T- 109 . 551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II

1. T-109.551Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II Unified interfaces for messaging service Dan Silfvast dsilfvas@cc.hut.fi T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

2. VAS VAS VAS GSM/SS7 Messaging Centre Introduction • Messaging service • also known as Value Added Service (VAS) • provides content or information on a mobile network • The problem of connecting a VAS to the mobile network T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

3. Agenda • Technology • Message types • Message centre connectivity • Business • Problems • Solutions • Future trends T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

4. Message types - SMS • Short message service • currently the most popular message type • up to 160 characters of 7bit text • utilizes the SS7 signalling channel for delivery • Non realtime • Binary SMS • Smart messaging • an open standard developed by Nokia • supports picture messages, ring tones, business cards etc. • Not fully compatible with SMS • Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) • open standard developed by 3GPP • supported by Alcatel, Siemens, Motorola and Sony Ericsson • provides text formatting, picture messages, sounds and animations • backwards compatible with SMS • stores binary data in SMS headers T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

5. Message types – WAP Push • For pushing WAP content to terminals • session initiated by content provider • allows interactive services • Session initiation request sent over SMS • normal WAP access used for data transfer • Part of WAP 1.2 spec. • supported by most new terminals T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

6. Message types – MMS • Multimedia Messaging Service • the latest and ”most beautiful” messaging standard by 3GPP • supports rich multimedia content with presentation features • utilizes the data channel for transport • allows large content size • wide variety of content formats • uses WAP for transfer and WAP push over SMS for notifications T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

7. Message centre connectivity • The connection between a VAS application and the message centre • No standard for SMS • Four protocols approved by ETSI • SMPP by Logica • UCP/EMI by CMG • CIMD by Nokia • OIS by Sema • PAP for Wap Push • MM7 for MMS • implementation details not until release 6 • uses web service, i.e. SOAP over HTTP for message transfer • proprietary protocols implemented before rel 6 • Nokia EAIF • Ericsson SMTP • Other protocols • operator specific wrappers, to increase management T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

8. Messaging business - VAS • Value Added Service • external service providing information or content on request • for example, logos, ring tones, train timetables • usually accessed by sending a message containing a keyword to a specific short number • also push service (e.g. news) • Important business • 8% of total traffic but 25% of total value of messaging in 2001 in Finland • expected to grow with advent of MMS services T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

9. Messagin business – VAS operation models • Three basic models for providing value added service • Operator developed service • Third party service providers with direct connection • Service aggregators T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

10. Problems – the VASP viewpoint • Focus on • a large as possible user base • easy service deployment • Problem areas • protocol incompatibility • a large number of different protocols to support • billing • every network operator has its own way for billing • content conversion • different terminal capabilities • traffic management • routing, load balancing etc.? T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

11. Problems – the network operator viewpoint • Focus on • traffic management • authentication and access control • billing based on content • billing on receiver pays basis • Problems • the message centres and protocol do not provide enough management features • no way to secure network from buggy services • messaging centres not designed for receiver-pays billing T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

12. Solutions – protocol standardization • Solves the interconnectivity problem • MMAP • Mobile Message Access Protocol by SMS Forum • a web services based approach extended to SMS (and others) • currently at draft stage • SMS over MM7 • MIME type for SMS content • no current standardization work done • Proprietary APIs • a lot of messaging middleware provide unified interfaces • no standardization work done T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

13. Solutions – message gateways • Middleware for network operator • management features • protocol conversion • billing • reliability and high availablity • message routing • content conversion and fetching • no multi-network functionality • Available products • Content Gateway by CCC • Nokia Messaging Gateway T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

14. Solutions – message routers • Middleware for service aggregators or operators with wide installations • same features as gateways • support for multi-network operation • advanced protocol conversion • load balancing • advanced message routing • billing interoperability • Available products • Logica Open Messaging Gateway • First Hop Message Router • Empower Interactive Messaging Service Platform • UniqMinds PEAKm Platform T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

15. Future trends • Protocol standardization • web services based standards • does not solve the management issues • The role of messgaing middleware • focus on service and content management • The future role of the network operator • the risk of becoming ”bit-pipe-provider” • focus on adding value to the services • billing • access to user data • content conversion • trust services T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

16. Conclusions • Mobile network interconnectivity goes beyond protocol incompatibility • need for management and content conversion • Protocol standardization will solve only part of the problem • The role of messaging middleware will increase as the operators have to rethink their offerings T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services

17. Thanks! T-109.551 Research Seminar on Telecommuncations Business II - Unified Interfaces for Messaging Services