Where can I find more information on SS7?
Description: OpenSS7 Frequently Asked Questions #13.
Keywords: ss7 ss7/ip ss7 over ip ss7 mtp ss7 sccp ss7 tcap sigtran mtp sccp tcap openss7 acb56 linux telephony pstn linux telephony linux nebs linux compactpci
Note: Some of the information concerning the reference sources and lists of books in this section may be incomplete,
incorrect, out of date, or inconsistent with a publisher or document broker's actual offerings. Please consult with
your book or document dealer before making any decisions. Also note that lists in this section do not constitute an
endorsement of any document source, book, product, or service. The authors of OpenSS7, their sponsors, agents and
representatives will not take responsibility in it.
Rather than working directly for the specifications documents (most of which one must pay money for a copy), there
are a number of good books publishes which provide the details of the operation of the SS7 protocol:
(I personally do not own any of these books. Possibly because I could have written them. However, I have seen
copies of the books and have coworkers and friends who swear by them.)
- Signaling System 7, 2nd ed., Travis Russell
- ISDN and SS7: Architectures for Digital Signaling Networks, Uyless D. Black
- Signaling in Telecommunications Networks, John G. Van Bosse
Many of the specifications are available only at a significant (significant to opensource developers) charge. For
example, the last price I saw on ATIS T1.PP.111 (MTP) was $530 USD; ATIS T1.PP.112 (SCCP) was $530 USD, also. Perhaps we can convince someone to donate copies of
these specifications for use by the project. For information on the specifications for variants of the ITU-T SS7
protocol, the following links may be helpful:
Specifications of the SS7 protocol are provided at the international level by the International Telecommunications Union - Telephony Sector (ITU-T) in their Q.700 series
recommendations. Many of the implementors guides and documents are publicly available without charge off of the ITU website, however, the ITU does charge for most of the
primary specifications documents in the Q.700 series, and, therefore, you will not find them available on the
OpenSS7 website.
Table of ITU-T Q.700 Series Recommendations
Document Number |
Description |
Rec. Q.700 |
Introduction to CCITT Signalling System No. 7
|
Rec. Q.701 |
Functional description of the message transfer part (MTP) of Signalling System No. 7
|
Rec. Q.702 |
Signalling data link
|
Rec. Q.703 |
Signalling link
|
Rec. Q.704 |
Signalling network functions and messages
|
Rec. Q.705 |
Signalling network structure
|
Rec. Q.706 |
Message transfer part signalling performance
|
Rec. Q.707 |
Testing and maintenance
|
Rec. Q.708 |
Assignment procedures for international signalling point codes
|
Rec. Q.709 |
Hypothetical signalling reference connection
|
Rec. Q.710 |
Simplified MTP for small systems
|
Rec. Q.711 |
Functional description of the Signalling Connection Control Part
|
Rec. Q.712 |
Definition and function of signalling connection control part messages
|
Rec. Q.713 |
Signalling connection control part formats and codes
|
Rec. Q.714 |
Signalling connection control part procedures
|
Rec. Q.715 |
Signalling connection control part user guide
|
Rec. Q.716 |
Signalling connection control part performance
|
Of course, the ITU-T provides recommendations, specifications and standards for a large number of protocols
including ISUP, TCAP, AIN, GSM, MAP, etc., which will be of interest to applications developer using OpenSS7, but
only the MTP and SCCP portions of the specification directly impact the OpenSS7 stack and are the only
recommendations listed above.
ETSI documents are individually downloadable, free of charge, however, free of charge does not mean that I can post
copies here for you. You will have to go register with ETSI and get your own documents from the ETSI Publications Download Area. Most ETSI
documents at this level are really just modifications of the ITU-T documents and only contain changes from the ITU-T
documents, rather than the complete text of the specification. It is very difficult to work with these modification
documents without the original ITU-T Q.700 series recommendations to which the modifications apply.
Table of ETSI Technical Specification Documents
Document Number |
Description |
ETSI ETS 300 008-1
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Message Transfer Part (MTP) to support international interconnection;
Part 1: Protocol specification [ITU-T Recommendations Q.701, Q.702, Q.703, Q.704, Q.705, Q.706, Q.707 and Q.708 modified]
|
ETSI ETS 300 008-2
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Message Transfer Part (MTP) to support international interconnection;
Part 2: Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS) proforma specification
|
ETSI ETS 300 336
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Message Transfer Part (MTP);
Test specifications [ITU-T Recommendations Q.781 and Q.782 (1993), modified]
|
ETSI ETS 300 346
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Message Transfer Part (MTP) protocol Tester (MT)
|
ETSI ETS 300 009-1
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP)
(connectionless and connection-oriented) to support international interconnection;
Part 1: Protocol specification [ITU-T Recommendations Q.711 to Q.716 (1996), modified]
|
ETSI ETS 300 009-2
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP)
(connectionless and connection-oriented class 2) to support international interconnection;
Part 2: Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS) proforma specification
|
ETSI ETS 300 009-3
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP)
(connectionless and connection-oriented class 2) to support international interconnection;
Part 3: Abstract Test Suite (ATS) and partial Protocol Implementation eXtra Information for Testing (PIXIT) proforma specification
|
ETSI ETS 301 008
|
Signalling System No. 7;
Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP)
Interoperability test specification
|
ETSI has a great number of technical specifications and standards on their website available for download. Many of these specifications have to do with ISUP,
TCAP, AIN, GSM, MAP, etc., and are of interest to the OpenSS7 application developer. Because they do not directly
relate to SS7 MTP or SCCP, they are not listed here.
