Mobile messaging is practically the first data communication service in the wireless domain. It is a major advance on the conventional practice of providing only voice communication service over the wireless interface. Thus, mobile messaging is the initial step to bring the Internet to wireless terminals and has considerable importance both for mobile communication and the Internet.
Mobile Messaging provides an in-depth description of messaging technologies supported by mobile networks. It covers the Short Message Service (SMS), Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) through to the more complex and emerging Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
The Short Message System (SMS) has proved to be incredibly popular and is supported by most GSM, TDMA and CDMA mobile networks. This volume focuses on the Short Message Service introduced by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) for GSM and GPRS networks. On the basis of ETSI standard, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is currently the organisation responsible for maintaining the SMS technical specifications. In its most basic form, the Short Messaging Service allows users to exchange short messages composed of a limited amount of text and it is expected that up to 100 Billion short messages could be exchanged monthly by the end of 2002.
The Enhanced Message Service (EMS), an application-level extension of SMS, supersedes basic SMS features by allowing elements such as images, animations, formatted text and monophonic melodies to be inserted in short or concatenated messages.
Recently, the 3GPP has been focusing on the development of the Multimedia Message Service (MMS). MMS features include the exchange of messages containing polyphonic melodies, large images, video elements sometimes organised with a multimedia presentation language such as SMIL or xHTML. MMS will be supported by 2.5 G and 3G networks. MMS specifications have reached a fairly mature stage and MMS commercial solutions are appearing on the market.
Unlike EMS, MMS has been specified by the 3GPP as a service independent from the underlying network technologies. In parallel to the 3GPP standardisation process, other organisations have specified network-specific implementations of MMS such as the WAP implementation defined by the WAP Forum.
In order to develop applications using Short, Enhanced and Multimedia messaging technologies, engineers have to become familiar with the use of technical specifications produced by various standard development organisations such as the 3GPP, the WAP Forum and the IETF and this is the first book to pull this vast array of material together.
- Provides an in depth description of the different messaging services and messaging technologies
- Presents an introduction to mobile networks
- Features numerous practical implementation examples
- Provides a unique easy-to-follow presentation of messaging services and mobile networks within a single publication
Essential reading for content providers, service providers, network operators and telecommunications manufacturers, researchers, postgraduate students, marketing and standardisation personnel.
