September 2000
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What Is A Softswitch?
BY KEVIN MAYER
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Next-Gen Network News
Packet Voice Networks: The Value-Added Solution...
Case Study: Global Crossing Taps Sonus...
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This month, we open up the floor to a discussion organized by the
Multimedia Telecommunications Association. In this
discussion, which attempts to define "softswitch," it becomes
clear that switch manufacturers and service providers should open their
architectures, and integrators should focus on the critical role they can play in configuring differentiated, value-added applications.
Bob Panoff, principal, Technology Marketing Partners and chair, MMTA's
Network Service Provider Solutions Division: The softswitch enables
service providers to open up a vast array of new services to the benefit
of their own businesses and those of their subscribers. But we need to
define the "softswitch."
Art Klein, president and CEO, IpVerse: I think the market is getting very,
very confused as to what a softswitch really is. Is the media gateway a
softswitch? Yes, it has some softswitch functionalities in it, but is it
truly a softswitch? The softswitch is just software that supports the
decentralization of functionality previously centralized in Class 5
switches.
Jeff Simpson, manager, Strategic Services, Lucent Technologies: I'd say
it's about taking the core call processing capability of the switch and
unlocking the software-driven capability. We are creating a software app
that can be put anywhere on the network or on any platform. It's a
devolution of the call processing functionality.
Klein: Well, Lucent coined the term "softswitch." But I think
that a lot of people are using softswitch simply because it's a well-known
marketing term right now. As ipVerse uses the term, we are separating the
brains from the hardware. The softswitch really is just a part of the
solution. It places call control closer to the end user.
Jeff Dworkin, co-founder and general manager, iFace: Well, we build voice
applications. So we're sitting on the top layer of the softswitch. We all
have our own definition of softswitch. It's software that spans multiple
elements of both hardware and software. So it includes media gateways and
media gateway controllers, media packet servers, and signaling gateways.
The application server sits at the top.
A softswitch bridges the IP world and the TDM world, so you're not
throwing away all your old stuff. You're simply using it within the
architecture. And again, you support multiple vendors and protocols.
At iFace, for example, we've created, a "click to talk"
application, so our customers who know nothing about telecom can bring
telecom services to their customers in a number of vertical markets,
including the hospitality industry and finance. So system integrators are
having a larger role in the service provider rollout of next-gen networks.
Panoff: If we settled on anything, a softswitch is the software only. It's
just the software that allows interoperability between multiple vendors
and multiple transport media. And the objective is the creation of
services by integrators who are non-telecom personnel.
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| Next-Gen
Networks News
3Com Enhances MultiService Access Platform
3Com announced enhancements to its Total Control 1000 platform, adding new
card sets for migration to higher density performance and expanded service
capabilities. In addition, 3Com indicated the Total Control 1000 platform
complements the new Total Control 2000 platform, which combines media
gateways, the CommWorks 4000 softswitch, and enhanced back-end servers.
The Total Control 1000 platform is meant for smaller POPs serving tens of
thousands of subscribers, while the Total Control 2000 platform is
designed for areas of higher population densities where hundreds of
thousand of connections are needed.
No. 539, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Lucent Launches Solution For Converged Services
Lucent announced the ExchangePlus VSE, a compact version of the
carrier-class EXS ExchangePlus tandem, an international gateway solution.
By combining the two platforms, service providers may deploy a network
solution that concentrates voice, fax, and data traffic onto IP
connections and converts incoming and outgoing traffic between circuit and
packet networks. By handling circuit and packet conversions at the edge of
the network and concentrating traffic onto the main backbone, carriers can
increase network efficiency, supporting more customers using the same
bandwidth. The EXS ExchangePlus portfolio of open, scalable switching
products originated from the former Excel Switching Corporation acquired
by Lucent last November.
No. 540, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Unisphere Ships New Version Of Service Mediation Switch
Unisphere Solutions announced that it is now shipping the next version of
its SMX-2100 Service Mediation Platform. According to Unisphere, the
latest version of the platform includes:
- New scalability features including rolling upgrades, allowing
non-service affecting software upgrades, ensuring maximum uptime and
revenue.
- Support for call processing and shelf control 1:1 redundancy, providing
maximum uptime with no loss of stable calls.
- Increased selection of routing and hunting algorithms.
- Enhanced network management and ease of operation features, such as
fault management, performance management, and service level assurance
features, with the integration of MicroMuse's Netcool and Quallaby's
Proviso in conjunction with Unisphere's Management Center platform.
- Enhanced online backup and restore facilities.
