Mobile Cellular Communication

Lecture 10

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 Outline

Short Message Service (SMS)

Multimedia Message Service (MMS)

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 SMS & MMS
 What is SMS
• How it Works ?
• Infrastructure Required
 What is MMS
• How it Works?
Infrastructure Required

Short message service (SMS) is a

globally accepted wireless
service that enables the
transmission of alphanumeric
messages between mobile
subscribers and external systems
such as electronic mail, paging,
and voice-mail systems.
 SMS
 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
 SMS
 SMS
 Two way communications of the text messages
 Maximum character length of 160 characters
• This can change though depending on the operator or the character
set used
 Character sets supported are
• ASCII & Unicode
 First Text
 Was sent in December 1992, to a Vodafone device
• Sent by Neil Papworth, saying “Merry Christmas”
• ("Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you.“ ????)
 Standard
 Defined by ETSI and is known as “GSM 03.40”
 SMS
The success is SMS was never planned for!
 It was only ever intended as the Pager replacement, with limited use

 Usage in the UK alone

• December 2003, 20.5 Billion messages sent over the four largest operators
 Consider this at 8 Pence a time!
 SMS
 GSM
 At a defined time interval in GSM all devices will listen to
a transmission.
• This is when a Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) packet of
information is being sent across the network.
 The DCCH packets are used to transfer essential information
into the devices, e.g. Information like a call is in coming
 Paging signals from the Base stations, e.g. to work out if a
handover is needed
 One of the 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.
 SMS
 SMS Packet format
 All data is transferred in a single DCCH SPACH packet

SCA Service Centre MR Message Reference PID Protocol Identifier

Address
PDU Type Protocol Data Unit DA Destination Address DCS Data Coding Scheme
Type
VP Validity Period UDL User Data Length UD User Data
 SMS
 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 the DCCH format, SMS will work on a large number of digital
networks
 GSM - Europe
 PCS - American
 PDC - Japan
 SMS
 SMS Infrastructure
 One additional server needs adding to the GSM network
• Short Message Service Centre (SMSC)

GSM SMS Infrastructure Base

Base Station
Station Other
SMSC
Mobile
Phone
HLR Network
 SMS

 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
 SMS
 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
 SMS Summary
 Messages in Short Message Service (SMS) must be no longer than 160 alpha-num
eric characters and contain no images or graphics.
 Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC),
which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device.
 To do this, the SMSC sends a SMS Request to the home location register (HLR) to
find the roaming customer. Once the HLR receives the request, it will respond to
the SMSC with the subscriber's status: 1) inactive or active 2) where subscriber is
roaming.
 If the response is "inactive", then the SMSC will hold onto the message for a
period of time. When the subscriber accesses his device, the HLR sends a SMS
Notification to the SMSC, and the SMSC will attempt delivery.
 The SMSC transfers the message in a Short Message Delivery Point to Point form
at to the serving system. The system pages the device, and if it responds, the
message gets delivered.
 The SMSC receives verification that the message was received by the end user,
then categorizes the message as "sent" and will not attempt to send again.

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 SMS Benefits
At a minimum, SMS benefits include the following:
 Delivery of notifications and alerts
 Guaranteed message delivery
 Reliable, low-cost communication mechanism for concise
information
 Ability to screen messages and return calls in a selective
way
 Increased subscriber productivity
 Delivery of messages to multiple subscribers at a time
 Ability to receive diverse information

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 MMS

 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
 MMS

 Evolution
 MMS

 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
 MMS
 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 t
he title of MMS compatible
• Pictures
 JPEG, GIF, PNG, SVG-Tiny (2D Vector Graphics)
• Movies
 MPEG-4
• Sound
 SP-MIDI
 Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR)
• Text
 ASCII Text
 UTF 8/16
 MMS
 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
 MMS

 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
 MMS

 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
 MMS

 MMS Delivery
 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.

• MMS is not platform dependent

 Meaning that any mobile system can use this technology
 MMS
 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
 MMS

 MMS Infrastructure

Internet

MMS Infrastructure
Base
Station MMSE MMSE = MMS Environment

HLR
 MMS Summary
 The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is as its name
suggests the ability to send and receive messages comprising a
combination of text,sound,images & as technology improves,
video to MMS capable handsets.

 MMS is a more advance version of the current SMS.

 MMS is a standard set by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3G

PP), so MMS will be used by all mobile vendors.

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 SMS Infrastructure beyond 2G

IP-SM-GW: IP Short Message Gateway

GL is a company to offer such solutions IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem
MME: Mobility Management Entity
SGW: Serving Gateway
PGW: PDN (Packet Data Network) Gateway
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 Discussion
 Instant Message Vs. SMS
 OTT (Over the Top)-Business SMS via Apps
 A2P (Application to Person)
 Future of SMS

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 Q& A
Thank you.