MMS

MMS can be defined as multimedia messaging that involves sending of messages containing multimedia objects such as image, audio, video etc. Its totally different from short message service that involves the usage of only text. This facility can be mostly observed in mobile networks along with SMS and mobile emailing, mobile instant messaging. Its main standardization effort is done by 3GPP, 3GPP2 and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

MMS was originally developed within the Third generation partnership programmed (3GPP), a standards organization focused on standards for the UMTS/GSM network. Since then MMS has been used by GSM/GPRS and CDMA networks. MMS has also been standardized within the Third-Generation Partnership Program 2 (3GPP2), a standards organization focused on specifications for CDMA2000 networks. MMs has three stages such as:

• Stage 1 - Requirements (3GPP TS 22.140)
• Stage 2 - System Functions (3GPP TS 23.140)
• Stage 3 - Technical Realizations

Both 3GPP and 3GPP2 has delegated the development of stage 3. MMS-enabled mobile phone subscriber to compose and send messages with multimedia parts. Multimedia parts may include text, images, audio and video. These types should confirm the MMS Standards. For example a phone can send an MPEG-4 video in AVI format, but the other person who is receiving the MMS may not be able to interpret it. To avoid this, all mobiles should follow the standards defined by OMA. There are many challenges faced by MMs such as:

• The MMS facility depends upon the compatibility of phones. IF the recipient phone doesn’t have certain qualities it will affect the MMS received irrespective of what feature the to Since most SMSC vendors have adopted Taps an ad-hoc method by which large distribution lists are transferred to the SMSC prior to being used in a bulk-messaging SMS submission, it is expected that MMSC vendors will also adopt FTP.
• Current MMS specifications do not include distribution lists nor methods by which large numbers of recipients can be conveniently addressed, particularly by content providers, called Value Added Service Providers (VASPs) in 3GPP.

• The flow of MMS messaging involves several over-the-air transactions that become inefficient when MMS is used to send messages to large numbers of subscribers, as is typically the case for VASPs. For example, when one MMS message is submitted to a very large number of recipients, it is possible to receive a delivery report and read-reply report for each and every recipient. Future MMS specification work is likely to optimize and reduce the transactional overhead for the bulk-messaging case.

• Unlike SMS, MMS requires a number of handset parameters to be set. Poor handset configuration is often blamed as the first point of failure for many users. Service settings are sometimes preconfigured on the handset.

• Few mobile network operators offer direct connectivity to their MMSCs for content providers. This has resulted in many content providers using WAP push as the only method available to deliver 'rich content' to mobile handsets..

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