Section 8.4. Server Architecture
Using a Smartphone as an SMS Modem > Server Architecture
8.4. Server Architecture
Setting up the SMS server with a smartphone is a bit of an unusual task in that you can't simply install some software on a web host's servers and be done with. You need physical access to the PC and the phone, so this will typically be run out of your home or office directly.
In addition, ActiveSync supports only one phone connection at a time. If you want to operate multiple numbers, you will have to run the software on multiple PCs.
When we built Slam, our group-centric SMS service, it was important to have multiple addressable numbers, which would allow users to have a separate number for each group they were a member of. We also provided a rich smartphone and PC web UI interface. This resulted in the architecture in Figure 8-2.
Figure 8-2. Microsoft Slam server set up
By using four different phones with four different phone numbers, we could allow each user to be a member of up to four groups. Which phone number corresponded to which group would vary from person to person (even if they were a member of the same group), we simply kept a mapping of phone servers and groups for each user.
