INTRODUCTION
Beginning with the enormously popular Short Message Service (SMS) for simple text messages, the exciting Enhanced Message Service (EMS) for illustrated text messages with sound has entered the market as the second step. MMS will become the ultimate messaging application, allowing users to create unique messages, using all types of multimedia.
The messaging evolution fosters steady expansion of the marketplace for network operators and service providers. Studies show that users are willing to pay more for multimedia messages than for ordinary text messages. There is virtually no limit to the kind of services that network operators and service providers can offer users. Subscriptions to the comic strip of the day, weather forecasts in pictures and picture says more than a thousand words and is more fun to look at.
Ushering in the new generation of mobile telephony by paving the way for an array of ground breaking applications, Multimedia Messaging technology will result in users expecting more from their applications and developers continuing to meet these demands. MMS and the face to face contact it provides will simply become synonymous with mobile communication.
Using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) as bearer technology and powered by the high-speed transmission technologies EDGE, GPRS and UMTS (W-CDMA), Multimedia Messaging allows users to send and receive messages that look like PowerPoint-style presentations. The messages may include any combination of text, graphics, photographic Images, speech and music clips or video sequences. MMS will serve as the default mode of messaging on all terminals, making total content exchange second nature. From utility to sheer fun, it offers benefits at ever level and to every kind of user.
EVOLUTION OF MESSAGING SERVICE
The messaging market is characterized by the intentional evolution of progressively advanced services. The goal of evolution is to ease the transition of total multimedia communication for users, operators and content providers. Driving the market is a steadily growing, enthusiastic consumer demand that gives content and service providers the confidence to embrace third generation systems.
This approach is both user- and operator-friendly, as it leads the market towards full mobile multimedia. The key stages of the evolution entail the sequential release of the following services:
· Short Messaging Service (SMS) — text messaging
· Enhanced Messaging Service(EMS)—illustrated text messaging
· Multimedia Messaging Service(MMS)—full multimedia content exchange)
SMS
The Short Messaging Service (SMS) was launched in 1992 and has become the most successful wireless data service to date. SMS allows mobile phone users to send and receive text messages of up to 160 characters in a cost and time efficient manner. SMS is a “store and forward” service, meaning that messages are not sent directly between users but via an SMS centre. This aspect allows for a number of key SMS attributes, such as instant delivery, nominal tariffing and message delivery unhindered by network traffic. The “store and forward” service also allows simultaneous SMS and voice capability and international “roaming” without international fees. SMS is also used to notify users of incoming e-mail, voice mail or faxes, as well as to inform them about weather forecasts, news headlines, stock quotes or other events they can subscribe to.
MMS
MMS is the pinnacle of the messaging evolution. Currently being defined and specified by 3GPP as a standard for third generation implementation, the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) completes the potential of messaging. MMS is expected to become the preferred messaging method of mobile terminal users, since there are virtually no limits to the content of an MMS transmission. An MMS message can contain formatted text, graphics, data, animations, images, audio clips, voice transmissions and video sequences. Sending digital postcards and PowerPoint-style presentations is expected to be among the most popular user applications of MMS. Greatly anticipated by young users in particular, MMS is projected to fuel the growth of related market segments by as much as forty percent.
MMS CONTENT
Rich content to communicate the richness of our Lives:-
Although MMS is a direct descendant of SMS, the difference in content is dramatic. The size of an average SMS message is about 140 bytes, while the average size of an MMS message will (in the early stages) be around 30,000 bytes, but is actually unlimited. In the future, the user will be able to store a large number of messages, including those with video clips. The size of these messages will be about 100,000 bytes. That is why the key word to describe MMS content is rich. Complete with words, sounds and images, MMS content is endowed with the user’s ideas, feelings and personality. An MMS message can contain one or more of the following:
Text
As with SMS and
Graphics
Graphs, tables, charts, diagrams and layouts are just a few examples of the kinds of MMS graphic capabilities sure to have a major impact on the way we work. Maps, drawings, sketches and animations are likely to play a larger part in our personal lives, helping us to find our way, feel safe, express ourselves and have fun. MMS supports animated gif’s.
Audio
MMS provides the ability to add full sound to a message Not only can users share a favorite song with a friend, but they can use the mobile phone to record sound and send it along with a message Because sound includes speech as well as music, this extra dimension of ion MMS message makes for tremendously enhanced immediacy of expression and communication. Rather than sending a downloaded birthday jingle in
Images
By using either a digital camera attached to the mobile terminal with a cable or a built-in digital camera, users can take a snapshot and immediately send it to a recipient. The ability to send images is one of the most exciting attributes of MMS, as it allows users to share meaningful moments with friends, family and colleagues. Mobile image transmission also offers inestimable utility in business applications, from sending on-site pictures of a construction project to capturing and storing an interesting design concept for later review. Editing an image by adding text allows users to create their own electronic postcards, an application that is expected to substantially cut into the traditional postcard-sending market.
