A tutorial overview of the short message service within GSM

This tutorial presents an overview of the GSM short message service from th e viewpoint of implementing new telematic services. It is motivated by the increasing potential that the SMS offers for integration with existing mess aging services and its ability to offer an alternative to the transmission control and Internet protocols for low bandwidth applications. Initially, t he tutorial gives a brief overview of the building blocks of GSM networks a nd then the SMS network and protocol architecture. The most widely used pro tocols for message submission are then introduced and compared in terms of their ability to handle extended alphabets, two way messaging etc. Finally, the tutorial outlines a summary of current and future issues for further r esearch and development in the light of novel features for submission proto cols and telematic services.