SMS &

MMS
Justin Champion
C208 Ext:3723
www.staffs.ac.uk/personal/engineering_and_technology/jjc1

SMS & MMS

Contents

What is SMS

How it Works
Infrastructure Required

What is MMS

Infrastructure Required

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Short Messaging Service (SMS)

Also known as Simple Message Service

Intention

Designed as a replacement for the Pager

The pager allows text messages to be sent to the device

To respond you must get to a phone
Still widely used, in

Hospitals
Military
Police
Industry

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SMS allowed

Two way communications of the text messages

Maximum character length of 160 characters

Character sets supported are

ASCII + additional European characters

Unicode

First Text

Was sent in December 1992, to a Vodafone device

This can change though depending on the operator or the character set used

Sent by Neil Papworth, saying Merry Christmas

Standard

Defined by ETSI and is known as GSM 03.40

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SMS Continued

The success is SMS was never planned for!

It was only ever intended as the Pager replacement, with
limited use

This will explain some of the design decisions made

Usage in the UK alone

December 2003, 20.5 Billion messages sent over the four largest
operators
(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3422475.stm, 2004)

Consider this at 8 Pence a time!

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GSM

At a defined time interval in GSM all devices will listen to a

transmission.

This is when a Digital Control Channel (DCCH) packet of

information is being sent across the network.

These DCCH packets are used to transfer essential information into

the devices.
Information like a call is in coming
Paging signals from the Base stations, to work out if a handover is
needed
One of these packet formats is called SMS point to point messaging,
Paging, access control channel (SPACH)

This message type can be used to carry a text message.

Advantage of this method is a text message can still be delivered
during a phone conversation.

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SMS Packet format

All data is transferred in a single DCCH SPACH packet

SCA

Service Centre
Address

MR

Message Reference

PID

Protocol Identifier

PDU Type

Protocol Data Unit

Type

DA

Destination Address

DCS

Data Coding Scheme

VP

Validity Period

UDL

User Data Length

UD

User Data

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SMS

What a packet looks like

Example SMS transmission packet saying Hello
(www.spallared.com/nokia/smspdu/smspdu.htm#_Toc485435709, 2003)

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SMS delivery

Takes no additional allocation of channels

Will still work on a none packet switched infrastructure
Device does not need to continuously listen for a SMS
delivery warning

Using this DCCH format, SMS will work on a large number of

digital networks

GSM - Europe
PCS - American
PDC - Japan

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SMS Infrastructure

One additional server needs adding to the GSM

network

Short Message Service Centre (SMSC)

HLR = Home Location Register

Base
Station

GSM SMS Infrastructure

SMSC

HLR

Base
Station

Other
Mobile
Phone
Network

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SMSC

This is a combination of hardware and software

The SMS message will be stored at this location on a

FIFO basis

If the messages destination is within the local network

The HLR, is queried to find the current location of the intended
device
The HLR will also inform if the device is currently turned on
If the device is off then the HLR is informed that there is a
message waiting
When the device turns on the HLR informs the SMSC
The message will then be forwarded to the device
If the device is turned on, the message will be forwarded to that
location

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SMSC

Device is outside of the network

The message will be forwarded to the SMSC of that

network, where deliver will be the same as before

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Evolution
Operators recognised the massive
potential of data services

They looked at developing SMS

Result was

Enhanced Messaging Service

Allowed additional data to be sent beyond SMS
Text formatting
Multimedia Messaging Service
Discussed in this lecture

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Evolution

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Latest Technology

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Allows the transfer of more than text between

mobile devices

These devices do not need to be compatible!

In the event of a none compatible device being sent a
MMS, they will receive an Internet link instead
The message can then be view on the Internet at a
later stage

MMS

Is only available on GRPS devices and newer

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MMS

The following are the current standards

The standards can be expanded in the future

This is a list of base requirements for devices to be given the title

of MMS compatible

Pictures

Movies

SP-MIDI
Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR)

Text

MPEG-4

Sound

JPEG, GIF, PNG, SVG-Tiny (2D Vector Graphics)

ASCII Text
UTF 8/16

Future Use

Allows unlimited expansion

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MMS

Additional information about how to present the

Media can also be transferred

If this is not present the device will make the

decision

Formats are WML, XML or SMIL

Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language

(SMIL)

SMIL allows for time dependent display of information

Allowing for example a presentation to be shown on the
device

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MMS Delivery

SMS was delivered in a single packet

MMS can have a theoretical unlimited
message size

In reality the operators/devices will control the size

of the messages

This indicates that the message can not be

delivered in a single packet

Number of packets will depend on the type of

messages sent, as with TCP

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MMS Transport

MMS packets will be transferred using the

WAP protocol in GSM based networks

This gives security in the messages

Access to the Internet to move MMS message if
needed to the Internet

The User agent at the application layer is

changed to deal with MMS

Remember WAP is only a transport protocol

Your WML display is just another user agent

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MMS Delivery continued

MMS message will be transferred in the spare

capacity

The media will be trickled to your device

You will only be informed of a message once all of the data
is in the device

If you device does not have the storage to display a movie,

then the data can be streamed into your device

Reducing the overhead for storage, but increasing the

overhead for the network.

This will not be available until 3G (UMTS in Europe)

MMS is not platform dependent

Meaning that any mobile system can use this technology

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Paying for MMS ?

SMS was simple the sender paid a set amount

This is now an issue with the potential large

amounts of data to be sent
As MMS can in the future be linked to the Internet
how will pay for data coming from it?
This is an issue which will need resolving

Billing needs to be as simple as SMS to be effective

Users do not want to get a bill which says you have
received 0.65 Mbytes of data to most people it means
nothing

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MMS Infrastructure
Internet

Base
Station

MMS Infrastructure
MMSE

HLR

MMSE = MMS Environment

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Multimedia Messaging Service Environment (MMSE)

Generic name for all of the servers which need to provide information to
send a MMS

These can be in more than one network

MMS Centre (MMSC)

Allows delivery of information over different packet switched networks

Records usage for charging
Conversion of the messages

This will be based upon the specification of the device

Using WAP 2.0

HLR

Storing the MMS message until delivery the same as SMSC

MSS Relay

Consider this when you are roaming

Allows the discovery of the status/location of a device

MMS Value Added Services (VAS)

Allowing the adding of high quality multimedia in a MMS, provided by the

operator

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MMS Future

The initial take up of MMS has not been as good as expected

MMS sending is expected to be 1% of the market this year

Reasons

(www.w2forum.com/MMS_Extract.pdf, 2004)
Uncertainty about the technology
Expense
Lack of MMS capable devices

The usage of MMS should increase

This will reduce the cost of the messages

MMS capable equipment will become available as people naturally
replace there phones
Due to adverts the understanding of the technology is increasing

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Link

MMS standards document

www.wmlclub.com/docs/especwap2.0/WAP-205MMSArchOverview-20010425-a.pdf

WAP Version 2.0

www.wapforum.org/what/WAPWhite_Paper1.pdf

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Conclusion

SMS
MMS