SMS & SMSC

Presented By:
Vikas Miya

SMS Overview
SMS stands for Short Message Service
SMS is the ability to send and receive short

alphanumeric messages to and from mobile telephones.

SMS works on store and forward method
Besides text, SMS messages can also carry binary data.

It is possible to send ringtones, pictures, operator logos,

wallpapers, animations, business cards and WAP
configurations to a mobile phone with SMS messages.

SMS Overview
One SMS message can contain at most 140 bytes (1120

bits) of data, so one SMS message can contain up to:

160 characters if 7-bit character encoding is used (suitable for

encoding Latin characters like English alphabets.)

70 characters if 16-bit Unicode UCS2 character encoding is used

(SMS text messages containing non-Latin characters like Chinese)

SMS text messaging supports languages internationally

lie Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Concatenated/Long SMS
One SMS message can only carry a very limited

amount of data. To overcome this drawback, an

extension called concatenated SMS
A concatenated SMS text message can contain
more than 160 English characters.
The sender's mobile phone breaks down a long
message into smaller parts and sends each of
them as a single SMS message.
The recipient mobile phone will combine them
back to one long message.

SMSC Overview
SMSC stands for Short message service center
SMSC is a network element in the mobile telephone

network which delivers short messages (SMS)

SMSC works on store and forward principle i.e. when

a user sends a text message to another user, the

message gets stored in the SMSC which delivers it to
the destination user when destined user is available.

SMSC Overview
An SMS center (SMSC) is responsible for handling the SMS
operations of a wireless network.
When an SMS message is sent from a mobile phone, it will reach

an SMS center first.

The SMS center then forwards the SMS message towards the

destination.
The main duty of an SMSC is to route SMS messages and regulate

the process. If the recipient is unavailable the SMSC will store the
SMS message.
It will forward the SMS message when the recipient is available.

Network Architecture

SMS technical realization

The SMS is realized by the use of the Mobile

Application Part (MAP) of the SS#7 protocol

These MAP messages may be transported using

'traditional' TDM based signaling, or over IP using

SIGTRAN and an appropriate adaptation layer.
SMS on Store and forward technique.

SMS Call Flow

Basic SMS Call Flow :
End to end SMS transaction completes in 2 parts :
Message submission by originating subscriber to

its SMSC (Mobile Originating Part)

Message delivery by SMSC to recipient Subscriber

(Mobile terminating Part)

SMS Call Flow

MO-SM Submit
The SM is sent from the originating Mobile Station

(MS) to the serving Mobile Switching Center

(MSC). The address of the SMSC where the SM
should be submitted to is stored on the SIM card
of the subscriber and forwarded to the MSC with
the message.
The MSC forwards the SM to the SMSC. The SMSC

returns a positive (ACK) or negative (NACK)

response indicating whether the message was

MT-SM Deliver
To delivers a SM SMSC has to find out the location (serving

MSC) and the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of

the recipient subscriber first. This information (routing
information) is retrieved from the Home Location Register
(HLR) of the recipient subscriber based on the recipient
number (MSISDN).
HLR Provides routing Information to SMSC, which includes IMSI

and serving MSC of recipient number.

Based on routing information SMSC delivers SM to the serving

MSC and MSC forwards it to the recipient Mobile Station.