A service control point (SCP) is a standard component of the

Intelligent Network The Intelligent Network (IN) is the standard network architecture specified in the ITU-T Q.1200 series recommendations. It is intended for fixed as well as mobile telecom networks. It allows operators to differentiate themselves by providing ...

(IN) telephone system which is used to control the service. Standard SCPs in the telecom industry today are deployed using SS7, SIGTRAN or SIP technologies. The SCP queries the service data point (SDP) which holds the actual database and directory. SCP, using the database from the SDP, identifies the geographical number to which the call is to be routed. This is the same mechanism that is used to route

800 number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free ...

s. SCP may also communicate with an intelligent peripheral (IP) to play voice messages, or prompt for information from the user, such as prepaid long distance using account codes. This is done by implementing telephone feature codes like "#", which can be used to terminate the input for a user name or password or can be used for

call forwarding Call forwarding, or call diversion, is a telephony feature of all telephone switching systems which redirects a telephone call to another destination, which may be, for example, a mobile or another telephone number where the desired called party i ...

. These are realized using Intelligent Network Application Part (INAP) that sits above

Transaction Capabilities Application Part Transaction Capabilities Application Part, from ITU-T recommendations Q.771-Q.775 or ANSI T1.114 is a protocol for Signalling System 7 networks. Its primary purpose is to facilitate multiple concurrent dialogs between the same sub-systems on the ...

(TCAP) on the SS7 protocol stack. The TCAP is part of the top or 7th layer of the OSI layer breakdown. SCPs are connected with either SSPs or STPs. This is dependent upon the network architecture that the network service provider wants. The most common implementation uses STPs. SCP and SDP split is becoming a common industry practice. This is known generally in the industry by split architecture. Reason is that operators want to decouple the dependency between the two functionality to facilitate upgrades and possibly rely on different vendors.

External links

* See Telcordi
GR-1299-CORE
for Service Control Point/Adjunct Interface generic requirements.

References

Network architecture Telephony equipment Signaling System 7 {{telecom-stub