SMS

The Telecom Source

10 Slide Technology Series

Telecom Source Consulting Inc.

www.thetelecomsource.com | 905-854-5400

Introduction

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

SME

SMSC

SMS-GMSC/
SMS-IWMSC

MSC/SGSN

MS

Outside the scope

of GSM specifications
HLR

1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

6.
7.

VLR

Short Message Entity (SME) sends or receives short messages

Short Message Service Centre (SC) stores-and-forwards messages between the SME and the MS
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
Inter-Working MSC For Short Message Service (SMS-IWMSC) - receives messages from the MSC or SGSN and forwards
them to the SC
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.
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.
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 interworking 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

PDUType

SCA

1 Octet

1 Octets

7 Octets

1 Octet

0-140 Octets

PID

DCS

SCTS

UDL

UD

OA

PDU Type:
7

RP

UDHI

SRI

2
MMS

Parameter
SCA
PDU Type
RP
UDHI

Bits

MTI

Description
Service Centre Address - Telephone number of the Service Centre
Protocol Data Unit Type
Reply Path - Parameter indicating that Reply Path exists
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

MTI bit 1 = 0
bit 0 = 0

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

SCA

PDUType

MR

DA

PID

DCS

VP

UDL

UD

PDU Type:
7

RP

UDHI

SRR

VPF

2
RD

Parameter
SCA
PDU Type
RP

Bits

MTI
Description

Service Centre Address - Telephone number of the Service Centre

Protocol Data Unit Type
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 (0255) 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

MTI bit 1 = 0
bit 0 = 1

Message Flow SM-MT

SMSC

GMSC

HLR

MSC

VLR

MS

Message
Transfer

sendRoutingInfoForShortMsg
forwardShortMessage
sendInfoForMT-SMS

Page
Authenticate

Deliver Report

Message Transfer

SM-Delivery
Delivery

ReportStatus

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

SMSIWMSC

HLR

MSC

VLR

MS
Access Request
Authenticate

Message Transfer
sendInfoForforwardShortMessage

MO-SMS

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 Peerto-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 phones 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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