What is the purpose of an open SS7 stack?

Description: OpenSS7 Frequently Asked Questions #2.

SS7 stacks normally cost money (and lots of it). Typically there are up front costs as well as ongoing run-time royalties and per-port or capacity usage charges. This places doing SS7 out of the reach of many VAS or consulting companies, research projects, educational institutions or individuals. One of the purposes of an open SS7 stack is making one available for these uses and to fill this gap.

Another reason is because of the power of the open-source movement. SS7 stacks and related protocols are difficult to build, verify and maintain in conformance to the specifications and standards. This is a task best addressed in the open-source community, where corrections, bug-fixes, and general experience and intellectual capital can focus to deliver superior implementations.

Another reason is that no-one really cares about SS7 or core protocols (or wants to care). What they care about is the application parts and applications which ride upon the core. By making an SS7 stack implementation open, and leveraging open-source, it is possible for most (if not all) users of the OpenSS7 stack to not really care what is happening inside of the package. This is not only a reason, but a lofty objective.