Multimedia Messaging Service

Multimedia Messaging Service An Engineering Approach to MMS Gwenaël Le Bodic Alcatel, France

Multimedia Messaging Service

Multimedia Messaging Service An Engineering Approach to MMS Gwenaël Le Bodic Alcatel, France

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Contents Preface About the Author xiii xvii 1 Introduction to MMS 1 1.1 MMS Success Enablers 2 1.2 Commercial Availability of MMS 4 1.3 MMS Compared with Other Messaging Services 4 1.3.1 SMS and EMS 4 1.3.2 Electronic Mail 5 1.3.3 J-phone s Sha-mail and NTT Docomo s i-shot 5 1.3.4 RIM s Blackberry 7 1.4 MMS Added Value and Success Factors 8 1.5 Billing Models 9 1.6 Usage Scenarios 10 1.6.1 Person-to-person Messaging 10 1.6.2 Content-to-person Messaging 11 1.6.3 Further Applications 12 Further Reading 12 2 Standardization of MMS 13 2.1 MMS Standards 14 2.2 Third Generation Partnership Project 15 2.2.1 3GPP Structure 16 2.2.2 3GPP Specifications: Release, Phase and Stage 16 2.2.3 3GPP Specifications: Numbering Scheme 18 2.3 Third Generation Partnership Project 2 20 2.4 WAP Forum Specifications 20 2.5 Internet Engineering Task Force 22 2.5.1 IETF Documents 22 2.5.2 Internet Standard Track 23 2.6 World Wide Web Consortium 23

vi Contents 2.7 Open Mobile Alliance 25 2.7.1 OMA Organization 25 2.7.2 OMA Specifications 27 2.7.3 Available Documents 28 2.8 Standardization Roadmap for MMS 29 Further Reading 33 3 Service Architecture 35 3.1 MMS Architecture 35 3.2 MMS Interfaces 36 3.3 MMS Client 38 3.4 MMS Centre 38 3.5 Wireless Application Protocol 39 3.5.1 Introduction to WAP 39 3.5.2 WAP Architecture 41 3.5.3 Push Technology 41 3.5.4 User Agent Profile 44 3.5.5 WAP 1.x Legacy Configuration 45 3.5.6 WAP HTTP Proxy with Wireless Profiled TCP and HTTP 46 3.5.7 Direct Access 47 3.5.8 WAP Configurations for MMS 47 3.5.9 WTP Segmentation and Reassembly 48 3.6 OMA Digital Rights Management 50 4 Service Features 53 4.1 Message Sending 53 4.2 Message Retrieval 55 4.2.1 Immediate Retrieval 55 4.2.2 Deferred Retrieval 55 4.2.3 Retrieval When Roaming 56 4.2.4 Automatic Rejection of Unsolicited or Anonymous Messages 56 4.3 Message Reports 56 4.3.1 Delivery Reports 57 4.3.2 Read Reports 57 4.4 Message Forward 57 4.5 Reply Charging 57 4.6 Addressing Modes 58 4.7 Settings of MMS Mobile Devices 58 4.7.1 Connectivity Settings 58 4.7.2 User Preferences 59 4.7.3 Storing and Provisioning MMS Settings 60 4.8 Storage of MMS Settings and Notifications in the (U)SIM 61

Contents vii 4.9 Multimedia Message Boxes 62 4.10 Value-added Services 63 4.11 Capability Negotiation 64 4.12 Streaming 68 4.12.1 Example of MMS Architecture for the Support of Streaming 68 4.12.2 Streaming Protocols: RTP and RTSP 70 4.13 Charging and Billing 71 4.14 Security Considerations 73 5 The Multimedia Message 75 5.1 Multipart Structure 75 5.1.1 Message Envelope 76 5.1.2 Encapsulation of Media Objects 77 5.2 Message Content Domains and Classes 78 5.2.1 Message Content Domains 82 5.2.2 Message Content Classes 83 5.2.3 MMS Client Conformance to Message Content Classes 84 5.3 Media Types, Formats and Codecs 85 5.3.1 Text 86 5.3.2 Bitmap and Still Images 86 5.3.3 Vector Graphics 87 5.3.4 Speech 88 5.3.5 Audio and Synthetic Audio 89 5.3.6 Video 91 5.3.7 Personal Information Manager Objects 91 5.4 Scene Description 93 5.4.1 Introduction to SMIL 93 5.4.2 Organization of SMIL 2.0 94 5.4.3 Spatial Description with SMIL 94 5.4.4 Temporal Description with SMIL 96 5.4.5 SMIL Basic Profile 96 5.4.6 MMS SMIL and the OMA Conformance Document 97 5.4.7 SMIL Namespace 102 5.4.8 Linking the Scene Description with Body Parts 102 5.4.9 Support of Video Streaming 104 5.4.10 Support of Colour with SMIL 105 5.4.11 XHTML as an Alternative to SMIL 106 5.5 Example of a Multimedia Message 106 5.6 Forward-lock of Media Objects 109 5.7 Message Size Measurement 109 Further Reading 111

