3 ms·

A great deal of technical patching could occur in the SS7 based on lesson's learned from the Internet. But the telco's are strapped for resources and interopera

A great deal of technical patching could occur in the SS7 based on lesson's learned from the Internet. But the telco's are strapped for resources and interoperability concern that this won't occur with our a massive push by a third party to support it. The idea of implement something like reverse-path forwarding on SS7 switches would for example greatly cut down on robo-calling.

LinuxBender 6y ago
That idea is great, but the SS7 network was never built to even understand those concepts. Some of the equipment could be updated, but a vast majority of systems would have to be replaced. Getting telco companies to agree to things like that is not even conceivable. It would take some international political groups to push for it. Maybe I am just jaded from my telco background, but even when an entire telco company agrees to implement a change, it rarely gets completed.
- at-fates-hands 6y ago
  >> Some of the equipment could be updated, but a vast majority of systems would have to be replaced. Just curious, would this mean digging up cable and other stuff which would include parts of this system you're referring to?
  - LinuxBender 6y ago
    Digging should not be required in most cases. It would require replacing gear in most of the telco central offices. That probably sounds simple, but it is not. Much of this gear is ancient, most of the people that intimately understand it are no longer with us and most of the companies that made it no longer exist. The new equipment would have to be backwards compatible and run side-by-side with the old equipment for a couple decades. Many of the CO's are at physical capacity. Even if the new gear is a fraction of the size of old gear, there will be logistical issues in many places. That alone is a significant undertaking. The coordination required between telcos within countries and between countries would be significant.
jlgaddis 6y ago
> The idea of implement something like reverse-path forwarding on SS7 switches would for example greatly cut down on robo-calling. SHAKEN & STIR [0] should (hopefully!) eliminate most of the issues which result from "spoofing" caller ID. From "Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication" [1]: > "[The FCC] adopted new rules requiring all originating and terminating voice service providers to implement caller ID authentication using STIR/SHAKEN technological standards in the Internet Protocol (IP) portions of their networks by June 30, 2021." -- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN [1]: https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication

LinuxBender 6y ago

That idea is great, but the SS7 network was never built to even understand those concepts. Some of the equipment could be updated, but a vast majority of systems would have to be replaced. Getting telco companies to agree to things like that is not even conceivable. It would take some international political groups to push for it. Maybe I am just jaded from my telco background, but even when an entire telco company agrees to implement a change, it rarely gets completed.

at-fates-hands 6y ago
>> Some of the equipment could be updated, but a vast majority of systems would have to be replaced. Just curious, would this mean digging up cable and other stuff which would include parts of this system you're referring to?
- LinuxBender 6y ago
  Digging should not be required in most cases. It would require replacing gear in most of the telco central offices. That probably sounds simple, but it is not. Much of this gear is ancient, most of the people that intimately understand it are no longer with us and most of the companies that made it no longer exist. The new equipment would have to be backwards compatible and run side-by-side with the old equipment for a couple decades. Many of the CO's are at physical capacity. Even if the new gear is a fraction of the size of old gear, there will be logistical issues in many places. That alone is a significant undertaking. The coordination required between telcos within countries and between countries would be significant.

jlgaddis 6y ago

> The idea of implement something like reverse-path forwarding on SS7 switches would for example greatly cut down on robo-calling. SHAKEN & STIR [0] should (hopefully!) eliminate most of the issues which result from "spoofing" caller ID. From "Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication" [1]: > "[The FCC] adopted new rules requiring all originating and terminating voice service providers to implement caller ID authentication using STIR/SHAKEN technological standards in the Internet Protocol (IP) portions of their networks by June 30, 2021." -- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN [1]: https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication