Knowing SMPP entities equipped with SMPP providers

1. Bulk Messaging with SMPP ServerProviders The term ‘SMPP' is a commonly used abbreviation for short messaging peer to peer protocol in the telecommunication industry. This protocol is an open, industry-standard protocol specifically crafted by SMPP forum to send and receive bulk messages from and to various mobile phones. These cellular phones are generally associated with various mobile operation networks majorly including GSM, CDMA, iDEN, TDMA and UMTS. As prescribed by the forum and widely adhered by SMPP server providers, SMPP protocol is entirely developed on the concepts of level 7 TCP/IP protocols and thus is fairly adequate in delivering fast SMSs. With universally accepted standards used by SMPP Providers, the average throughput of SMPP services is 300 messages persecond. Knowing the SMPP Entities:: Before implementing SMPP services within the business framework, let's get a dive into the operational paradigm it follows and essential entities that work in harmony to send/ receive bulk messages. As stated earlier, SMPP services work on the concepts of TCP/IP protocol. Owing to this protocol, SMPP services acquire a client-server model in its practice. Thus, there stands a client entity which is responsible for sending message requests and initiations. On the other hand, Short messaging service center (generally referred to as SMSC) regards to be the server sideentity. In SMPP specifications, a client-side entity is an external entity that is termed as ESME (an abbreviation for an external short messaging entity). As the name indicates, an ESME is an organizational client (corporation, program, client, etc) that sends and receives bulk SMSs to target audiences using the potential of SMPP servers provided by SMPP Server Providers. Short messaging service entity (SMSC), on the other hand, is the SMPP server which is connected with the well-webbed network of mobile operators and Mobile centers and is responsible to address all queries raised by the SMPP client entity. With the intricate process in operation, these queries are mostly related to submitted SMS reports’ and status, connection establishment requests, received SMS updates, SMS statistics, etc. Saying with the sense of brevity, SMPP Serverenacts as the central and pivotal entity in the entire process of sending and receiving bulk messages using SMPP services. Working of SMPP Services:: SMPP connections between the servers provided by SMPP providers and ESME are developed using concepts of socket connections (or better referred to as port programming). Speaking in layman terms, socket connections are the set of port programming libraries which are readily used by developers in developing SMPP Client. The primal benefit of using these ready to use libraries lies in the fact that developers can directly develop client entities with these libraries and yet not bother themselves with the intricate details of port programming and TCP/IPprotocols. Ideally, both the SMPP entities namely, SMSC and ESME are disconnected in idle conditions. Generally, not everyclientwillstosendSMSoncontinuesbasis.Thus,itisnotadvisabletoalwayskeepthetwoentitiesin

2. connection with each other. If done so, it will only increase the operational cost of SMPP services for the given client. Keeping in view limited marketing expenses and essence of economical SMPP solutions, the SMPP servers are partially centralized and are often shared within a cluster of many client entities. This sharing of the server is done on the concept of TDMA. TDMA, an acronym used for time division multiplexing is a channel accessing method (CAM) that is used to facilitate SMPP server sharing without incurring any interferences. Using this accessing method allows SMPP providers to let multiple client entities share and use the same SMPP server for different time slots. The key essence of this sharing lies in the fact that various ESMEs transmit in instant succession. Thus, multiple client-side entities share the same potential of the SMPP server but only use a segment of its magnitude. Whenever the business unit or client entity wishes to send/receive messages from/to the target audiences, it needs to establish a firm and secured connection with SMPP server. Once the connection is established, the business unit is fostered to send tons of thousands of bulk messages using best in class services of SMPP Serviceproviders.