viii Contents 6 Transactions Flows 113 6.1 Introduction to the MMS Transaction Model 113 6.1.1 Person-to-person Scenarios 114 6.1.2 Content-to-person Scenarios 116 6.1.3 How to Read the PDU Description Tables 117 6.2 MM1 Interface, MMS Client MMSC 118 6.2.1 Message Submission 121 6.2.2 Message Notification 127 6.2.3 Message Retrieval 133 6.2.4 Delivery Report 138 6.2.5 Read Report 140 6.2.6 Message Forward 143 6.2.7 Storing and Updating a Message in the MMBox 147 6.2.8 Viewing Information from the MMBox 149 6.2.9 Uploading a Message to the MMBox 155 6.2.10 Deleting a Message from the MMBox 157 6.2.11 Parameter Description and Binary Encoding 157 6.3 MM2 Interface, Internal MMSC Interface 167 6.4 MM3 Interface, MMSC External Servers 167 6.5 MM4 Interface, MMSC MMSC 167 6.5.1 Introduction to SMTP 169 6.5.2 Routing Forward a Message 172 6.5.3 Routing Forward a Delivery Report 175 6.5.4 Routing Forward a Read Report 175 6.5.5 Example for Message Transfer with SMTP 177 6.6 MM5 Interface, MMSC HLR 179 6.7 MM6 Interface, MMSC User Databases 180 6.8 MM7 Interface, MMSC VAS Applications 180 6.8.1 Introduction to SOAP 183 6.8.2 Message Submission 185 6.8.3 Message Delivery 188 6.8.4 Message Cancellation 190 6.8.5 Message Replacement 191 6.8.6 Delivery Report 195 6.8.7 Read Report 202 6.8.8 Generic Error Handling 204 6.9 MM8 Interface, MMSC Billing System 205 7 Standard Compliance and Interoperability 207 7.1 Standard Conformance and Interoperability Testing 207 7.1.1 Static Conformance Requirements 207 7.1.2 Enabler Implementation Conformance Statement 208

Contents ix 7.1.3 Enabler Test Requirements, Plan and Specification 209 7.1.4 Interoperability Testing 209 7.2 Implementations of Different Versions of the MMS Protocol 210 8 Commercial Solutions and Developer Tools 213 8.1 MMS Handsets Directory 213 8.2 MMSC Directory 213 8.3 Developer Tools 214 9 The Future of MMS 221 9.1 MMS Developments in 3GPP 221 9.1.1 MMS Release 6 221 9.1.2 IMS Messaging 222 9.2 MMS Development in OMA 223 9.3 MMS Developments in 3GPP2 223 9.4 A Bright Future for MMS? 224 Appendices 225 A Content Types of Media Objects 225 B MM1 Interface Response Status Codes (X-Mms-Response-Status) 225 C MM1 Interface Retrieve Status Codes (X-Mms-Retrieve-Status) 228 D MM1 Interface MMBox Store Status Codes (X-Mms-Store-Status) 229 E MM4 Interface Request Status Codes (X-Mms-Request-Status-Code) 230 F MM7 Interface Status Code and Status Text 231 References 235 Acronyms and Abbreviations 241 Index 247

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Preface First wireless communications over radio links were demonstrated by Guglielmo Marconi in the 1890s. These initial communications trials opened the door to many applications from radio to television broadcasts. The first regular radio broadcast service began in 1920 and the commercial introduction of colour television followed more than 30 years later. Colour television is a significant milestone in the road map of radio-based broadcast services since it allowed voice to be transmitted along with motion colour pictures. Radio-based communications also allowed the introduction of another category of innovative applications: personal communications between mobile users. To some extent, personal communications follow a similar evolution path as that of commercial radio-based broadcast services. Commercial personal mobile communications services started as voice-centric services with the introduction of the first radio mobile network in 1981 in Europe. Twenty years later, advances in high technology made possible multimedia personal communications over radio links between mobile users. The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is one of these applications allowing users to exchange multimedia messages. A multimedia message can be a simple text or voice message or a sophisticated message containing various media objects (e.g. video clip, image, melodies). Regarding the importance of MMS in the evolution of personal communications, MMS may soon represent for radio-based personal mobile communications services what colour television is to radio-based broadcast services. The first reference to the term Multimedia Messaging Service can be traced back to 1998. At this crucial time, SMS usage was booming and new requirements for enhancing the messaging experience of mobile users were emerging. To meet this demand, major industry players defined the scope of what was expected to become a ubiquitous multimedia messaging service with the intention to deploy it over various transport technologies for mobile networks. MMS can be seen as the best of the breed of several messaging services including the well-known Short Message Service (SMS) and the Internet electronic mail. Year 2002 saw the first wave of MMS devices appearing on the market, mainly targeting photo messaging with the availability of camera phones. Year 2003 sees the emergence of a new generation of MMS devices with video capabilities. MMS is still in its infancy, and ongoing standardization developments should allow further MMS use