Mobile application gateway

Definition
A mobile application gateway (MAG is

"a piece of software that provides application-specific network security for mobile application infrastructures. The purpose of a MAG is to act as a network proxy, accepting connections on behalf of the application's network infrastructure, filtering the traffic, and relaying the traffic to mobile application servers. This proxy relationship allows the MAG to apply application layer filters to network traffic, providing focused security designed to protect the mobile application service."

Overview
MAGs are often used in place of traditional network protections, such as intrusion detection systems, when application traffic is encrypted or opaque in structure. A MAG is traditionally conceptually separated from the Gateway and Security Stack because it functions at the application layer, rather than at the session and lower layers, as defined by the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Network Model."