MO Message Flow

The letters MO stands for "Mobile Originated". So MO message is the message which originates from the mobile phone. And even though it is not indicated in the name, destination of the MO messages will be the "Short Message Service Center" (SMSC). From that point onwards SMSC takes care of the message performing routing accordingly.

The message flow of the MO messages is shown in the picture below.

Before subscriber sends the message, access request and authentication is done using the information available on VLR (Visitor location register)

Step 1

In this step, message is sent to the MSC after following the process explained above. MSC (Mobile Switching Center) is responsible for handling all the subscriber events, who are in a particular geographical area.

Step 2

Then the VLR is updated with the relevant information about the MO message. This will be used to obtain the location information about the subscriber who sent the message as well.

Step 3

In this step three, the message is transfered to the SMSC, which handles the rest of the message routing process.

Step 4

SMSC will take relevant routing actions and will be sent to further processing. MO message flow ends up here.

Step 5

The delivery report is sent to the MSC from SMSC, once the SMSC obtains the delivery status of the message.

Step 6

From there onwards MSC will handle the delivery report. Will access VLR and sends relevant delivery status to the subscriber who sent the message. If he's not in his area then will inform back to the SMSC.

The point to note here is that the HLR is not accessed at any point in the MT flow.

Neural networks for the benefit of mankind in health

Mankind has found many ways to make life easy by using IT. Among those inventions Artificial Neural Network has a special place in which it simulates the the biological neural network of human brain.

There are many applications which uses ANNs for the benefit of mankind. Among them Health applications play a leading role because most of the health application's purpose is to predict a probable future outcome which will help humans to avoid it. Neural applications are being used most of the time because of its capability to predict accurately the outcome from the set of past data.

Heart monitoring, ECG analysis is a well known application which uses ANN to identify the pattern of the ECG to recognize an probable condition earlier which will eventually support, supporting the patient with the medical assistance which would be needing in order to overcome the situation.

Another very useful application is prediction of future patients information based on particular geographical location based on the past patient information of that area. This concept is actually implemented by the hSenid Mobile Solutions as IDEWS. (Infectious Diseases Early Warning System). Here the possible patient information of epidemic diseases such as Dengue is informed to relevant authorities, enabling taking precautions. The heart of this system make use of an ANN. And it is actually proven the accurate predictions of ANN.

So anyways there may be so many health related applications that would be developed using ANNs in the future which would become ultimately a life saver.

HLR & VLR

HLR and VLR are two important components in mobile network environment where the basis of mobility depends on these two elements. HLR is the Home Location Register whereas VLR is the Visitor location register.

The main purpose of HLR is to find the location information of a mobile subscriber. For a simple example it is like checking the address of a letter where it should be sent. In this case the problem is, address of the subscriber is not static but dynamic. It changes all the time. So HLR contains the location information of subscribers which helps operators to find where he/she is.

VLR contains information about users in a particular area at a given time. So it is not a permanent storage since the users in a particular area can be switched constantly. This VLR is attached to a particular Mobile Switching Center (MSC) which receives Short Messages (SM) or Calls from operator and distribute it to the final user.

When these two elements are compared and contrasted, HLR is a permanent data storage whereas VLR is a temporary storage. HLR contains all the data about the entire subscriber base of a particular operator whereas at a given time VLR contains information about a subset of the subscriber base unless all the subscribers are in one geographical area. And HLR is built as optimized reading is capable whereas in VLR both the processes reading and writing is optimized.

In conclusion both these elements are vital in mobile networks since the mobility depends on HLR and VLR, specially using HLR.

Number Portability

Before explaining number portability with a technical aspect will explain using a simple example.

A person using "A" service provider's service and his mobile number starts with 077xxxxxxx. But sevice provider "B" offers very attractive package for a very low amount of charges. And if we are to join "B" we should change our number. But still will u be able to change the provider. For me I cant because the switching cost might exceed the benefit received from changing the service provider. Most of the people today have this problem.

Solution for this could be number portability. What happens in number portability is a particular person will have a one fixed number. And any service provider would be able to get connected and provide services to that number. So switching operator wont be a hazard anymore and it also will lead to more competitive market for mobile service providers. Competitiveness obviously will result in many innovations and subscribers will get the maximum yield out of it.

