SMS Compression

SMS compression is all about reducing the size of the message to facilitate easy delivery process.

Compresson and decompression may take place between Short Message Entities (SME) or between an SME and Service Center (SC). Only the data in the message is comprssed not the headers delivered with the message as it is needed in most of the stages for processing. A compression header will carry those messages about compressionalbe data range in a message and compression footer will follow. There is also a parameter, TP-DCS, indicating whether the message is compressed or not.

After compression by any chance if the messge is more than the allowable limit, then the sending entity should take necessary actions to concatenate message, following the normal rule.

In the scenario of mobile terminated messages, if the parameters need message to be stored in the mobile station, then the phone stores the message as it is, and if the phone is capable of decompressing, it decompress and display the message. And in this decompressing process MS will alter the paremeter values about the lenght and other relevant fields along with the parameter which indicate whether the message is compressed or not.

In mobile originated messages, the mobile station, if its capable of compressing the message, compress prior to sending the message. The relevant parameters values will be modified as described in the previous paragraph.