Preface

Preface

		We have entered a new millennium. With it come many new technological advances that simplify our lives and make possible communications everywhere we go at any time. The Internet is growing at phenomenal rates, and the industry is embracing its growth. The Internet has made it possible for new companies to deploy worldwide telecommunications networks without the capital investment of their competitors.

		With this new trend, we are seeing changes take place in SS7. Many companies have already realized significant savings in their infrastructures by using TCP/IP networks for their core backbone. Delivering crucial data and signaling information over existing TCP/IP networks is allowing these companies to enter new markets quickly and inexpensively.

		Some companies are basing their entire network infrastructure on TCP/IP. Both voice and data will traverse the world using both the public Internet and private intranets. Already some companies are using the Internet to deliver voice services to various parts of the world. Although these companies do not represent the majority, they do exist and are growing in number. Few companies today have not at least considered using TCP/IP in their networks, whether for the delivery of voice and data or for SS7 transport.

		We will discuss the current state of standards being defined for these new TCP/IP telecommunications networks, and how they affect SS7. You will find a lot of information regarding the transport of SS7 traffic over TCP/IP networks spread throughout this book. Wherever possible, I have included explanations of the various standards and the organizations responsible for their creation.

Of course, traditional SS7 is still growing, so you will find many new updates to ISUP, TCAP, and MTP. The primary focus continues to be on ANSI networks, but I have added more international implementation information throughout.

		A new section has been added at the end of this book. The last edition included a chapter on Local Number Portability (LNP). This chapter has been renamed and expanded to include several applications, not just LNP. The intent of this chapter is to provide an explanation as to how these applications work, and how SS7 plays a role.