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Chapter 2. The Basics

2.1. Linkset
2.2. Shell Management client
2.3. SS7 Service
2.4. Mobicents SS7 Stack Usage
2.5. Mobicents Signaling Gateway
2.5.1. Mobicents M3UA Stack

Important

Be aware, Mobicents SS7 Stack is subject to changes as it is under active development!

The Mobicents SS7 Stack is logically divided into two sections. The lower section includes SS7 Level 3 and below. The lower section is influenced by type of SS7 hardware (Level 1) used.

The upper section includes SS7 Level 4 and above. This logical division is widely based on flexibility of Mobicents SS7 Stack to allow usage of any SS7 hardware available in the market and yet Mobicents SS7 Stack Level 4 and above remains the same.

Further Mobicents SS7 Stack provides flexibility to use the Level 2,3 and Level 4 in same JVM and in same machine where SS7 Hardware (Level 1) is installed. Or its also possible to have Level 1,2,3 to be installed on separate machine and Level 4 on separate machine. In latter case M3UA over SCTP is leveraged for communication between Level 4 and Level 3 and is called Mobicents Signaling Gateway.

Bellow diagram shows complete Mobicents SS7 Stack in same machine

Mobicents SS7 Stack

Bellow diagram shows Mobicents Signaling Gateway

Mobicents Signaling Gateway

Important

If you use Mobicents M3UA stack, you have to use JDK 7 to run the stack as well as to compile source code. M3UA leverages Java SCTP which is available only from JDK 7.

Apart from advantages mentioned in

Mobicents SS7 Stack consists of following functional blocks:

Linkset is logical group of links between two Signaling Points. This term hides MTP layer, ie. it abstracts whether hardware MTP is used or M3UA.

Three type of Linkset are defined

Each type of linkset has coresponding factory. Configuration of linkset factories is exaplained in subsections of Section 3.4, “ Configuring Mobicents SS7 Service ”.

Shell is Command Line Interface (CLI) tool which allows to manage different aspects of Mobicents SS7 Stack in interactive manner. It connects to different instances of Mobicents SS7 Stack which manage Linksets, SCCP routing and M3UA. For detailed information please refer to: Chapter 5, Shell Command Line. Usually Shell will be invoked from remote machine(remote to Linksets and application protocols).

Service is element which is used to manage LinkSets and protocols like SCCP. SS7 service creates instance of Mobicents SCCP Stack and bind's it to JNDI name java:/mobicents/ss7/sccp

SS7 Service is JMX based service deployed in JBoss Application Server

SS7 Service hides the details like whether Level 4 and above connects to Mobicents Signaling Gateway via M3UA or SS7 Hardware is installed in same machine as Level 4

Diagram below depicts elements which are deployed as part of SS7 Service:

Service serves following purposes:

Configuration of SS7 Service is exaplained in section Section 3.4, “ Configuring Mobicents SS7 Service ”

Diagram below depicts how Mobicents SS7 Stack is used:

Mobicents Signaling Gateway (SG) is a signaling agent that receives/sends Switched Circuit Network (SCN) native signaling at the edge of the IP network. Mobicents Signaling Gateway leverages Mobicents M3UA Stack explained in Section 2.5.1, “Mobicents M3UA Stack” and Linkset explained in Section 2.1, “Linkset”

Diagram below shows the components which are included in Mobicents SG. Configuration of SG is explained in Section 3.7, “ Configuring Mobicents Signaling Gateway ”

M3UA is client-server protocol supporting the transport of any SS7 MTP3-User signalling (e.g., ISUP and SCCP messages) over IP. M3UA is defined by the IETF SIGTRAN working group in RFC 4666. Mobicents M3UA Stack can be used on Application Server side or can be used on Signaling Gateway side.