SMS Router Survivable Storage for Message Loss Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing short message service (SMS) networks face reliability issues due to the forward and store quality of service, which increases the risk of message loss when delivery attempts fail, particularly for mobile originated and mobile terminated messages, leading to potential charging errors and reduced subscriber confidence.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a survivable storage mechanism, such as a log or replicate store, to persistently store short messages before acknowledging receipt, allowing for re-attempts of delivery or forwarding in case of failures, thereby reducing the risk of message loss and enhancing dependability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If forward and store quality of service is implemented to reduce costs and increase throughput, then the number of messages requiring persistent storage is reduced, but the risk of message loss increases due to potential failures between acknowledgement and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by creating a log entry with a copy of the short message in the log store before sending the acknowledgement to the submitter. This ensures that if a failure occurs between acknowledgement and actual storage, the message can be recovered from the log store and re-attempted, thereby maintaining reliability while enabling forward and store operation for high throughput
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by maintaining a survivable log store that preserves log entries even after router failures. This cushioning mechanism protects against message loss by retaining copies of messages that were acknowledged but not yet permanently stored, allowing recovery and re-attempt of delivery without compromising the high throughput benefits of forward and store
2Reliability
If store and forward service is used to ensure high reliability and accurate charging, then message loss is minimized, but the cost of the SMSC increases due to expensive storage subsystems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the critical reliability function from the expensive SMSC storage subsystem by implementing a cost-effective log store in the router that maintains survivable copies of messages. This allows the system to achieve high reliability without requiring expensive persistent storage at the SMSC, as the router's log store provides the necessary message preservation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by creating a copy of the short message in the log store at the router before acknowledgement. This copy serves as a survivable backup that eliminates the need for expensive persistent storage at the SMSC, as the router's log store provides the necessary message preservation at a lower cost
3Loss of time
If early acknowledgement is implemented to meet timer expiration requirements, then duplicate delivery is avoided, but the risk of losing messages increases when component failure occurs between acknowledgement and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by creating the log entry with the message copy before sending the acknowledgement. This timing ensures that the message is preserved in the survivable log store even if component failure occurs after acknowledgement but before permanent storage, allowing recovery while meeting the early acknowledgement requirement to avoid duplicate delivery
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and a method for improving short message service dependability by reducing the risk of an SM being loss due to failure in a network having both an SMS routers and an SMSC and in which forward and store delivery or Early-Ack is enabled in the router. Alternative apparatus and methods are presented which mitigate the possibility of losing an SM before it is delivered to a recipient or received and persistently stored by the SMSC by placing the SM in a survivable storage medium before acknowledgement of the SM is sent to the submitter of the SM and by providing a recovery mechanism that can re-attempt a delivery or a forwarding of the SM, based on the content of the survivable storage medium, in the case of a failure.