SMS

The Telecom Source

10 Slide Technology Series
 SMS Overview
 SMS stands for Short Message Service

 SMS was first introduced in 1991 in Europe as a text messaging service based
on European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards for
mobile networks

 SMS is being used in a wide range of social and business applications such as
electronic voting, delivery of stock quotations, delivery of e-mail notification

 SMS is currently supported on the major mobile network technologies including:

 GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)
 GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
 CDMA (Carrier Division Multiplex Access)

 SMS supports the sending and receiving of text, images, animation and sound

 SMS messages are originated and received by Short Messaging Entities (SME).
Examples of SMEs are: mobile phones; servers; personal computers
 Basic Network Architecture

SMS-GMSC/
SME SMSC MSC/SGSN MS
SMS-IWMSC

Outside the scope

of GSM specifications
HLR VLR

1. Short Message Entity (SME) – sends or receives short messages

2. Short Message Service Centre (SC) – stores-and-forwards messages between the SME and the MS
3. Gateway MSC For Short Message Service (SMS-GMSC) - receives messages from the SC,
interrogates the HLR for routing information and forward the messages to the MSC or SGSN
• Home Location Register (HLR) - a database used for permanent storage and management
of user/subscriber profiles
4. Inter-Working MSC For Short Message Service (SMS-IWMSC) - receives messages from the MSC or
SGSN and forwards them to the SC
5. Mobile Service Centre (MSC) – performs switching functions for mobile stations in a geographical area
• Visitor Location Register (VLR) - a database that contains temporary information about
roaming subscribers. The MSC and the VLR are always on the same platform.
6. Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) – performs packet switching functions for mobile stations in a
geographical area. The SGSN is used instead of the MSC when SMS info is transferred over GPRS.
7. Mobile Station (MS) – a device on the mobile network capable of receiving and sending short messages
SMS Protocol Services and Features
 SMS is a point-to-point store and forward technology with 2 basic services:
 Short Message Mobile Terminated (SM-MT) - to transmit a message from the short message
service centre to the mobile station. – SMS-DELIVER PDU (Protocol Data Unit)
 Short Message Mobile Originated (SM-MO) to transmit a message from mobile station to
service centre – SMS-SUBMIT PDU

 SMS allows message delivery to handsets either active/in-use or powered off

 Mobile stations receive transport data protocol units (TPDU) denoted as SMS-Deliver
 Mobile stations send transport data protocol units (TPDU) denoted as SMS-Submit
 Note: the TPDU contains the user data (the short message)

 SMS protocol permits request of message delivery confirmation report

 SMS messages contain up to 140 octets which is equivalent to:

 160 Latin characters (7 Bit Coding) – Text Mode
 70 Unicode characters (double byte) e.g. Arabic Characters, Chinese Characters
 SMS messages can also contain up to 140 octets of binary information

 SMS messages are transported in the core network using SS7 (Signaling
System 7
SMS Service Elements
 Validity Period is the service element that indicates the time period for which the
SMSC will guarantee the existence of the short message when attempting to deliver it

 Service Centre Time Stamp is the service element that indicates the time stamp of
message arrival at the SMSC

 Protocol Identifier is the service element in to indicate higher layer protocol or

indicates inter-working with certain types of telemetic services (e.g. paging, email)

 More Messages to Send is the service element by which a SMSC informs the MS
that there is one or more messages waiting in the SC to be sent to the MS

 Priority is the service element indicating that delivery of the message will be
attempted regardless of the MS being temporarily absent or having no free memory

 Message Waiting is the service element that enables the mobile network to provide
the HLR, SGSN and VLR with the information that there is a message waiting in the
originating SMSC for a MS

 Alert Service Centre is the service element used by mobile networks to inform an
SMSC that a previously unreachable MS (temporarily absent or no memory) is ready
to receive messages
SM-MT Service - SMS-DELIVER TPDU Structure
1-10 Octets 1 Octet 2-12 Octets 1 Octet 1 Octets 7 Octets 1 Octet 0-140 Octets

  PDU-            
SCA Type OA PID DCS SCTS UDL UD
 PDU Type:

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Bits  MTI bit 1 = 0

bit 0 = 0
RP UDHI SRI     MMS MTI

Parameter Description

SCA Service Centre Address - Telephone number of the Service Centre

PDU Type Protocol Data Unit Type

RP Reply Path - Parameter indicating that Reply Path exists

UDHI User Data Header Indicator - Parameter indicating that UD field contains a header

SRI Status Report Indication - Parameter indicating if the SME has requested a status report

MMS More Messages to Send - Parameter indicating whether or not there are more messages to send

MTI Message Type Indicator - Parameter describing the message type 00 means SMS-Deliver

OA Originator Address - Address of the originating SME

PID Protocol Identifier - Parameter indicating the SMSC how to process the Short Message (e.g. Fax)

