Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry is a PDA that gives you wireless access to your Exchange Server Inbox and Calendar. The BlackBerry has become one of the more prevalent solutions for providing wireless access to Exchange email and personal information manager (PIM) data. BlackBerry devices provide wireless access to Exchange data through BlackBerry Desktop Software (for one user) or BlackBerry Enterprise Server (for multiple users). Many organizations and government agencies deploy BlackBerry Enterprise Server as an enterprise solution to let emergency workers and other field personnel stay connected. If you have users who rely on BlackBerry devices, you should understand how these handhelds communicate and how to monitor them and troubleshoot their problems.
Links in a Chain
Figure 1, page 2, depicts the chain of components and services in a BlackBerry network—mailboxes on the Exchange server, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server system, the Internet, RIM's Server Routing Protocol (SRP) host, RIM's wireless relays, the Mobile Switching Offices (MSOs), radio cell base stations, and the BlackBerry device. BlackBerry Enterprise Server uses Messaging API (MAPI) Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) to interact with Exchange mailboxes. When BlackBerry Enterprise Server starts to monitor a mailbox, it registers itself with the Exchange server by logging on to the mailbox. When a new message arrives in the mailbox, the Exchange server generates a MAPI-based notification to alert BlackBerry Enterprise Server of the message's arrival. BlackBerry Enterprise Server reads the first 2000 bytes of the message (to save bandwidth, the server sends only the beginning of long messages), encrypts those bytes, and passes them over the Internet to the next link in the chain—the SRP host. . . .
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