GCM

TECHNOLOGY
FOR

ANDROID

ABSTRACT
.
Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that helps developers to send
data from servers to their Android applications on Android devices. The service was unveiled on
June 27, 2012, at Google I/O 2012 held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The GCM
service handles all aspects of queuing of messages and delivery to the target Android application
running on the target device. It is completely free whatever your messaging needs are and it can
be used in some applications like smart notification systems.
GCM in real world experiments, and at a reasonable scale involving thousands of real users.
Our findings reveal that the GCM message delivery is unpredictable, namely having a reliable
connection to Googles GCM servers on the client device does not guarantee a timely message
arrival. Therefore, GCM is not suitable for time sensitive and/or must-deliver-to-all app
scenarios. On the other hand, GCM delivers the push messages to a big portion of the subscribers
(more than 40% in any experiment scenario) in a reasonable timeframe (in 10
seconds).Therefore, GCM may be a good fit for the application scenarios where random
multicasting is sufficient, such as crowd sourcing systems.

INTRODUCTION
Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that allows you to send data
from your server to the users' Android-powered device. This could be a lightweight message
telling your app there is new data to be fetched from the server like new version of apps or
something like that.
The GCM service handles all aspects of storing, queuing and delivery of messages to the
target Android application running on the target device. It is a completely free service whatever
your messaging needs are.
Google Cloud Messaging technology is the new version of the C2DM (cloud to device
messaging) technology as the C2DM service has been officially deprecated as of June 26, 2012
which means that C2DM has stopped accepting new users and quota requests. The GCM could
be considered as a more efficient implementation of the C2DM technology.

WHAT IS GCM?
Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that helps developers send data from
servers to android applications on Android devices. The service has the ability to send a
lightweight message informing the Android application of new data to be fetched from the
server.

ADVANTAGES

Reduced battery usage on a device

Improved scalability
Compliancy to industry standards
Using GCM Developers can develop more productive apps
GCM is connected to cloud so developers can get benefits of cloud computing in their

apps
GCM is now connected with GAE(Google App Engine)
Used for sending message from Cloud to Device
Supports Push Notifications

DISADVANTAGES
Reduce extra network uses
Consumes less battery

THE GCM SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS

1. It allows 3rd-party application servers to send messages to their Android applications.

This is a key feature as you always need your server application to be in direct contact with the
mobile application such that you can send messages to the mobile application about new versions
for instance.
2. An Android application on an Android device doesn't need to be running to receive
messages. The system will wake it up the Android application via Intent broadcast when the
message arrives. This is achieved if the application is set up with the proper broadcast receiver
and permissions in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
3. The application has full control of how to handle the GCM messages passed to it. For
example, the application might post a notification when receiving these messages.
4. It requires devices running Android 2.2 or higher that also have the Google Play Store
application installed.

HOW THE GCM WORKS?

There are some key terms and concepts involved in the GCM service and it is very
important to have a good knowledge about them. The key terms and concepts of the GCM are
divided into two categories:
Components The physical items involved in GCM steps.
Credentials The IDs that are used in different stages of GCM to achieve the
authentication, and to be sure that the message is going to the correct application
and the correct Android device.

Table 1 GCM concepts:

Components
The device that is running an Android
Mobile device

application that uses GCM

The 3rd-party application server sends data to

3rd-party Application Server

an Android application on the device via the

GCM Servers

GCM server.
The Google servers used in taking messages
from the 3rd-party application server and
sending them to the device.

Credentials:

Sender ID

A project number you acquire from the

API console. The sender ID is used in
the registration process to identify an
Android application that is permitted to
send messages to the device

Application ID

The Android application that is

registering to receive messages. The
Android application is identified by the
package name from the manifest.xml
file. This ensures that the messages
are targeted to the correct Android
application

Registration ID

An ID issued by the GCM servers to the

Android application that allows it to
receive messages. Once the Android
application has the registration ID, it
sends it to the 3rd-party application
server, which uses it to identify each
device that has registered to receive
messages
for
a
given
Android
application.
In
other
words,
a
registration ID is tied to a particular
Android application running on a
particular device.

Google User Account

For GCM to work, the mobile device

must include at least one Google
account if the device is running a
version lower than Android.

Sender Auth Token

An API key that is saved on the 3rdparty application server that gives the
application server authorized access to
Google services. The API key is
included in the header of POST
requests that send messages.