Video
The ultimate extension of MMS’s digital imaging capabilities, MMS video content, once developed, could initially comprise something like 30-second video clips. Instead of using, for example, the mobile devices digital camera and media editor to photograph a scene, label it with text and add appropriate audio, users will be able to record the scene and transmit the clip to a recipient. In the future, streaming of video clips will be possible. This will be a popular feature for people subscribing to news and entertainment services. The list of possible applications of this extremely exciting type of MMS content is virtually endless.
SMIL presentations
Standing for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language and pronounced “smile”, SMIL allows for the creation and transmission of PowerPoint-style presentations on the mobile device. SMIL is an advanced XML-based protocol, and Ericsson MMS supports a subset of this protocol. Using a simple media editor, users can incorporate audio and video along with still images, animations and text to assemble full multimedia presentations.
The idea of SMIL is to allow the user to customize the page timing in PowerPoint presentations. The user can decide in which order the image and text will be displayed, as well as for how long the images and text lines are to be shown in the display
MMS TECHNOLOGY CONCEPT
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a messaging service for the mobile environment that has been standardized by the WAP forum and 3GPP To the end user, MMS is very similar to the Short Message Service (SMS): it provides automatic and immediate delivery of user-created content. The addressing used is primarily the phone number of the recipient and the bulk of the MMS traffic goes from phone to phone. MMS also provides support for e-mail addressing. Hence, messages can also be sent from phone to e-mail and back.
In addition to the content type used for SMS text, MMS messages can contain still images voice or audio dips. Synthetic audio video clips, and presentation information. A multimedia message is a multimedia presentation created by the sender using, for example, predefined templates Alterative the content can be obtained ready made from a third-party content provider.
The message is delivered using a push to the recipient’s phone and the recipient is notified only after the whole message has been received.
MMS transport is carried out using WAP protocols and any bearer capable of supporting WAP can be used. Therefore MMS is bearer independent, i.e. MMS is not limited to only GSM or WCDMA. The Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) specified in the WAP Forum, is used for message transport from phone to MMSC and from MMSC to phone. In addition, WAP push features are used to deliver the message from the server to the recipient. MMS uses WAP protocols, but is a separate phone application, independent from the browser.
As the MMS concept is built upon SMS the target of the service is to bring a new facility to the mass market of MMS users: the multimedia evolution of SMS.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
To launch MMS a number of practical preparations have to be made in the network prior to the service launch.
MMS center
The MMS Center (MMSC) is the store and forward network element that delivers the MMS messages from the sender to the recipient. The MMSC concept is similar to an SMSC i.e. the server stores the message only during the time that is required to find the receiving phone. After the receiving phone has been found, the MMSC immediately forwards the multimedia message to the recipient and the message is deleted from the MMSC. Thus, the MMSC is not a mailbox server, because it does not store the message if it can be delivered. The MMSC is a new network element that is needed to launch MMS services. The SMSC cannot be upgraded to an MMSC in terms of software, as the capacity and interface requirements are different.
MMS is primarily targeted at phone- to-phone traffic. There is always a possibility that the receiving phone cannot be reached due to being switched off, having a spent battery or poor network coverage. The MMSC is needed to store the MMS messages until the receiving phone can be reached. In addition, the MMSC hosts a number of interfaces for connecting to other networks, eg:- the Internet. and an external application interface to enable delivery of value-added services. The MMSC may also have an interface for e-mail. The
WAP gateway
Although the MMS user experience is similar to SMS, MMS is not transmitted in the SMS transmission channel. The SMS transmission channel is too narrow for transmitting multimedia content. The Nokia view is that any cellular data carrier providing at least 14.4 kbit/s is sufficient for MMS. Examples include single slot GSM data, HSCSD and GPRS Other protocols and carriers can also be used.
WAP services. This ensures that low-end phones with only one PDP context can use MMS and other WAP services simultaneously Segmentation And Re-assembly (SAR) is a software feature supported by Nokia’s WAP functionality. It enables large messages to be sent in small packets, reducing the retransmission time for lost packets. SAR also reduces the network load due to the more efficient re-transmission schemes.
On the protocol level, MMS is transported using the WAP Wireless Session Protocol (WSP). In addition, the lightweight MMS protocol data units defined by the WAP forum are used. The WAP browser is not involved in MMS only the WAP transport protocols art used. To enable
the use of the WAP protocols in the MMS message transfer, a WAP gateway is needed to connect the MMSC to the wireless WAP network.
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