Student Notes July, 2001

Basic Telephony or
PUBLIC Switched
Telephone Network
(PSTN) and SS7 signaling
System

Lecture Notes:
Dr. Abdul Sattar Saand
Dept of Electrical Engineering
QUEST Nawabshah
16-Feb-17 1

Learning Objectives

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Discuss the basic operations of the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN)
 Define the telephony switching hierarchy
 Describe the signaling required to complete a typical
telephone call through the PSTN
 Describe how the SS7 network is overlayed onto the
PSTN

16-Feb-17 2

S-PSTN 1
Student Notes July, 2001

PSTN
 Public Switched Telephone Network
 Based on star, ring or mesh topologies
 Consists of transmission paths and nodes
 Originally was designed to carry voice but being used
more and more, to carry multimedia service (voice,
data and video) now days using new technologies.
 Nodes
 Exchange or switching points where two or more paths
meet, enabling the users to share transmission paths

16-Feb-17 3

What Is PSTN -Network ?

Telephone Telephone
Exchange/ Exchange/
Switching Switching
Office Office

CPE CPE

Transmission
Systems

16-Feb-17 4

S-PSTN 2
Student Notes July, 2001

Switching Offices
What is function of
central office/ Telephone
Exchange? Telephone,
Exchange

Signal
processing

CONTROL

NETWORK

16-Feb-17 5

Transmission Facilities

Switching Trunks Switching

Line Office Office Line

Special
Service Circuit

16-Feb-17 6

S-PSTN 3
Student Notes July, 2001

Structure of PSTN
1st Telephone Exchange
PVC Pipes
(MDF) Main Distribution Frame
GND- Ground Primary Cable 1200,900,600, pairs

Basement Cable Chamber

Primary Cables
DP 1200
Distribution 900
Cabinet 600
Pairs
Pole

Secondary Cable 10-50-

100-200,300,600 Pairs
Secondary Cable

16-Feb-17 7

Public Switched Telephone Networks-

PSTN
 Major Components of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN):
 Switching System
 Signaling System
 Transmission System
 Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
Customer Premises

Local Exchange

Exchange Overhead
Main Distribution DC-Cabinet DP
Equipment Frame

Network
Joint Cable Segment Termination
Dropwire
CPE
DPUnderground

M side(av. 1.8km) D side (av. 500m) Final Drop (av. 30m)

Max.10km
16-Feb-17 8

S-PSTN 4
Student Notes July, 2001

PSTN Network
• Local Exchange
• This exchange has subscriber
directly connected to it and
trunks towards Tandem
Earth Station exchnage or Directly Transit.
International •Tandem Exchange
Gateway Exchange
• Perform switching within a
city and has only trunks.
Transit
• Transit Exchange
HYD
Exchange • Performs switching between
NWS Long Haul
Transmission System
different cities within a country
Tandem (OFS) and has only tunks
Exchange
• International Gateway Exchange
Local
• Performs switching between
Exchange countries and has only trunks.
Local Loop, Access Network

16-Feb-17 9

Call Routing or Traffic Routing

Scenario

long haul
Network Local Exchange
Local Exchange KHI
Lkna KHI
Larkana

voice “trunk”
lines
Local Exchange
NWS NWS HYD

subscriber
access lines
(twisted pair)
Local loop has Transit Exchange
length 1 - 10 km

A-Party B-Party, Karachi

Nawabshah;
021-258-1234 0244-372-1234
16-Feb-17 10

S-PSTN 5
Student Notes July, 2001

Numbering Plans

 An International Number has the format :

Country Code -Area Code –Exchange Code –Line-Number

MAXIMUM 15 DIGITS

 EX: 972 2 588 9159

16-Feb-17 11

Switching Systems

16-Feb-17 12

S-PSTN 6
Student Notes July, 2001

How a Telephone call is established

the signaling
Terminating
Originating
Switching
Originating Switching Terminating
Office
CPE, Office, CPE,
Telephone
Telephone Telephone Telephone
Exchange Exchange
Set Set

Idle
1
Off-hook
2
Dial Tone
3
Dialed Digits

Off-hook

Off-hook (wink)

On-hook (wink)

Dialed Digits

Audible Ring Ringing

Answer Off-hook
Disconnect

16-Feb-17 13

How a Telephone call is established

the signaling
Terminating
Originating Switching
Originating Switching Office
CPE, Office, Telephone Terminating
Telephone Telephone Exchange CPE,
Set Exchange Telephone
Set
Idle
1
Off-hook
2
Dial Tone
3
Dialed Digits
4
Off-hook
5
Off-hook (wink)
6
On-hook (wink)
6
Dialed Digits

