Scheduled Batch SMS Jobs

The HTTP of the SMS Gateway allows you to schedule batch SMS jobs. This feature is great if you have a web-based solution that creates SMS sending jobs with many phone numbers. SMS marketing campaigns, notifications about events and emergency SMS alerts often require such an approach.

What is a batch SMS job

A batch SMS job is a list of phone numbers and text messages that needs to be sent on a particular date and time. Such a job can be created on a webserver, and it can be scheduled to be sent.

How to work with batch SMS jobs

The best approach to build a reliable system that is able to send batch SMS jobs is to setup a webserver where SMS jobs are stored and managed and to setup an SMS gateway in a different secure location, that is connected to the mobile network. Such a user interface to the users and is good at storing

The webserver is good at providing a browser-based user interface to the users of the system. Users can access this user interface from their laptops or mobile phones and can work on building their SMS campaigns. Such SMS job creation often includes extensive editing of phone number lists, messages texts and custom data related to the notifications. Often multiple users are involved in building the SMS campaigns. This SMS campaign creation and editing is best done on a dedicated webserver system. You can view a good example of such an SMS campaign editing system at myozeki.com.

Once an SMS campaign is finalized, it can be submitted to the SMS gateway. The best approach to do this is to notify the SMS gateway in a short message to tell it that a job is ready to be downloaded. The SMS gateway will register this request and download the messages to be sent once the job is due.

This approach will take load of the SMS gateway, as it will not be responsible for serving and managing the requests during the campaign creation and editing. The SMS gateway will also not be responsible for storing the campaigns until they are ready to be sent and the execution reports once the campaigns are completed. The role of the SMS gateway is simplified to simply download and execute the campaign by sending out the SMS messages, and to produce a report once the messages are sent.

This approach is also great because it offers you to place the SMS gateway behind a well-protected firewall, and it will keep your mobile network connections and sending capabilities safe and healthy.

How does the Ozeki SMS Gateway solution work

The batch SMS sending feature of Ozeki SMS Gateway was developed for SMS service providers and SMS marketers who work with lists of phone numbers. We call these users SMS batch job creators. It is assumed that SMS batch job creators operate their own webserver, where batch jobs are created/stored and managed. It is also assumed that such jobs are often scheduled well in advance.

The procedure goes like this (Figure 1): The batch job creator creates a list of phone numbers and text messages, and saves it on his webserver. Next his webserver issues an HTTP request to the Ozeki SMS Gateway to schedule the job. When the time of execution arrives, the SMS gateway downloads the job, and sends out the SMS messages. After the messages are sent the SMS gateway returns an execution report the webserver to let the sender now about the results of the request.

How to setup the SMS network entities

The most common network setup for SMS service providers is to have a webserver on the Internet and let the SMS gateway connect to it. The SMS gateway is usually behind a firewall and is not accessible from the Internet (Figure 2). The SMS gateway can be connected to the mobile network through a Wireless SMS link using and Android Mobile Phone or through an IP SMS link, such as an SMPP SMS mobile network connection or an HTTP SMS mobile network connection. This network architecture can be considered secure.