sms

MANJUSHA.U
 Introduction to SMS Messaging

 SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is a

technology that enables the sending and receiving of
messages between mobile phones.
 SMS first appeared in Europe in 1992. It was included in
the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
standards right at the beginning. Later it was ported to
wireless technologies like CDMA and TDMA.
 The GSM and SMS standards were originally developed
by ETSI. ETSI is the abbreviation for European
Telecommunications Standards Institute. Now the 3GPP
(Third Generation Partnership Project) is responsible for
the development and maintenance of the GSM and SMS
standards.
 As suggested by the name "Short
Message Service", the data that can be
held by an SMS message is very limited
 SMS text messaging supports languages
internationally
 It works fine with all languages supported
by Unicode, including Arabic, Chinese,
Japanese and Korean
 It is possible to send ringtones, pictures,
operator logos, wallpapers, animations,
business cards and WAP configurations
.
to a mobile phone with .SMS messages.
.
 One major advantage of SMS is that it is
supported by all GSM mobile phones.
Almost all subscription plans provided by
wireless carriers include inexpensive SMS
messaging service.
 Concatenated SMS Messages /
Long SMS Message
 One drawback of the SMS technology is that one SMS
message can only carry a very limited amount of data.
 To overcome this drawback, an extension called
concatenated SMS (also known as long SMS) was
developed. A concatenated SMS text message can
contain more than 160 English characters.
 Concatenated SMS works like this: The sender's mobile
phone breaks down a long message into smaller parts
and sends each of them as a single SMS message.
When these SMS messages reach the destination, the
recipient mobile phone will combine them back to one
long message.
 The drawback of concatenated SMS is that it is less
widely supported than SMS on wireless devices.
Basic Concepts of SMS
Technology
 How sms works
 An SMS center (SMSC) is responsible for handling the
SMS operations of a wireless network.
 When an SMS message is sent from a mobile phone, it
will reach an SMS center first. The SMS center then
forwards the SMS message towards the destination.
 An SMS message may need to pass through more than
one network entity before reaching the destination.
 The main duty of an SMSC is to route SMS messages
and regulate the process. If the recipient is unavailable
(for example, when the mobile phone is switched off),
the SMSC will store the SMS message. It will forward the
SMS message when the recipient is available.
 Very often an SMSC is dedicated to handle the SMS
traffic of one wireless network. A network operator
usually manages its own SMSC(s) and locates them
inside its wireless network system. However, it is
possible for a network operator to use a third-party
SMSC that is located outside the wireless network
system.
 You must know the address of the wireless network
operator's SMSC in order to use SMS messaging with
your mobile phone. Typically an SMSC address is an
ordinary phone number in the international format.
 A mobile phone should have a menu option that can be
used to configure the SMSC address. Normally, the
SMSC address is pre-set in the SIM card by the wireless
network operator, which means you do not need to make
any changes to it.
 Validity Period of an SMS
Message
 An SMS message is stored temporarily in the SMS
center if the recipient mobile phone is offline.
 It is possible to specify the period after which the SMS
message will be deleted from the SMS center so that the
SMS message will not be forwarded to the recipient
mobile phone when it becomes online. This period is
called the validity period
 A mobile phone should have a menu option that can be
used to set the validity period. After setting it, the mobile
phone will include the validity period in the outbound
SMS messages automatically.
 Message Status Reports
 Sometimes you may want to know whether an SMS
message has reached the recipient mobile phone
successfully.
 To get this information, you need to set a flag in the SMS
message to notify the SMS center that you want a status
report about the delivery of this SMS message. The
status report is sent to you in the form of an SMS
message.
 A mobile phone should have a menu option that can be
used to set whether the status report feature is on or off.
After setting it, the mobile phone will set the
corresponding flag in the outbound SMS messages for
you automatically. The status report feature is turned off
by default on most mobile phones and GSM / GPRS
modems.
 Message Submission Reports