ANSI provides the standards specifications for the MTP and SCCP portions of the SS7 protocol for most of North
America. Telcordia (formerly Bellcore) documents are based heavily on the ANSI documents. The ANSI documents
themselves are based heavily upon the ITU-T documents. One source for ANSI documents is Global Engineering Documents . Some popular ANSI SS7 documents are
as follows. Most of these documents carry a pretty hefty price tag (several hundred US dollars each). They are not
made publicly available without charge.
Table of ANSI T1.11x Specifications
Document Number |
Description |
ANSI T1.110 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - General Information |
ANSI T1.111 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Message Transfer Part (MTP) |
ANSI T1.112 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP) |
ANSI T1.113 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Intergrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) User Part |
ANSI T1.114 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Transaction Capability Application Part (TCAP) |
ANSI T1.115 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Monitoring and Measurements for Networks |
ANSI T1.116 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Operations, Maintenance and Administration Part (OMAP) |
ANSI T1.118 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Intermediate Signalling Network Identification (ISNI) |
ANSI T1.226 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning (OAM&P) Management of Functions for Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) Network Interconnections |
ANSI T1.234 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - MTP Levels 2 and 3 Compatibility Testing |
ANSI T1.235 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - SCCP Class 0 Compatibility Testing |
ANSI T1.236 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - ISDN User Part Compatibility Testing |
ANSI T1.611 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Supplementary Services for Non-ISDN Subscribers |
ANSI T1.631 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - High Probability of Completion (HPC) Network Capability |
ANSI T1.648 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network User Part (B-ISUP) |
ANSI T1.655 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Upper Layer Security Capability |
ANSI T1.661 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Release to Pivot (RTP) |
ANSI T1.666 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Operator Services Network Capabilities |
ANSI T1.668 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Facility Request to Pivot (FRP) |
ANSI T1.669 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Intermediate Network Selection (INS) |
ANSI T1.671 |
Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) - Carrier Service Provider Identification (CSPI) |
Telcordia (formerly Bellcore)
Telcordia (formerly Bellcore, or Bell Communications Research) was the standization and engineering powerhouse of
the RBOCs. Telcordia still fills much of their old role in providing standardization documentation and generic
requirements documents for telecommunications carriers in the US. The Telcordia SS7 documentation at the MTP and
SCCP level provide for both specification of the protocol as well as conformance tests. Telcordia documents on SS7
are not made freely available, they are publicly available at a fee. Telcordia documents are available from their
website. Some of the documents and titles that you may be
interested in are as follows:
Table of Telcordia Generic Requirements Documents
Document Number |
Description |
GR-82-CORE
|
Signaling Transfer Point (STP) Generic Requirements
|
GR-246-CORE
|
Telcordia Technologies
Specification of Signaling System Number 7
|
GR-905-CORE
|
Common Channel Signaling Network Interface Specification (CCSNIS)
Supporting Network Interconnection,
Message Transfer Part (MTP) and ISDN User Part (ISUP)
|
GR-1272-CORE
|
Gateway Signaling Transfer Point (GSTP) Local Message
Screening Test Capability Generic Requirements
|
GR-1432-CORE
|
Common Channel Signaling Network Interface Specification (CCSNIS)
Supporting SCCP and TCAP
|
GR-2878-CORE
|
Generic Requirements for CCS Nodes Supporting ATM High-Speed Signaling Links
(HSLS)
|
GR-3012-CORE
|
Generic Requirements for Network Interconnection Signaling System No. 7 (SS7)
Link Monitoring System (LMS) Automatic Message Accounting (AMA)
|
GR-3053-CORE
|
Voice over Packet (VoP): Next Generation Network (NGN) Signaling Generic
Requirements
|
Telcordia has other specifications relating to ISUP, TCAP, AIN, MAP, etc. which are at the application level and
which are not of direct interest to the OpenSS7 project. OpenSS7 applications will be interested in some of these
documents. Please see the Telcordia website for more information.