[asterisk-users] improved SMS?

[Steve Kennedy]

On Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 11:56:35AM +0200, Anselm Martin Hoffmeister wrote:

> Am Donnerstag, den 12.07.2007, 16:57 -0700 schrieb Russ McBride:
> > Newbie question(s):
> >  From what I can determine it sounds like the SMS messaging isn't as  
> > robust as it could be (?).  I'm wondering if there's active work on  
> > that right now or if it's more of an issue about PSTN carrier that  
> > one would be using who would be responsible for passing the messages  
> > into the PLMN.
> > Background-- I'm looking into the possibility of setting up an  
> > emergency messaging system here at the University that would send out  
> > voice, SMS, and emails.  Any input relevant to that goal would  
> > probably be appreciated.
> Hi Russ,
> my personal experience with short messages is that the system sometimes
> chews on them for minutes, sometimes several hours, even inside one
> mobile network, from cell phone to cell phone. This surely screws using
> it as a primary tier emergency system, but as a backup after e-mail and
> automated phone-out that could be OK. Sending from web-interfaces or via
> Uwhatever-that-protocol-is-called will not improve the overall
> performance.

SMS was never designed for guaranteed delivery (or guaranteed timed
delivery). There are options for messages to time out if they're not
delivered in a specified time, or new messages can override old messages
that haven't been read yet - but delivery isn't guaranteed.

A phone sending an SMS will try and establish a connection (sort of) all
the way through to the receiving phone and then deliver the message, if
it cant it will be sent to the receiving network's SMSC which will then
try and deliver it. If it gets put into a queue then the delivery time
will vary drastically depending on the load on the SMSC and other
network characteristics.

Fixed to SMS always goes through an SMSC, so delivery times vary.

Steve

-- 
NetTek Ltd  UK mob +44-(0)7775 755503
UK +44-(0)20 79932612 / US +1-(310)8577715 / Fax +44-(0)20 7483 2455
Skype/GoogleTalk/AIM/Gizmo/Mac stevekennedyuk / MSN steve at gbnet.net
Euro Tech News Blog http://eurotechnews.blogspot.com