Concatenated (Long) SMS Segmentation Information Always Encoded as Optional "sar_*" Parameters When Using a SSMN Node (Doc ID 1984495.1)

Last updated on MARCH 27, 2023

Applies to:

Symptoms

With the release of Oracle Network Charging and Control (NCC) 5.0.1.0, a feature which allows operators to modify the outgoing Originating/Destination Type of Number (TON) and outgoing Originating/Destination Numbering Type Indicator (PI) in an Advance Control Services (ACS) Control Plan.

This is achieved by setting specific Profile Tags (SSMN Originating TON Override, SSMN Destination TON Override, SSMN Originating NPI Override, SSMN Destination NPI Override) which are then used by the Send Short Message Notification (SSMN) node which can be configured to copy the incoming SMS.

More specific information on this can be found in the NCC User Documentation or please feel free to contact Oracle Support.

A problem exists with this feature in NCC when the short message being processed is a long or concatenated SMS (multipart) with a Global Systems for Mobile (GSM) User Data Header (UDH) where the outgoing Short Message Peer to Peer (SMPP) SMS now has the segmentation information encoded in the following SMPP specific fields:

• SMPP sar_msg_ref_num (GSM UDH equivalent: Message Identifier)
• SMPP sar_total_segments (GSM UDH equivalent: Message Parts)
• SMPP sar_segment_seqnum (GSM UDH equivalent: Message Part Number)

This can be seen, if a network trace is taken, as follows:

Incoming

Outgoing

Although this is a valid encoding of these fields in SMPP, it is possible for downstream network elements to not correctly interpret these fields resulting in concatenated messages arriving at the recipients handset as discrete messages and/or out of order.

Changes

Installation of NCC 5.0.1.0 to utlise the ability to set the outgoing TON/NPI and concatenated SMS traffic is triggering to NCC.

Cause

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