Alcatel Network Device SSG User manual

Alcatel 5070 SSG
Signaling Server Global
(ANSI Version)

The Alcatel 5070 Signaling Server Global (SSG) ANSI
is an extremely versatile, high-capacity signaling platform.
It gives carriers and service providers alike the ability to
make their networks more efficient and capable of deploying
revenue-generating services.

Designed as a full-featured high-speed packet
switch, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI receives,
routes and transmits signaling messages for
call setup, wireless and intelligent network
(IN) services.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI is a powerful,
compact system combining traditional signaling
transfer point (STP) functionality with advanced
routing functions, to support the expanding
Number Portability and wireless markets. In
addition, the product provides increased levels
of connectivity, capacity and expandability
over previous products, making it a true next-
generation STP. It is feature rich, with traditional
SS7 features on a platform that also supports
large-capacity services databases. The Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI is not only a great fit in a legacy
circuit-based network, but also delivers the
capacity and interfaces to support the signaling
gateway requirements of voice-over-packet (VoP)
and 3G networks.
With Release 20, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI
introduces a rich set of applications to support
Mobile Number Portability and Wireless Number
Portability, as well as features to help manage
multiple home location registers (HLRs), short
message service centers (SMSCs) and voice
mail systems (VMSs).
Implementing federally mandated Local and
Wireless Number Portability, as well as other
IN applications, means increased demands
on signaling network capacity. The Alcatel 5070
SSG ANSI reduces the impact of high network
transaction services by supporting High-Speed,
1.536-Mb/s ATM-over-T1 (ATM/T1) Links,
and high-capacity virtual SS7 over IP (SS7/IP)
Links. These two forms of High-Speed Links
offer connectivity with fewer transmission
facilities; reduce signaling latency for faster
signaling response time; and provide higher
message capacity, overcoming signaling link
set limitations. Providers have these network
benefits without sacrificing SS7 connectivity
and signaling.
ALCATEL 1 >
OPENING UP
REVENUE-GENERATING SERVICES

The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI serves as a transport
system to provide reliable transfer of Message
Signal Units (MSUs) between network locations
and across network fabric transitions. With the
flexibility of this product, carriers can address
expanded capacity and connectivity needs,
continue to offer a wide variety of applications
in the SS7 network, and bridge directly to packet
networks.
High Capacity
To support basic functions such as Message
Transfer Part (MTP), Signaling Connection
Control Part (SCCP), and the signaling gateway
function, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI offers
the following features and services.
IP Signaling Links
IP signaling links, or IPVHSLs, allow the Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI to act as the signaling gateway
between SS7-based and IP-based packet networks.
High capacity IPVHSLs support growing call
handling volume between the SS7-based
networks and IP-based networks where the
message capacity exceeds that of SS7 link sets.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI provides an IP
signaling link that replaces many SS7 links.
Gateway Screening is available on the SS7 side
of the interface to protect the IP network from
unauthorized access by SS7 network elements.
IPVHSLs also provide an alternative form of
high-speed link connectivity within SS7 networks
to support high capacity B, C and D links between
STP nodes, as well as A links to service control
points and HLRs.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI includes SS7-IP
protocols as defined by the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) SIGTRAN working group.
The base protocol layer is SCTP, with multiple
adaptation layers such as M2PA, M3UA, SUA and
M2UA, depending on the network application.
The initial adaptation layer implemented is M2PA.
> 2 ALCATEL
FEATURES

ATM/T1 High-Speed Links
Intelligent network applications require increasing
network capacity. By supporting High-Speed
Links (HSLs), as shown in Figure 1, the Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI provides connectivity with fewer
transmission facilities, reduces signaling latency
for faster signaling response time, and delivers
higher message capacity, overcoming signaling
link-set limitations. The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI
gives providers these network benefits without
sacrificing SS7 connectivity and signaling.
T1 cards support signaling ATM adaptation layer
(SAAL) for transport of ATM messages to MTP
layers (MTP2 and MTP3) of the SS7 protocol,
as shown in Figure 1.
Flexible Routing
Flexible Routing is Alcatel’s patented message
detection and routing framework for the Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI. Within this framework, the
Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI can perform numerous
type of applications, such as Number Portability
or Application Location Register (ALR).
ALCATEL 3 >
Figure 1 - Alcatel 5070 SSG High-Speed Link Capability
GTT DB
SCCP
Routing
MTP3
MSU
Queues
MTP2 M2PA/SCTP or SAAL
MSU
Queues
SS7/IP
8 Virtual Connections
100Base-T
High-Speed
Links
Low-Speed
Links
ATM/T1
1,536 Mb/s Link
56 kb/s Link
56 kb/s Link
56 kb/s Link

Signaling
Server
Query
Response
Customer,
New
Location
Customer,
Original
Location
Called
Party
End
Office
End
Office
Intermediate
Switch
End
Office
Calling
Party
A powerful component of the Alcatel 5070
SSG ANSI’s database capabilities is its high
transaction rate capability.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI supports up to
50 million database entries, allowing for multiple
co-resident databases to be hosted on the same
platform. This means that a service provider
can support an entire national Local Number
Portability (LNP) database on a single Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI or can support multiple ALR
database types on the same Alcatel 5070 SSG
ANSI.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI uses high performance
database cards capable of supporting up to 2,500
transactions per second per card. The transactions
can be run in parallel, for a total of more than
160,000 transactions per second.
Number Portability
Due to the deregulation of the telecommunications
market, mandated Number Portability (NP) is a key
issue for competition in the telecommunications
industry. The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI combines
its traditional capabilities of message transport
and control with an NP solution, providing the
NP network database and service logic to support
ported number translations. Since the NP function-
ality is integrated within the Alcatel 5070 SSG
ANSI, service providers have quick and efficient
call routing with lower implemen tation costs —
because the queries are handled locally rather
than in a separate network node.
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI gives operators the
ability to deploy unrestricted network intelligence,
maintaining independence from switching equip-
ment. Figure 2 illustrates the NP application.
> 4 ALCATEL
Number Portability
is a key issue for
competition in the
telecom industry.
Figure 2 - Number Portability

