Methods, systems, and computer program products for organizing, managing, and selectively distributing routing information in a signaling message routing node

A method for managing and distributing signaling system 7 (SS7) network management (NM) information in a message routing system including at least one communication interface adapted to communicate signaling system 7 (SS7) information over at least one non-message-transfer-part (MTP) transport protocol signaling connection, the method comprising:

• at a first communication module that includes at least one non-MTP transport protocol based signaling connection, wherein the first communication module is within a signaling message routing node:
• (a) receiving a message that includes SS7 network management information;
• (b) determining a network type associated with the received SS7 network management information;
• and
• (c) communicating the SS7 network management information over non-MTP transport protocol signaling connections of the signaling message routing node associated with the determined network type, wherein communicating the SS7 network management information among the over the non-MTP transport protocol signaling connections of the signaling message routing node associated network type includes limiting the communication of the SS7 network management information to the non-MTP transport protocol connections of the signaling message routing node associated with the determined network type.

A method for distributing SS7 network management information collected by a plurality of non-MTP communication modules in a signaling message routing node, the method comprising:

• (a) organizing a plurality of non-MTP communication modules within a signaling message routing node into a group for distribution of non-MTP signaling connection status information, wherein the distribution of the non-MTP signaling connection status information includes limiting the communication of the non-MTP signaling connection status information from the communication modules in the group to the communication modules in the group;
• (b) designating one of the non-MTP communication modules in the group as a proxy for distributing MTP network management information to communication modules within the signaling message routing node that are not members of the group;
• and
• (c) using the proxy to distribute MTP network management information to communication modules within the signaling message routing node that are not members of the group.

A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a computer readable medium for performing steps comprising:

• (a) assigning a plurality of non-MTP-transport communication modules within a signaling message routing node to a first signaling mateset (SM) group for distribution of non-MTP routing status information;
• (b) communicating non-MTP routing status information associated with the first SM group among the communication modules in the first SM group, wherein communicating the non-MTP routing status information among the communication modules in the first SM group includes limiting the communication of the non-MTP routing status information from the communication modules in the first SM group to the communication modules in the first SM group;
• and
• (c) communicating MTP routing status information associated with the first SM group to at least one communication module within the signaling message routing node that is not in the first SM group.