Herein lies an irony. The basic technology of SS7 is packet switching. In fact, CCIS was the earliest packet-switched network. Unfortunately, it is built upon its own protocol. Although it carries digital data in packetized form, its technology has no more in common with IP than American football has in common with soccer.
Interface needs Hence, the required interfaces are complex, as well as new.
Both hardware and software are needed, and the protocols have to be built with consensus from both data and telephony standards bodies. On the hardware side, SS7 devices called media controllers, media gateways and signaling gateways must be developed to work together with H.323 IP telephony gatekeepers and gateways. The signaling gateways will need to accept and relay messages between the SS7 network and H.323 gateways and gatekeepers. The types of messages will depend upon the placement of the IP telephony component in the total call path. For example, if IP telephony were to be used as a backbone network to complete routing between cities, call setup messages similar to those used in today's SS7 network would be exchanged.