Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sending Data In Bursts of SMS Messages

Posted by timothy on from the out-of-band-and-back-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Canadian carrier Rogers has been experiencing some extreme loads of late, as researchers at the University of Waterloo investigate the potential for sending data spread across bursts of hundreds of text messages. They sent around 80,000 messages in the course of a project testing a new protocol able to cram 32KB into 250 messages sent from a BlackBerry, reaching a rate of 20 bytes per second. The group thinks its protocol could be useful in rural areas of the developing world where text messaging is the only affordable, reliable link."

6 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Oops by ekgringo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make sure you get the "unlimited" text messaging plan before trying this...

    1. Re:Oops by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's completely idiotic. There are two ways in which SMS is implemented:

      On older GSM networks, it's part of the control channel. There is some unused space in one of the control packets. It was a scarce resource and flooding it could actually prevent anyone making calls (there was a fairly simple DoS attack possible). This was the original reason for SMS being expensive - the network couldn't handle much SMS traffic.

      On newer networks (GPRS and newer), it's just treated as data. It's wrapped in a packet header indicating that it's SMS and then sent in the same way as IP data.

      In any area where you just have GSM, there isn't enough bandwidth available for SMS for this to be useful. In an area where you have GPRS or anything newer then SMS is just a way of adding a huge packet header to your IP packets. It's transmitted the same way as IP data, you're just using the available bandwidth less efficiently.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. My 300 baud modem shivered... by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and got to feel the thrill of competition again.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  3. Neato! by zmollusc · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is good news (everyone), by the time you have torrented your bluray rip, it will be out of copyright.
    Or not.

    --
    They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
  4. Yak Protocol by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maximum carrying load of a Yak: 70kg
    Weight of a 32GB micro sd card. 0.5g
    Having your own 3rd world petabit network: priceless.

  5. Re:so now will they bill $1 per txt each way? by Peach+Rings · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe they should just make normal data transfer reasonably priced instead of jacking up SMS pricing...