Aicent SMS eXchange Service Description

Aicent's carrier-grade, high-availability SMS eXchange is a comprehensive services platform that provides the mobile operator with the services required for a commercially successful SMS business. Services such as message delivery, 24x7 O&M functions, fraud and spam control, efficiently connecting elected operators, billing and settlement, currency rate conversion, traffic and billing reports, and real time monitoring are all provided when you connect with Aicent's SMS eXchange.

Aicent's SMS eXchange ensures interoperability among different SMSC interfaces (SS7, SMPP, HTTP etc.), versions and implementations to achieve transparent interworking SMS between any connected mobile operators. Aicent will connect you to multiple operators, including operators that are connected to one of Aicent's hub peering partners, in a very short timeframe. This will provide the immediate benefit of access to the revenues associated with high traffic volumes of global SMS messaging.

With Aicent's SMS eXchange, you select the business model that best suits your needs:

Transparent (OC-Compliant) Model
For all operators under the transparency model, you will be able to identify the originating operator of each message you terminate. In addition, you have full visibility of the Aicent transit rate and each terminating operator's termination (MT) rate.

Aicent has adopted the GSMA's standard Interworking SMS Services Agreement, the AA.71, to manage these relationships.

Wholesale Model
In this model, you pay Aicent one rate, which is inclusive of all costs to deliver your SMS business. Operators adopting the wholesale model are typically interested in our more simple services agreement which fully covers all terms and conditions.

With both models, you receive all the same great features and services. You choose the charging model, method of connectivity, terminating operators, and the type of services contract.

Settlement Services
Aicent provides rating, billing, and net settlement services to customers associated with terminated or originating SMS messages with all other operator SMS inter-working partners via Aicent SMS eXchange. Accounting data is collected and processed by Aicent's rating and reporting system.

In addition, Aicent provides a currency rate function which eliminates the ‘exchange risk' for all operators. Full transparency and a built-in currency calculator are standard with the service.

Comprehensive and detailed reports are also standard with the Aicent SMS eXchange service;

Web Reporting
As the SMS market grows, operators will seek answers to questions such as the following:

  • How fast is traffic volume growing?
  • How traffic is geographically distributed?
  • What is the traffic distribution amongst operators?
  • How many messages are received or rejected by operator?
  • What is my net financial position for the month?

Aicent's Web Portal provides daily, weekly, monthly and real time reports to address these concerns. The following categories of reports are available to Aicent's customers via secured user access:

   Billing/Settlement Reports

  • Cascade billing
  • Summary reporting
  • Detailed reporting
  • Currency rate conversion

    •    Traffic Analysis Reports

  • Volume and Growth analysis
  • Traffic Balance reporting
  • Geographic analyses
  • Message analysis
  • High usage (fraud) reporting

    •    Operations and Monitoring Reports

  • On-line Election Process
  • SMS platform status report
  • Configurable real-time message tracking

    •    SLA Reporting

  • Server availability
  • Performance KPI's

    • Support
    The Aicent NOC provides 24x7x365 support for your critical SMS service. Clearly defined severity levels and escalation procedures ensure that critical issues are restored within 4 hours. Our NOC is fully staffed by technical operations and engineering staff at the network and application levels.

    Features of the SMS eXchange Service:


    Key Feature


    Feature Description

    Carrier-Grade


     • High Availability platform with Geo-Diversity

    GSMA OC Compliant


     • Transparency on Charging
     • Transparency on Routing
     • Cascade Billing
     • Interoperable Fraud and Security Controls
     • End to End Quality of Service
     • Network configuration, testing, and management
     • Mobile Operator Opt-Out
     • Full outsourcing of the O&M function for operators
     • One-stop shop for Global SMS connectivity

    SMSC Interworking Compatibility


     • SMPP v3.3 & v3.4
     • MAP v1/ v2/ v3
     • SMTP
     • CMPP
     • EMI-UCP v4.6
     • CIMD2
     • SOAP/HTTP
     • XML/HTTP
     • Aicent TCP interface
     • Aicent HTTP interface
     • Any proprietary protocol over UDP/TCP/IP

    MNP Solution


     •  Aicent proprietary solution for number portability
     • Supports SS7 MNP query using SRI_For_SM

    Anti-Spam


     • Message header and body tests
     • Detection and blocking using blacklist features
     • Content-Filtering
     • Complete reporting of all incidents

    Fraud checking


     • Detection and blocking for :

  • Flooding

  • Faking

  • Spoofing

    •  • Complete reporting of all incidents

    Black/White List


     • Blacklisting MNO for MT-FSM Origination & Termination
     • Blacklisting MSISDN for MT-FSM Origination & Termination
     • Blacklisting Service Centre Address
     • Restrict allowable destination MSISDN length
     • Block SS7 messages from unknown Hub/Operator

    Throttling Control


     • Controls how many messages originator can send or recipient can receive
       per set time frame

    Store&forward / proxy mode


     • Support Store & Forward and proxy
     • Supports IP<>SS7, SS7<>SS7, SS7<>IP

    Transparency


     • Configurable transparency setting on SRI_SM per customer
     • Configurable transparency setting on FSM per customer
     • Maintains consistency between MAP and SCCP addresses

    Text2Image Conversion


     • Converts text to MMS for local language support
     • Currently supports all Far-East Asia double-byte char-sets

    Delivery Reports


     • Transmits recipient delivery receipt back to originating operator
     • Generates system delivery receipt if delivery receipt is not supported by
       recipient operator
     • Supports both client pull / server push method to retrieve delivery receipt

    Data coding


     • 7bit ASCII text SMS
     • GBK
     • KSC5601
     • UCS2
     • Latin 8-bit
     • Supports conversion between GSM 7 bit and SMPP

    Binary SMS


     • Support Binary SMS (EMS)

    Split Message


     • Split long message based operator requirements (original or destination)

    Multiple short message


     • Concatenation of multiple SMs in SS7<>IP

    Error code mapping


     • Mapping of error codes between SS7 and IP

    CDR


     • Support logging all messages into CDR and UDR

    Real-Time Monitoring


     • Monitoring all incoming/outgoing traffic
     • Monitoring of TCP ports 1213, 3003
     • SNMP support for flexible real time monitoring
     • Support monitoring all processes
     • Real-time system alerts

    Aicent SMS eXchange System Architecture
    Aicent SMS eXchange Service Overview
    Aicent Text2Image (T2I) Overview