.
When the Host Device delivers a TAP Message Block to the WaveWare v9 Series Paging Systems, if the message
block is properly formatted, and a 1 to 4 digit ID field matches the pager database, the paging system will respond with an
initial response code as follows:
211 Page(s) Sent Successfully<CR>
Tap Interface Specifications Continued on next page…