One document matched: draft-ietf-sigtran-tcap-perf-req-00.txt







INTERNET DRAFT						     Taruni Seth

Internet Engineering Task Force				 Albert	Broscius

February 26, 1999				       Christian Huitema

Expires	August 26, 1999					  Huai-An P. Lin

<draft-ietf-sigtran-tcap-perf-req-00.txt>			Bellcore



   Performance Requirements for	TCAP Signaling in Internet Telephony

	      T. Seth, A. Broscius, C. Huitema,	H. P. Lin
				Bellcore




Status of this document

This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

Internet-Drafts	are draft documents valid for a	maximum	of six months
and may	be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working docu-
ments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,	and its
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documents as Internet-Drafts.



Abstract

To allow interoperability between the existing telephone network and
Internet Telephony (IT)	it is necessary	for the	signaling performance to
be comparable to that of the current standards to avoid	introducing
degradation in the service. In this Internet Draft, we discuss the



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Internet draft	 SIGTRAN, TCAP Performance Requirement February	26, 1999


performance requirements for TCAP signaling across an IP network. We
also highlight the dependency on the SCP database location and thus
problems related in providing high-quality service for TCAP based appli-
cations.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   ...............................................3

2. Context
   .............................................. 4

3. Overview of TCAP
   .............................................. 5

3.1 TCAP in a Nutshell
   .............................................. 5

3.2 Signaling Connection Control Part
   .............................................. 6

3.3 Global Title Translation
   .............................................. 6

3.4 Service Control Point (SCP)
   .............................................. 7

3.5 TCAP Transaction Flow Diagram
   .............................................. 7

4. Performance Requirements
   .............................................. 9

4.1 Query Response Time
   .............................................. 9

4.2 SSP	Response Time
   .............................................. 10

4.3 SCP	Response Time
   .............................................. 10

4.3.1 SCP Handling Time
   .............................................. 11

4.3.2 Disk Lookup Time
   .............................................. 11



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4.3.3 Link Output Delay
   .............................................. 11

4.3.4 Total SCP	Response Time
   .............................................. 12

4.4 Message Transfer Time
   .............................................  12

4.5 Other General Parameters
   .............................................. 13

4.5.1 maxResponseTime
   .............................................. 13

4.5.2 maxPendingTime
   .............................................. 13

5. Implications	to VoIP
   .............................................. 13

6. References
   .............................................. 15

7. Authors' Addresses
   .............................................. 15

Full Copyright Statement
   .............................................. 16



1.  Introduction

A public switched telephone network (PSTN) based telephone call	involves
the delivery of	voice over a dedicated circuit-switched	network	(CSN)
and the	delivery of call processing signaling messages over a separate
packet switched	network	called the Common Channel Signaling (CCS) net-
work. PSTN call	processing involves two	types of signaling messages: the
ISUP (ISDN User	Part) [2] messages which are responsible for the basic
setup, management and teardown of a telephone call and the Transaction
Capabilities User Part (TCAP) [3] messages, which are used for non-
circuit	related	messages used in advanced call setup features, and those
requiring access to network databases, such as the database of valid
calling	card PIN numbers. To interwork with PSTN, Internet Telephony
must process these ISUP	and TCAP messages. Both	of these protocols have
specific performance requirements. Requirements	for ISUP messages were
discussed in [1]. This Internet	Draft focuses mainly on	some of	the



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issues related to the performance requirement of the TCAP messages.

2.  Context

A commonly envisioned Internet Telephony system	architecture includes an
IP network as the core communication infrastructure. Both reliable and
unreliable data	is transported over the	IP infrastructure through the
use of a variety of upper layer	protocols. In the IP network, generally,
all the	traffic	competes against each other in a single	flow. Segmenting
signaling, data	and voice traffic flows	on the network allows the per-
formance guarantees of the different traffic components	to be set
independently, since they differ in their loss and delay tolerance
requirements.

