Platform and User Application Scheduling

On the HP OpenCall SS7 system it is important that:

	NOTE: It is especially important that HA processes (such as the SS7 stack) have enough processing power and have CPU access in real-time when they need it. This is because a system of heartbeats is used to detect failure; a process that is not scheduled cannot send heartbeats, and so will be detected as dead by the system.

These constraints are also normally true for application processes, which must process SS7 messages in a timely fashion. The HP OpenCall SS7 Stack API also generates heartbeats to monitor connections. The stack API clears the connection from its end if the heartbeats are not received. If the connection closes it is up to the application to close the connection on the application end. To keep the connection open, regularly call the API.

The HP OpenCall SS7 processes are configured with a priority level which ensures the correct operation of the platform. These preset default values should not be changed.

Although the SS7_Stack process is given a high priority (20), it is self-regulating. SS7_Stack monitors its connection with an application in order not to overflow it, and if it sees that an application cannot process its buffer it will relinquish some of its share of CPU.