SMS Gateway - Technical Information

WHAT IS GSM ?

GSM stands for Global System for Mobiles. This is a world-wide standard for digital cellular telephony, or as most people know them Digital Mobile Telephones. GSM was created by the Europeans, and originally meant "Groupe Special Mobile", but this didn't translate well, so the now common more globally appealing name was adopted. GSM is a published standard by ETSI, and has now enjoys widespread implementation in Europe, Asia, and increasingly America.
There are many arguments about the relative merits of analogue versus digital, but for my mind it comes down to this: Analogue sounds better and goes further, Digital doesn't sound as good, but does a whole lot more.Check out the links page for sites that have some good discussion on the Digital v Analogue debate.

Examples of what digital can do that analogue doesn't (or doesn't do very well) are, Fax send & receive, Data calls, and Messaging. It is the clever messaging capabilities of GSM that SMS Gateway is designed to take advantage of.

WHAT IS ETSI ?

ETSI stands for European Telecommunications Standards Institute. These are the people who created the specification for GSM, they publish their specifications (for a charge!) to manufacturers and software developers (like us) who can then build equipment and software that can work together properly. It is because of standards that you can purchase a Nokia mobile phone and use it perfectly well on an Ericsson based mobile network. Standards are a good thing!

The ETSI standard for messaging on GSM is "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2); Use of Data Terminal Equipment - Data Circuit terminating Equipment (DTE - DCE) interface for Short Message Service (SMS) and Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) (GSM 07.05)". So got all that?

What this means in English is: "How to use a Personal Computer to talk to a GSM Handset for the sending and receiving of short messages".

While the English version sounds much better, it doesn't make the task of writing a program to perform the tasks easy. ETSI standards dictate the use of complex protocols (definition of how two computing devices talk to each other), which are hard to implement. The reason for all the complexity it that they are trying to cater for every imaginable possibility, so there are lots of ifs, buts, and maybes.

SMS Gateway has taken the ETSI messaging specification and tuned it into a useful, easy to use tool.

WHAT IS SMS ?

SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is the ability to send and receive "Short Messages" to and from GSM handsets, or as they are named by ETSI 'Mobile Terminals' (MT).

A "Short Message" can contain up to 160 characters in one message, which is quite allot when you think about it, most messages are simply a call me back, or pick up the parcel from here. The biggest problem with SMS is getting a screen big enough on the mobile phone to be able to read them easily.

SMS is a really nice feature of GSM, increasingly people are hard to get hold of (even with a mobile telephone), being able to give someone a message without actually speaking to them is a great time saver, and results in less mis-understandings, it's kind of like e-mail in your pocket!

WHAT IS SMS GATEWAY ?

SMS Gateway is a unique Short Message Service (SMS) messaging tool. It facilitates complete two way messaging capabilities over GSM networks for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP based applications through the use of DDE, OLE Automation, SMTP, POP3, HTTP, XML, and the Command Line Interface (CLI).

SMS Gateway connects a PC to a GSM handset (Mobile Terminal), via a PCMCIA "Cellular Data Card", a cable connected to a COM port, or Infrared & Bluetooth (see the Hardware page). Through this connection all messages currently stored in the mobile terminal can be retrieved, new messages sent, and new incoming messages be sent straight through to the PC. Other facets such as radio signal strength and error rates may also be read from the Mobile Terminal over this interface.

SMS Gateway comes with an interactive two way messaging utility named SMS Messenger, which demonstrates some of the capabilities of SMS Gateway when using the OLE interface. This utility may be used for ad-hoc messaging alongside a corporate messaging or database access application.

For developers, SMS Gateway leverages the common Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding Automation (OLE Automation) specifications to allow the transmission and reception of SMS messages directly from any application supporting these standards. Applications supporting DDE & OLE Automation include; Delphi, Paradox, FoxPro, WordPerfect, Excel, Word, Access, Visual Basic, and many more.

SMS Gateway also supports the sending of messages to individual or groups of destinations directly from the Windows Command Line Interface (CLI). This facility is useful for easy integration with Network Management utilities that are able issue Windows commands under certain prescribed circumstances, e.g. to send a message to a technician when a certain equipment alarm is raised.

Additionally, SMS Gateway supports a powerful bi-directional HTTP based eXtensible Markup Language (XML) interface that enables easy integration with web enabled environments, such as Active Server Pages and Java.

Fully commented source code for the above mentioned SMS Messenger application, written in Delphi 7.0, is also included in the package, so you can easily adapt its functions for your particular needs.

Sample code for sending messages, receiving messages and controlling SMS Gateway using Visual Basic in Excel is also included with the installation files.

SMS Gateway includes a set of management utilities including a HTML based diagnostic facility, generation of SNMP traps for significant events, and comprehensive logging to text files (viewable via a HTML management page).

SMS Gateway is suitable for dispatch, field access to databases, telemetry, vehicle tracking, and many more such applications.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Processor 486 or better
Operating System Microsoft Windows 95 and above or Linux with XWindows
Memory 8MB Minimum
Display VGA or Better
Mouse Recommended
Mobile Terminal Interface ETSI 07.05 Block or PDU Mode compliant (see hardware page)

For more information on SMS Gateway, see the features page.

Download Windows version
Download Linux version