Network Solutions - The Softswitch

Posted 10/2000

Network Solutions

The Softswitch
Separating Fact From Fiction
By Sally Bament

Softswitch. The term strikes fear in the hearts of legacy circuit switch vendors and raises hopes among next-generation service providers as an open path to winning new customers and generating previously undiscovered service revenue. Yet there are many conflicting claims as to what a softswitch is and the value it provides.

In the traditional PSTN, proprietary circuit switches from the duopoly of the telecommunications equipment world managed all functions necessary to deliver a phone call--media transport; call control, switching and signaling; and feature creation/delivery. Over the past few years, however, the telecommunications industry has begun to evolve to a new, decoupled switching architecture based on packet technology, in which these three functions are carried out on separate yet integrated platforms. This has tremendous implications for service providers, who as a result will be able to create and offer unlimited new services at a pace that is completely independent from the underlying hardware platform. Everyone seems to agree that media transport is handled by multiservice media gateways or convergence switches that can interwork between any access and network side interfaces. What, then, is the function of softswitches?

While most softswitches today handle call control by specifically controlling a media gateway, it is equally important that a softswitch act as a signaling gateway to the SS7 network to ensure that calls are appropriately set up, routed and taken down and to ensure that calls from the new public network can reach the PSTN. Early predecessors to the softswitch were sometimes called call agents or media gateway controllers primarily because this was their sole function. In fact, the International Softswitch Consortium (www.softswitch.org) has defined a softswitch as a device that has call control, signaling and feature creation/delivery capabilities.

While the softswitch may be the "brains" of the new public network, one of its central functions is to control a media gateway, which is actually the "brawn" of the network, carrying out the actual media transport. Thus, a softswitch on its own is limited in its ability to assist carriers in the delivery of services to its customers. However, the great value in a softswitch is its ability to serve as a flexible platform for the creation of new and innovative communications services. Further, an entirely new software market is expected to develop, centered on the development of next-generation service features. The softswitch will play a role in making these features accessible and rapidly deployable.

However, despite the extreme hype surrounding the industry, few softswitch vendors today are delivering a platform that can serve up next-generation features and enhanced services, and fewer still are delivering revenue-generating applications that are deployable today. As the softswitch industry matures, it appears to be segmenting into two primary camps--one delivering carrier-class call control and signaling and the other delivering a platform for the creation and delivery of next-generation features and services.

Sally Bament is vice president of marketing for vendor Convergent Networks Inc. (www.convergentnet.com). She can be reached at sbament@convergentnet.com.

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