P800/P802
White Paper, January 2003
MMS technical features
The MMS standard, just like SMS, offers store and forward transmission (instant delivery) of messages, rather than a mailbox-type model. MMS is a person-to-person communications solution, meaning that the user gets the message directly into the mobile. He or she doesn’t have to call the server to get the message downloaded to the mobile. GPRS enables a continuous connection and rapid transfer of data.
Architecture
The P800 communicates with the WAP Gateway using WAP transport protocols. That data is transported between the WAP Gateway and the MMS Relay using HTTP protocol.
The MMS Relay is at the centre of an MMS system. The MMS-C is primarily a message store. In some implementations the MMS-C is combined with the MMS Relay. The MMS Relay is linked to other MMS-Relays in order to forward MMS messages to external networks. The MMS relay can also send an MMS over e-mail using the SMTP protocol over the internet. The Relay can also format messages as SMS and send them via the SMS-C, enabling users of non-MMS terminals to receive MMS messages and view the text as SMS and the whole message via Web or WAP.
Example Usage Cases
User A will address a multimedia message to user B’s mobile number (MS-ISDN). The completed message will be sent via the WAP Gateway to the MMS-Relay. The MMS-Relay will store the message at the MMS-C and send a notification to User B’s T68i. The T68i will retrieve the message (depending on user settings) and the user will be able to read it from the MMS Inbox.
If User A sends an MMS to a user on a different network, the MMS-Relay will forward the message to the correct MMS-Relay in the target network (assuming interconnect agreements are in place) and the message will be stored in the MMS-C in the target network. It will be retrieved and read by the recipient’s mobile phone in the same way.
If User A sends an MMS to an e-mail address, the MMS-Relay will package the contents and use SMTP to send the message as an e-mail over the internet.