MMSC Routing

Similar to how the Now SMS & MMS Gateway allows recipient phone number masks to be defined to route SMS messages to different SMSC connections, the MMSC allows recipient phone number masks to be defined to route MMS messages to different MMSC connections.

The “MMSC Routing” page of the gateway configuration dialog specifies outbound routes for MMS messages.

By default, the Now SMS & MMS Gateway will act as an MMSC and perform direct delivery of MMS messages to recipients using a combination of SMS and WAP technologies.

However, there are certain closed operator configurations where it can be desirable to route MMS messages via an operator MMSC, or to reformat MMS message content to be delivered as a multimedia WAP push.

The “Default Route” setting specifies the default route to be used for delivering MMS messages. This default route is used whenever the MMSC has an MMS message to deliver, and there is no matching route to handle the message.

The MMS routing logic first checks to see if the recipient is listed in the “MMSC Users” list. If the recipient is an existing MMSC user, then the MMSC will perform direct MMS delivery to the recipient. (Note: If DisableMMSDirectDelivery=Yes is set under the [MMSC] heading of MMSC.INI, this check of the recipient against the “MMSC Users” list is not performed.)

Next, the MMSC checks all of the “MMSC Routing” definitions for a matching recipient address mask. Each route can have a list of recipient address masks associated with it, and if a match is found for a route, the message is routed via that route.

If no matching route is found, then the “Default Route” is used.

The “Default Route” can specify “Direct Delivery” utilizing the internal MMSC, “Convert MMS Message to Multimedia WAP Push”, or it can specify any of the other defined “MMSC Routing”.

For example, if you wanted to setup NowSMS so that it routed all outbound MMS messages to an operator MMSC over a GPRS modem connection, you would first add this routing to the “MMSC Routing” list, and the return to the “Default Route” prompt to select that routing as the default route for the system.

By contrast, if NowSMS was installed as an operator MMSC, you might want to define the “Default Route” to be a route that converts the MMS message to an SMS with a web link. Assuming that every time a new user sends a message via the MMSC, that user is automatically registered with the MMSC (see the Technical Bulletin – NowSMS MMSC Operator Considerations for more information on this type of configuration), the MMSC would use direct delivery for users who were defined to the MMSC, and it would convert the MMS messages to an SMS with a web link for any recipients that were not yet registered with the MMSC.

MMSC Routings can use any of the following MMSC connectivity protocols:

MM7 – An XML/SOAP based format for MMS messages to be transmitted using HTTP POST. This standard is defined by the 3GPP. NowSMS also supports non-standard variations of MM7 that are used by the Ericsson, Materna AnnyWay and LogicaCMG MMSCs.

MM4 – An SMTP based format for MMS messages to be transmitted between MMSCs.

MM1 – A binary format for transmitting MMS messages using HTTP POST. This is the protocol that is used for phone to phone MMS, so if you are routing messages to an operator MMSC over a GPRS connection, this is the protocol that is used.

EAIF – This is a Nokia proprietary variation on the MM1 format that is used for sending messages to a Nokia MMSC.

Additionally, routes can be defined to specify Direct Delivery by the MMSC, to convert MMS messages to multimedia WAP Push, or to SMS messages with a web link. Or a route can be defined for rejecting messages (if the MMSC does not want to support delivery to external recipients).