Signalling quality requirements	could be expressed by simply stating
that call set-up time, and generally signalling	delays,	should be simi-
lar to those observed in classic telephony networks. When analyzing the
requirements, we will distinguish between absolute requirements, which
are mandated for proper	interaction with the classic telephone network,
and quality objectives,	which are mostly desirable goals based on user
expectations.

The mandatory requirements of telephony	systems	are specified in several
"General Requirement" documents	published by Bellcore and ITU-T. We need
to derive loss and delay bounds	from the existing telephony standards
for inter working of Internet Telephony	and the	PSTN. Both loss	and
latency	affect the perceived user quality when establishing telephone
calls across the Internet Telephony infrastructure. Excessive delay may
cause call setup failure through end-switch time-outs, requiring the
user to	re-dial.  TCAP loss may	also cause call	setup failures through
timeouts that may leave	resources in the network held in an active state
after a	call teardown message is lost.

Earlier	work specified the requirements	for ISUP Signaling over	IP based
on the PSTN specifications[1]. ISUP messages are used for basic	call
control	and setup, whereas TCAP	messages are particular	to each	specific
application and	do not have generic performance	requirements. However,
there are some specifications for the network elements involved	in a
TCAP transaction, which	allow us to estimate some other	measures. Here
we will	try and	establish a similar set	of parameters for TCAP messag-
ing, based on signalling performance metrics such as the query-response
delay.

In this	Internet draft,	we focus on the	performance requirements for
TCAP applications. We discuss mandatory	requirements as	established by
the timers in PSTN network elements, which determine the tolerance of
these applications to delays and losses. We will also discuss the user
expectations and values	of these requirements as available from	current



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PSTN implementations. We summarize the implications of these in	a VoIP
framework and discuss merits of	existing  technologies to enhance these
performance requirements in the	IP networks.

3.  Overview of	TCAP

3.1.	TCAP in	a Nutshell

TCAP messages are designed for accessing databases or other switches to
retrieve information or	invoke features. TCAP enables the deployment of
advanced intelligent network services by supporting non-circuit	related
information exchange between signaling points using the	signaling con-
nection	control	part (SCCP) connectionless service for message tran-
sport. This is a fundamental difference	between	ISUP and TCAP protocols.
ISUP messages follow a particular path used to establish a circuit con-
nection	and use	the Message Transfer Part (MTP)	to route its messages,
whereas	TCAP information is not	related	to any one circuit and must be
transferred through the	network	using end-to-end signaling, which is
achieved by the	SCCP protocol above MTP. The term "Transaction Capabili-
ties" refers to	the application	layer protocol,	called TCAP, plus the
supporting Presentation, Session, and Transport	layers,	called the
Application Services Part (ASP). A common example of TCAP usage	is in
dialing	a 800, 888, or 900 number. An SSP uses TCAP to query an	SCP to
determine the routing number(s)	associated with	the dialed digits. The
SCP uses TCAP to return	a response containing the routing number(s) (or
an error) back to the SSP.

TCAP messages consist of two portions: a Transaction Portion composed
entirely of protocol control information, and a	Component Portion which
contains protocol-related information as well as data concerning the
application process.

The transaction	portion	of the TCAP message identifies whether the tran-
saction	between	two nodes is expected to consist of a single message
(i.e. one way communication) or	multiple messages (i.e.	interactive com-
munication). There are five types of TCAP messages, called Package Type:
Query, Response, Conversation, Unidirectional, and Abort. The transac-
tion portion provides the information necessary	for the	signaling point
to route the component information to its destination. It contains the
Transaction ID and the package type identifier.	The Transaction	ID is a
reference to correlate messages	within the same	transaction and	associ-
ate the	TCAP transaction with a	specific application at	the originating
and destination	signaling points.

In a single transaction, one or	more operations	may occur. For each
operation, one or more components may be involved. Components provide
the information	that request an	action,	invoke an operation or provide
the reaction to	a previous request. Component types include Invoke,



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Internet draft	 SIGTRAN, TCAP Performance Requirement February	26, 1999


Return Result, Return Error, and Reject. Components include parameters
which contain application-specific data	carried	unexamined by TCAP.

