Method, system and apparatus for forking transmission of short message service

A system for forking transmission of Short Message Service (SMS), comprising an IP-Short-Message-Gateway (IP-SM-GW) and a Service-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF), wherein

• the IP-SM-GW is adapted to receive an SMS message from a Circuit Switched (CS) domain, construct a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message in which the SMS message is encapsulated or in which the SIP message carries the content of the SMS message and further carries a forking indication indicating whether forking is to be employed, and send the SIP message to the S-CSCF;
• and
• the S-CSCF is adapted to determine whether forking is to be employed according to the forking indication in the received SIP message and send the SIP message to a plurality of corresponding user terminals.

An apparatus for forking transmission of Short Message Service (SMS) comprising:

• a receiving module and a processing and transmission module, wherein the receiving module is operable for receiving a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message which carries a forking indication indicating whether forking transmission is to be employed and in which an SMS message is encapsulated or in which the SIP message carries the content of an SMS message;
• and
• the processing and transmission module is operable for deciding whether forking transmission is to be employed according to the forking indication in the received SIP message and sending the SIP message to a plurality of corresponding user terminals.