PCS network signaling using SS7

Personal communication services (PCS) facilitates the exchange of information (voice, data, video, image, etc.) for mobile users independent of time, location, and access arrangement. To support PCS, mobile communications protocols such as EIA/TIA Interim Standard 41 (IS-41) or Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) have been defined for PCS network (PCN) inter-system operations. To support interconnection between a PCN and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), it is essential that the mobile communications protocol interacts with the PSTN signaling system for mobility management and call control. This article describes the interactions between a PCN and the PSTN in four aspects: interconnection interfaces; message routing; mobility management; and call control. To address these four aspects, we consider IS-41 as the mobile communications protocol and Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) as the PSTN signaling protocol. The IS-41 protocol is based on EIA/TIA IS-41 Revision B. We also describe some potential extensions of the IS-41 protocol based on a draft of IS-41 Revision C