Introduction

Today's service providers face a daunting challenge - to continually add advanced applications to their networks while maintaining high quality service for their subscribers. Migrating traffic to new switches that equip a network in order to support these services can be cumbersome and fraught with risk. Seamless traffic migration from one switch to another is a complex, time-consuming task that leaves no room for error. One mistake can halt service for thousands of subscribers and cost millions of dollars.

 

The demand for new services and applications requires carriers to find quick and cost-effective solutions in order to offer these services. This has resulted in several influencing factors on network design:

• As applications are much more quickly and easily created in the IP world, there is sufficient impetus for the traditional SS7 networks to converge with and interface to IP networks.
• More and more, we are seeing agreements between various carriers to allow use of each others' networks in order to offer services not only to their direct subscribers, but to agreed-upon partners as well. This is where we find Service Providers merging with one another, and equipment from different operators being inherited for use by a single provider.
• The introduction of these new services is intended to increase the number of network users, which will in turn cause the networks to grow appropriately. These factors demand an inter-connection of many disparate networks.

 

Challenges

Creating an interface to the IP network facilitates application development. A network's legacy STPs can be upgraded to have an IP interface, but legacy STPs are costly to update and this type of transition to IP is anything but seamless - it entails costly network downtime while the legacy hardware is upgraded. A second option is to replace the legacy STPs with new ones. The downside here is obviously the loss of investment in the legacy STPs. Whether upgrading or replacing the STPs, expertise in IP operation will be required to create these STPs as IP end points, and this expertise may not be resident among legacy STP vendors.

 

Partnering with other networks is a good way to blend services so quicker turn-around can be provided without the investment required to develop a home grown solution. As an example, a network could enter into an agreement with another network to provide a service or set of services, and vice versa. However, costs may be incurred in interfacing with these other networks. If the network that offers the service uses an interface the prospective partner does not support, the legacy STP will require an upgrade that could prove costly. There may also be migration issues associated with getting the legacy STP over to the new interface.

 

As more and more partner networks are utilized, in order to ensure adequate security, legacy STPs must be updated with complex software in order to ensure minimal exposure of the internal systems to external harms. Also, one of SS7's biggest limitations is that the basic addressing method, the point code, stops at a country boundary (except with the integrated networks of the US and Canada). For international signaling, an alternate address method known as global title translation is required. But this is more complex than point codes and requires managing distinct routing tables in every STP for each global title type. This poses a major roadblock in the hopes of partnering networks in a global capacity.

 

As networks grow, the addition of network equipment, including STPs, becomes both probable and problematic. STPs generally incur a large cost and consume a large footprint. Each STP added requires a new point code. STPs are customarily deployed as a pair, doubling the number of point codes required. Point codes can be very costly to add and in some countries, hard to come by. As more STPs are introduced, more ingress/egress points to external networks are created, introducing potential exposure to security compromises as well as interface issues. Both of these issues can be addressed by replicating complex software on each STP.

 

Solution

A better solution to interfacing with IP is to add an element to create a "border" between the legacy STPs and the external networks. This puts the onus of IP expertise on the border element. The complexity can also be placed upon the border element, which can be less costly than the legacy STP that will continue to operate as was its original intent.

 

A "border element" between the legacy STPs and the external networks can also facilitate the challenges of interfacing with other networks. The border element can handle the interface mapping so that the legacy STPs do not need new interface capability. The border element will be responsible for protecting the network. A border element that is rich in protocol/interface support, security features, and can solve international boundary issues provides true network expansion capabilities.

 

A border element can also act as a "single point code" to the other networks. So even if network equipment is introduced, point code consumption is not an issue because the border element remains the single point of ingress/egress to external networks, and any upgrades would be made to the border element. It is also imperative that such an element be scalable.

 

Ulticom nSignia eSTP

nSignia^® eSTP is based upon IETF SIGTRAN standards and lends itself to the migration towards more efficient, standards-based IP networks. Carriers can realize significant cost savings when migrating from SS7 links to IP-based connections. nSignia eSTP allows seamless migration from SS7 to IP, so there is no risk of costly downtime.

nSignia eSTP allows seamless operation between networks regardless of the interface, region, or protocol. It is a fully embedded signaling solution, whose SS7 and SIGTRAN signaling protocol software executes in a closed, standalone environment, and along with gateway screening and content-based message routing capabilities, provides the necessarysecurity when interfacing with many external networks. nSignia eSTP can connect any network with any other network and overcomes international boundary limitations with features such as Point Code Translation. It is a fully scalable product that can grow as the network grows.

 

In addition to the ability to offer seamless migration to IP, any-to-any network interoperation, and scaling to meet the application/network needs, nSignia eSTP further differentiates itself from other, similar products in that it offers unparalleled reliability. nSignia eSTP runs on NEBS-compliant hardware, prevents revenue loss by ensuring individual component failure won't cause it to become unavailable to the network, and also ensures redundant processing through unique multi-node configuration.

 

Key Benefits

• Lowers initial investment by scaling to meet application needs
• In the case of partnering agreements or Service Provider mergers, reduces cost of systems by allowing re-use of existing equipment and infrastructure
• Isolates and protects networks through Gateway Screening, point code translation, and content-based routing
• Offers connections among any network with any other network through Global variant support (ANSI, ITU, J7NTT, J7TTC, Chinese, ETSI) and multiple interface support (SS7, HSL, ATM, M2PA, and M2UA)
• Keeps the responsibility of security and integrity with an industry-proven provider of fault-resilient hardware and software