3.2.	Signaling Connection	Control	Part

The SCCP provides connectionless and connection-oriented network ser-
vices above MTP	Level 3. SCCP provides two major functions that	are
lacking	in the MTP. The	first of these is the capability to address
applications within a signaling	point. The MTP can only	receive	and
deliver	messages from a	node "as a whole"; it does not deal with
software applications within a node. While MTP Level 3 provides	point
codes to allow messages	to be addressed	to specific signaling points,
SCCP provides subsystem	numbers	to allow messages to be	addressed to
specific applications (called subsystems) at these signaling points.
SCCP is	used as	the transport layer for	TCAP-based services such as toll
free (800) phone, calling card,	and wireless services. The SCCP	controls
provide	efficient routing of TCAP like messages	that are independent of
voice network connections.  Their routing information may contain the
Link Selection information besides the Originating and Destination Point
Codes, if necessary.

3.3.	Global Title	Translation

SCCP also provides the means by	which a	Signal Transfer	Point (STP) can
perform	global title translation (GTT),	a procedure by which the desti-
nation signaling point and subsystem number (SSN) is determined	from
digits (i.e., the global title)	present	in the signaling message. The
global title digits may	be the dialed 800/888 number, calling card
number,	or mobile subscriber identification number depending on	the ser-
vice requested.	Since an STP provides global title translation,	ori-
ginating signaling points do not need to know the destination point code
or subsystem number of every potential destination to which they might
have to	route a	message	for the	associated service. Only the STPs need
to maintain a database of destination point codes and subsystem	numbers
associated with	specific services and possible destinations. The STP
examines the message, and determines where the message should be routed.

Switches can generate queries addressed	to their local STPs, which,
using global title translation,	select the correct destination to which
the message should be routed. STPs must	maintain a database that enables
them to	determine to where a query should be routed. Global title trans-
lation effectively centralizes the problem and places it in a node (the
STP) that has been designed to perform this function. Further, an STP
can perform "intermediate global title translation," in	which it uses
its tables to find another STP further along the route to the destina-
tion. Intermediate global title	translation minimizes the need for STPs
to maintain extensive information about	nodes which are	far removed from
them. Global Title Translation is also used at the STP to share	load



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Internet draft	 SIGTRAN, TCAP Performance Requirement February	26, 1999


among mated Service Control Point (SCP)	databases in both normal and
failure	scenarios. It can select an SCP	on either a priority basis
(referred to as	primary	-- backup) or to allow load sharing across all
available SCPs.

3.4.	Service	Control	Point (SCP)

An SCP site refers to the hardware and node software needed to support
applications. An SCP is	a network system that supports the execution of
service	logic in response to queries from switching systems. These ser-
vices are implemented as features of switching systems and network data-
bases. The SCP node serves as a	network	host to	each application and
provides common	functions as distributing incoming messages to the
appropriate application, assigning external signaling links, SCP mainte-
nance and controlling SCP overload procedures.	The SCP	applications
consist	of application-specific	software and data that can be accessed
by other nodes on the signaling	network, such as a switching system or
an Operator Services System (OSS). Each	application may	provide	many
individual services, and these are transparent to the SCP node.	In
return,	this application formulates the	parameters of a	response mes-
sage, which the	node formats and routes	to the appropriate network
entity.

