How Mobile Information Server Works

Mobile Information Server enables an application (left) to communicate with mobile devices and users (far right). To use Mobile Information Server, administrators register applications, carriers, devices, and users in Active Directory. They also register modules that run inside Mobile Information Server and process information going between the application and the mobile device, performing processing required by a particular application, carrier, or device type.

Guided by the registered information, Mobile Information Server gives mobile users two ways to access an application: notification and browse.

In a notification operation, the application uses the standard HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to send Mobile Information Server an event message for a target user. Mobile Information Server runs modules that look up the user’s registered device type, carrier, and address (typically, the user’s mobile phone number), format a notification message, and send the message to the carrier (often over the standard Internet mail transport protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol [SMTP]). The carrier forwards the message to the user’s device, which displays the message to the user.