Mobile Messaging Technologies and Services: SMS, EMS and MMS, 2nd Edition

6

Multimedia Messaging Service, Transactions Flows

Each end-to-end feature offered by the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) relies on a series of consecutive transactions occurring over one or more of the 11 identified MMS interfaces. These transactions allow the transfer of messages and associated reports between MMS communicating entities including network servers and mobile devices.

This chapter presents transactions required for the realization of the service in the context of two representative scenarios: the person-to-person and content-to-person scenarios. Furthermore, this chapter provides a comprehensive description of transactions than can occur over MM1, MM4, MM7, and STI interfaces. The transport protocols for these interfaces have been fully defined by standardization organizations. Other relevant interfaces are also outlined.

6.1 Introduction to the MMS Transaction Model

MMS entities (MMS clients or MMS centers) communicate by invoking transactions over a set of 11 interfaces. A transaction is typically composed of a service request and a corresponding service response/confirmation containing the transaction results (e.g., message sending request and message sending confirmation). However, several transactions are limited to a service request only and are also known as indications. A Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is associated with each service request, response or indication that can occur over one of the MMS interfaces. A PDU is composed of a set of mandatory, optional, ...