3.5.	TCAP Transaction	Flow Diagram

In the VoIP framework, TCAP messages must be supported not only	in order
to interoperate	with the PSTN, but to allow development	of new services.
In the IP network, there exist the Media Gateway Controllers (MGC),
which are the counterparts to the switches in the PSTN network.	 These
MGCs contain the Call Controller, which	provides signaling functionality
for call setup.	The TCAP signaling may be envisioned within IP networks
between	the MGC	and/or a SG and	an IP-based SCP	(IP-SCP) (Figure 1).
Further, as shown in the architecture document [4], the	TCAP signaling
may also be used for cross-access between entities in the SS7 domain and
the IP domain, such as:	 - access from an SS7 network to an IP-SCP -
access from an SS7 network to an MGC - access from an MGC to an	SS7 net-
work element (SCP) - access from an IP-SCP to an SS7 network element

In this	minimal	scenario of a TCAP call	query (Figure 1), the signal may
be an  incoming	TCAP query to the ingress signaling gateway (SG) or may
originate at the MGC. It is accordingly	processed and sent to the IP-SCP
which will then	process	it and return an appropriate response.

Call Related TCAP Transaction/Message Flow Diagram [5]







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		 | SG/MGC|			       | IP-SCP|
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 | Query |			       |       |
		 | ------|-------------------------------->    |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			 Conversation  |
		 |     <-|--------------------------------     |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 | Conversation			       |       |
		 |   ----|-------------------------------->    |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			       |       |
		 |	 |			      Response |
		 |    <--|-----------------------------|--     |


	Figure 1: simplified scenario of a TCAP	query and response


The sequence of	messages that must complete successfully before	the TCAP
transaction query is satisfied is as follows:

*    Query message processing by the SG	or MGC

*    Query message transport to	the IP database	(IP-SCP),

*    Query message processing by the IP-SCP,

*    Conversation message processing by	the IP-SCP,

*    Conversation message transport from the IP-SCP to the SG or MGC,

*    Conversation message processing by	the SG/MGC,

*    Conversation message transport from the SG/MGC to the IP-SCP,

*    Conversation message processing by	the IP-SCP,

*    Response message processing by the	IP-SCP,

*    Response message transport	from the IP-SCP	to the SG/MGC,

*    Response message processing by the	SG/MGC,




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4.  Performance	Requirements

The end-to-end AIN performance is a function of	the performance	of each
AIN network element (e.g., an SSP, STP)	and each network system	(e.g., a
SCP) and their interfaces. Thus	to ensure overall network performance,
the performance	objectives and requirements must be defined for	each
component. We described	the requirements for STPs in our earlier docu-
ment [1], and here we discuss them for SSPs and	SCPs. The SSP generally
originates a query to the SCP and awaits its response. The performance
of the TCAP applications relies	on the Query Response Time. The	SCP per-
formance depends not only on its several components and	interfaces but
also on	the application	process(es) involved. Thus its conformance test-
ing depends on the use of standard application processes called	bench-
mark transactions, that	emulate	the potential AIN service on a SCP.

4.1.	Query Response Time

Query Response Time is defined as the time it takes to send a query to a
database host and for the database to process the query	and return data
to the querying	entity (e.g. SSP, STP).	The Query response time	for the
Network	User Identifier	(NUI) database host and	the NUI	database to pro-
cess a Public Packet Switched Network (PPSN) query and return the data
to the querying	entity is given	as [6]:

*    Mean value			      0.25 to 0.5 seconds


The common user	expectation for	most simple TCAP query-response	applica-
tions appears to be on the order of 0.5sec.  However, the actual PSTN
working	data shows that	these are in the range of 250-350ms.





















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						Query  Response	Time
							  |
							  |
				      +---------------------------------------+
				      |					      |
				SCP Response Time		Message	Transfer Time
				      |
			+-------------+--------------+
			|	      |		     |
			|	      |		     |
		SCP Handling	Disk LookUp    Link Output
		      Time	    Time	 Delay
			|	      |			|
			|	      |			|
		  +----------+	Number of	+-------------+
		  |	     |	 LookUps	|	      |
		  |	     |			|	      |
		  |	     |			|	      |
	  SCP Platform	 SCP Application   Msg.	Queueing   Msg.	Emission
	Processing Time	 Processing Time	Delay	      Delay



	Figure 2: Time components in a TCAP query


4.2.	SSP Response	Time

The SSP	uses a timer T1	to establish the time for a message from the SCP
in response to a message sent by the SSP to the	SCP. Each instance of
this timer T1 is associated with a particular TCAP transaction,	and only
one timer is set for a given transaction. The allowable	range for timer
T1, is from 0.1	to 30.0	seconds, with 0.1 second increments, and a
default	value is 3.0 seconds [7].

