Customer Reviews

Signaling System #7

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book covers basics of SS7 very well. It is also a good reference. It covers MTP(1 to 3), SCCP, TCAP and ISUP. There are also short chapters on local number portability and usage of SS7 in VoIP. Content of the book is rich enough if the reader was interested the usage of SS7 in PSTN only (MTP,SCCP,TCAP,ISUP). However it doesn't cover any detail on other application parts like MAP, OMAP, INAP and usage of SS7 in UMTS and GSM. The chapter on SS7 in VoIP communications is rather short and not very informative. There is not much detail on Sigtran, SCTP and MTP adaptation layers.

There is also an inconsistency about the content of the book (4th edition with ISBN 0071387722). Table of contents given in the publishers web site is not correct. As one of the previous reviewer has mentioned, there are only 11 chapters in this book (not 16). Correct chapter layout in the book is :

1- Signaling System #7.
2- SS7 Network.
3- Overview of a Protocol.
4- Overview of Signal Units.
5- Message Transfer Part (MTP).
6- Message Transfer Part Level 3.
7- General Description of SCCP Functions.
8- Overview of TCAP.
9- Overview of ISUP.
10- Local Number Portability.
11- IP telephony
Appendices

And therefore following chapters don't exist the book separately (neither in the CDROM covering entire book in PDF format):

- SS7 and SIP
- SS7 and H.323
- SS7 over IP
- SS7 and VoIP
- SS7 and TCP/IP
- SS7 and MGCP

I recommend this book for the readers who want to know signalling in PSTN. It wouldn't be useful for signalling in mobile communication networks and VoIP communication networks.

If you need a book on SS7, this is probably the one you should buy. But that is only because there is little else to choose from. Unfortunately, it is a very poorly written book. Russell obviously knows his stuff, but like most other telecommunications engineers he seems unable to write in a form that gives the reader any pleasure. Facts repeat themselves (often several times in the same paragraph), different chapters repeat the same thing in several different ways, and there is rarely much explanation for WHY things are done the way they are. What's worse is the pointless verbosity of the whole mess - it's almost impossible to find an answer to a question about SS7 quicky. I think the author has done a fine job putting the facts down, but the editors never did their jobs. This book reads like a first draft that was never ever reviewed.

I ordered this book hoping the first two reviewers were overly pessimistic, but boy were they right. This book has terriffic potential, but Travis does not stick to the chosen topic well enough, mixing material covered in different layers. It's a good thing I saw this and could overlook it...pity the novice hoping to make some sense of the SS7 structure. There's way too much verbage and not nearly enough illustrations and real-world examples. After finishing the book, I felt I was presented with a "gob" of information and a very weak understanding of it's true structure. On the plus side, it's probably the best textbook on the subject, but that speaks stongly to the need for another book, or major re-write.

In response to the review below, McGraw-Hill wishes to make clear that the Fourth Edition of Signaling System #7 is a completely rewritten book. Whereas the 2nd and 3rd editions were made by adding to material to the existing text, the 4th has been rewritten from scratch (indeed, Mr. Russell has trimmed over 100 pages of out-dated and replicated material) and the new material folded into the existing chapter structure.

There is some material from previous editions, particularly in chapters on more evergreen topics, but updates and new sections have been added throughout.

Travis Russell has written one of the most comprehensive references available about Signaling System 7. He strikes an excellent balance of data and background information achieved by listing the raw values of the specification and explaining the technology behind it. He describes how the specification is defined, and continues by showing how that definition is interpreted and applied. His work has been a constant companion of mine...and many others: it is difficult to have a technical discussion about SS7 without another engineer mentioning "the Russell book."

This is quite possibly the most badly written book I have ever read. All the concepts and details are in there - but, just like Prego, there's no particular order or discernable logic to it. At least with Prego, you can get something to eat out of the deal..

Russell's book introduces ideas and concepts before they're defined, repeats definitions, and generally just meanders around. And, for the nit-picky, the grammar is sloppy as well.

Anybody wishing to learn about SS7 would be better off searching the internet and reading the SS7 tutorials found there. I'm using my copy as a $69.00 door-stop.

I feel that this book would serve as a helpful reference source only if you already know about SS7. It will not teach you from the start, although almost all the basics are covered, it still lacks the approach which a 10 page tutorial has! i.e. to tell you how things works for a novice.

Many important topics, especially in the ISUP section are not covered well or are not covered at all. e.g. there is NO section which talks about TESTING SS7 and testing strategies, equipment etc.

Chapters on MTP are the best and contain a lot of relevant, hard to come by, information but many concepts are repeated so much that it is maddennig. Instead of presenting a lot of new material, same concepts are rephrased many a times.

In short, buy this book if you already know what is SS7 and what it does and need to have a quick reference book. This book has to be used in conjunction with ITU-T documents to make complete sense/to make you more productive.

Overall a good, should have, book and for the lack of better book, the only reference available (to the best of my humble knowledge)

This is the only widely available book that covers SS7 is great detail. Unfortuntely, the writing is terrible and the organization is worse. Russel goes off on many pointless digressions and replicates material in almost every chapter. It is very hard to get a good idea of how SS7 actually works from this book, as few real-life examples are given. However, it isn't a bad place to start if you want to learn about SS7 from scratch. Then, once you understand the basics, do find another resource such as the standards to go to.

Russell's rambling style makes easy reading for beginners, but I found this book to be virtually useless as a technical resource; it's difficult to find the piece of information you're looking for because the text jumps from one topic to another according to the author's train of thought at the time. I have some experience with SS7 and had hoped this book would fill in the areas where I was weak, but I discovered that the book is actually incorrect in its explanation of some topics (e.g. Changeover) and so Russell can't be trusted - you'll end up reading the actual standards if you want an accurate description of SS7.

Just my two cents, at the beginning I was charmed by this book I found it very detailed and easy to read, I don't mind the repetitions for newcomer in ss7 this is rather helpful you just don't need to jump all over the book and also this helps remembering material. BUT. I found so many errors in this book (I have fourth edition) that lost any confidence in information presented in book, especially chapter about MTP3 it's total mess
I just can't believe nobody noticed obvious errors in this chapter (there are mixed up graphs, sometimes text describing graph is totally irrelevant, obvious contradiction in text, and most important MAJOR errors in description of MTP3 procedures)
so in the end I just need to get ITU and ANSI specs and verify
all information in there (and it's not an easy task for the beginner :-). So for this reason I strongly NOT recommend this book, the most important factor in technical books is CORRECTNESS!!! of information presented without that the book is useless and is waste of time to figure out what is wrong and what is correct. Instead of buying this book I would suggest to just get free copy of simple ss7 as an overview and then go for the ITU or ANSI specs. Don't be afraid of specs they are quite well written and have also some introductory material and then move to details. I give it two stars just for first introductory chapters, rest of the book better skip.