 After leaving the mobile phone, an SMS message goes

to the SMS center.
 When it reaches the SMS center, the SMS center will
send back a message submission report to the mobile
phone to inform whether there are any errors or failures
(e.g. incorrect SMS message format, busy SMS center,
etc).
 If there is no error or failure, the SMS center sends back
a positive submission report to the mobile phone.
Otherwise it sends back a negative submission report to
the mobile phone.
 The mobile phone may then notify the user that the
message submission was failed and what caused the
failure.
 If the mobile phone does not receive the message
submission report after a period of time, it concludes that
the message submission report has been lost.
 The mobile phone may then re-send the SMS message to
the SMS center. A flag will be set in the new SMS
message to inform the SMS center that this SMS message
has been sent before. If the previous message submission
was successful, the SMS center will ignore the new SMS
message but send back a message submission report to
the mobile phone. This mechanism prevents the sending of
the same SMS message to the recipient multiple times.
 Sometimes the message submission report mechanism is
not used and the acknowledgement of message
submission is done in a lower layer.
 Message Delivery Reports

 After receiving an SMS message, the recipient mobile

phone will send back a message delivery report to the
SMS center to inform whether there are any errors or
failures.
 This process is transparent to the mobile user. If there is
no error or failure, the recipient mobile phone sends
back a positive delivery report to the SMS center.
Otherwise it sends back a negative delivery report to the
SMS center.
 If the sender requested a status report earlier, the SMS
center sends a status report to the sender when it
receives the message delivery report from the recipient.
 If the SMS center does not receive the message
delivery report after a period of time, it concludes
that the message delivery report has been lost.
The SMS center then re-sends the SMS
message to the recipient.
 Sometimes the message delivery report
mechanism is not used and the
acknowledgement of message delivery is done
in a lower layer.
 Intra-operator SMS Messages

 If both you and your friend are using the mobile phone
service of the same wireless network operator, the
transmission of an SMS message from you to your friend
will involve only one wireless network operator. This
SMS message is called an intra-operator SMS message.
 Typically, the cost for sending an intra-operator SMS
message from a mobile phone is lower than that for
sending other kinds of SMS messages such as inter-
operator SMS messages. Some wireless network
operators allow their subscribers to send unlimited intra-
operator SMS messages free of charge.
 Transmission Process of Intra-
operator SMS Messages
 The transmission of an intra-operator SMS message
involves only one SMS center.
 After leaving the sender, the intra-operator SMS
message reaches the SMS center. The SMS center then
delivers the SMS message to the recipient mobile
phone. If the recipient mobile phone is offline, the SMS
center stores the SMS message. It will deliver the SMS
message when the recipient mobile phone is online. If
the SMS message's validity period expires and the
recipient mobile phone is still offline, the SMS center will
remove the SMS message.
 When the SMS center receives the message delivery
report from the recipient mobile phone or removes the
SMS message (for example, when the validity period
expires), it sends a status report to the sender if the
sender requested one earlier.
figure illustrates the transmission process of an intra-operator SMS message:
 Inter-operator SMS Messages

 Suppose you and your friend are using the

mobile phone service of wireless network
operator A and wireless network operator B
respectively. The transmission of an SMS
message from you to your friend involves two
wireless networks. This SMS message is called
an inter-operator SMS message.
 Typically, the cost for sending an inter-operator
SMS message from a mobile phone is higher
than that for sending an intra-operator SMS
message.
 Transmission Process of Inter-
operator SMS Messages
 The transmission of an inter-operator SMS
message involves one or more SMS centers.
 Generally, there are two different ways for the
transmission of inter-operator SMS messages.
 In the first way, signaling interconnections are
set up between two wireless networks. When the
originator SMS center receives an inter-operator
SMS message, it gets the routing information
from the recipient wireless network and delivers
the SMS message to the recipient mobile phone
directly.
 In the second way, the originator SMS center
and the recipient SMS center are interconnected
through an SMS gateway or with a
communication protocol that is supported by
both SMS centers.
 The SMS message first reaches the originator
SMS center, which will then forward the SMS
message towards the recipient SMS center.
 The recipient SMS center will be responsible for
sending the SMS message to the recipient
mobile phone and storing the SMS message if
the recipient mobile phone is offline.
 International SMS Messages

