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SS7 Support on SN10k products
Posted by Michal Podoski, Last modified by Danny Staub on 15 November 2017 02:50 PM

SS7

SS7 is a signaling protocol which is used to set up and tear down phone calls. It also provides support for such functionality as local number portability, Short Messaging Service (SMS), prepaid billing and number translation.

The configuration of SS7 requires that the physical layer, through to the transport layer, and up to the application layer be configured. SS7 configuration involves configuring values for MTP2 Layer, MTP3 Layer, SCCP, and ISUP.

A conceptual illustration of the SS7 protocol stack is shown below. In the SS7 architecture, every layer has very specific task and responsibilities to provide to upper layers. Looking at the figure below we see that a SS7 stack covers all levels of the OSI model from physical to application layer. Within this model, it is possible to replace one of more layers by another protocol as long as it provides the same functionalities. In a base call control application over a TDM network, the SS7 stack required would include layers MTP1 Layer, MTP2, MTP3 and ISUP or TUP.

It is worth pointing out that, by being layered in different functional groups, SS7 was built so that different nodes in the network don’t need to implement every portion of the protocol stack if they don’t require to.

 

SmartMedia and SS7

SmartMedia provides SS7 support with all of SN10k mediagateways. SS7 functionality is licensed separately and can be provided at initial purchase or added later on via a software license upgrade.

SS7 signaling is configured once for the entire SmartMedia system. Any SN10k unit is capable of running the entire SS7 signaling stack for all the SN10k units in a system (applicable for SN10300).

Systems developed using SmartMedia hardware can support up to a maximum of 64 OPC, and it's worth mentioning that on SN10300 Cluster together with shared stack capability it's possible to run multiple SN10300 Units with one OPC.

High availability (HA) has been designed into the architecture of the SN10k product such that the failure of an SS7 stack on one SN10k unit will be taken over by the SS7 stack of another SN10k unit.

 

Maximum Capacity

 

SmartMedia

Release

MTP2 HSLMTP2 LSLMTP3 LinksMTP3 LinksetsOPCDPCISUP StacksISUP NetworksISUP UserpartsCIC Groups/ISUP stackCICs/ISUP stackMTP2 Link redundancyMTP3 RedundancyISUP Redundancy
SN10100 2.2-2.7 2 64 64 64 64 128 8 8 8 300 512 Yes N/A N/A
2.8+ 2 64 64 256 64 256 16 8 8 300 512 Yes N/A N/A
SN10200 2.2-2.7 2 64 64 64 64 128 8 8 8 300 2048 Yes N/A N/A
2.8+ 2 64 64 256 64 256 16 8 8 300 2048 Yes N/A N/A
SN10300 2.2-2.7 32 
(2/SN10300 Unit)		 256 
(64/SN10300 Unit)		 256 (64/SN10300 Unit) 64 64 128 8 8 8 300 30000 Yes Yes Yes
2.8+ 32 
(2/SN10300 Unit)		 512 
(64/SN10300 Unit)		 512 (64/SN10300 Unit) 256 64 256 16 8 8 300 30000 Yes Yes Yes

 

Supported SS7 Link types

Typically:

  • A Link
  • F Link

The following types are also supported in some circumstances:

  • B/D Link
  • C Link
  • E Link

 

Supported standards and variants:

 

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