SMPP Client: Knowing the Client Side Entity

1. Role of SMPP Client in SMPP Client - Server Architecture With the advancement in technology, bulk messaging services have been the new way of business marketing and communication. Not only these services allure its business organizations to interact with hundreds of thousands of customers quickly and easily but also ensure that the business develops a personalized communicative link with each of this colossal number. Keeping in view the current day statistics, SMPP service protocols and standards have been one of the most utilized services by business institutions while implementing bulk messaging solutions within their functionalarchitecture. Short messaging peer to peer services (generally referred as SMPP services) is the telecommunication service used for the exchange of SMS between short messaging service centers (SMSCs) and external short messaging entities (ESMEs). Further, this transmission of messages occurs from and to various mobile networks including CDMA, TDMA, GSM, UMTS, etc. This service harness the potential of level 7 TCP/IP protocol, which allows fast and responsive message deliveries andreceptions. Conceptualizing SMPP client… In the process of sending and receiving SMS using SMPP protocol, there reside two entities which interact with each other. These entities are namely SMPP server and the SMPP client. The SMPP server is the pivotal center of the entire setup. Also known as SMSC, the server connects the entire SMPP services to the mobile networks. However, the other entity changes as per the connectionrequired. SMPP client is the client side entity which establishes a connection with SMPP server. Each organization owns a designated client-side entity. Whenever the organization wills to send/receive bulk messages, the connection is established between the two entities and transmission of messages take place. It is worth noting that each SMPP client is connected with the SMPP server for only a given time frame. Speaking in technical terms, this segregated timely connection is sustained by using time division multiplexing (better known as TDMA connection). Owing to such a connection, one SMPP server can serve various client entities at different time instances. Once the entire process of message transmission and/or reception is completed at any given instance, the connection between server and client is discontinued and the server is free to establish a newconnection.

2. Any organization that wills to send/receive bulk SMS using SMPP protocol must ensure that they are connected to the server. This connection is ensured with SMPP SMSgateway. SMPP server V/s SMPP client… Often seen, the terms SMPP server and SMPP client are interchanged with each other and generally misconceived. Thanking the complex terminology playing a great part, this misinterpretation is enlarged. It is always advisable for the business to understand the key difference between the two terms in detail and make no errors while choosing them as per the businessneeds. The SMPP server is the SMSC which is connected with mobile networks and routes the intended messages to and/or from the SMPP SMS gateway. Acting as the central connective unit, all the messages are intended to pass through SMPP server and get routedaccordingly. On the other hand, SMPP client is the client side entity which resides in the domain of organization. This entity pertains the potential to connect with SMPP server and send the message transmission/reception commands to the SMPP SMS gateway. It is noteworthy to know that each organization procures an individual/ personalized SMPP client entity. Generally developed with the specifications of level 7 TCP/IP protocol, the client side entity plays a major role in establishing an SMPPconnection. The main use of SMPP client is to independently establish aconnection between business units and the SMPP server. Based on the SMPP standards, class of libraries is available, which entail various details of programming TCP/IP protocol. SMPP client entity is developed using these libraries so that the developers need not bother about SMPP server port programming (also called as socket programming) and server protocol. Since both SMPP client and server are developed using the same set of libraries, the connection establishment between them is pretty simple andstraight-forward.