In telecommunication, a store-and-forward switching center is a message switching center in which a message is accepted from the originating user, i.e., sender, when it is offered, held in a physical storage, and forwarded to the destination user, i.e., receiver, in accordance with the priority placed upon the message by the originating user and the availability of an outgoing channel.
Store and forward switching centers are usually implemented in mobile service stations where the messages that are sent from the sender is first sent to these centers. If the destination address isn't available then the center stores this message and tries sending it later. This improves the probability of the message to be delivered. In the other case, if the destination is available at that time, then the message is immediately sent.