Q.1 What is SMS?

Ans. 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.

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Q.2 What are the benefits of SMS?

Ans. SMS provides a powerful vehicle for service

differentiation. The benefits of SMS to the service provider
are:

• Increased call completion on wireless and wire-line

networks by leveraging the notification capabilities of
SMS.
• An alternative to alphanumeric paging services
• Enabling wireless data access to corporate users
• Provision of value added services as email, voicemail,
and fax mail integration , reminder service, stock and
currency quotes, and airline schedules
• Provision of key administrative services such as advice
of charge, over the air downloading and service
provisioning
• What are the Elements of the SMS Architecture?

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Q. 3 What are the Elements of the SMS Architecture?

SMS Architecture
The above figure shows the basic network structure of the
SMS. It consists of the following:

• Short Messaging Entity: SME is an entity, which may

receive or send short messages. The SME may be
located in the fixed network, a mobile station, or
another service center
• Short Message Service Center: SMSC is responsible for
the relaying and store and forwarding of a short
message between an SME and mobile station.
• SMS-Gateway MSC: is an MSC capable of receiving a
short message from an SMSC, "interrogating a home
location register (HLR) for routing information, and
delivering the short message to the visited MSC of the
recipient mobile station.
• Home Location Register: HLR is a database used for
permanent storage and management of subscriptions
and service profiles. Upon interrogation by the SMSC,
the HLR provides the routing information for the
indicated subscriber.
• Mobile Switching Center: The mobile switching center
(MSC) performs the switching functions of the system
and controls calls to and from other telephone and data
systems
• Visitor Location Register: (VLR) is a database that
contains temporary information about subscribers. This
information is needed by the MSC in order to service
visiting subscribers

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Q.4 What is the Short Message Service Center?

Ans. See SMS Architecture

Q.5 What are the basic MAP operations necessary to

provide end-to-end Short Message Service?
Ans. The following basic MAP operations are necessary to
provide end to end short message service:

• Routing Information Request: The SMSC needs to

retrieve routing information from the HLR, in order to
determine the serving MSC for the addressed mobile
station. This process is carried out before delivering the
message.
• Point to Point Short Message Delivery: The mechanism
provides a means for the SMSC to transfer a short
message to the MSC, which is serving the addressed
mobile station.
• Short message waiting indication: This operation is
activated when a short message delivery attempt by
the SMSC fails due to a temporary failure. This provides
a means for the SMSC to request the HLR to add an
SMSC address to the list of SMSC s to be informed
when the indicated mobile station becomes accessible.
• Service Center Alert: The operation provides a means
for the HLR to inform the SMSC which has previously
initiated unsuccessful short message delivery attempts
to a specific mobile station, that the mobile station is
now recognized by the mobile network to be accessible.

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Q.6 What Service Elements, does the SMS comprise

of?

Ans. The SMS comprises several service elements relevant

to the reception and submission of short messages:

• Validity Period: The validity period indicates how long

the SMSC shall guarantee the storage of the short
message before delivery to the intended recipient
• Priority: Priority is the information element provided by
an SME to indicate the priority message
In addition, SMS provides a time stamp reporting the time of
submission of the message and an indication to the handset
of whether or not there are more messages to send (GSM)
or the number of additional messages to send (IS41)

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Q.7 How is the message status notified to the SMSC?

Ans. The SMSC is notified of the message status through

MAP operations. Go to Basic Map Operations.

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Q.8 What Potential Applications can be envisaged,

using the SMS?

Ans. Some of the potential applications of SMS technology,

utilizing the Mobile Terminated and Mobile Originated SMS
are:

• Notification Services
• E-mail Interworking
• Paging Interworking
• Information Services

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Q.9 What are the various steps involved in a

"Successful short message transfer attempt"?

Ans. The following steps are involved in a Successful short

message transfer attempt:

• The short message is submitted from the SME to the

SMSC
 • After completing its internal processing ,the SMSC
interrogates the HLR and receives the routing
information for the mobile subscriber
• The SMSC sends the short message to the MSC using
the Forward Short message operation
• The MSC retrieves the subscriber information from the
VLR. This operation may include an authentication
procedure.
• The MSC transfers the short message to the MS
• The MSC returns to the SMSC the outcome of the
Forward Short message operation
• If requested by the SME, the SMSC returns a status
report indicating delivery of the short message.

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Q.10 Is the SMS Y2K compliant?

Ans. Yes! The SMS Release 2.0 is Y2K compliant. The

product has been developed to take care of the Y2K
compliance, following which no two digit year entry for dates
are acceptable in the system.

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Q.11 What Message Capabilities are provided by the

SMS Release 2.0?

Ans. The SMS Release 2.0 has the following message

capabilities:

• Message Priority: The SMS supports 10 message

priorities
• Mobile Terminated Messages: This feature allows
messages to be sent to mobiles
 • Group Lists: for sending SMS message to mobiles in a
group: Logical groups can be formed with a number of
mobiles in each group.
• Alert based Retry: Rather than retrying on its own, the
SMS waits for the MSC to alert the SMS that a mobile is
available for retrying the SMS message for delivery.
This reduces retry load on the Mobile MSC considerably.

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Q.12 What Future Capabilities are planned for the

SMS?

Ans. The following message capabilities have been planned

for the future releases of SMS:

• Mobile Originated Message (Option-not available in the

current release): With this option mobiles can send
messages to other subscribers and even on the internet
if the SMS has email connectivity
• Virtual SMS (Option - not available in the current
release): With this feature one SMS system can be
made to appear as the SMS for multiple mobile
networks. With this feature SMS can also be delivered
to roaming subscribers.

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Q.13 Is VMS connectivity possible with the SMS

Release 2.0?

Ans. VMS connectivity is provided as an optional service as

per service providers' specs. VMS users are usually sent
intimations of arrival of a voice mail via the SMS. The VMS
system connects to the SMS system over X.25 or TCP/IP
LAN

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Q.14 What Information is provided by the SMS Server
GUI?

Ans. The SMS Server is Win GUI based, providing the

following info:

• Link Status: provides status of links (UP/Down) to MSC

• Message Delivery Channel Status: SMS messages are
delivered on multiple logical channels.
• This provides the status of each of these channels.
• Event Logging: The Event log is displayed on screen
• Status of Channel: Free/Busy
• Interface with SS7: LME (Layer management
environment) command exchange display etc.

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Q.15 What OSS capabilities does the SMS Server have?

Ans. The SMS Server provides the following OSS capabilities

along with SMS Server GUI options:

• System Configuration
• Event Logging
• Message Archival: Messages are archived to files after a
configured period.

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Q.16 How is the SMS connected to thse MSC?

Ans. Up to the link level the SMS connects to the MSC via
SS7 TCAP over E1 lines. On top of the SS7 the SMSC can be
connected either using GSM 3.40 if the MSC supports the
gateway function. If not, it can also connect via GSM
9.02(part) and does the required HLR operations.