- Increased density with the support 48 fully protected DS3 connections,
providing up to 32,256 redundant DS0s in a single SMX-2100 shelf.
No. 541, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Sonus And Pactolus Provide Service Creation Solution
Sonus Networks and Pactolus Communication Software announced that they are
working together to help communications service providers and ISPs quickly
create and deploy new services through Sonus's Open Services Architecture
(OSA). Pactolus's Rapid-FLEX SCE provides an XML-based,
"drag-and-drop" visual development environment for the Sonus
PSX6000 SoftSwitch. New services envisioned by the partners include
specialized routing, custom call flows, voice announcements, and calling
services.
No. 542, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Convergent Interoperable With
Mariposa, Sonoma
Convergent Networks announced that its broadband infrastructure solutions
may include integrated access devices (IADs) from Mariposa Technology. In
a separate announcement, Convergent noted that its solutions are also
interoperable with IADs from Sonoma Networks. Relevant products included
customer premises equipment from Mariposa (the ATX family of IADs) and
Sonoma (the Sonoma Integrator and the Sonoma Xchange), as well as
Convergent's Integrated Convergence Switch, the ICS2000, which may be
deployed in an end office. Both announcements stressed the benefits of
leveraging ATM transport to deliver QoS for integrated voice/data
services.
No. 543, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Lucent Highlights MultiVoice Deployments
Following up on the release of the new version of its MultiVoice VoIP
software, Lucent announced that STSI.net, a wholesale provider of IP
telephony, Internet access, and e-commerce services, had deployed the new
software across its network. Also, Lucent indicated that United Telesis, a
next-gen communications company, plans to become a global clearinghouse of
VoIP traffic. United Telesis announced that not only is it using a new
MultiVoice software module, it has also signed up STSI.net, USA Talks, and
SkyWay as its first partners.
The MultiVoice software is designed to enable service providers to carry
conventional, pre-paid, and calling card traffic on a single VoIP network
based on MultiVoice gateways and gatekeepers. The software may be
augmented by the MultiVoice Settlement Engine, a module for the MultiVoice
Access Manager gatekeeper. The module interfaces with OSP (Open Settlement
Protocol) and billing servers to allow authentication, routing, billing,
and settlement between service provider partners.
No. 544, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
VPSwitch Introduces A DSL Voice Switch
Data Connection's VPSwitch Group announced the VP3000 integrated DSL voice
switch, combining the functions of a DSL voice gateway and a Class 5
switch in a single, high-density, carrier-class system. The system is
designed for central office and regional switching center deployments and
offers service providers a strategy for rolling out voice over DSL to
small business and residential markets.
The system also provides a service creation environment, allowing service
providers to deploy novel, value-add, revenue-generating telephony and
enhanced services. The VPSwitch family is architected around MGCP/Megaco
and SCTP, so that future versions can evolve to fill a range of roles
within next-generation, distributed networks, as access or trunk gateways,
call agents or softswitches, or services platforms.
No. 545, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Convergent Networks To Acquire TCS
Convergent Networks, a provider of broadband infrastructure solutions for
the new public network, announced today that it has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Technology Control Services (TCS). TCS designs and
manufactures an advanced softswitch platform that provides both call
control and an open service creation environment that enables the rapid
delivery of carrier-class services such as traditional CLASS features, and
enhanced applications such as unified messaging and pre-paid calling card
services.
No. 546, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Sonus's Open Services Partner Alliance Grows
Sonus announced that the Open Services Partner Alliance (OSPA) includes
three new members: Sylantro Systems Corporation, T-Portal, and VoiceGenie
Technologies.
Sylantro has developed an applications-enabled softswitch designed to
provide a carrier-grade service creation platform and a suite of
"revenue-ready" applications.
T-Portal, an Applications Telecom Service Provider
(ATSP), provides access
to applications such as clearinghouse services, unified messaging, IP fax,
conferencing, and online collaboration via IP connections.
VoiceGenie Technologies has developed an advanced voice portal platform
that provides a convenient, personal, and flexible way to access
information and make transactions over the Web using a conventional or
wireless telephone.
With the most recent additions, the Alliance now comprises 40 companies
that develop and deliver services and applications based on Sonus' Open
Services Architecture (OSA). According to Sonus, the additions expand the
range of applications and services available to Sonus's customers, helping
them take advantage of the many emerging benefits of the new public
network.
