Abstract:

The convergence of classical PSTN and IP networks requires the transport of SS7 signalling over IP. Since SS7 has very strict availability requirements to the signalling components, redundancy is mandatory. The goal of the IETF RSerPool working group is to define a lightweight, flexible and realtime redundancy concept to fulfil the availability requirements of SS7: reliable server pooling (RSer- Pool). RSerPool is currently under standardization, its functionality and improvement are subject of our research. Our poster presents our RSerPool proof-of-concept implementation and a research oriented, discrete event based simulation model. We provide simulation results showing limitations of the server selection procedures defined in the standards and a way to solve them. These improvements are now going into standardization by the IETF. Furthermore, we present some of our results on efficient algorithms and data structures for pool management. The poster concludes with an outlook on our currently progressing evaluations of service reliablity in failure scenarios.