SMPP connection - How to connect Diafaan SMPP server

In this FAQ you will see how to configure sending of SMS messages via SMPP feature on 2N gateways. First of all you can read a brief introduction how do these features work and after that there are several important steps which have to be met for proper settings of this feature:


    • Set the GSM gateway to send/receive SMS via SMPP
    • Define the routing rules for incoming and outgoing SMS messages
    • Check the GSM gateway SMS database´s filling capacity


This FAQ applies for following gateways:

  • 2N® BRI Lite, 2N® BRI Enterprise (2 channels)
  • 2N® VoiceBlue Next (2 or 4 channels)
  • 2N® VoiceBlue MAX (4 channels)
  • 2N® BlueTower (2 to 8 channels), 2N® StarGate (2 to 32 channels).

Requirements

Note: As a very first step please make sure that the license for SMPP feature is uploaded into your 2N gateway. This license is sold as a package for 10 users (you can buy licence for 10, 20, 30, etc. users) and you can have up to 200 licensed users in the gateway. If you want to verify that you have uploaded the correct license in your gateway, go section "Management -> License key". You should see a licenses called SMSS and SMSUx in the "Active" row. SMSS indicates that SMPP feature is enabled and SMSUx indicates number of licensed users where x stands for this number (see the picture below). If there will not be a license for SMPP (SMSS) then you will not see tab "Messaging" on the top bar!

Gateway configuration

Function enabling and modules grouping

In the first step go to section "Messaging –> Modules grouping" and enable SMS server – check the appropriate check-box. Next add GSM modules to SMS groups in order to facilitate incoming/outgoing SMS routing. It can be done based on your requirements e.g. according to the GSM provider, etc. The last step in this section is to assign SMS groups created in the previous step to the User groups if you want to use messaging with different routing rules (e.g. to different company departments). The GSM gateway can contain up to 32 User groups and up to 32 SMS groups (4 in case of smaller gateways - BRI, VoiceBlue Next, VoiceBlue Max)

Note: in this section you can also enable AutoCLIP routing for SMS. Set the maximum time for which the automatic SMS routing record (response) will be saved in the AutoCLIP table. It means that once you send an email to some specific GSM number and after some time the mobile user responds to this message and sends a SMS message to SIM card inserted in the GSM module from which the email was previously sent, then this message will be automatically resent directly to the user who sent an email.

Note: newly you can also specify the message expire time. In case, that SMS message is not sent, in case it is received but not read or in case that DLR message has been received and not read you can specify after how long these SMS messages should be erased from gateway database.

Add user

As a next step you need to skip to the section "Messaging –> Users", click on the "Add" button and create new SMS user(s) who will send and receive SMS messages. There are several parameters in this section which have to be set.

  • User group: assign the user to User group
  • Access type: Select the communication protocol for SMS processing as SMPP (SMSC)
  • Login and password: Define the Login name and Password under which the SMPP server will log into the gateway
  • Tcp type: Set parameter as Server 
  • Message direction of Esme: Set this parameter as Transceiver 

You can see all parameters from this section in the picture below where was created user "Diafaan" with the login "Diafaan" and password "Diafaan". Once you fill in all parameters, click on the "OK" button. The user will be added and after that you have to make one more click to the "Save settings" button in the bottom right corner of the page (blue circle label in the picture).


Incoming SMS routing

Now specify the routing rules for incoming SMS messages – this is done in the "Messaging –> User Group –> Incoming SMS routing" menu where you click on the "Add" button. There are several parameters which can be set or modified (see the picture below). Three most important ones are:

  • Message from SMS group – select the SMS group that receives SMS messages
  • Action type – specify how incoming messages will be processed. You can set AutoCLIP routing (the incoming SMS will be routed according to the AutoCLIP table records), Deliver to user (the SMS will be delivered to the selected user) or Drop message (the SMS will be dropped).
  • Deliver to user – this field is used only if you selected “Deliver to user” in the previous step. Here is defined the user who receives a SMS.