Audible Ring Ringing

Answer Off-hook
Disconnect

16-Feb-17 14

S-PSTN 7
Student Notes July, 2001

Signaling
Originating Terminating
Originating Switching Switching Terminating
CPE Office Office CPE

Idle
1
Off-hook
2
Dial Tone
3
Dialed Digits
4
Off-hook
5
Off-hook (wink)
6
On-hook (wink)
6
Dialed Digits
7
Audible Ring Ringing 8
Answer Off-hook
Disconnect

16-Feb-17 15

Signaling
Originating Terminating
Originating Switching Switching Terminating
CPE Office Office CPE

Idle
1
Off-hook
2
Dial Tone
3
Dialed Digits
4
Off-hook
5
Off-hook (wink)
6
On-hook (wink)
6
Dialed Digits
7
Audible Ring Ringing 8
Answer Off-hook
9
Disconnect
10 10

16-Feb-17 16

S-PSTN 8
Student Notes July, 2001

Signaling
 PSTN with automatic switching requires signaling
 Signaling is the generation, transmission, and reception of information
needed to direct and control the setup and disconnect of a call.
 Signaling: Exchange of messages among network entities to enable
(provide service) to connect/call
The present PSTN has Thousands of
 before, during, after connection/call features and all requires signaling
 call setup and teardown (state) support. For example
 call maintenance (state)  On-hook / off-hook
 measurement, billing (state)  Pulse / Tone dialing
 between:  Receiver off-hook
 end-user <-> network  Call waiting
 end-user <-> end-user  Caller number identification or (CLI)
 network element <-> network element  Call forwarding
• Voice mail
• Conference calls
• Billing
16-Feb-17 17

Signaling System 7-
Definition
 Signaling System 7 (SS7) is an architecture for
performing out-of-band signaling in support of the call-
establishment, billing, routing, and information-
exchange functions of the public switched telephone
network (PSTN).
 It identifies functions to be performed by a signaling-
system network and a protocol to enable their
performance.

16-Feb-17 18

S-PSTN 9
Student Notes July, 2001

What Is Signaling?
 Signaling refers to the exchange of information between call components required
to provide and maintain service.
 As users of the PSTN, we exchange signaling with network elements all the time.
 Examples of signaling between a telephone user and the telephone network
include: dialing digits, providing dial tone, accessing a voice mailbox, sending a call-
waiting tone, dialing *66 (to retry a busy number), etc.
 SS7 is a means by which elements of the telephone network exchange information.
 Information is conveyed in the form of messages. SS7 messages can convey
information such as:
 I’m forwarding to you a call placed from 212-555-1234 to 718-555-
 5678. Look for it on trunk 067.
 Someone just dialed 800-555-1212. Where do I route the call?
 The called subscriber for the call on trunk 11 is busy. Release the call and play a busy
tone.
 The route to XXX is congested. Please don’t send any messages to XXX
 unless they are of priority 2 or higher.
 I’m taking trunk 143 out of service for maintenance.
 SS7 is characterized by high-speed packet data and out-of-band signaling.

16-Feb-17 19

Signaling System 7
(SS7)-What is SS7
 SS7, signaling system number 7, was originally
designed to support the PSTN (public switched
telephone network) in:

Call setup,
Call management, and
Call release

between telephone offices and CPE (customer

premises equipment) to simply transport voice traffic.

16-Feb-17 20

S-PSTN 10
Student Notes July, 2001

What is SS7?
 But now it has been further developed to transport not
only voice but also data/video traffic.

 In the original SS7, the “in-band” signaling mechanism

was used.

 It means that the signaling information and the user

data (e.g. voice) are carried on the same channel.

16-Feb-17 21

What is SS7?
 Nowadays, many new applications of SS7 have emerged,
such as SS7 intelligent network.

 Because these applications require a high quality transfer

of the signaling information, the signaling in SS7 has
changed to the “out-of-band” signaling.

 In the “out-of-band” signaling, the signaling information is

carried in a separate and dedicated physical channel, and
the user data is carried in other channels, as shown in
Figures 1 & 2.

16-Feb-17 22

S-PSTN 11
Student Notes July, 2001

What is SS7?

Figure 1: Out-of-band Signaling

16-Feb-17 23

What is SS7?

Figure 1.2: In-band Signaling

16-Feb-17 24

S-PSTN 12
Student Notes July, 2001

SS7 Network

 Figure 4 shows a typical topology of an SS7 network,

where the major physical components include:

 SSP (service switching point),

 STP (signaling transfer point),

 SCP (service control point) and

 SL (signaling link).

