Can MS and ESME share the same number?

[nagesh.kumar]

Hi Experts,

Is it possible that an ESME shares the same as that of a valid MS? When a SMS is received for this
"shared" number, SMSC shall give it to ESME.

And on the origination side, the SMS can be originated by ESME or MS?

Is this possible? Can SMSC be configured to behave as per the above description?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Regards
Nagesh

[SMS Forum Support]

ESMEs can definitely send on behalf of real subscribers.. when you send messages from carrier web-based portals.. the recipient will usually see your actual MSISDN as the sending address and if he replies, the replies then go to your mobile.

The other way around is possible for on-network traffic but harder for off-network traffic.

With on-network traffic, the message sender and you are subscribers on the same network and essentially share the same SMSCs. In that scenario, many SMSCs will support the means of routing messages sent to actual MSISDNs onto ESMES instead. Some in fact can do this based on certain message attributes such as protocol_id (* see below)

An off network MT SMS is mobile terminated to you from the senders SMSC direct to your phone via HLR lookup and MSC delivery... it doesn't route through your networks SMSC.

So to terminate one of these at an ESME, some kind of special purpose platform is required above and beyond normal SMSC that will acty as HLR for the special numbers and ultimately MSC to terminate the MT delivery but then cleverly route the message back into the SMSC and onto the ESME or just direct to the ESME.

In the US and environments where GSM co-exists with CDMA/TDMA.. there is a lot more difficultly in knowing how/where to terminate messages.. so the trend is to route over SMPP and the like between networks.. the crux of this is that off-network traffic tends to end up on the destination networks SMSCs.. and hence could therefore be delivered to ESMEs if needed.

(*) In GSM, many phones have an option called sent message as text, fax, email.. these are merely manipulations of the canned values the phones set for the GSM TP-PID field.. SMSCs used this in the past for receive a MO message for a given subscriber.. but it the PID said fax, they could route the mesage to a special FAX ESME that took the destination MSISDN and looked up its provisioned fax number, converting the message text to a fax and then actually sending a fax to the recipient. Same kind of approach was used for SMS to email.

[nagesh.kumar]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply and a detailed one too. I understood the on-network traffic example.

For off-network traffic example:

When the senders SMSC contacts HLR, can we not configure HLR in such a way that for the shared number, HLR returns the SMSC as the destination MSC. Of course, SMSC needs to understand MAP_MT_ForwardShortMessage and convert to SMPP ad finally deliver it to ESME.

This puts a requirement that SMSC shall understand both MAP_MO_ForwardShortMessage as well
MAP_MT_ForwardShortMessage. Is my understanding correct?

Regards
Nagesh

[nagesh.kumar]

Hi,

Another clarification...

<
In the US and environments where GSM co-exists with CDMA/TDMA.. there is a lot more difficultly in knowing how/where to terminate messages.. so the trend is to route over SMPP and the like between networks.. the crux of this is that off-network traffic tends to end up on the destination networks SMSCs.. and hence could therefore be delivered to ESMEs if needed.
>

Do SMSCs receive on SMSs on SMPP interface and send out too SMPP towards a ESME (in this exampe)? Do typical GSM-SMSCs and CDMA-SMSCs support this functionality?

Regards
Nagesh

[SMS Forum Support]

When the senders SMSC contacts HLR, can we not configure HLR in such a way that for the shared number, HLR returns the SMSC as the destination MSC. Of course, SMSC needs to understand MAP_MT_ForwardShortMessage and convert to SMPP ad finally deliver it to ESME.

This puts a requirement that SMSC shall understand both MAP_MO_ForwardShortMessage as well
MAP_MT_ForwardShortMessage. Is my understanding correct?

An SMSC would only support inbound MO by default.. it would have to have the MT termination functionality built in to receive the MT.. and thats not normally the case.

Do SMSCs receive on SMSs on SMPP interface and send out too SMPP towards a ESME (in this exampe)? Do typical GSM-SMSCs and CDMA-SMSCs support this functionality?

Oh yes.. SMPP is heavily used (as are other protocols) to route messages in and out of SMSCs.. mostly for attached services, such as voice mail alerts, services, IM gateways etc. SMSCs are never exclusively MO/MT.

[nagesh.kumar]

Hi Cormac,

Thanks for your clarification.

In order to be able send Mobile Originated SMSs on behalf  of multiple MSs, what kind of permissions need to be granted by SMSC to ESME? (account permissions etc)?

Regards
Nagesh