The SSP	starts this T1 timer after it sends a Query (or	Conversation
Package) to the	SCP and	then awaits an SCP call-related	response (or
Conversation Package) for the particular TCAP transaction. The SSP can-
cels the timer on receipt of this response, closes the particular TCAP
transaction, and continues call	processing.

4.3.	SCP Response	Time

The SCP	response time is calculated as a sum of	the SCP	Handling Time,
Disk Lookup Time and Link Output Delay.	It is defined as the interval
that begins when the last bit of a Call	Related	message	enters the SCP,
and ends when the last bit of a	Call Related message leaves the	SCP.



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4.3.1.	SCP Handling Time

It is defined as the interval that begins when the last	bit of a Call
Related	message	enters the SCP,	and ends when the last bit of a	Call
Related	message	is placed at the outgoing signaling link buffer, exclud-
ing time taken for a disk lookup. It is	further	subdivided into	the SCP
Platform Processing Time and the SCP Application Processing Time.

SCP Platform Processing	Time: This has three time contributions. The
first begins when the last bit of a Call Related message enters	the SCP,
and ends when the TCAP message is made available to the	application pro-
cess. Second involves execution	time of	any application	support	process-
ing functions needed by	the SCP	application, and the third begins when
the platform receives the outgoing message from	the application	process
and ends when the last bit of a	Call Related message is	placed at the
outgoing signaling link	buffer.	The mean and 95th percentile SCP Plat-
form Processing	Time in	processing a Call Related message which	does not
involve	a disk look up [7], (but does involve processing of critical
operations, administration, and	maintenance functions) is

*    Mean value				 <= 100	ms

*    0.95 prob.	of not exceeding	 <= 120	ms

SCP Application	Processing Time: It is the difference between the SCP
Handling Time and the SCP Platform Processing Time. It is a function of
desired	overall	service	delay, network architecture, deployment	etc. and
is negotiated and tailored to each application's need.

4.3.2.	Disk Lookup Time

Certain	applications require access to data on the disk, and some mes-
sages may even require multiple	disk lookups. The Disk Lookup Time
required in determining	a SCP response message,	must be

*			  <= 30	ms for each Lookup.

4.3.3.	Link Output Delay

It is the interval that	begins when last bit of	a SCP Response message
is placed at the outgoing signaling link buffer, and ends when the last
bit of the Call	Related	message	leaves the SCP on the outgoing signaling
link. The two components of the	Link Output Delay are the message queu-
ing delay and the message emission delay. Queuing delay	is a function of
link occupancy and the message length distribution. Emission delay is a
function of the	signaling link speed and the message length distribu-
tion. Under normal conditions, messages	are expected to	be shorter than
279 octets. The	Link Output Delay [7] calculated using the M/G/1 queuing



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formula	for messages of	length 279 octets and at a Link	load of	0.4
erlang should be

*				       56 Kb/s		 64Kb/s

*    Mean value			       <= 55 ms		 <= 47 ms

*    0.95 prob.	of not exceeding       <=102 ms		 <= 89 ms


4.3.4.	Total SCP Response Time

The industry requirement for SCP response times	for a simple TCAP tran-
saction	(one query, one	response, for data retrieval from a LIDB for an
operator system) can be	summarized as follows [6]:

*			   Daily Peak		     Yearly Peak
		      (aka Reference Load A)	(aka Reference Load B)

*    Mean value		     <=	250 ms		      <= 400 ms

*    0.95 prob.	not exceed	300 ms			 600 ms

4.4.	Message	Transfer	Time

The maximum signalling delay is	a function of several parameters, such
as the propagation time	on the signalling links	(which is variable of
distance), number of SSPs, STPs, (or SG/MGC) and SCPs involved in each
connection as well as the processing time, emission and	queuing	delays
within each of these network elements. Delay allocation	rules, in most
standards, apply to processing time only, as the propagation time por-
tion is	determined by the distance and speed of	the signal in the
transmission facility. However it is possible to estimate the upper
bound for the time available for message transfers from	the maximum
query response time and	a sum of the times required by the various com-
ponents	of the network involved	in the query.

