Coming over SMS
Disadvantages of Signal’s server structure
Signal’s messages are encrypted by the terminal (your device) and sent to the server, then forwarded by the server to another corresponding terminal, and decrypted at the terminal. All messages are forwarded by the server. The server serves as the main relay station. However, when the user volume increases with high message traffic, the server will be under immense stress, which may lead to a bad user experience. Data messages are all forwarded by the server. Although end-to-end encryption is used, it’s still run by a central system out of the user’s control. If the backend server goes down (such as the Signal incident), no one will be able to communicate with each other. Lacking a temporary encrypted communication method for emergencies, users are left without a form of encrypted communication.
Communication channels
Based on the above considerations, Coming has designed two communication channels, one is to send messages through the Internet, with the messages encrypted by the terminal and transmitted to the Coming server, then transferred to the corresponding user terminal; the other is closer to end-to-end communication. The traditional basic communication technology SMS is used as the transmission carrier, and the encrypted message data is sent to the corresponding mobile phone through short-range messages, with the corresponding mobile phone decrypting the message content. Directly viewing the short message will only result in a string of encrypted ciphertext.
What is SMS?
SMS (Short Message Service) is a type of mobile phone service. The short message service was first introduced on the GSM system mobile phone, and now it can be used on almost any mobile phone system. There are two short message services, MO and MT, namely Mobile Originate (SMS origination call) and Mobile Terminated (SMS termination call). in short, sending and receiving text messages.
Mobile SMS is a storage and forwarding service, which means that if you send a text message to your friend, the text message will not go directly to your friend’s mobile phone, but will be stored in the operator’s short message center (SMC, Short Message Center). This is equivalent to the user using Coming to send encrypted messages to the operator’s short message center, and the short message center acts as a relay station and forwards it to the receiving end. However, short messages also have major disadvantages: the maximum length of these messages is only 160 characters (letters, numbers, or symbols in the Latin alphabet). If it is in Chinese, the maximum length of an SMS is 70 Chinese characters.
What is EMS?
In the early GSM network, the information capacity of short messages was small, and only text messages could be sent. In GSM Phase2+, enhanced short message service (EMS) appeared.
The implementation of EMS is factually no different from SMS. There is no need to upgrade the network facilities, just some software extensions. Simply put, it is to combine multiple SMS channels. In this case, it is possible to send more than 10 times the length of a traditional short message, allowing the short message service to include text to black and white pictures, simple animations and ringtones.
What is MMS?
Nevertheless, the amount of information in EMS is still limited. Later, GSM introduced GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and added a packet-bearing channel, which means that the Internet can be accessed. SMS can be offloaded to the GPRS bearer channel, which greatly increases the information capacity of SMS and reduces the load on the signaling channel.
This means that short messages have entered the MMS (Multimedia Short Message Service) era, where animation, audio and video files can be sent.
Optimization brought by Over SMS
Through SMS, Coming can choose two communication routes, allowing it to reduce the load on the server and optimize the user experience in times of high traffic. Users who want true end-to-end encrypted communication and do not want their messages to be forwarded by the server have the choice to use SMS. (Of course, it is impossible to avoid the forwarding and storage of the operator, after all, the network and short messages are passed through the operator.)
For situations where the network connection is bad, temporary network failures, congestion, or even a temporary decrease in server availability (such as sudden large-scale DDoS and other network attacks that cause the defense capacity to be exceeded for a short period), you can choose SMS communication to ensure uninterrupted communication channels.
About coming
Coming, an encrypted messaging app with digital asset transfer function. Our communication module is built on the end-to-end encryption protocol to ensure the privacy of communication , and the transfer module will use X-BTC (BTC after cross-chain) as the circulating currency in the system with extremely low transaction fee.
