The mobile switching station, abbreviated as MSC Server or MSS, is a 2G

core network A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same buildin ...

element which controls the network switching subsystem elements. Alternatively or adaptively, MSS can be used in

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

networks as well, if the manufacturer has implemented support for GSM networks in the MSS. Since an immediate upgrade of existing GSM network to 3G is not viable due to various issues like handset incompatibilities and high expenditure, most manufacturers do implement GSM support in MSS. In fact, MSS along with other 3G network elements such as media gateway (MGW), can be configured to support GSM network exclusively and can be considered as an upgraded version of existing GSM

mobile switching centre Network switching subsystem (NSS) (or GSM core network) is the component of a GSM system that carries out call out and mobility management functions for mobile phones roaming on the network of base stations. It is owned and deployed by mobil ...

s. The MSC Server is standards-based and communicates with other distributed elements using industry open standards such as

media gateway control protocol The Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) is a signaling and call control communication protocol used in voice over IP (VoIP) telecommunication systems. It implements the media gateway control protocol architecture for controlling media gatewa ...

megaco The Gateway Control Protocol (Megaco, H.248) is an implementation of the media gateway control protocol architecture for providing telecommunication services across a converged internetwork consisting of the traditional public switched telephone ...

H.248 The Gateway Control Protocol (Megaco, H.248) is an implementation of the media gateway control protocol architecture for providing telecommunication services across a converged internetwork consisting of the traditional public switched telephone ...

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

, M2UA and

M3UA M3UA is a communication protocol of the SIGTRAN family, used in telephone networks to carry signaling over Internet Protocol (IP). M3UA enables the SS7 protocol's User Parts (e.g. ISUP, SCCP and TUP) to run over virtually any network technol ...

. The MSC server incorporates industry standards as defined by

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...

ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

, 3GPP and

3GPP2 The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) is a collaboration between telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation ( 3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. In ...

and other leading standard bodies. The MSS supports the regulatory environment set by governing bodies via its support for E911, CALEA/legal intercept, wireless and

local number portability Local number portability (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP) for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability of a "customer of record" of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange ca ...

, TTY/TTD, and Number Pooling requirements. Alternatively MSS is also called an MTS-U (Motorola telephony soft-switch) in

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

terminology, and as MSC-S in

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

terminology. MSC server functionality enables split between

control plane In network routing, the control plane is the part of the router architecture that is concerned with drawing the network topology, or the information in a routing table that defines what to do with incoming packets. Control plane functions, such as ...

(signalling) and

user plane In routing, the forwarding plane, sometimes called the data plane or user plane, defines the part of the router architecture that decides what to do with packets arriving on an inbound interface. Most commonly, it refers to a table in which the ...

(bearer in network element called a media gateway), which guarantees better placement of network elements within the network. MSC server and MGW makes it possible to cross-connect circuit switched calls switched by using IP, ATM AAL2 as well as

TDM TDM may refer to: * ''TDM (film), TDM'', a 2023 Indian Marathi language, Marathi comedy film * TDM (Macau) (), a Macanese radio and television network * The Yamaha TDM, a motorcycle model * Target Disk Mode, a boot mode on certain Macintosh compute ...

References

3GPP TS 23.205
* {{Reflist Telecommunications equipment Telecommunications infrastructure Mobile telecommunications GSM standard