Soft switches offer carriers new gateways - Company Business and Marketing

Extended capacity and faster routing for voice and data traffic are some of the benefits, but it could still take ten years to catch on.

Operators are beginning the rollout of soft switches to enhance the way they deliver voice services over their networks.

Soft switches, which separate the call intelligence from the switching, promise immediate cost savings for voice traffic. But the real significance of deploying them in the network is that soft switches will form a launch pad for a raft of new services.

Worldcom Inc., of Clinton, Mississippi, is reorganizing its international data services with technologies to support Internet protocol virtual private networks (IP VPNs), web hosting and web-based customer care services. A key network component is the introduction of its first soft switches to manage voice and data traffic in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Level 3 Communications Inc., of Broomfield, Colorado, is another early adopter of soft switches. It claims it was the first to offer soft switch-based services back in March 1999. "We are supporting over seven billion minutes a month of voice and data calls," said R.J. Mahadev, vice president, global soft switch product management. This, he claims, is 14 times the accumulated minutes of all its competitors.

Multiple meanings and uses

Operators and vendors define soft switches differently. Fred Briggs, chief technology officer at Worldcom, admits that calling its equipment "soft switches" is something of a misnomer. "These soft switches are big fast routers," he said. "Marketing people just don't like the way engineers describe things...It's like calling fried chicken hot dead birds.'"

"Server-based devices that control real-time media streams over IP," is the definition of Mahadev at Level 3, while J.C. Murphy, vice president of soft switch solutions, Lucent Technologies Inc., of Murray Hill, New Jersey, defines "soft switch" as "an architecture to separate call control from the signalling." In particular, soft switches are carrier class, next generation gateways which handle up to 100,000 lines, according to Murphy. They also support open standards, enabling an application server to interface with the soft switch.

Dr. Iain Stevenson, principal analyst at London-based Ovum Ltd., highlights conference call set-ups as an example. "Through instant messaging, the application can see if users are logged on and can send a message to ask if they would like to join the call," he said.

Soft switches and new services

The promise of new services is highlighted by Hassan Ahmed, chief executive of soft switch manufacturer Sonus Networks Inc., of Westford, Massachusetts. "From a carrier's perspective...it places in their hands the ability to create and provision new services."

Ahmed claims that 2001 will see innovative incumbents deploy soft switches in trials. But widespread uptake will take time. "The market opportunity is a good 10 years long," he said. He believes Europe is at least a year behind the United States in embracing the technology.

This is confirmed by Robin Duke-Woolley, senior consultant at Schema Ltd., London. "Sales of small gateway products are trivial at the moment," said Duke-Woolley, pointing out that the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) gateway market in Europe was some $100 million in 2000. But he expects to see figures rise in the next two years as large service provider networks trial bigger soft switches.

This is Level 3's experience. Adopting a soft switch approach to VoIP offers delivers a 40%-70% cost saving to the operator, claims Level 3's Mahadev. He also highlights that by separating the control from the switching, networks are easier to scale.

Worldcom's Briggs pointed out that, curiously, it is fractionally more expensive to send voice as packets. But savings from operating efficiencies that accrue from having a common network for data and voice far outweigh this marginal expense.

Briggs confirmed that Worldcom will launch session initiation protocol (SIP) services to business users in the second quarter of the year. For example, a desktop phone user will be able to plug in at any point in a corporate network to gain access to dedicated services.

COPYRIGHT 2001 EMAP Media Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group