UCP to SMPP Converter / Proxy

Posted by on Jul 21, 2017 in Support Blog

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We’ve had a few inquiries related to the UCP protocol recently. UCP is a legacy application to SMS protocol that was implemented by SMSCs from a company named CMG. (Bryce posted some background info on this over 12 years ago in response to questions in our support forum at https://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/8150.html)

UCP was never a widely adopted protocol, but for a period of time in the late 1990s to early 2000s, it was the preferred application to SMS protocol for some mobile operators, specifically those using CMG SMSCs.

A few of those operators have continued to support UCP over the years, well past its life expectancy.

It may only be of use to a small audience, but we’ve added UCP server support to NowSMS, so that it can convert and proxy SMS messages from multiple UCP clients to SMPP or HTTP based services.

This is similar to how the existing NowSMS can proxy multiple SMPP clients to an SMPP or HTTP based SMS service.

If you have a need for this capability, please use the contact form at https://nowsms.com/contact to contact us.

Release notes from the beta version that includes this capability:

Added UCP/EMI Server support, allowing UCP clients to connect to NowSMS. UCP is a legacy protocol. This support is mostly useful for proxying UCP clients to send SMS via an SMPP or HTTP based service. The UCP server is enabled by specifying a UCP server port number on the “Web” page of the configuration program.

If clients are authenticating via UCP type 60, an account for the client should be defined in “SMS Users”, with the username and passwword matching UCP credentials (username is typically a short code or phone number), and SMPP access enabled.

It is also possible to authenticate by IP address with or without UCP type 60 authentication by specifying the client IP address as the username of an “SMS Users” account, with SMPP access enabled. (In this authentication by IP address scenario, if the client sends a UCP type 60 auth, it will be accepted regardless of content.)

It is also possible to accept all UCP connections, without defining accounts, by adding UCPAcceptAll=Yes to the [SMSGW] section of SMSGW.INI.

By default, NowSMS will disconnect any clients idle for more than 12 hours. This timeout is configurable using the UCPInactivityTimeout=#### setting in the [SMSGW] section header of SMSGW.INI, where #### is a value in seconds, and 0 disables idle disconnect.

For comments and further discussion, please click here to visit the NowSMS Technical Forums (Discussion Board)...