Stream Control Transmission

Protocol (SCTP)
Janardhan Iyengar

Protocol Engineering Lab

Computer & Information Sciences, University of Delaware

A Brief History
Primary motivation: Transportation of telephony
signaling messages over IP networks

RFCs

RFC 2960 Stream Control Transmission Protocol

RFC 3257 - SCTP Applicability Statement
RFC 3286 - An introduction to SCTP
RFC 3309 SCTP Checksum Change
RFC 3436 Transport Layer Security over SCTP
RFC 3758 SCTP Partial Reliability Extension

SCTP Feature Summary

Start with TCP:
reliable (retransmissions)
congestion controlled
connection oriented

Add:
4-way handshake
to reduce vulnerability to DOS attacks
framing
preserve message boundaries
multistreaming
instead of one ordered stream,
up to 64K independent ordered streams
multihoming
instead of one IP address per endpoint
a set of IP addresses per endpoint

TCP Connection Setup

A
t=0

1RTT

SYN Flooding Attack

attackers
130.2.4.15
128.3.4.5
192.10.2.8

victim

SYN
228.3.14.5

SYN
190.13.4.1

221.3.5.10

SYN

Flooded!!
TCB
TCB
TCB
TCB
TCB

Unavailable, reserved resources

There is no ACK in response to the SYN-ACK, hence connection

remains half-open
Other genuine clients cannot open connections to the victim
The victim is unable to provide service

SCTP Association Setup

A
t=0

1RTT

2RTT

Whats in a cookie?

Information from original INIT

Information from current INIT-ACK
Timestamp
Life span of cookie (Time to live)
Signature for authentication (SHA-1,
MD5, etc.)

Signaling Core Network Evolution

Legacy

SIGTRAN

SS7 APPLICATIONS

SS7 APPLICATIONS

TCAP

TCAP

SCCP

TCAP

SCCP
SUA

MTP3
M3UA

SCCF-NNI

SCCF-NNI
MTP2

SSCOP
AAL5

M2PA

AAL5

SCTP
MTP1

SIP
SUA

MTP3
M3UA
M2PA

MTP2
SSCOP

MTP1

SS7 & INTERNET APPLICATIONS

SCCP

MTP3

Next Gen

IP

SCTP

TCP
IP

Networks will continue to evolve and converge to an IP

centric model
The speed of this evolution and convergence is debatable
and it will happen at speeds which will vary per operator

UDP

Signaling Infrastructure
Migration to IP
SMSC/HLR/IN

Legac
y

STP1_1

Signaling TDM Transport Network

Access
TDM STP1_2
SMSC/HLR/IN

STP2_2

Signaling GW

Signaling Over IP, TDM as option

MSCs/Softswitch

STP2_1

Access
TDM

IP Enabled STP

MSCs/Softswitch

IP or TDM

SS7oI
P

Access-Links
TDM
SUA or M3UA

Access-Links
TDM
SUA or M3UA

SCCP/ISUP
MTP3b/MTP3
SSCF-NNI
MTP3b Stack
HSL

SSCOP
AAL5

MTP2
MTP1

M2PA

M3UA
SCTP
IP

SUA
SS7oIP with
SIGTRAN

SCTP Multi-Homing
Equivalent function for M2PA, M3UA, SUA
3.4.2

Redundant Path IP Networks

3.4.4

M2PA/SCTP link 0

MSU

local-peer 5000
10.120.122.6
10.120.123.6

10.120.122.0/24

10.120.123.0/24

MSU

local-peer 5000
10.120.122.2
2
10.120.123.2
2

ACTIVE SCTP Source-Destination pair

3.4.2

10.120.122
.6

10.120.122.
22

MSU

3.4.4
MSU

10.120.123
.6

10.120.123.
22

ALTERNATE/STANDBY SCTP Source-Destination pair

Multi-Homed M2PA Link Design

Co-Located Mated Pairs
MTSO-A ITP1
IP1

Primary Association Path

Link 0
IP2

Alternate Association Path

IP11

RSP with NSO

64K
Link

ITP3

IP12

RSP with NSO

IP Net1

RSP with NSO

IP3

MTSO-B

IP4

64K
Link

RSP with NSO

IP13

IP14

Link 1
MSC

64K
Link

ITP2

ITP4

IP Net2
RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

Multi-homed IP
Addresses

MSC

64K
Link

Multi-Homed Failover
MTSO-A ITP1
IP1

Primary Association Path

Link 0
IP2

64K
Link

IP11

IP4

ITP3

IP12

RSP with NSO

IP Net1

RSP with NSO

IP3

Alternate Association Path

RSP with NSO

MTSO-B

64K
Link

RSP with NSO

IP13

IP14

Link 1
MSC

64K
Link

ITP2

ITP4

IP Net2
RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

RSP with NSO

SCTP Failover in less than 500ms

All Layer 2 - MTP3 is unaffected

MSC

64K
Link

Multi-Homed B/D M2PA Link Design

Co-Located Mated Pairs
MTSO-A ITP1

Primary Association Path

MTSO-B

Alternate Association Path

IP1

Link 0

RSP with NSO

64K
Link

IP11

IP2

RSP with NSO

IP3

ITP3

IP12

RSP with NSO

IP Net1

IP4

64K
Link

RSP with NSO

IP13

IP14

Link 1
MSC

ITP2
IP5

64K
Link

RSP with NSO

ITP4

Link 1

RSP with NSO

IP7

IP15

IP6

IP16

IP Net2
RSP with NSO
RSP with NSO

IP8

Link 0

IP17

MSC

IP18

64K
Link

SCTP Bundling-Bandwidth
Savings
MTP2 TDM

M2PA/SCTP

MSU4

MSU3

SCTP Chunk Bundling Timeout

(0 ~ 10 msec configurable)
MSU2

MSU1

MSU4

MSU3

MSU2

MSU1

IP

Example: Up to 1480 bytes for Ethernet

FISUs will be terminated at ITP
FISU FISU MSU

FISU

MSU FISU FISU FISU

MSU

MSU

IP

Available Bandwidth
for Other MSU Transport
0.4 Erlang