Universal Computer Protocol

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What Does Universal Computer Protocol Mean?

Universal Computer Protocol (UCP) is a standard for transmitting short messages over cellular networks. The system first emerged in the 1980s and has since been expanded with the adoption of the External Machine Interface (EMI) standard.

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Techopedia Explains Universal Computer Protocol

As short message transmission standards, UCP and EMI messaging use hexadecimal code to represent message content and reference the addresses of involved parties to form data packets. These are routed over modern telecom networks in order to deliver short text messaging between devices. The design of UCP and similar standards relies on a fixed length for a text transmission, which has been worked into the consumer services that telecom providers offer to cell phone or device holders. These services coalesce around the Short Message Service (SMS), which allows users to send up to 160 characters back and forth. These messages are remotely stored in a Short Message Service Center to provide on-demand delivery to a device.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.