Short message service with improved utilization of available bandwidth

A method of transmitting message packets from an initiating unit to a receiving unit over a wireless data network using a Short Message Service Center, said method comprising:

• maintaining, at the receiving unit, a message queue of messages awaiting delivery;
• receiving, at the receiving unit, a message from the initiating unit over the wireless communications using the Short Message Service Center;
• determining whether the received message is valid;
• determining whether the message queue contains a deferred message awaiting delivery to the initiating unit;
• generating an acknowledgement message that incorporates within a user data field thereof at least a portion of the deferred message awaiting delivery to the initiating unit;
• and
• forwarding the acknowledgement message to the initiating unit over the wireless communications using the Short Message Service Center.

A computer readable medium including computer program code for sending messages between a client device and a server device through a channel of a wireless data network, said computer readable medium comprising:

• computer program code for receiving a message at the client device, the message being sent from the server device to the client device through the channel of the wireless data network;
• computer program code for preparing an acknowledgement message to be returned to the server device, the acknowledgement message including data destined for the server device, said computer program code for preparing includes at least
• computer program code for preparing a standard acknowledgement message indicating that the message has been successfully received by the client device;
• computer program code for determining whether there are additional messages waiting to be sent to the server device;
• and
• computer program code for modifying the standard acknowledgement message to include at least a portion of one of the additional messages, thereby producing the acknowledgement message to be returned to the server device;
• and
• computer program code for sending the acknowledgement message to the server device,
• wherein the standard acknowledgement message includes a user data field, and wherein said computer program code for modifying operates to include at least a portion of one of the additional messages in the user data field.

A computer readable medium including computer program code for transmitting message packets from an initiating unit to a receiving unit over a wireless data network using a Short Message Service Center, said method comprising:

• computer program code for maintaining, at the receiving unit, a message queue of messages awaiting delivery;
• computer program code for receiving, at the receiving unit, a message from the initiating unit over the wireless communications using the Short Message Service Center;
• computer program code for determining whether the received message is valid;
• computer program code for determining whether the message queue contains a deferred message awaiting delivery to the initiating unit;
• computer program code for generating an acknowledgement message that incorporates within a user data field thereof at least a portion of the deferred message awaiting delivery to the initiating unit;
• and
• computer program code for forwarding the acknowledgement message to the initiating unit over the wireless communications using the Short Message Service Center.

An apparatus for sending and receiving messages over a wireless data network, said apparatus comprising:

• an outgoing data queue that stores data to be sent over the wireless data network;
• a message manager, the message manager manages (i) the reception of incoming messages from senders over the wireless data network and (ii) the generation of outgoing messages to be sent over the wireless data network;
• a storage medium that store s the incoming messages;
• and
• a processing module operatively connected to said message manager and said storage medium, said processing module interacts with said storage medium and said message manager to request, send and receive data over the wireless data network,
• wherein the outgoing messages generated by said message manager include acknowledgement messages that acknowledge the receipt of at least some of the incoming messages, and depending on availability of data in said outgoing data queue, the acknowledgement messages generated by said message manager include, within user data fields of the acknowledgement messages, data from said outgoing data queue destined for the respective senders of the incoming messages being acknowledged.