Method and apparatus for transferring signaling messages

The present invention provides a novel method for transferring SCCP messages to one of a plurality of entities in an entity set. The method receives a SCCP message from which a traffic type for said received message is determined. A global title associated with said received message is then translated to a destination entity set. For each entity in the destination entity set, a maximum allowed rate for receiving messages of said traffic type at that entity and a current rate for transferring messages of said traffic type to that entity are determined. The method then determines a subset of entities for which the current rate is smaller than or equal to the maximum allowed rate. If the subset contains at least one entity, the method selects one entity from the subset and transfers the SCCP message to said selected entity. The invention also provides an advanced signaling transfer point STP.