Overview

Service providers today are seeking to cap investment in traditional network service delivery and signaling technologies (IN, SS7, INAP, GSM MAP and CAMEL) while incrementally evolving to tomorrow's all-IP network. To get from "here" to "there," service providers must preserve their significant investment in current networks and at the same time engage a powerful mechanism to evolve service offerings and take advantage of emerging technologies.

 

Investment in today's core networks is waning. For many reasons, including risk and cost, future services will not be deployed in the network core; they will be deployed at the network's edge. An edge-oriented transitional network strategy builds on existing network capabilities by adding new value at the boundaries of the network without change or impact to the core network. Ulticom^® nSignia^® eSTP™ (Edge Signal Transfer Point) is the key to this strategy, providing a transition point and mapping new services, protocols, and technologies into the core network by using proven, network-compatible functionality.

 

Deploy at the Edge

nSignia eSTP is a turnkey IP-SS7 hybrid network element based upon proven STP capabilities and concepts derived from the world of routers, gateways, and firewalls. By placing nSignia eSTPs at the edges of current networks, service providers create opportunities for new capabilities and new technologies by incrementally extending existing networks and business models. Current services can be optimized for greater performance, and problems associated with change can be mitigated before they affect the core network. Providers can create all-IP islands with remarkable cost and performance benefits or eventually even replace their core SS7 network with an IP-based signaling network - one surrounded by islands of SS7 where cost or operational considerations dictate.

 

What it does:

nSignia eSTP can make advanced routing decisions as packets cross between networks or network segments based upon information not available in a traditional STP. It can differentiate services, optimize traffic flow, enable new hybrid services, control access, hide information and more. Most important, nSignia eSTP can reduce costs and limit risk as networks evolve.

 

How it works:

nSignia eSTP provides signaling packet routing between SS7 sub-networks, packet conversion between IP (IETF SIGTRAN) and SS7 as needed, selective packet filtering, content-based packet steering, dynamic load distribution, congestion and overload management, packet screening, and more.

 

How it provides security:

Intrinsic to its role, nSignia eSTP provides security for the networks that it joins. Address translation, much like the Internet NAT function, as well as traffic screening and blocking of undesirable network elements, are also included. nSignia eSTP is positioned to optimize three critical network solution segments:

 

Network Solutions

nSignia eSTP for Service Optimization:

nSignia eSTP provides support for deployment of network services using modern IT-like server farm technologies. Using nSignia eSTP, a telecom equipment provider or service provider can create cloned, distributed instances of new or even existing services, in an IP-based server farm environment.

 

In this model, nSignia eSTP can act as an intelligent front-end that provides a presence in an SS7 network while hiding the details of the application deployment, a useful security consideration. It can also provide important application functionality such as dynamic load distribution, congestion and overload management, dynamic software and hardware upgrades, and transaction steering for optimized application performance. nSignia eSTP can even impart carrier-grade high availability characteristics to an application that has not been engineered to meet this level of performance. Additional use cases for nSignia eSTP for service optimization include its use as a softswitch signaling gateway, in server farms, and for switch migration1.

 

nSignia eSTP for Network Optimization

nSignia eSTP provides network optimization by leveraging the IP backbone to overlay complementary and unique STP functionalities and extend routing decisions and IP transport to the network's edge. Content-based message routing can detect various kinds of network traffic (SMS, roaming, IN services, ISUP, etc.) and steer it via IP networks without impacting existing network performance. It also provides address translation (GTT & PC) at network borders to allow disparate networks to interoperate seamlessly. By enabling a hub and spoke architecture, nSignia eSTP reduces network complexity and simplifies expansion.

 

Use cases for nSignia eSTP for network optimization include its use as a network border element, in a virtual network, for cross network services, and in SMS traffic control1.

 

nSignia eSTP for Transport Optimization

Much like an IP router, nSignia eSTP creates the possibility for IP-based subnetworks in a telecom service provider's signaling space. Using SIGTRAN protocols (M2PA, SUA, and M3UA), service providers can extend or combine SS7 network segments transparent to existing equipment, optimizing where performance or cost considerations demand it. As one might expect, IP transport can be significantly less expensive than SS7 transport. This enables service providers to extend the hybrid network model into the SS7 core networks, creating IP-based, core signaling networks that have islands of SS7 located at their edges. Use cases for nSignia eSTP for transport optimization include its deployment for long haul and back haul link replacement and as a signaling hub1.

 

Security and nSignia eSTP

As the interworking of telecommunications with IP networks accelerates, security considerations become critical success factors. nSignia eSTP addresses this by combining the best-of-breed characteristics of traditional, carrier-grade STPs with message content-based routing and filtering. Using nSignia eSTP, you can combine disparate network segments, creating a unified network with controlled flow of information between network segments. You can define complex screening criteria between "equal" networks in a traditional STP fashion or define two networks as completely separate and only allow traffic between them through the nSignia eSTP acting in a gateway fashion1.

 

Why Make My Changes at the Edge?

You might be thinking: "nSignia eSTP seems to be just a more cost-effective STP with some extra routing and security functionality. Some of those capabilities might be available from my existing vendor and could be added on to my existing STP. Why not just extend and reconfigure the equipment I already have? Why should I make my changes at the edge of my network, and not in the core?"

 

These are valid questions to be sure. In making your decision, you should consider both direct and indirect costs and impacts. In particular, you should pay attention to the following cost issues related to network performance and operational management of the network:

1. Upgrading deployed equipment, reconfiguring core network behaviors, and deploying new generics is both costly and error prone. If an option to deploy the same functionality at the edge of a network exists, without requiring changes in the core, it is advisable to avoid major software upgrades and re-engineering of a vital core signaling network that is working well.
2. If you choose to deploy the additional functionality in the core, then you must take into account the performance impacts of the additional functionality and deeper signaling payload inspection. These impacts likely translate to decreasing transaction/call performance rates and could effectively place a burden on the entire core network operation, reducing its overall effectiveness.