[VoiceOps] SS7 Landscape

[Mike Johnston]

On 2023-10-24 15:11, Mike Hammett wrote:
> Recommend\don't recommend?
> Anything to watch out for?
>
> The offer I got was attractive, but not everything that's attractive 
> is what it seems.
>

We used to have Onvoy/Inteliquent SS7 via TDM, which was reliable.  Two 
A-Links, to two geographically diverse STPs.  When faults did occur, it 
was almost always with a carrier in the middle (e.g., a fiber cut).


We are trying to move away from T1s.  But some telcos that we 
interconnect with have not yet realized the benefits of SIP.  As such, 
we still need SS7, in some form or another.  Also, our LNP lookups are 
over SS7.


Several months ago we migrated to SIGTRAN, staying with Inteliquent, now 
called Sinch.  They helped us through the migration process, which went 
quite smooth overall.


The IP connections are over VPN tunnels, to two geographically diverse 
VPN endpoints.  We connect to two geographically diverse STPs through 
those VPN tunnels (one STP per VPN tunnel).  One thing that I don't 
like, though, is that the VPN endpoints are not located near the STPs.  
The STPs are located somewhat near me (same state & next state over), 
but the VPN endpoints are multiple states away, meaning the IP traffic 
trombones around the US.  This has not caused us any actual problems, 
though.


In general, yes, I would recommend Inteliquent/Since for SS7/SIGTRAN.  
They have been good to us, and reliable.


Note: I was not involved in any of the money conversations.  Just the 
technical conversations.
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