Patent ID: 8867530

Claim:
A method of operating a signaling gateway for routing signaling messages between a SS7 network and an IP-based network, the signaling gateway having a first signaling point code allocated as a network address, the method comprising: receiving from a network node of the SS7 network a message that comprises a destination point code as a destination address; at a lower protocol layer of an SS7 protocol stack of the signaling gateway, comparing said destination point code to a second signaling point code associated with a network node of the IP-based network; if said destination point code matches said second signaling point code: delivering the received message from the lower protocol layer to an upper protocol layer of the SS7 protocol stack of the signaling gateway; translating the received message into a corresponding message conforming to an user adaptation protocol of an upper user adaptation protocol layer of an IP protocol stack of the signaling gateway; and transmitting the resulting translated message towards said network node associated with said second signaling point code.