M2UA is a protocol for transporting SS7 MTP2-User signaling
e.g., MTP3 messages over IP using the services of the
Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP).
It would be used between a Signaling Gateway (SG) and
a Media Gateway Controller (MGC) in Voice over IP networks.
The SG receives SS7 messages over MTP level 1 and level
2 from a signaling end point, i.e. signaling service
point (SSP) or signaling control point (SCP) or signaling
transfer point (STP) in the PSTN networks. In simplistic
transport terms, the SG will terminate SS7 MTP2 and
deliver MTP2-User protocol messages over SCTP transport
associations to MTP2-User peers (MTP3) in MGC s. M2UA
protocol supports same interface boundary to MTP2 and
MTP3 layers and transports commands on this interface
as standard messages over IP network. Both MTP2 on SG
and MTP3 on MGC remain unaware of the fact that their
upper and lower layer respectively is not running locally.
The Network Architecture for M2UA is as follows: -
