• Oil & Gas - Equipment monitoring on pipelines
• University Research
• Transportation Logistics - Tracking mobile land-based trucks and heavy equipment
• Rail
• Maritime - Tracking and messaging for vessels
• Aeronautical - Flight following for aircraft and helicopters
• Energy & Utilities - Equipment monitoring on water, gas, and electric utility distribution networks
• Government & Defense

The elements of the Iridium end-to-end SBD architecture are the Field Application (FA), the Iridium Subscriber Unit (ISU), the Iridium satellite constellation, the Gateway SBD Subsystem (GSS) located at the Iridium gateway, the Internet, and the Value Added Remote service application (VAR.) The interface between the FA and the ISU is a serial connection with extended proprietary AT commands. The interface is used to load and retrieve messages between the ISU and the Field Application.

Remote Applications send Mobile Originated SBD (MO-SBD) messages from an Iridium 9522 L-Band Transceiver (LBT), Iridium 9602 . The application microcontroller or microprocessor communicates with the LBT via AT commands over an RS232 connection. The application loads the message into the LBT and instructs it to send the message, which traverses the Iridium satellite network via inter-satellite links to reach the Iridium Gateway. From there, the message is transferred to the Internet and onto a Value Added Service’s host computer system where it is stored in a database for further data processing.

Mobile Terminated SBD (MT-SBD) messages are sent to the Iridium Gateway via the Internet from the Value Added Service’s host computer system.

Message size for MO-SBD is between 1 and 1960 bytes (0 byte messages are referred to as "mailbox checks"). The maximum length of a MT-SBD message is 1890 bytes, depending on terminal used. Global network transmit latency for message delivery ranges from 5 seconds for messages of 70 bytes to approximately 20 seconds for maximum length messages. (Additional latency may occur across the Internet.)

• Short data message transmissions
• Capable land mobile devices include Iridium 9522A&B, 9555 , 9601, 9602, Iridium Extreme
  
• Maximum of 5 unique destinations for each IMEI, including the ability to mix and match email and direct IP and IMEI destination addresses