A study on the reliability of data transmission of an over the top network protocol on SMS versus UDP/GPRS (fragmented)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify an aspect of data transmission that could help address the existing gap between the availability of the second and third generations of mobile telephony in the light of increased demand for growth of machine-to-machine applications using mobile data technology. This study examined the reliability of sending data through the SMS interface as an alternative means to transmit data over newer technologies such as GPRS. The research primarily focused on transport performance, and looked into different factors of integrity and reliability, such as transmission time and number of retries. The study was then divided into construction, testing and analysis phases wherein the output was an analysis of the data gathered from testing packet data transmission via SMS and GPRS in key locations around a specific locale. As per the results, SMS in general works in a slow but steady pace of delivery, while GPRS (using the UDP protocol) offers a quicker but slipshod transmission. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.