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Glossary

STP (Signalling Transfer Point) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
STP
Stands for
Signalling Transfer Point
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 29.016, TS 48.006

In plain words

In 3GPP TR 21.905, STP means "Signalling Transfer Point", or Signalling Transfer Point. TS 48.006 says that because STP functionality is not required at the BSS, MTP discrimination and routing functions can be significantly simplified. TS 29.016 permits listed MTP level 3 exceptions and modifications to ANSI T1.111.4 if the SGSN or VLR does not support STP functionality.

Source: 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 48.006 V18.0.0, clause 6.4.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/48_series/48.006/48006-i00.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 29.016 V19.0.0, clause 5.4.2.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.016/29016-j00.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.