Larry J. Plato wrote:
SS7 (Signalling System 7) is a connectionless packet switched technology used to control the setup and teardown of circuit switched calls. Originally is was used as a database query technology to make 800 numbers portable across carriers. If this did not make sense I can descibe it in a little mnore detail offline.
Contributing to the information/misinformation of the Universe: These "high speed 56k links" that carry the SS7 traffic and database queries also handle the number portability stuff, since a portable number has to be looked up in similar databases. Of course, now, portable numbers are all the rage. Hmmm. Sounds like the current IP routing situation, only the phone company can't say no because of something called the public service commission. -- allan chong allan@bellsouth.net formerly Bellsouth.net network engineering currently vacationing/looking for work away from East coast.