[Asterisk-Dev] SS7 for *

[Steve Underwood]

Kevin P. Fleming wrote:

> Steve Underwood wrote:
>
>> It hasn't been announced. It is still in testing. It is, however, 
>> functional. It is providing non-fee paying service somewhere in 
>> Europe, while its stability and reliability are being evaluated. What 
>> happens next is under discussion. Many places demand it be approved. 
>> Approval would cost upwards of $100,000 and the approval may not be 
>> portable to the various markets wanting this thing.
>
>
> Not only that, but in the USA (at least), approval will cover a 
> _specific_ version of the code, and will very likely not allow the 
> code to be distributed in source form at all (because the end user 
> could then modify it and be running a "non-approved" version).

The source code thing varies. When doing telecom approvals, I've been 
told I could not include various information, such as source code and 
schematics, in the documentation for the customer. Not always though. I 
haven't been through this for a while, and things are more relaxed. 
ISDN4Linux has been approved in the EU, and source is available in the 
Linux kernel. They just have an arrangement whereby if you modify the 
code it complains you are not running an approved version. I think they 
do CRC tagging of the source, or something similar.

> Subsequent version updates will have to be re-approved, although if 
> they are relatively minor that is much simpler process than the 
> initial approval.

Yes. However, the cost of reapproving for updates is generally not at 
the crippling level.

> This is presuming, of course, that your SS7 connectivity provider 
> demands that you run an approved SS7 stack :-) I can't imagine any 
> legitimate telco doing otherwise...

Why should they require approval? Its really quite bogus. Hardware 
approval is important for safety considerations. However, if their 
network can be harmed by your software they have a terrorist attack 
problem. Little on the Telco's side has been approved, and they freely 
change stuff at any time. Telcos have woken up to this in recent years, 
and attitudes have changed. As I said, its a few years since I put 
something through approvals. We will see.

Regards,
Steve