Number Pooling
Local exchange carriers require a central office
(CO) code per rate center. As a result, there is
an increasing incidence of CO code exhaustion
requiring the associated numbering plan area
(NPA) splits and overlays. Currently, the CO
codes, NPA-NXX, are assigned to carriers at the
10,000-block level. At this level, the telephone
number utilization tends to be inefficient in
sparsely populated rate centers or in switches
that do not have many subscribers. As a result,
area codes are split even though numbers
remain unused. The goal of Number Pooling is
to promote better number utilization, thereby
avoiding additional area code splits. Number
Pooling addresses this use by using 1000-block-
level Number Pooling to avoid NPA splits.
The Number Pooling feature provides for
the assignment of numbers in blocks of 1,000.
These 1,000 numbers are considered pooled.
The owner of the 1,000 number block is called
the block holder, and the owner of the NPA-
NXX is called the code holder. A code holder
surrenders unused blocks to the pool, which
may then be assigned to another service
provider. The service provider owning the block
assigns a location routing number (LRN) for
all numbers within that block. The LRN is
used to route the call to the service provider
(destination). Any number within a pooled
block can port to another service provider.
Therefore, any given 10-digit telephone number
can be ported, pooled, both ported and pooled,
or neither ported nor pooled.
Table 1 shows some examples of ALR routing.
Table 1 - Types of ALR
Type of ALR Used for
ALR for HLRs HLR routing
ALR for SMSCs SMSC routing
ALR for VMSs VMS routing
ALCATEL 5 >
ALR routing locates and
routes customer service
queries, facilitating
communication across
the network to all
wireless service nodes.

The Number Pooling feature provides the
functional capability to support 1,000-block
Number Pooling in the LRN and Global Title
Translation (GTT) databases with a routing
functionality similar to LNP. To route a call,
the originating switch launches an LRN query
to obtain the LRN of the called number. The
Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI must determine the LRN,
which may require two database lookups: one
to determine if a number is ported, and if it is
not ported, another to determine if it is pooled.
Application Location Register
In today’s environment, wireless service
providers must pace network growth with an
increasing number of subscribers and complex
services. The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI features
Application Location Register (ALR) routing,
shown in Figure 3, to allow a more efficient
usage of multiple HLRs, SMSCs and voicemail/
unified messaging systems.
With ALR routing, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI
locates and routes customer service queries
to the proper network node, facilitating
> 6 ALCATEL
Gateway Screening
helps preserve
network integrity
by preventing
unauthorized
access.
5070 SSG
MSC Multiple
Alcatel SMSCs
Multiple Alcatel SCP/
HLR Databases
Subscriber ALR
Databases
Figure 3 - ALR Routing

communication across the network to all
wireless service nodes. ALR for HLRs supports
a significantly better usage of HLR capacity and
allows a separation of the mobile identification
number (MIN) from the mobile directory number
(MDN). In addition, with ALR for SMSCs and ALR
for VMSs, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI can provide
Flexible Routing to SMSCs and voice mail/unified
messaging systems, respectively. This enables
new services on dedicated nodes for a particular
group of subscribers.
ALR routing uses a specialized database, coupled
with software to decode fields in the SCCP and
TCAP portions of the signaling message, to
identify the subscriber and translate the network
address of the node handling a subscriber’s
service, such as the HLR. ALR routing enables
the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI to respond to queries
for updating subscriber location, sending routing
information or forwarding short messages. The
ALR implementation supports IS-41 as well
as GSM-based networks.
An interface to external provisioning systems
handles transactions for activating subscriber
records and establishing HLR, SMSC and
other subscriber routing information.
ALCATEL 7 >

Global Title Translation
Intelligent networks and wireless switching
systems often do not perform Global Title
Translation (GTT) efficiently. When services such
as enhanced 800/900, virtual private networks
and HLRs are triggered, the switches suspend
call processing and launch a query into the
network toward the adjacent STP. The message
contains address information that determines
the GTT to be performed. When services are
distributed across multiple service control points
or HLRs, GTT provides efficient routing and
redundancy. Keeping the GTT information in
a central pair of STPs supports efficient and
flexible operation of the network. The Alcatel
5070 SSG ANSI provides the powerful, real-time
processing necessary to meet these GTT
requirements.
Gateway Screening
The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI acts as a gateway
for messages transferred between networks.
Increasing competition and globalization
of the telecommunications market prompted
requirements for monitoring, measuring and
controlling access between SS7 networks.
Consequently, the Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI Gateway
Screening feature has become increasingly
important to ensure network security.
The Gateway Screening feature allows for
message traffic based on commercial agreements.
This feature provides operators with the ability
to protect against unauthorized traffic between
networks, to protect against malicious and
unauthorized access to the network, and to
collect measurements on traffic screening
results. The Alcatel 5070 SSG ANSI provides the
ability to screen messages as they are received.
Gateway Screening prevents unauthorized
access to databases and prevents use of unleased
facilities and services. In the screening process,
the MTP and SCCP parts of the message are
> 8 ALCATEL