It’s been more than ten years now since Shawn Lewis and his colleagues wrote the patent for the first softswitch and SS7 gateway while at XCOM Technologies, later acquired by Level3. High-end softswitches were originally conceived as replacements for traditional, big, bulky, hardware-based Class 5 switches. Since new services and applications can be added via software, they can offer far more revenue-generating features than your typical Class 5 switch. (Indeed, softswitches often have feature servers built into them that provide various call-related features.)

 

Strictly speaking, however, smaller “softswitches” can (and do) function as IP-PBX systems, though not all IP-PBX (News - Alert) systems are softswitches, since these smaller systems have inherited some “hardware-centric” features from their manufacturers, most of whom used to make big, clunky, hardware-based PBXs.

 

The International Softswitch Consortium was founded in 1998 to further the deployment of next-gen switching and VoIP technologies. That became the International Packet Communications (News - Alert) Consortium (IPCC), and that in turn metamorphosed into the present-day IMS Forum, whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of the IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), an upcoming universal service architecture for wireless and wireline networks.

 

And now, MERA Systems (News - Alert) (www.mera-systems.com ) of Toronto, Canada, has released a new version of the MERA IP Centrex, CLASS 5 softswitch, enabling carriers to deliver PBX functionality as a service. The new release of MERA IP Centrex includes call management capability enhancements as well as database and Control Unit redundancy schemes which provide for reliability and dependability of the system key elements. The enhanced MERA IP Centrex is a flexible Class 5 softswitch that enables service providers to explore a variety of business models.

 

The solution supports SIP and H.323 signaling, maintains transcoding capabilities and codec conversion. MERA IP Centrex basic features include: Call Forward, Conference Calls, Voice-to-Email Delivery, Sending Faxes using the Web Interface, Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Apart from this, MERA IP Centrex offers enterprises and end-users a wide range of other value-added services. Modular architecture of the solution allows for fast capacity growth and can support more than 10 000 users. Flexible clustering capabilities enable almost unlimited scalability, while various redundancy schemes ensure business critical dependability. A user-friendly web interface facilitates the system administration.

 

The new release of MERA IP Centrex includes the following enhancements of the call management capability:

 

• “Black/White List” function — allows blocking calls from certain telephone numbers and specifying users whose calls will be accepted anytime.

• “Follow me” service — determines the routing of incoming calls according to the user’s choice of forwarding numbers (cell, home, office phone numbers etc).

• “Televoting” service — enables the use of phone networks for conducting polls. Polling is done by registering the amount of incoming calls made by the poll respondents to specific telephone numbers.

• “Fax-to-Email” service — allows sending and receiving faxes as attachments to email messages.

 

MERA IP Centrex version 1.1.0 also features database and Control Unit redundancy schemes which provide for the reliability and dependability of the system backbone elements.

 

The enhanced MERA IP Centrex is such a flexible Class 5 softswitch that it even enables service providers to explore various business models. For example, partitioning capabilities allow MERA IP Centrex operator to create switch partitions and rent out these sub-domains to an unlimited number of enterprises that look for a hosted IP PBX.

 

One of the leading Russian domestic airlines, S7 Airlines, chose MERA IP Centrex to optimize the efficiency of the company’s communications in 2007, and the deployment proved to be the best way to reduce telephony expenses. The solution also meets the needs of providers that target consumer market offering VoIP as a low cost replacement for traditional phone service. MERA IP Centrex is deployed on the VoIP provider’s network as a hosted all-IP solution to build up community networks. At the same time, the system can fit in mixed IP-PSTN networks in residential areas.