Background

The `newss7' package is an SS7 package for Linux which I wrote some years ago, on my own time, under GPL. Although the package was GPL'ed, it was not publicly released until recently. I performed some work on the package for a number of clients; however, the GPL on the base package has remained intact. Some information which was proprietary to clients has been removed from the package at the completion of work for those clients. No proprietary information remains in the package, only the original GPL base plus modifications made to that base over the years.

Recently there has been some interest in obtaining a copy of the SS7 stack. Frankly, there has been more interest in obtaining a copy of the ASN.1 parser and encode/decode engine which I was contemplating writing for the TCAP implementation on the stack. Most of those interested in the ASN.1 compiler were interested in it for uses other than SS7 (e.g., GEHR).

Due to recent interest, particularly the renewed interest in SS7 for use in VoIP and SS7 over IP applications, I have decided to make an effort to drum up interest in an OpenSS7 project and find a home on the web for such an initiative.

The `newss7' package had undergone a significant redesign. L2 drivers were previously character drivers but are now network drivers under the Linux kernel. This package is starting to bear less and less resemblance to the original, although it is build on the same GPL base. See the section on design for some information concerning the layout of this package.

Recent interest in the package has been for providing SS7 support to all manner of VoIP platforms and softswitches. With this in mind, the new architecture has been designed to accomodate SIGTRAN protocols.

Further, Greg Herlein of Herlein Engineering has graciously registered the openss7 domain name and provided a mailing list and web hosting for the project alongside the OpenSwitch Project. Thanks, Greg!