Multi-Message Paging

Multi-message paging is an LRS extension to POCSAG that allows single page transmissions to contain multiple messages (with each message addressed to multiple pagers).

Multi-message paging is useful for simultaneously sending a message to multiple pagers without the need to program the pagers into groups. By allowing several messages to be sent in a single transmissions, it may also allow more efficient use of the available paging bandwidth.

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Note

Multi-message paging is available on firmware 1.21+ on LRS 4-line alphapagers, SP5s and alphacoasters.

Format

Multi-message pages are transmitted to the system capcode. The first 4 characters of a multi-message are [MM], marking the page as a multipage. The remaining multi-message contains a pipe (ASCII 124) delimited list of pager numbers and messages. These fields alternate between a comma-delimited list of pager numbers (not capcodes) and message text.

Example 1

For example, the following multi-message sends Message 1 to pagers 1, 2, and 3; Message 2 to pagers 101, 105, and 110; and Message 3 to pager 99:

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[MM]1,2,3|Message 1|101,105,110|Message 2|99|Message 3

An escape mechanism is provided if pipe characters must be included in a message. A tilde (~, ASCII 126) is used to escape the next character in the message.

Example 2

The following example sends Message|1 to pager 5, Message|2 to pager 10, Message~3 to pager 15, and Message 4 to pager 20.

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[MM]5|Message~|1|10|Message~|2|15|Message~~3|20|Message ~4

If multiple messages within a multi-message are addressed to a pager, only the first message is received, the others are ignored.

Example 3

In the following example, pager 105 receives only Message 2, even though it is also included in the list of pagers for Message 3.

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[MM]99,100|Message 1|98,105|Message 2|105,101|Message 3

Since only the pager numbers are included in the multi-message, and the multi-message is transmitted to the system ID, it is implied that all the pagers must be programmed to the same system ID.