SMS messaging concepts

SMS messaging uses message compression and raw messages.

SMS message compression

The SMS feature supports sending compressed messages between Remote Manager and a registered device. Message compression allows Remote Manager to pack a user's message into a smaller number of bytes.

Requirements:

• The device must be configured with phone numbers and have cellular service.
• The device firmware must support message compression; otherwise, all communication is uncompressed.

How SMS message compression works:

• Remote Manager compresses message transfers to the device.
• The device compresses messages sent to Remote Manager.
• The amount of compression is determined by the compressibility of the message, and never results in sending a larger message than the original version.
• If compressing the message results in a larger message, Remote Manager sends the original message instead.

Raw SMS messages

In addition to Remote Manager-formatted messages, a user can send an unmodified, or "raw", SMS message. Use raw messages when you want to use every byte of the SMS message (Remote Manager protocol takes approximately 5 bytes per message of overhead), or when using a device that doesn’t have Remote Manager protocol support but does have SMS support.

About raw messages:

• Raw messages are not modified by Remote Manager and are subject to the restrictions of the SMS messaging interface.
• They can contain a maximum of 160 characters.
• Specific supported characters are dependent on the carrier but are character only, not binary.
• Raw messages are not guaranteed to be delivered, and may be delivered more than once.
• Since they may be subject to corruption, are not guaranteed to be correct.