SOLUTION

SOLUTION HUAWEI SERVICE

Enhancing
Subscriber Experience
— SM Buffer Solution
By Zhu Daxian
Network Department, Anhui Branch, China Mobile

T
he Short Message Service (SMS) is popular among subscribers leads to their dissatisfaction. A survey shows that many subscribers have
who use mobile terminals, especially young subscribers. The faced similar problems and operators often receive complaints regarding
SMS enables a subscriber to transmit information to another the delay in obtaining SMs.
subscriber and to obtain information, such as stock information, To improve the SM service, Huawei has come up with a solution to
weather information, sports information and bank account information, this problem after performing a detailed survey, research and tests.
from the Short Message Center (SMC). In other words, the SMS helps The analysis results of the signaling trace made during the tests are
enhance the communication experience among subscribers and makes as follows:
information accessible. In addition, operators can increase the average 1. Signaling process of two concurrent SMs
revenue per user (ARPU) by providing various value-added SMSs, such as
information query and Web message subscription.
The messages that are sent and received through SMS are short.
Generally, the short message (SM) text contains up to 140 bytes, that is,
160 ASCII characters or 70 Chinese characters.
Subscribers, however, frequently send long SMs that contain
more than 140 bytes. Before a mobile terminal receives a long SM,
the originating mobile terminal divides the long SM into two or more
message packets. When several subscribers send long SMs to a
subscriber at the same time, the destination subscriber may not receive
the SMs in a timely manner. The delay in receiving the SMs, especially
important SMs, has a negative impact on subscriber perception and this

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(1) The SMC delivers two consecutive SMs marked as A and B at
17:04:04. SM B, however, could not be delivered because SM A occupies
the Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH). In addition, the
Mobile Switching Center (MSC) notifies the SMC of the failure cause
"subscriber-busy-for-mt-sms."
(2) The SMC receives the response to SM A at 17:04:08. Three
minutes later, the SMC redelivers SM B based upon a specified redeliver
strategy. The delivery is successful because the destination mobile
terminal is not busy.
2. Signaling process of two message packets of a long SM
(1) The SMC delivers the first message packet of a long SM by using
dialog ID 2387. The message packet contains the moreMessagesToSend
field.
(2) The MSC keeps the dialog because the received SM contains the
moreMessagesToSend field, which indicates that more message packets
are to be sent to the same subscriber.
(3) At 18:26:17, the SMC delivers the second message packet by
using dialog ID 1705 before receiving the response to the first message
packet. The second message packet, however, could not be delivered
SOLUTION
because the SDCCH is busy in sending the first message packet.
(4) At 18:26:18, the MSC sends a response to the SMC after
receiving a response to the first message packet from the destination
mobile terminal, and then continues to wait for other message packets.
(5) The SMC, however, does not redeliver the second message
packet within a specified period and thus the destination mobile terminal
times out. The mobile terminal sends a Clear_Request message to the
MSC. Then, the MSC terminates the dialog and sends a MAP-U-ABORT
message to the SMC. As a result, the percentage of SMs unsuccessfully
delivered due to system errors increases.
(6) Three minutes later, that is, at 18:29:18, the SMC redelivers
the second message packet. The delivery is successful because the
destination mobile terminal is not busy.
The analysis made on the two signaling processes is as follows:
If the SMs or message packets are distributed to only one SMC,
the SMC delivers the second SM or message packet by using a same
dialog ID only after the SMC receives a success response to the first SM
or message packet from the MSC. This does not cause any problem. A
problem occurs only if the SMs or message packets sent at the same time
to a same subscriber are distributed by the SMS front end processor (FEP)
to two or more SMCs, and if the SMCs use different dialog IDs to deliver
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the SMs or message packets. (2) The SMC receives a success response to SM A from the MSC
To solve this problem, Huawei adds the SM buffer function to at 01:49:08. Then, the SMC tries to deliver SM C at 01:49:08. SM C is
the MSC. Through the SM buffer function, an SM or a message packet immediately delivered because the dialog for SM A is terminated due to
sent to a same destination mobile terminal through a different dialog the successful delivery of SM A.
ID is buffered. The SM buffer function is implemented through two (3) Twelve seconds after SM B is buffered, the buffer timer times
parameters: P99,BIT8 and P99,BIT9. out. Therefore, the MSC delivers a paging message and also SM B at
•• The P99,BIT8 parameter is used to control whether to enable the 01:49:17. The MSC sends a success response to SM B to the SMC at
SM buffer function of the MSC. If the function is enabled when 01:49:22. The process shows that the SM delay problem is solved.
several SMs or message packets are sent to a same destination
mobile terminal at the same time, the MSC does not return a
message indicating that the destination mobile terminal is busy.
Instead, the MSC buffers the second SM or message packet, waits
for 12 seconds by default, and then redelivers the second SM or
message packet.
If the P99,BIT8 parameter is set to 0, it indicates that the
MSC does not enable the SM buffer function. If the P99,BIT8
parameter is set to 1, it indicates that the MSC enables the SM
buffer function. The default value is 0.
•• The P99,BIT9 parameter indicates whether the MSC returns
a success response to the SMC after a wait timeout of the
destination mobile terminal occurs. If the P99,BIT9 parameter is
set to 1 when several SMs or message packets are sent to a same
destination mobile terminal at the same time, the MSC waits for
later SMs or message packets after receiving an SM or a message
packet that contains the moreMessagesToSend field. If later
SMs or message packets are sent to the MSC through a different
dialog ID, the MSC ignores the SMs or message packets and waits
for 20 seconds by default. If the wait times out, the MSC returns a
success response to the SMC and terminates the dialog. 4. Signaling process of two message packets of a long SM
If the P99,BIT9 parameter is set to 0, it indicates that the (1) The SMC delivers the first message packet of a long SM by
MSC returns a MAP-U-ABORT message to the SMC after the wait using dialog ID 747 at 02:31:55. The message packet contains the
times out. If the P99,BIT9 parameter is set to 1, it indicates that moreMessagesToSend field. After receiving the packet from the SMC and
the MSC returns a success response to the SMC and terminates sending it to the destination mobile terminal, the MSC keeps the SMS
the dialog after the wait times out. connection.
To enable the SM buffer function of the MSC, and to enable the (2) The SMC delivers the second message packet of the long SM
MSC to return a success response to the SMC and terminate the dialog by using dialog ID 3461 at 02:31:58. The MSC regards the packet as a
after the wait times out, set as follows: concurrent SM instead of the second message packet of the long SM and
MOD MSFP: ID=P99, MODTYPE=P1, BIT=8, BITVAL=1; // thus buffers the packet.
Enables the SM buffer function of the MSC. (3) The MSC sends a success response to the SMC by using dialog
MOD MSFP: ID=P99, MODTYPE=P1, BIT=9, BITVAL=1; ID 747 at 02:32:01.
// Enables the MSC to return a success response to the SMC and to (4) At 02:32:10, that is, 12 seconds after the second message
terminate the dialog after the wait times out. packet is delivered, the timer times out. At the same time, the MSC
After that, trace the signaling again. The signaling processes are as returns a message, which indicates that the destination mobile terminal
follows: is busy, to the SMC by using dialog ID 3461. This is because the SMS
3. Signaling process of three concurrent SMs connection to the destination mobile terminal is occupied by the first
(1) The SMC tries to deliver SM A at 01:49:04 and SM B at message packet of the long SM.
01:49:06. SM B is buffered because SM A is being delivered at 01:49:06. (5) After the wait for the second message packet times out at the

