Management component of a signalling transfer point

Details Management component of a signalling transfer point Management component of a signalling transfer point

2000-11-08

2004-03-23

Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2642)

Telephonic communications

Plural exchange network or interconnection

With interexchange network routing

C379S112010, C379S112030, C379S114080

Reexamination Certificate

active

06711250

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to signaling in or between telecommunication networks, and in particular to common channel signaling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Operators of transfer points in the signalling network number 7 (signalling transfer points, STP) wish, on the one hand, to protect themselves against unauthorized use, i.e. to allow the use of the STP only on the basis of certain agreements and on the other hand, to charge fees for the use of the STP.
The document, U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,244 (Fuller et al.) discloses the implementation of the functions “screening” and “measurement” for signalling messages.
The following methods have formerly been applied for the implementation of these functions in the standards: a) In the Q.705, §8, MTP (Message transfer part of SS7 Protocol) screening on the basis of OPC/DPC (Originating Point Code/Destination Point Code) incoming linkset/DPC is defined in that an OPC/DPC matrix defines the allowed or banned traffic relationships. Furthermore, there are demands made of the screening in STP that go beyond this, i.e., in Bellcore (GR-82-CORE, Appendix C). No object model has been defined for this screening by ITU, which makes a standardized management of these functions more difficult or, impossible.
Measurements (payments/billing) and a pertinent object model for the charge calculation of the traffic are defined in recommendations Q.752 and Q.751.3. This is based on a cascading principle wherein the immediately adjacent transmitter (operator of the neighboring node) pays fees to the operator of the STP. The neighboring transmitter is thereby identified on the basis of the incoming linkset, whereby a group of incoming linksets can definitely be combined into an account when a plurality of neighboring nodes are operated by the same operator and the traffic deriving from them need not be differentiated in greater detail.
On the other hand, the operator of the STP himself incurs charges, presumably by forwarding messages to other STP.
This fact is taken into consideration in that the operator of the STP may presumably require different fees for different destinations that are identified by the DPC in the transferred messages. Normally, the possible DPC are divided into DPC groups for this purpose and the traffic sent from a neighboring operator to these DPC groups is separately measured, i.e. there are sub-accounts for each defined account.
The cited recommendations thereby assume that these DPC groups are identical for all neighboring operators, i.e. that each account has the same sub-accounts. This, of course, does not preclude that specific sub-accounts of the different accounts are charged differently in a post-processing. For one network operator, for example, the traffic covered on a specific sub-account could be cost-free, whereas another must pay fees for the traffic covered on the same sub-account. This restriction on identical sub-accounts is in fact practical and desirable from the point of view of an efficient realization, but is not absolutely necessary and is also of no significance for the present invention. For the sake of completeness, it should also be mentioned that the cited recommendations also define mesurements for verification of billing charges.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the object of realizing the charging and the screening in an STP in a simple and dynamically beneficial way.
This object is achieved by the management component of the signaling point. The management component allocates inquiries into various groups based upon a selection criteria. Once an inquiry satisfies the selection criteria, it is then forwarded to a designated group. The management is useable by a plurality of operators.
Furthermore, a handling component of the signaling point routes a message of each specific group according to a criteria identical for all other messages of that specific group. The criteria used for routing the messages has two components, namely; a traffic measurement and a screening function. This handling component (arrangement) comprises a plurality of other handling components that are respectively uniquely useable by the operators.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4704724 (1987-11-01), Krishnan et al.
patent: 5282244 (1994-01-01), Fuller et al.
patent: 5581610 (1996-12-01), Hooshiari
patent: 2153281 (1996-01-01), None
patent: WO 95/01063 (1995-01-01), None

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