No. 547, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
GDC And Taqua Team To Deliver Voice/Data Solutions
General DataComm and Taqua Systems announced a packet switching system
designed to enable low-cost, rapid deployment of packet telephony
services. The system is provided through a combination of Taqua's Open
Compact Exchange (OCX) Class 5 access switch and GDC's NexEra 6400 and
6600 packet voice and data gateways, which the two companies will jointly
market and sell worldwide.
Together, the companies' platforms will enable a range of differentiated
services:
- New-generation Class 5 access switching and enhanced voice services.
- Low-bandwidth, toll-quality packetized voice transport and switching
over a broadband infrastructure.
- A suite of local telephony functions with both voice and packet billing
information.
- Integrated traffic management capabilities enabling guaranteed QoS for
interactive real-time, interactive non-real-time, and best-effort
services.
No. 548, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
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Packet Voice Networks: The Value-Added Solution For Service Providers
BY RICHARD STANKEVICH
Packet voice networks employ new technologies and open the
telecommunications market for voice services to a broadening range of
traditional carriers and emerging service providers. In this respect,
there are real ways for service providers of all stripes to save and make
money.
In the classic voice networks of today, voice calls and dialed Internet
calls demand identical network resources. Every ILEC, CLEC, IXC, and PTT
worth its salt trumpets their Internet offering -- flat-rate billing
rules! The idea is to capture a customer base, then figure out how to
profit from that base later.
However, the same network resource that earns Internet revenue of
x-dollars in a year, earns the same carrier 30x-dollars a year when that
resource is used for voice connectivity. When you consider that Internet
traffic consumes half of all U.S. network resources while contributing 6
to 7 percent of revenues, the message becomes clear -- promote the
Internet, make money on voice.
Broadband packet voice gateways provide Internet offload, so classic voice
tandem switches are burdened only with profit-making voice calls, with
Internet traffic efficiently transported across broadband links to
consolidated ISP remote access servers for routing and content.
Packet voice gateways also provide dramatic savings and operational
efficiencies on the trunk side of classic tandem switch networks. Tandem
trunks are statically engineered, physical link by physical link, to other
tandems in the network. These links are generally designed to support
projected busy-hour traffic in the time zones they serve. Rather than
employing such a tandem mesh, a tandem-broadband packet gateway solution
can reduce the number of physical trunks to a single trunk between the
Class-4 switch and the packet gateway. Employing switched connections
between tandem and gateway, and broadband switched virtual circuits (SVCs)
and AAL2 VoATM, the service provider will need approximately 40 percent
less tandem trunk capacity.
This approach may free up capacity for more revenue-generating services,
or allow service provider to reduce the cost of new voice switches. It
could even mean that the provider can reduce the number of high-cost voice
switches it needs to deploy to meet the provider's business objectives.
Richard Stankevich is ATM Product Marketing Manager, Broadband
Division, General DataComm.
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STUDY: Global Crossing Taps Sonus To Enact VoIP Strategy
Global Crossing, which is building and operating an extensive global
IP-based fiber optic network, is getting ready to light up its voice over
IP backbone in its domestic production network. By going to a VoIP
network, Global Crossing will be able to offer customers enhanced services
such as long distance (dedicated and switch), unified messaging, OneLink,
and converged services supported with managed care services. The company
will also realize a cost savings from reduced space and power
requirements.
Global Crossing is deploying VoIP over an ATM backbone and SCPs
utilizing an SS7 network to integrate traffic from the PSTN into a VoIP
production network. Global Crossing will first light up its VoIP network
in seven U.S. cities. By the end of 2000, Global Crossing will place core
VoIP gateway centers in an additional 15 U.S. cities. Global Crossing is
also deploying core VoIP gateway centers internationally and will extend
the VoIP backbone to Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam,
Copenhagen, and Brussels by year-end.
Sonus Networks' comprehensive Packet Telephony suite was selected after
extensive testing through Global Crossing's development network, known as
"DevNet," which connects Denver, Detroit, and Rochester. DevNet
provides Global Crossing an opportunity for aggressive equipment testing
and network validation.
Sonus provided trunking gateways, softswitches, and SS7 gateways that
were integrated Global Crossing's SCP and PSTN networks. According to
Global Crossing, the Sonus Softswitch was scalable, reliable, redundant,
global, and able to handle carrier grade traffic. Global Crossing is
building its VoIP network to be able to handle more than three billion
minutes of traffic per month. Through DevNet testing, the Sonus Softswitch,
coupled with the Sonus gateways, was able to handle 1,600 calls per
second. The next closest softswitch solution tested by Global Crossing
maxed out at 50 calls per second.
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