[EdLUG] Text messages

[Edinburgh Linux Users Group]

On 06/13/16 10:17, Edinburgh Linux Users Group wrote:
> I had a situation Friday evening where my handset said messages were being
> sent,GiffGaff(GG), but were not being delivered!
> Eventually from the GG status page I found that a mast in the Inverkeithing
> are where I live was  out of action.   The messages were eventually delivered
> about 14 hours later!  I was receiving texts OK, and voice both ways was working
> 
> Can anyone point me to a URL where I can read about how the mobile network
> works, or is supposed to work?
> 
> Its the way my handset said Sent  but they weren't delivered that perturbs
> me.  That just isn't a good system protocol.

GSM is quite complex, 3G mind-numbingly so.  Don't hurt your brain by trying
to understand it.  :-D

SMS stands for "short message service" and is a connectionless protocol (a bit
like UDP) - send and hope.  It was originally intended for engineering
diagnostic use but was discovered by geeks and found to be what just users wanted.

Unfortunately being connectionless there is no end to end reliability although
most networks buffer messages to handle when receiver is not available.

So you got what's expected really.

Use a connection oriented messaging service such as Google Hangouts or
Whatsapp or Telegraph etc etc if you want more reliability.

Dick