| VeriPark mTalk Server utilizes a scalable fault
tolerant architecture and is able to share load between multiple hosts. The
system has a simple architecture and aims to work as a gateway communicating
with multiple entities and supporting different physical devices and network
protocols.
The server is able to serve a few hundred concurrent users on an ordinarily
priced piece of hardware. The load is scalable between multiple servers and
helps avoid bottlenecks on single servers. Therefore, service capacity can be
increased by simply adding additional hardware.
The server runs within a fault tolerant architecture. If one piece of hardware
running mTalk Server crashes, the other servers will continue to operate
without failure. Once the downed server is successfully recovered, the rest of
the servers go back to working in synchrony. Load balancing works much the
same. As new components are added to the system while it is running, they are
connected to the rest of the gateway.
The Server supports both WAP and SMS services. New bearers and transport
protocols are also simple to add.
The gateway talks to six different kinds of external entities: SMS centers, CSD
routers, a workstation for configuring, monitoring and controlling, content
servers, clients sending SMS messages via HTTP, and an HTTP proxy. The SMS
centers use a variety of mostly proprietary protocols (CIMD, EMI, SMPP) over
TCP/IP, modem lines, or other carriers. The gateway supports all SMS center
protocols, and it is easy to add new ones as they arise. Communication with
phones via CSD routers is plain UDP (of the TCP/IP stack). The c/m/c
workstation uses HTTP, and the gateway works as an HTTP server, and similarly
for those sending SMS via HTTP. The content servers also use HTTP, but with in
their case the gateway is a client. HTTP proxies also use HTTP (but a slightly
different kind), and in their case the gateway is also a client.
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