Consider a mean	time of	350ms for a simple TCAP	query-response applica-
tion, which uses a single disk lookup, a 25ms average SCP Application
Processing Time	and a 64Kbps link. Then, the transmission time available
between	the querying agent and the database is of the order of 150 ms
for a query and	its response.


Mean Values

*    SCP Platform Processing Time				  100 ms




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*    Disk Lookup (Assuming one)					   30 ms

*    SCP Application Processing	Time (Assumed)			   25 ms

*    Link Output Delay (64 kbps	link)				   47 ms
     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

*    SCP Response Time						  202 ms

*    Average Query Response					  350 ms

*    Implied Message Transfer Time				  148 ms

Thus, if the SCP Response Time is independent of the network technology
(other than the	Link Output Delay), we have roughly a 150 ms budget for
TCAP message transfer--round trip, or 75 ms one	way, to	achieve	a
response time comparable to the	PSTN.

4.5.	Other General Parameters

Certain	parameters such	as maxResponseTime and maxPendingTime are also
defined	as general performance measures	over the CCS network.

4.5.1.	maxResponseTime

It is the maximum time the SCP allows itself to	respond	to a message
received over the CCS network. It takes	into account the time it will
take for the SCP reply to reach	the sending node i.e. the SSP. It is an
administrable value with a default set to 2.0 seconds [6].

4.5.2.	maxPendingTime

It is the maximum time the SCP will wait for a reply to	a Conversation
or Query Package Type. This value is meant to be a "catch all" in case
of an error. Applications that need to monitor the time	or depend on the
timing of the reply to the message sent	set separate timers. It	is an
administrable value with a default set to 15.0 minutes [6].

5.  Implications to VoIP

Telephony applications can be described	as relatively intolerant to
packet losses and network delay. The quality of	service	delivered by an
IP transport mechanisms	depends	on the quality of the underlying IP net-
work service. Statistical measurements and analysis by Guy Almes [8] and
also Sanghi et.	al. [9], show that the losses in the Internet today are
in the range of	2-10%. Losses have a direct correlation	with delay. A
tentative conclusion from this is that the basic Internet quality,
today, would not really	allow the transmission of toll quality voice,



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Internet draft	 SIGTRAN, TCAP Performance Requirement February	26, 1999


except on some "lucky" subsets.

We may expect that Internet Telephony traffic will often be transported
over dedicated IP networks, and	that prioritization and	access control
will be	used to	minimize loss and delay	(to signaling traffic),	via
QoS-based differentiated services mechanisms.  This will guarantee a
level of service that is compatible with quality expectation of	PSTN
users. In IP routing, the use of differentiated	services via traffic
schedulers such	as Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ),	and Priority Queuing,
allows traffic flows to	be distinguished and prioritized. This enables
allocation of QoS parameters to	different flows.  However, preliminary
laboratory tests of commercial routers supporting differentiated ser-
vices indicate that there are some overhead delays associated with
implementing these mechanisms and may lead to some unexpected complica-
tions. These delays are	probably processing delays of the WFQ scheduling
algorithm and some additional queuing delays. The average shift	in the
delay comprises	of:


1.   A one-time	overhead of 10ms delay associated with tagging the
     incoming signaling	packets	with the required precedence bits at the
     ingress router.