Working of Google Cloud Messaging

GCM LIFECYCLE

The usage of the GCM process requires the following phases:

Enabling GCM - An Android application running on a mobile device registers
itself to be able to receive messages.
Sending a message - A 3rd-party application server sends messages to the device.
Receiving a message - An Android application receives a message from a GCM
server.

Example of Android Application that Uses the GCM

This section will explain an Android application used in the energy-aware smart home
project. This app was based on the GCM demo application provided by Google. The details of
that application with all of the code snapshots in the next section
The android application architecture is described in Error! Reference source not. It
consists of three parts:
1. Application server App (Here called GCM server)
2. GCM client App (the Android App)
3. GCM cloud service
The following is an explanation for the scenario shown in Error! Reference source not
found.
1. At the device start up, the installed Android app (GCM client) sends a registration
request to the GCM server asking for a registration id. This registration request uses the Google
API project ID to identify the Android device that asks for the registration id.
2. The GCM server responds to the previous request and sends the registration id to the
Android device. The Android app sends this registration id to server application which stores it in
its internal storage.

GCM application example in smart home building application

ARCHITECTURE OF ANDROID APPLICATION THAT USES

GCM
In this section, well cover in details the architecture of the Android app that uses the
GCM service and also well cover the 3d party application server app.

GCM process flow

As mentioned above the GCM service has three main steps:

o Enabling GCM
o Sending a message
o Receiving a message

Enabling GCM
This is the sequence of events that occurs when an Android application running on a
mobile device registers itself into the GCM server to receive messages:
1. The first time the Android application needs to use the messaging service, it sends
registration intent to a GCM server.
This registration Intent (com.google.android.c2dm.intent.REGISTER) includes the sender
ID, and the Android application ID.
2.

If

the

registration

is

successful,

the

GCM

server

broadcasts

com.google.android.c2dm.intent.REGISTRATION intent which gives the Android application a

registration ID.
The Android application should store this ID for later use (for instance, to check on
onCreate() if it is already registered).
3. To complete the registration, the Android application sends the registration ID to the
application server. The application server stores the registration ID in a database.

Sending a message
For an application server to send a message to an Android application, the following
things must be in place:
The Android application has a registration ID that allows it to receive messages
for a particular device.
The 3rd-party application server has stored the registration ID.

 An API key. It is a key for the application on the application server and it is
previously set up in the API key file that exists in the application server app that
will be explained later.

Here is the sequence of events that occurs when the application server sends a
message:
1. The application server sends a message to GCM servers.
2. GCM servers store the message in case the device is offline.
3. When the device is online, Google sends the message to the device.

Receiving a message
This is the sequence of events that occurs when an Android application installed on a
mobile device receives a message:
1. The system receives the incoming message and extracts any data from it, if any.
2. The system passes the key/value pairs to the targeted Android application in a
com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE Intent as a set of extras.
3. The Android application processes the message

C2DM

Stands for Cloud to Device Messaging

Used to send message from cloud to device or application
Support Push Notification
C2DM retired and Its time to GCM (Google Cloud Messaging)
Part of Google API

Advantages

Using C2DM Developers can develop more productive apps

C2DM is connected to cloud so developers can get benefits of cloud computing in
their apps

Disadvantages

Internet connectivity is required

Limited message size

APPLICATION SERVER APP

The application server used here is the Apache Tomcat v7.0 which is a servlet container
that can accept HTTP requests and send HTTP commands to the GCM server. We dont need to

develop a new application server where the GCM Demo server application provided by Google
can be used directly. The following steps explain how to use it:
1. From the SDK Manager, install Extras > Google Cloud Messaging for Android
Library.
2. This creates a gcm directory under YOUR_SDK_ROOT/extras/google/ containing
these subdirectories: gcm-client, gcm-server, samples/gcm-demo-client, samples/gcm-demoserver, and samples/gcm-demo-appengine.
3. You can create a web application from Eclipse and copy the gcm-demo-server app into
it as shown below
4. In a text editor or from inside Eclipse, edit the samples/gcm-demo-server/Web
Content/WEB-INF/classes/api.key and replace the existing text (if any) with the API key
obtained above.

LITREATURE REVIEW:

1)Google Cloud Messaging (GCM): An Evaluation: Yavuz Selim, Yilmaz Bahadir

Ismail, Aydin Murat Demirbas
Proceedings of National Conference on Innovative Trends in Computer Science Engineering
2)Location Based System Using Google Cloud Messaging:Harminder Singh,Dr Sudesh
Kumar,Harpreet Kaur
International Journal of computer Science and Technology
3)GCM Service Driven Communication With An Android Application In Cloud
Computing:Naresh Kumar N (M.Tech), Prof. Mohan K
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology,
4)Google

Cloud

Messaging

(Gcm):A

MechanismBetween Client And Server On Android

Patel.

