The Diameter Signaling Controller – Old Wine in a New Bottle?

Of late there has been quite a bit of talk of the “new world order” and the emergence of the Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC). Is that really the case? For the veterans of the telecommunications industry that saw the progression of control signaling over the past twenty years, this is more like “history repeating itself”.  Some of the challenges facing the signaling industry today were faced in legacy networks over thirty years ago as the industry moved from in-band to “common channel” signaling. This led to the rapid development of the concept of the control signaling network and its related network elements. This paper deals with some of the similarities and differences between network architectures and control signaling protocols of yesterday and today. It will show why it is essential to have a well grounded knowledge of the past to be able to effectively solve the problems of the future!