SMS

Short Message Service

 What is SMS?
SMS stands for short message service.

SMS is also often referred to as texting, sending

text messages or text messaging. The service
allows for short text messages to be sent from
one cell phone to another cell phone or from the
Web to another cell phone.

Including spaces, text messages traditionally

can’t exceed 160 characters.
 History of SMS
• Appeared on the wireless world in 1991 in Europe.
• In North America, SMS was made available initially
on digital wireless networks built by early pioneers
such as BellSouth Mobility, PrimeCo and Nextel,
among others.
• There was hardly any promotion as few people
predicted that this service would take off.
 History Contd..
• Fortunately, SMS was a success and it took
everyone in the mobile industry by surprise.
• First short message – sent in December 1992
from a personal computer to a mobile phone on
the Vodafone GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) Network in the UK.
• In April 1999, SMS market in the European
Union reached one billion short messages per
month.
 History Contd..
• It had become one of the few services in
consumer history that has grown very fast
without corresponding decrease in pricing.
• However, after SMS charging came about
– a decline in usage of about 25% to 40%
 SMS Length
• A single short message can be up to 160
characters of text in length using default
GSM alphabet coding
• 140 characters when Cyrillic character set
is used
• 70 characters when UCS2 international
character coding is used

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 UCS-2
UCS-2 (2-byte Universal Character Set)

• The UCS-2 encoding form is identical to that of UTF-

16(16-bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format), except
that it does not support surrogate pairs and therefore can
only encode characters in the BMP range U+0000
through U+FFFF.
• A pair of 16-bit words, together called a surrogate pair
• As a consequence it is a fixed-length encoding that
always encodes characters into a single 16-bit value.

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
GSM alphabet coding
Cyrillic Character set
 Channel Assignment
• SDCCH (Stand Alone Control Channel)
when not on a call
• SACCH (Slow associated control channel)
When we are on a call

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 How SMS works
• Once message is sent, it is received by a
Short Message Service Center (SMSC),
which then gets it to the appropriate
mobile device.
• SMSC sends a SMS Request to the home
location register (HLR) to find the roaming
customer.
 Contd..

• On reception, HLR responds to the SMSC

with the subscriber’s status I.e. active or
inactive.
• Inactive – SMSC holds message for a
period of time.
• Active – HLR sends a SMS notification to
the SMSC attempts delivery.
 Contd..
• SMSC transfers message in a Short
Message Delivery Point to Point format to
the serving system – if system responds,
message gets delivered.
• SMSC receives verification that message
was received by the end user.
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLR Interworking SC

MSC

<RACH>
1 CHANNEL REQUEST

DCCH ASSIGN <AGCH>

SIGNALING LINK
ESTABLISHED

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLR Interworking SC

MSC

<RACH>
1 CHANNEL REQUEST

DCCH ASSIGN <AGCH>

SIGNALING LINK
ESTABLISHED
<SDCCH> CR
2 REQ. FOR SERVICE

CC

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLR Interworking SC

MSC

<RACH>
1 CHANNEL REQUEST

DCCH ASSIGN <AGCH>

SIGNALING LINK
ESTABLISHED
<SDCCH> CR
2 REQ. FOR SERVICE

CC

3 AUTHENTICATION

SET Cipher MODE

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLRInterworking SC

MSC

<RACH>
1 CHANNEL REQUEST

DCCH ASSIGN <AGCH>

SIGNALING LINK
ESTABLISHED
<SDCCH> CR
2 REQ. FOR SERVICE
CC

3 AUTHENTICATION
SET Cipher MODE

4 RP_MO_DATA

SIF_MO_SMS
SIF_MO_SMS-Ack

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLRInterworking SC

MSC
(SC_No.)
5 MO_Forward_SM

Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack

MO_Forward_SM_Ack

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MO SMS Transfer

MS BSS MSC VLR Interworking SC

MSC
(SC_No.)
5 MO_Forward_SM

Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack

MO_Forward_SM_Ack

6 RP_ACK

"Send Successfully" is displayed on the mobile

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer

For Forwarding a
Short Message

For Forwarding Several

Short Message

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (A Message)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (A Message)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

2 SIF_MT_SMS
Page
Page

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (A Message)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

2 SIF_MT_SMS
Page
Page
3 Paging Response

Authentication and Ciphering

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (A Message)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

2 SIF_MT_SMS
Page
Page Request
3 Paging Response

Authentication and Ciphering

4 Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack

MT_Forward_SM_Ack
Short_Message_Ack
TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (Several Messages)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

MT_Forward_SM
(The More message To
Send Flag is True)

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (Several Messages)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message
SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

MT_Forward_SM
(The More message To
Send Flag is True)

2 SIF_MT_SMS
Page
Paging Request

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (Several Messages)
Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
1 Short Message

SRI_For_SM

SRI_For_SM_Ack

MT_Forward_SM

MT_Forward_SM
(The More message To
Send Flag is True)

2 SIF_MT_SMS
Page
Paging Request

3 Paging Response

Authentication and Ciphering

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (Several Messages)

Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
4 Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack
MT_Forward_SM_Ack
Short_Message_Ack

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 MT SMS Transfer (Several Messages)
Servicing Gateway
MS MSC
VLR HLR MSC SC
4 Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack
MT_Forward_SM_Ack
Short_Message_Ack

5 Short_Message

MT_Forward_SM

MT_Forward_SM
(The More message To
Send Flag is False)

Short_Message
Short_Message_Ack
MT_Forward_SM_Ack
Short_Message_Ack

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 Answer

MS BSS MSC VLR Interworking SC

MSC
(SC_No.)
MO_Forward_SM

Short_Message

Short_Message_Ack
Illegal Subscriber
MO_Forward_SM_Ack

Illegal Subscriber

RP_ACK

"Send Not Successfully" is displayed on the mobile

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
 SMS summary
• SMS is much more than just some text.
• Sophisticated features are bound to open
up holes (virus).
• SMS very suited to bulk application
(like e-mail)
• Trustworthiness as bad or worse as with
standard e-mail.

TT4113-SisKomSel-ext-
MODUL:09b
Applications
 Consumer
• Simple person to person paging – usually
to say hello, arrange a meeting etc.
• Voice and fax mail notifications –
notification of new messages waiting.
• Unified messaging – messages can be
conveniently accessed from a single point.
 Application Contd..
• Internet mail alerts
• Information services – in some areas,
wide range of information including share
prices, weather flight information, news
headlines etc.
Advantages of SMS
 Advantages
• An ideal messaging system – for short
messages or when it would take too long
to have a full conversation or even for
someone traveling overseas and not able
to take a voice call.
• Direct notification of new messages – no
dial up for periodical checks to mailbox.
 Advantages Contd..
• Messages can be still be received during a call.
• Eliminates need for separate devices for
messaging since services can be integrated into
a single wireless device.
• Internet mail alerts
• Information services – in some areas, wide
range of information including share prices,
weather flight information, news headlines etc.
 Disadvantage
• Restricted to 160 characters.