Managing

SIGTRAN
Networks
Graham Byars
Product Manager
ASD
SIGTRAN growth is being fuelled
by two key factors:
CAPACITY - Link and STP capacity running
out as new services (SMS, VoIP, IMS) and
their associated nodes and signalling load
are introduced
COSTS - Increasing operational,
maintenance and cost of network
Legacy C7 Architecture
HLR
HLR
BSC
GGSN
SGSN STP
STP
MSC
VLR
MSC
VLR
BSC
Call Control
Access
Media
SMSC
SCP
Services
STP
STP
SIGTRAN Drivers
SIGTRAN is being introduced as:
SMS offload as TDM based SS7 network reach capacity
Replacement of TDM links and STPs which are a costly infrastructure
Migrations to VoIP and IMS services infrastructure (Rel4 and Rel5 3GPP
Architectures)
The benefits of SIGTRAN include:
CAPACITY - Higher network efficiency by providing increased signalling capacity to
reduce network congestion as subscribers adopt new, multimedia services
COSTS - Reduced transport costs by up to 70 percent;
Significant Opex reductions for Operators if the SIGTRAN route is taken.
Estimates are up to 50% savings.
GSM SIGTRAN Architecture
Options Signalling Gateway
HLR
HLR
BSC
STP
STP
MSC
VLR
MSC
VLR
BSC
Call Control
Access
SMSC
SCP
Services
BSC
MSC
VLR
ITP
HLR
ITP
Signalling Gateway Network
Signalling transported over legacy TDM and
IP network
ITP (IP transfer point) gateway act as
gateways points (often implemented as part
of new iSTPs)
Drawbacks
CAPACITY depending on STP architecture
ITP could become new bottleneck
SIGTRAN
GSM SIGTRAN Architecture
Options Dual Stacking
HLR
HLR
BSC
STP
STP
MSC
VLR
MSC
VLR
BSC
Call Control
Access
SMSC
SCP
Services
HLR
Dual Stacking Network
Signalling transported over legacy TDM
and IP network
SIGTRAN enables by Dual stacking
key nodes MSC, HLR
Drawbacks
Some nodes will never migrate and
some node may only have SIGTRAN
So, you still may need Signalling
Gateway function
SIGTRAN
BSC
MSC
VLR
HLR
MAP
ISUP
CAP
CAP
MAP
MPLS
VPN
SCTP
C7
C7
STP
STP
C7 SIGTRAN
M3UA
SCCP
TC
MAP/INAP
MTP3
IP IP
MTP2
MTP1
16 16
MSC/HLR
100BaseT
2.5 SIGTRAN Architecture
2.5G and 3G SIGTRAN Network
Migration of 2.5G Signalling Links to
SIGTRAN (Gb and Gr)
SIGTRAN connection by SS7 over IP
enabled BSC and SGSN
HLR
GGSN
SGSN
STP
STP
MSC
VLR
BSC
Call Control
Access
SMSC
SCP
Services
SIGTRAN
Gr
Gb
Gn
BSC
MSC
VLR
BSC
MSC
VLR
HLR
MAP
ISUP
CAP
HLR
HLR
SIGTRAN
SIGTRAN
SIGTRAN
User Adaptation Layer Protocols
SIGTRAN a working group setup by the IETF developed a new family of
adaptation layer protocols to support Signalling Transport of circuit-switched
signalling over IP networks
The adaptation layer protocols introduce new protocol messages and protocol
inter-working scenarios
MTP3
IP
SCTP
M3UA
SUA
ISUP
M2PA M2UA
TCAP
MTP1
MTP2
MTP3
SCCP
SIGTRAN
MTP1
MTP2
MTP1
MTP2
M3UA Protocol Inter-working
IP IP
MTP3
SCTP
M3UA
SCCP
SCTP
M3UA
SCCP
MTP3
SCCP
Signaling Gateway
SS7
Network
IP
Network
ITP
HLR
MSC
VLR
SIGTRAN Congestion Control
Transfer Controlled (TFC) SCON (Signalling Congestion)
Signalling Point Congestion Application Server Congestion
M3UA MTP3
T
F
C
SP
MTP1
MTP2
MTP3
IP
SCTP
M3UA
Signalling
Gateway/STP
SP
SP
M
S
U
SCON
SP
T
F
C
SP
MTP1
MTP2
MTP3
IP
SCTP
M3UA
Signalling
Gateway/STP
SP
SP
M
S
U
SCON
SP
T
F
C
M
S
U
c
o
n
g
e
s
t
i
o
n
SP
congestion
SP
Customer Requirements
Ensure that routing algorithms have been setup correctly to balance the
load across the network and bottlenecks are not occurring
Understand the logical connection loads for planning purposes
Identify and resolve Protocol interworking problems as messages traverse
from TDM to IP stacks through new nodes (ITF, Dual stack nodes, etc) or
between new IP enabled nodes (IP HLR, IP MSC)
Ensure that quality metrics of C7 network are maintained when migrated to
SIGTRAN
RTT = 8020 ms
Bit Error Rate < 1 in 10
10
Availability > 99.998%
Maintain consistent KPIs (e.g. ASR) and monitoring capabilities (e.g. Call
Tracing) provided today by passive monitoring solutions to ensure
customer service and support does not degrade
Customer Use Case IP node configuration
With in a few weeks of installing QoSA SIGTRAN into their live network a large North American
operator was receiving value from the solution
A new IP-MSC was turned up with a poorly configured trunk group to a LEC (inbound and
outbound traffic). The trunk groups search pattern was incorrect causing glare. The MSC
serves as a gateway, taking traffic from 4 other MSCs so a large amount of voice traffic would
be carried by this node. QoSA SIGTRAN saw 5000 abnormal releases every 5 minutes.