16-Feb-17 25

SS7 Network

Figure 4: SS7 Network Topology

16-Feb-17 26

S-PSTN 13
Student Notes July, 2001

SSP

 SSP is the local exchange to the subscriber and the

interface to the telephone network.

 The SS7 signaling information is produced at the

sending SSP and is handled at the receiving SSP.

 It converts voice signaling into the SS7 signal units, and

vice versa.

 It also supports database access queries, such as for

800 service.

16-Feb-17 27

STP
 STP is the network node.

 It works like a router to perform the routing of

messages to other signaling points.

 It is usually paired to provide redundancy for a

reliable message transfer.

 It is adjunct to a voice switch, and might stand

alone as a separate machine.

16-Feb-17 28

S-PSTN 14
Student Notes July, 2001

SCP

 SCP works as the interface with the databases, which

contain the information of the subscribers, such as 800
service, calling cards etc.

 When receiving a request, it is triggered to handle the

database queries, and returns a response with the
results of the queries to the originating SSP.

16-Feb-17 29

Signaling Links(SL)

 SL is the link interconnecting the signaling points of

SS7 network.

 A SL is made up of digital transmission channels.

 In each channel, the standard bit rate on a bearer

service is 56 or 64 kbps.

 But these channels may be multiplexed into a

transmission rate of 1.544, 2.048, or 8.448 Mbps.

16-Feb-17 30

S-PSTN 15
Student Notes July, 2001

Signaling Links(SL)

 All the links between two signaling points (e.g. SSP,

STP, SCP) compose a “link set”.

 The network traffic between two signaling points are

evenly distributed to reach a load sharing within a link
set.

 These different link sets can provide the redundancy to

ensure the high reliability of message transfer.

16-Feb-17 31

Signaling System 7: Telephone network

 signaling between telephone network elements:

signaling transfer point (STP):
 packet-switches of SS7 network
 send/receive/route signaling messages

signaling control point (SCP): SCP SCP

“services” go here
 e.g., database functions SCP SCP

signaling switching
SSP
point (SSP):
 attached directly to
end user
SSP
 endpoints of SS7 SSP

network SSP

SSPs are Telephone

switches.
16-Feb-17 32

S-PSTN 16
Student Notes July, 2001

Example: Signaling a PSTN call

4. STP X forwards IAM

SSP B
3. STP W forwards IAM
to STP X
2. SSP A formulates
Initial Address
Message (IAM), W
forwards to STP W Y
1. caller goes
offhook, dials
callee. SSP A X
decides to route
call via SSP B.
Assigns idle trunk A B
A-B

16-Feb-17 33

Example: Signaling a PSTN call

5. B determines it serves callee, creates address
ACM=Address Completion
completion message (ACM [A,B, trunk ]), rings
Message callee phone, sends ringing sound on trunk to A
SSP= Signaling Switching Point
SCP= Signaling Control Point
STP=Signaling Point

6. ACM routed to Z to Y to A

7. SSP A receives ACM, W Z

connects subscriber line
to allocated A-B trunk
(caller hears ringing)
Y X

A B

16-Feb-17 34

S-PSTN 17
Student Notes July, 2001

Example: Signaling a PSTN call

ANM=Answering Message
8. Callee goes off hook, B
SSP= Signaling Switching
Point creates, sends answer
SCP= Signaling Control Point message to A
STP=Signaling Point (ANM[A,B,trunk])
9. ANM routed to A

W Z

10. SSP A receives ANM,

checks caller is Y X
connected in both
directions to trunk. Call
is connected! A B

16-Feb-17 35

SS7
Switching Switching
Office A Office B

STP

Customer “B”
Customer “A”
IAM IAM
ACM ACM
ANM ANM

REL
REL

RLC RLC

16-Feb-17 36

S-PSTN 18
Student Notes July, 2001

References

 AT&T Wireless (http://www.attwireless.com)

 Lucent Technologies (http://www.lucent.com)
 Motorola (http://www.motorola.com)
 RF Globalnet (http://www.rfglobablnet.com)
 Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (http://www.telcordia.com)

16-Feb-17 37

References & Recommended Reading

 ANSI T1.1 11-1992, Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) Message Transfer Pan (MTP),
1992.

 ANSI T1.1 12-1992, Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) Signaling Connection Control
Part (SCCP), 1992.

 ANSIT1.1 14-1992, Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) Transaction Capabilities

Application Part (TCAP), 1992.

 Black, U. ISDN & SS7. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.

 Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Computer Networks, 3rd Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
1996.

16-Feb-17 38

S-PSTN 19
Student Notes July, 2001

End of today lecture

Thank you for Your

You shall not Plan the Future with the Past !
Attention !
16-Feb-17 39

S-PSTN 20