 Inter-operator SMS messages can be further divided into

two categories -- local inter-operator SMS messages and
international inter-operator SMS messages (international
SMS messages).
 A local inter-operator SMS message is an SMS
message that is sent from one wireless network operator
to another wireless network operator in the same
country, while an international SMS message is an SMS
message that is sent from a wireless network operator in
one country to a wireless network operator in another
country.
 Usually the cost for sending an international SMS
message from a mobile phone is higher than that for
sending a local inter-operator SMS message.
 What is an SMS Gateway?

 One problem of SMS messaging is that SMSCs

developed by different companies use their own
communication protocol and most of these
protocols are proprietary.
 The SMS gateway acts as a relay between the
two SMSCs. It translates one SMSC protocol to
another one. This way can be used by two
different wireless carriers to interconnect their
SMSCs for purposes such as enabling the
exchange of inter-operator SMS messages.
 Example Applications of SMS
Messaging
 There are many different kinds of SMS
applications on the market today and
many others are being developed.
Applications in which SMS messaging can
be utilized are virtually unlimited. We will
describe some common examples of SMS
applications below to give you some ideas
of what can be done with SMS messaging.
 Person-to-Person Text
Messaging
 Person-to-person text messaging is the most commonly
used SMS application and it is what the SMS technology
was originally designed for.
 In these kinds of text messaging applications, a mobile
user types an SMS text message using the keypad of
his/her mobile phone, then he/she inputs the mobile
phone number of the recipient and clicks a certain option
on the screen, such as "Send" or "OK", to send the text
message out.
 When the recipient mobile phone receives the SMS text
message, it will notify the user by giving out a sound or
vibrating. The user can read the SMS text message
some time later or immediately and can send a text
message back if he/she wants.
 Provision of Information

 A popular application of the SMS technology other than

person-to-person text messaging is the provision of
information to mobile users.
 Many content providers make use of SMS text
messages to send information such as news, weather
report and financial data to their subscribers. Many of
these information services are not free.
 Reverse billing SMS is a common way used by content
providers to bill their users. The user is charged a certain
fee for each reverse billing SMS message received. The
fee will either be included in the monthly mobile phone
bill or be deducted from prepaid card credits.
 Alerts and Notifications

 SMS is a very suitable technology for delivering alerts

and notifications of important events. This is because of
two reasons:
 A mobile phone is a device that is carried by its owner
most of the time. Whenever an SMS text message is
received, the mobile phone will notify you by giving out a
sound or by vibrating. You can check what the SMS text
message contains immediately.
 SMS technology allows the "push" of information. This is
different from the "pull" model where a device has to poll
the server regularly in order to check whether there is
any new information. The "pull" model is less suitable for
alert and notification applications, since it wastes
bandwidth and increases server load.
 Stock Market Alerts

 In a stock market alert application, a program is

constantly monitoring and analyzing the stock
market. If a certain condition is satisfied, the
program will send a text message to the user's
mobile phone to notify him/her of the situation.
 For example, you can configure the alert system
such that if the stock price of a company is lower
than a certain value or drops by a certain
percentage, it will send an SMS alert to you.
 Conclusion…
 SMS is a success all over the world.
 The number of SMS messages
exchanged every day is enormous. SMS
messaging is now one of the most
important revenue sources of wireless
carriers.
 What is so special about SMS that makes
it so popular worldwide? Some of the
reasons are discussed below.
 SMS Messages can be Sent and Read at Any
Time
 SMS Messages can be Sent to an Offline
Mobile Phone
 SMS Messaging is Less Disturbing While You
can Still Stay in Touch
 SMS Messages are Supported by all Mobile
Phones and They can be Exchanged between
Different Wireless Carriers
THANK

YOU