QoSA SIGTRAN identified the problem
QoSA SIGTRAN showed when the problem started
Value Proposition
5000 abnormal releases every 5 minutes
(Average at Peak times)
Total number of abnormal release
per day =* 5000 * 288 =360,000
Remove retries 5 =72,000
Average Cost per call $2.25 (5minutes)
Lost revenue per day =$162,000
Saving $162,000 per day
Customer Use Case Route Configuration
With in a few hours of installing QoSA SIGTRAN into their live network a large European
operator was receiving value from the solution.
QoSA SIGTRAN showed that the load distribution of SS7 signalling was not as expected and
two logical connection that should be carrying half the traffic were only carrying heart beat
messages. Whilst not a problem at this stage of the deployment as traffic rates increased on the
SIGTRAN network or a connection failure occurred this could have a dramatic effect on the
ability of the SIGTRAN network to handle the traffic.
QoSA SIGTRAN identified the problem
QoSA SIGTRAN showed when the problem started
3
rd
and 4
th
logical
connection that
should have been
carrying half the
load only shows
a heart beat
2 out of six logical
connection
carrying traffic
SSP
SSP
iSTP
iSTP
Customer Use Case Real time alert
of network outages
With in a few weeks of installing QoSA SIGTRAN into their live network a large North American
operator was receiving value from the solution.
QoSA SIGTRAN Top N logical link loads indicated that an iSTP quad was imbalanced. Two of
the links load dropped and two increased. A Protocol Analysis session on the C links showed
what traffic was being re-routed. Back to QoSA and it shows 2 SSPs with a drop in traffic
confirming they had lost one of their SIGTRAN logical links to the iSTP.
The NOC was informed of the outage and with their existing Network Management tools they
had a ticket open on one of the SSPs but had missed the other.
iSTP
SIGTRAN SIGTRAN
iSTP
C
B
A
SSP
Customer Use Case IP Performance
Switch Site South West
R
MSC
VLR
HLR
R
R
SCTP
Retransmission
Timer
R
Switch Site
North East
Switch Site North West
R
MSC
VLR
HLR
iSTP
iSTP
Normal route between North
West HLR and South West
MSC fails.
IP network re-routes via router
in North East.
Round trip time increases
such that the SCTP
retransmission time is
exceeded and the HLR starts
to retransmit messages
This leads to duplicate SS7
message being sent across
the network and an increased
load on the STP starts to
cause congestion problems
Monitoring of the SACK
message and the SACK
chunks will indicate duplicate
data and gaps
SS7
SIGTRAN Troubleshooting
IuCS
TDM
ISUP
BICC
MAP o IP
MAP
TDM
UMTS, GPRS, ISUP,
MAP, CAMEL
Troubleshooting
Over TDM and IP using:
SESSION TRACE
SIGTRAN
GCP
TDM
TDM
MA
TD
TDM
ISUP o IP
ISUP
TDM
GboIP
IuPS
MSC
VLR
SMSC
STP
STP ITP
ITP
STP
STP
MSC
VLR
SMSC
HLR
SMSC
BSC
SGSN
MSC
Server
MGW
MSC
Server
RNC
SMSC
SIGTRAN Monitoring
UMTS, GPRS, ISUP* and MAP
Business Analytics
Over TDM and IP using:
DMT
UMTS, GPRS, ISUP* and MAP QoS
Over TDM and IP using:
QoS ANALYZER
Load (Link and Node),
SNM and Call Based
Measurements,
For SCTP, M3UA, etc
using:
QoSA SIGTRAN
* Available as a Service Pack on C.05
IuCS
TDM
ISUP
BICC
MAP o IP
MAP
TDM
SIGTRAN
GCP
TDM
TDM
TDM
ISUP o IP
ISUP
TDM
GboIP
IuPS
MSC
VLR
STP
STP ITP
ITP
STP
STP
MSC
VLR
SMSC
HLR
SMSC
BSC
SGSN
MSC
Server
MGW
MSC
Server
RNC
SMSC
QUESTIONS