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destination mobile terminal, the destination mobile terminal sends a
Clear_Request message to the MSC at 02:32:20. Thus, the MSC releases
the SMS connection and uses dialog ID 747 to send a success response
to the SMC.
(6) Three minutes later, the SMC redelivers the second message
packet of the long SM. The packet is successfully delivered because
the destination mobile terminal is not busy. The process shows that the
SM delay problem is not solved even though the SM buffer function is
enabled.
In this process, the SMS connection between the MSC and the
destination mobile terminal is not released in time after the first message
packet is successfully delivered. This leads to the delivery failure of the
second message packet. The wait timeout limit of the destination mobile
terminal and that of the MSC determine whether the SMS connection
is released. If the destination mobile terminal times out before the
MSC times out, the destination mobile terminal will send a Clear_
Request message to the MSC for requesting the MSC to release the
SMS connection and to send a success response to the SMC. If the wait
timeout of the MSC occurs before the wait timeout of the destination
mobile terminal, the MSC will send a Clear_Command message to the
destination mobile terminal for disconnection notification and also
will send a success response to the SMC. The wait timeout limit of the
destination mobile terminal varies with destination mobile terminals. The
wait timeout limit of the MSC is 20 seconds.
To ensure that the second message packet is successfully delivered,
make sure that the SMS connection is released before the buffer timer
times out. The wait timeout limit of the buffer timer is 12 seconds, so you
need to change the wait timeout limit of the MSC to 8 seconds. That is,
SOLUTION
set as follows:
MOD TIMER: MPID=133, TMRIDX=0, TMRSEQ=89, TMRVAL=8;
// Changes the wait timeout limit of the MSC to 8 seconds.
After changing the wait timeout limit, trace the signaling again.
(1) At 13:23:04, the SMC delivers the first message packet of
a long SM by using dialog ID 909. The message packet contains the
moreMessagesToSend field.
(2) At 13:23:08, the SMC delivers the second message packet of the
long SM by using dialog ID 1731. The MSC buffers the message packet.
(3) The MSC sends a success response to the SMC by using dialog
ID 909 at 13:23:10. The MSC still waits for later message packets sent
through dialog ID 909. After waiting for eight seconds, the wait timeout
limit of the MSC is reached and the MSC uses dialog ID 909 to send a
success response to the SMC and then releases the SMS connection.
(4) When the buffer timer whose wait timeout limit is 12 seconds
times out at 13:23:19, the MSC delivers a paging message and also the
second message packet. The MSC sends a success response to the SMC
by using dialog ID 1731 at 13:23:25. This process shows that the long
SM is successfully delivered and the SM delay problem is solved.
In the process of solving the problem related to the delay in
receiving SMs, Huawei has consistently strived to improve the service
quality and proved that it could meet the requirements of the subscribers
by performing detailed survey, conducting several tests and analyzing
the situation. It has finally worked out an optimized solution. The whole
process took less than 30 days. This increases subscribers' satisfaction,
reflects Huawei's efficiency, and proves that Huawei has put "Serving
our customers is the only reason Huawei exists" into practice. Now,
an increasing number of subscribers are enjoying professional services
brought by the SM buffer solution.
If you have any comments or ideas about this article, please write an e-mail to huawei_
services@huawei.com.
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