Note: The rules are applied for incoming SMS sequentially, starting from the first rule. If all the set rules are met in a row, the SMS is routed according to the row.

  1. SMS routed directly to one user account
    In the picture below you can see that each message which is received on GSM modules assigned to SMS group 0 (in our case these are all the GSM modules) are routed directly to user "Diafaan". It means that once you send SMS to SIM cards inserted in the gateway, this SMS will be converted to an SMPP message and sent directly to the SMPP server that is saved under this account. You can also specify the time and day when this routing rule is active. Once you finish the configuration click on the "OK" button and after that on the "Save settings" button.
  2. SMS routed based on the AutoCLIP routing table
    Sometimes it is not desirable to send all received SMS messages to one user but you can require to send SMS messages based on the AutoCLIP routing table records. Only if there is no record in this table for the incoming message then you can forward the message to one specific user. The setting is shown below – firstly 2N gateway tries to deliver SMS message based on the AutoCLIP routing and if there is no record for incoming GSM number then the SMS message is sent to Receptionist´s email account.

Outgoing SMS routing

As a last step you need to specify routing rules for outgoing SMS – it is done in the "Messaging –> User Group –> Outgoing SMS routing" menu where you click on the "Add" button. In this section you will specify mainly these parameters:

  • Message to SMS group – the SMS group via which the outgoing SMS will be routed
  • Action type – define how to process outgoing SMS. You can choose from two options: Submit from user (SMS can be sent only from selected users) or Submit from all users (enable sending SMS from all the SMS group users).
  • Submit from user – choose a user who can send SMS (this is used only if "Submit from user" was selected)

Note: do not forget to enable the SMS server as shown in the first step (there is a check-box)!

In the picture below there is shown settings for User Group 0. Messages from all users in this User group are routed via SMS group 0. It means that these messages will be transferred to SMS and sent only via GSM modules assigned to SMS group 0. It is all GSM modules in our example (as you can see in the picture from step 1).

Diafaan server setting

Application setup

Diafaan SMPP server has a standard installation wizard guide which will easily navigate you through the installation process. After the application is installed start it up and you will be welcomed by step by step wizard which will help you setup the application for our scenario.

First thing you are going to see after you start the application is window to setup credentials for the application. You need to fill in user name and password for your Administrator account on Diafaan SMPP server application. Choose any username and password you want and click on Next.

On the next window you need to select type of gateway that you will be using for sending SMS messages. In our case we want to create an SMPP Gateway so select that value and click on Next

Now we need to setup the connection to the SMPP gateway. There are few parameters that we need to setup:

  • Host or IP number: IP address of the gateway, in my example the IP address is 192.168.50.30
  • Server port and SMPP version: do not change value of these parameters
  • SMPP server account - User name: this is the username you have assigned to the SMPP user in Messaging part of gateway configuration (in my example it is "Diafaan")
  • SMPP server account - password:  this is the password that the application use to connect to the gateway (in my example it is Diaffan)

When you click next a new window will appear where you can add some description to the SMPP gateway. If you don't want to add any description just skip this part and click on next right away.

Next you can create a connector, which will allow you to route incoming SMS messages. I have chosen to route the incoming SMS message to my email address therefore I have chosen the Email connector

On the next window I have chosen option "Do not to receive email" and filled in the login information for my email server and email account. This information can usually be found at your email server provider. Do not forget to enable this function by allowing parameter "Forward received SMS messages to email". After you finish setting your email account information click on next and finish the setup wizard tool.

Sending SMS messages

After you have finished setting up the application you can finally start using sending SMS messages. In the main windows of the application select your SMPP gateway and click on tab Send SMS message. You only need to fill in phone number to which you want to send the SMS message (the phone number should be in national format!!) and text of the SMS message. When you are done, click on Send

You can check status of your SMS message by clicking on the Send log tab

You can check any SMS messages you have received in Receive log  tab or your email if you have setup connector for receiving SMS messages.