Mobile Video and the Association between Short Message System (SMS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the Progress Toward Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Exchanging text messages, technically identified as Short Message System (SMS), but typically referred to as “texting”, is a uncomplicated, effortless, and handy means to communicate between mobiles.  Not just a exceptional way for people to correspond, SMS texting can be a practical method for software programs to exchange simple messages, and even setup commands, to and from  mobiles.  SMS doesn’t require a direct connection between mobile phones; the communications infrastructure for the process is already in place, and it works across most cell networks. One characteristic of text messaging that makes it particularly practical for mobile software programs is that it uses mobile fixed identity, the phone number. This characteristic offers a distinct benefit over other technologies that use IP addresses because a mobile IP address can vary depending on current network.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a communication service component of the GSM mobile communication system.  It utilizes standardized communications protocols that allow sending and receiving short text messages between cell phones. SMS text messaging is the most commonly used data application on earth, with almost two and a half billion active users, or three quarters of all mobile phone subscribers.

SMS texting as used on modern smartphones was originally defined as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of standards in 1985  as a manner of transferring messages of up to 160 characters, to and from GSM mobile handsets.  Since the mid-eighties service support has expanded to include other mobile technologies such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks.  The largest number of SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other kinds of broadcast messaging as well.  Computer to smartphone SMS text messaging capabilities are also growing rapidly.

GSM was originally referred to Groupe Spécial Mobile.  It is the most accepted standard for mobile telephone systems in the world. The GSM Association, the promoting trade association of mobile phone network providers and manufacturers, estimates that approximately 80% of the global mobile market uses the standard.  GSM is used by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories.  Its ubiquity  allows international roaming agreements between mobile phone operators, providing subscribers the use of their smartphones in many parts of the world.  GSM has evolved from its predecessor technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital.  This means GSM is thought of as a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.  This also  facilitates the wide-spread deployment of data communication software.

Newer versions of the standard are backward-compatible with the original GSM system.  Release ’97 of the standard upgraded to packet data capabilities using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release ’99 introduced high speed data transmission by means of Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).

General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G and 3G GSM. In 2G systems.  GPRS data communication is typically charged per megabyte of datasent and received, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is charged per minute of connection time, regardless of whether or not the subscriber actually is using the capacity or if it is in an idle state. GPRS is a best-effort packet switched service, as opposed to circuit switching, that has assured quality of service during the connection for non-mobile users.

2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are regularly described as 2.5G.  2.5G is a technology bridge between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile phone telephony. It delivers moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Originally there was some thought to extend GPRS to cover other standards, but these networks are converting to the GSM standard.   GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases.

GPRS was created as a GSM reaction to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet switched cellular technologies.  Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) was a wide-area mobile data service which used unused bandwidth normally used by AMPS mobile phones.  The service was discontinued in conjunction with the retirement of the parent AMPS service.

CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, and was seen as a future technology. However, it had competition from existing slower but cheaper Mobitex and DataTac systems.  CDPD never earned widespread acceptance before newer, faster standards such as GPRS gained widespread acceptance and started dominating.

For consumer markets CDPD had little to offer.  AT&T Wireless initially sold the technology in the US under the brandname PocketNet, one of the very first consumer wireless web service products. Cingular Wireless later offered CDPD under the Wireless Internet brand (as opposed to Wireless Internet Express, Cingular Wireless GPRS/EDGE data). AT&T Wireless PocketNet failed as a product launch.  But, CDPD was used  by a number of enterprise and government networks.  It was particularly popular as a first-generation wireless data solution for telemetry devices (machine to machine communications) and for public safety mobile data terminals.

Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) (also known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that provides better data transmission rates on top of standard GSM.  EDGE is referred to as a 3G radio technology.  EDGE provides  more than three-fold boost in both the capacity and performance of GSM/GPRS networks by utilizing sophisticated systems of coding and transmitting data, that produce higher bit-rates per radio channel.  EDGE delivers broadband performance and supports high bandwidth data applications such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

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