f GPRS traffic. SS7 and SMSC Since the notification of the MMS will be provided through SMS, the SMSC is an integral part of the MMS system. It needs to be connected to the MMSC. Furthermore, the extra amount of SMS generated by the MMSC needs to be analysed and calculated. From the connectivity point of view, it is important to note that the SMSC needs to interface the MMSC or cluster. There is a need to take into account the extra traffic on the SS7 network due to notifications and delivery reports of MMS. Overloading of the SS7 network may significantly affect voice services, SO a careful study of the SMS load should always be done. Frequent updates, when the real values can be measured, enable more accurate forecasting of the needs and can be of great help in deciding on the need of additional capacity. WAP Gateway As mentioned earlier, the WAP gateway provides the push functionality for MMS, and is the link between the MMS system and the G interface. The packet core connectivity is provided through the WAP gateway. MMS PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND OPTIMISATION Core Network As mentioned earlier, MMS traffic is seen as some additional packet data traffic from the core point of view. The main consequence of MMS is to bring more data traffic in the network and the need for PDP contexts for each MMS. Throughput and PDP contexts being the two main limiting factors of core dimensioning, the impact of MMS on the core will not be negligible and the main elements to be affected will be SGSN and GGSN. One way to measure the impact of MMS traffic is to combine the results of PS data and MMS traffic dimensioning. When making the dimensioning for PS data, without MMS, we end up with a certain number of needed SGSNs and GGSNs and their configurations. A similar dimensioning exercise, now including MMS traffic, will show the real impact of MMS in term of needed core network elements. It is very important to analyse MMS traffic, particularly from the point of view of the growth rate of generic PS traffic versus MMS traffic, an