2.   A 10ms per-node (router) delay arising from applying the WFQ algo-
     rithm to the different traffic flows.

The delays associated with the implementation of WFQ will probably
increase linearly with the number of routers in	the transmission path.
The network designer would have	to very	carefully decide if they can
justify	the use	of QoS to guarantee reliability, if use	of differen-
tiated services	imposes	unacceptable delays on the transmission	of TCAP
signaling messages. For	example, if one-way transmission time is about
75ms and there are 3 routers in	the path between the querying entity and
the IP-SCP, then applying ToS based WFQ	to the signaling packets would
reduce available transmission time to roughly 35ms (10ms for tagging and
30ms for WFQ at	the 3 routers).	It may be argued that these delays are
vendor specific	and can	be improved over time and that packets may be
tagged at source. However, tagging at ingress routers across different
network	domains	as a security measure may still	be an issue.

In the IT architecture the IP-SCP is still an ambiguous	network	element.
It would allow the SG or the MGC to directly access the	database to
satisfy	the TCAP queries. Since	the IP network is not as robust	as the
existing PSTN, the high	loss probability of messages will impose strict
restrictions on	the location of	the IP-SCP within the IP network. More-
over, if the TCAP query	originates in the IP network and needs to access
an PSTN	based SCP, it would involve complex message processing and
transmission. The estimate of the message transfer time	in Section 4.4,



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Internet draft	 SIGTRAN, TCAP Performance Requirement February	26, 1999


would imply that there is little scope for retransmission in the event
of network losses. At this stage, we can only conclude that these delays
need to	be investigated	more thoroughly	before deciding	the effective-
ness of	using Differentiated Services to prioritize signaling traffic.

6.  References

[1]  T.	Seth, et al, "Performance Requirements for Signaling in	Internet
     Telephony"	<draft-seth-sigtran-req-00.txt>, Nov. 1998.

[2]  American National Standard	Institute (ANSI), "Signaling System No.
	  7 (SS7) - Integrated Services	Digital	 (ISDN)	User Part," ANSI
	  standard T1.113, January 3, 1995.

[3]  Bellcore, "AIN Switch - Service Control Point(SCP)/ Adjunct Inter-
	  face Generic Requirements", GR-1299-CORE, Issue 2, Dec. 1994,
     Sec-
	  tion 2-TCAP.
      .IP [4] L. Ong, "	Architectural Framework	for Signaling Transport"
     <draft-sigtran-framework-arch-01.txt>,  Feb. 1999.

[5]  Bellcore, "Advanced Intelligent Network Generic Requirements
     (AINGR): Switch - Service Control Point(SCP)/ Adjunct Interface, ",
     GR-1299-CORE, Issue 4, Sept. 1997.

[6]  Bellcore, "Service	Control	Point Node, Generic Requirements", TR-
     NWT-000029, Issue 1, Sept.	1990.

[7]  Bellcore, "Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) Service Control
     Point(SCP), Generic Requirements",	GR-1280-CORE, Issue 1, Aug.
     1993.

[8]  Guy Almes,	"Loss and Delay	Measurement Plots", http://ippm-
	  db.advanced.org/plots, Advanced Network & Services, Inc.

[9]  D.	Sanghi et.al., "Experimental Assessment	of End-to-End Behavior
	  on Internet",	Proc. IEEE  INFOCOM '93, March 1993, pp	867-874.

7.  Authors' Addresses

	Taruni U Seth
	Bellcore
	445 South Street, MCC-1G209R
	Morristown, NJ 07960-6438
	Phone: 973 829-4046

	Email: tseth@notes.cc.bellcore.com




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	Bellcore
	445 South Street, MCC-1A264B
	Morristown, NJ 07960-6438
	Phone: 973 829-4781

	Email: broscius@bellcore.com

	Christian Huitema
	Bellcore
	445 South Street, MCC-1J244B
	Morristown, NJ 07960-6438
	Phone: 973 829-4266

	Email: huitema@bellcore.com

	Huai-An	P. Lin
	Bellcore
	445 South Street, MCC-1A216R
	Morristown, NJ 07960-6438
	Phone: 973 829-2412

	Email: hlin@bellcore.com

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