This concept is somewhat similar to IP V6 concept, in which every individual would be able to own a private IP address of his own with the large address range.

There are practical use of number portability as for today. Even in india it exists. So this is the right time for us to move on and get mixed up with the modern world which is with less hazards.

SMSC

In short SMSC is a short message store and forward system.

It provides a facility for users to send SMS between mobile phones or applications. There are three main parts of this process mainly called as Mobile Originated (MO) messages, SMSC and Mobile terminated (MT) messages.

In MO messages what it does is sending message from the mobile phone to SMSC. This will have to follow through many steps such as Base station system (BSS) and Mobile Switching Center (MSC). Visitor Location Register (VLR) and Home Location Register (HLR) will als updated and verifies on the way.

In SMSC as for the definition it routes message and regulate the process.. It applies relevant logics, filtering, validations for the message and follow the necessary procedure. Target of the message could be a another mobile phone or a particular application.

In MT messages again there is a defined path to be followed. First senders location should be found by accessing HLR which contains all the detail of the subscribers. Then once the location of the user is found, it is sent to MSC and there it access VLR for further user detail verification and authentication. Then form MSC it sends the message to the particular mobile subscriber.

If the message is not delivered, HLR is informed to update SMSC when the particular subscriber come live. Message will be stored at MSC. There are two concepts in that case too. Store & Forward and Forward & Store.

In Store and forward message will be stored before checking whether the user is online or not. In the other method forward and store, message is stored once the messaged delivery is failed. There are advantages and disadvantages of both these models.

Flying When Pregnant

Flying while pregnant is something that our mothers are heavily scared of. But mentioning the summary in short, it is not a something to be worried about provided that the mother and child are in good health and delivery won't take place while on air.

But the fact to remember is most of the airlines have their own restrictions about pregnant ladies travelling. Normally most of the airlines do not allow to travel after 36 months. But that depends on the flight as well. If it is a domestic travel it could be 7 days prior to the due date of 2,3 days.

In one of the studies on pregnancy and air travel, they have revealed that there is a slight increase in miscarriage. But this study was carried out with the flight attendances who stay fairly large amount of their time on air, on average 74 hours per month.

Travelling in first trimester would be little bit difficult for someone as you will be feeling uncomfortable within that period because of pregnancy symptoms such as morning weakness. But anyways in the case of a travel it will be much more comfortable taking some extra sick bags.

The second trimester is somewhat okay to travel as for the studies since your pregnancy symptoms will be less during this period. Risk of miscarriage is significantly lowered.

During third trimester, it is also okay to travel unless the delivery dates are not close by.

Even though it is recommended to travel while pregnant, there is a increased chance of developing a blood clot. But there are actions to be taken as precautions for this. Not crossing your legs, drinking water to keep hydrated, wearing comfortable loose cloths would be some of them.

As a summary again it is not something to worry, travelling while pregnant. But prevention is always better than cure.

Artificial Neural Networks

In short Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a computational model which represents the behavior of biological neural network.

The base of the ANN is the individual nodes which are composed artificially to represent the behavior of a neurons inside human body. The group or a collection of such a artificial nodes is called as a ANN.

Human biological neural network is a complex element which is used to carry out a specific physiological function. So do the Artificial Neural Network. ANN is also designed as the need of it, to perform the function which is intended to.

The flow of a ANN is it captures an input and then using the set of neural nodes, which is called as the ANN, it classifies the input into different classes and give it away as the output. There are main two types of ANNs based on how the training is carried out which is the most important part in any neural network. Training is of two types, supervised training and unsupervised training. In supervised training weights of each node is adjusted in such a way that the output required is obtained. But in unsupervised learning ANN is allowed to train on it's own. Desired output is not provided. It adjusts according to the changes which is more flexible.

When ANNs are used in applications there may be compromises. Since complicated ANNs use huge amount of memory, there could be a clash between quality and feasibility. It should be properly handled in order to produce a good output.

In many of the applications today, they uses neural networks. Some of they would be Function approximation, regression analysis, time series predictions, classification, pattern recognition, time series analysis, data processing.