Question

What options are available to connect to Vonage API's SMPP platform?

Applies To

• SMPP
• Connectivity

Answer

With the aim of simplifying user migration to Vonage SMS services we offer SMPP connectivity. This is mainly intended for clients with an existing SMPP implementation, so it is easy for them to connect to Vonage and start sending SMS immediately.

Vonage offers three instances of SMPP, which should accommodate users' needs in terms of their ability to maintain simultaneous connections to different servers and their geographical location:

• smpp0.nexmo.com: Users would need to establish at least one Transceiver or a pair of Transmitter/Receiver binds to a single SMPP server. Mainly for users with an existing SMPP implementation which does not allow simultaneous connection to different SMPP severs.
• smpp1.nexmo.com / smpp2.nexmo.com (Cluster 1): Users are required to establish simultaneous binds to both SMPP servers at all times. Mainly for users based in EMEA and Americas regions.
• smpp3.nexmo.com / smpp4.nexmo.com (Cluster 2): Users are required to establish simultaneous binds to both SMPP servers at all times. Mainly for users based in APAC region.

SMPP Platform Availability

Vonage performs regular maintenance operations on SMPP servers to ensure they are updated with the latest platform releases. As such, Vonage SMPP servers experience periodic down-times (typically once per day) of a few minutes, which will cause client SMPP binds to disconnect briefly. The expected behavior in this kind of scenario is as follows:

• Users connecting to smpp0.nexmo.com: It would be required for the user's SMPP server to queue SMS MT requests until the connection is re-established. Additionally, it is expected that users' SMPP implementation automatically re-initiates bind attempts in the event of their binds going down in order to successfully reconnect once the Vonage server is again available.
• Users connecting to Clusters 1 and 2 will always have at least one server of the cluster up and running during the maintenance operations, and therefore will always have the ability to route their traffic via the existing binds to one of the servers from the cluster. This is one of the reasons why it is important that users set to connect to SMPP clusters always maintain simultaneous binds to both SMPP servers of the cluster.

Vonage will not notify users of these brief periodic maintenance operations, due to to the length of down-time period involved (between 1 and 3 minutes) and the expected standard SMPP implementation handling of such short disconnection times.