Home > Short message peer-to-peer protocol

The short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP) is a protocol for exchanging SMS messages between SMS peer entities such as short message service centres. It is often used to allow third parties (e.g. content supplier s like news organisations) to submit messages, often in bulk.

It was originally designed by Aldiscon, a small Irish company that was later bought by Logica. In 1999, SMPP was formally handed over to the SMPP Developers Forum, later renamed as The SMS Forum.

The latest version of SMPP is V5.0.

The protocol is based on complimetary pairs of request/response PDUs exchanged over OSI layer 4 (TCP/IP session or X.25 SVC3) connections. PDUs are binary encoded for efficiency.

Example submit_sm PDU (60 octets)..
00 00 00 3C 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 00 02 08 35 35 35 00 01 01 35 35 35 35 35 35
35 35 35 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0F 48 65 6C 6C 6F 20 77 69 6B 69 70 65 64 69 61

PDU Header..
'command_length', (60) ... 00 00 00 3C
'command_id', (4) ... 00 00 00 04
'command_status', (0) ... 00 00 00 00
'sequence_number', (5) ... 00 00 00 05

PDU Body..
'service_type', () ... 00
'source_addr_ton', (2) ... 02
'source_addr_npi', (8) ... 08
'source_addr', (555) ... 35 35 35 00
'dest_addr_ton', (1) ... 01
'dest_addr_npi', (1) ... 01
'dest_addr', (555555555) ... 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 00
'esm_class', (0) ... 00
'protocol_id', (0) ... 00
'priority_flag', (0) ... 00
'schedule_delivery_time', () ... 00
'validity_period', () ... 00
'registered_delivery', (0) ... 00
'replace_if_present_flag', (0) ... 00
'data_coding', (0) ... 00
'sm_default_msg_id', (0) ... 00
'sm_length', (15) ... 0F
'short_message', (Hello wikipedia) ... 48 65 6C 6C 6F 20 77 69 6B 69 70 65 64 69 61

External link

• the details regarding SMPP are available at www.smsforum.net
• SMPP Gateway Software