ANDROID PLATFORM ARCHITECTURE

Light

Weight

Communication

Platform: Nilay Ganatra, Rachana

Android operating system consists of a stack of software components which can be

divided into five sections and four layers. The bottom most layer in android architecture is Linux
Kernel.
a)Linux Kernel- This layer provides all the basic system functionality that are typically
provided by any operating system like Memory management, Process management and device
management like Bluetooth , camera, Wi-Fi, keypad, LED/LCD display etc. This layer also take
care of several functions like networking, handling device drivers and interfacing to peripheral
devices.
b)Libraries- Second layer on the top of Linux kernel layer is Libraries layer . In this
layer there is a set of libraries that also includes open-source Web browser engine WebKit, a very
well known library, SQLite database for android which is a used for storing application data and
sharing of application data. It also includes libraries to record and play audio and video, SSL
libraries responsible for Internet security etc.
c)Android Runtime This layer is a part of the Libraries layer. This section provides a
very important component of android architecture namely DVM (Dalvik Virtual Machine) which
is like a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) specially designed and optimized for Android platform.
The time interval after which the location of the device is automatically updated.On the other
hand user-requested LBS are the services that provide the location coordinates of a device only
when it is requested by the user.

GCM DATA COLLECTION

The leverage our time synchronization mechanism (i.e. GCM message type T) to collect
our data on the GCM message arrival times. To calculate precise times, use network time
protocol (NTP). The GCM message arrival time is defined as the difference between the time the
GCM message is initiated from our servers, and the time the client device receives that message.
Therefore, in our type T GCM message flow, the difference between the server NTP time of the
message initiation, and the client NTP time of the message arrival gives us precise GCM
message arrival time for each device. The client devices bounce-back to our type T message with
message arrival NTP timestamp, and we calculate per device GCM message arrival times in our
server. We evaluate these arrival times to elaborate how GCM performs. In addition to this time
data, we also record the network connection type (WiFi or cellular data) of the client devices as
well as the cellular service provider in order to test the effects of the connection type and the data
service provider.

LOCATION BASED SERVICES

The appearance of different technologies such as wireless networks, Internet,

Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have introduced a
new type of information technology called Location Based Services. Location based services
(LBS) is defined as the ability to locate a mobile user geographically and deliver services to the
user based on his location. A positioning component is usually needed in LBS application to
determine the location of users mobile device. Most of the current LBS services do not require
users to input location manually, like giving zip code or street name. Instead, user location can be
obtained by using some positioning technologies such as satellite positioning, cellular network
positioning, WLAN stations. Service providers maintain service servers which offer different
kinds of location based services to users and are responsible for processing service requests and
sending back request results. Servers calculate positions, search for a route, or search specific
information based on user position. Service providers usually do not store and maintain all the
information requested by users. Instead, content providers are responsible for collecting and
storing geographic data, location based information and other related data. Android devices may
have one or more of these services available to them. Maps and location based services use
latitude and longitude to pinpoint geographic locations. Android provides a Geocoder that
supports forward and reverse geocoding.

ANDROID DEVICE:

The Android application is the main interface via which the user is going to use to receive
the push notifications. The important requirements for developing the application are listed
below:
o Client Application [14]: This application is developed using android
development studio inconjunction with SDK tools.
o SDK tools [14]: The Android SDK tools compile the code along with any data
and resourcefiles. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to
begin developingapplications on the Android platform using the Java
programming language.
o .apk [14]: All the code in a single .apk file is considered to be one application and
is the filethat Android-powered devices use to install the application.
o Android OS [14]: Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily
for touchscreen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. It
enables replace andreuse of components.

CONCLUSION

Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a free and powerful service that helps
developers to send data from servers to their Android applications running on Android-powered
devices. The basic concepts of this service with a detailed explanation of the GCM demo
application provided by the Android SDK. The GCM service is very promising and it could be
considered the most optimized and powerful method for sending messages from servers to the
Android devices without the need to have the Android application listens to the server in an
endless loop.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/gs.html
[2] http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/gcm.html
[3] http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/demo.html
[4] Google Cloud Messaging for Android Android Developers. [Online].
Available: http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
[5] Google Cloud Platform, Cloud Messaging Support.
Available: https://cloud.google.com/tools/android-studio/messaging/