DCS Data Coding Scheme - Parameter identifying the coding scheme within the User Data (UD)

SCTS Service Centre Time Stamp - Parameter identifying the time when the SMSC received the message

UDL User Data Length - Parameter indicating the length of the UD-field

UD User Data - Data Field of the Short Message

SM-MO Service - SMS-SUBMIT TPDU Structure
1-10 Octets 1 Octet 1 Octet 2-12 Octets 1 Octet 1 Octets 0, 1 or 7 Octets 1 Octet 0-140 Octets

  PDU-              
SCA Type MR DA PID DCS VP UDL UD

PDU Type:

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Bits
 MTI bit 1 = 0
RP UDHI SRR  VPF   RD MTI bit 0 = 1

Parameter Description

SCA Service Centre Address - Telephone number of the Service Centre

PDU Type Protocol Data Unit Type

RP Reply Path - Parameter indicating that Reply Path exists

UDHI User Data Header Indicator - Parameter indicating that UD field contains a header

SRR Status Report Request - Parameter indicating if the MS has requested a status report

VPF Validity Period Format - Parameter indicating whether or not the VP field is present

RD Reject Duplicates – parameter indicating if SMSC will accept a message with same MR and DA from the same OA

MTI Message Type Indicator - Parameter describing the message type 01 means SMS-Submit

MR Message Reference - Successive numbers (0…255) of all SMS-SUBMIT frames sent by the MS.

DA Destination Address - Address of the destination SME

PID Protocol Identifier - Parameter indicating the SMSC how to process the Short Message (e.g. Fax)

DCS Data Coding Scheme - Parameter identifying the coding scheme within the User Data (UD)

SCTS Service Centre Time Stamp - Parameter identifying the time when the SMSC received the message

UDL User Data Length - Parameter indicating the length of the UD-field

UD User Data - Data Field of the Short Message

Message Flow SM-MT
SMSC GMSC HLR MSC VLR MS

Message
Transfer
sendRoutingInfo-
ForShortMsg

forwardShortMessage

sendInfoFor-
MT-SMS Page
Authenticate

Message Transfer
Deliver Report

SM-Delivery
ReportStatus
Delivery
Report

Note: ETSI/GSM MAP sendRoutingInforForShortMsg equivalent in IS41 (North American standard) is

SMSrequest mechanism, while forwardShortMessage is Short Message Delivery-Point-to-Point (SMD-PP)
Message Flow SM-MO
SMSC SMS- HLR MSC VLR MS
IWMSC

Access Request

Authenticate

Message Transfer

sendInfoFor-
MO-SMS
forwardShortMessage

Message
Transfer

Delivery
Report Delivery Report
Delivery
Report

Note: ETSI/GSM MAP forwardShortMessage equivalent in IS41 (North American Standard) is Short
Message Delivery-Point-to-Point (SMD-PP) mechanism
Short Message Service Centre - SMSC
 Short Message service Centre plays a central role in the management of
SMS message origination and SMS message delivery

 Interestingly, detailed functionality of SMSC is outside the scope of

standardization, hence several vendor specific products and protocols:
 EMI (External Machine Interface) – CMG, now LogicaCMG
 UCP (Universal Computer Protocol) – Logica, now LogicaCMG
 CIMD (Computer Interface to Message Distribution) – Nokia
 OIS (Open Interface Specification) – SEMA Group, now Airwide Solutions
 Computer Access Service and Protocol – Ericsson

 SMS Forum is an industry initiative to create a common standard “SMPP”

(Short Message Peer-to-Peer) using Internet as the transport network

 The ETSI/GSM standard does specify minimum mandatory SMSC

requirements:
 Each SMS-Deliver to a MS must have unique time stamp with one second accuracy
 Only one outstanding SMS-Deliver (i.e. message for which a report not yet received)
 If requested by MS or SME, initiate overwriting of previously received short messages
 Additional Features and Issues
 SMS standard allows concatenation of messages to enable transmission of
longer messages (i.e. messages longer than 140 octets)

 Short Messages may be compressed with algorithms described in GSM 03.42

 Compression only applies to user-data and excludes user-data-header
 If compressed message are greater than 140 octets, then the messages can be concatenated

 In North America wireless subscribers can address text messages using 5-digit
numbers (“short codes”)
 An example of the use of short codes is for SMS voting
 One objective of short codes is to reduce or minimize Spam
 Short codes are being used to price and market services (e.g charge back to application provider)

 Service gateway products are available that address multi-network (GSM/CDMA)

and multi-protocol (e.g. EMI/OIS) inter-working

 Security is an emerging concern similar to that with e-mail, for example:

 SPAM – sending of unsolicited messages and ads via SMS (e.g. to entice users to call numbers
that have a high per minute charge)
 Virus - resend of message to all numbers in the phone’s address book (e.g. via a Trojan Horse)
 Identity Theft - retrieval of personal information from a SIM (Subscriber Interface Module) card
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