Location of UPT service data: Division of the network into "Service Management Domains"

The provision of UPT service requires the network to perform a number translation for incoming UPT calls. A single number translation database per network (located in an SCP) would necessitate additional, and probably avoidable, signalling for local calls. In order to dispense with such unnecessary overhead, the authors introduce the concept of a "Service Management Domain". The network is composed of n Local Calling Areas (LCAs) and is divided into k domains (k ⩽ n). Each Domain is catered for by its own Service Node containing the location information for each UPT subscriber normally located in that Domain. This paper shows that the optimal number of such Domains in a network, in terms of call establishment delay is determined by relative percentage of intraLCA versus interLCA calls generated by all subscribers of the network