Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
The world's telephone networks are undergoing a transformation equivalent to the one that occurred in the 1980s, when digital switches swept aside analogue ones - a change entailing a massive investment by network operators over a period of more than a decade.

The Carriers are in crisis, and this isn't just a natural cycle of boom and bust. Underlying it, there's something fundamental going on. We have reached a crunch point in the transition from voice- centric (circuit) to data -centric (packet) networks. Today's traffic characteristics are not what they used to be, and the economic models are turned upside down as a result. Softswitching should play a central role in enabling a migration to a converged environment and providing the central nervous system for a converged next -generation world. Hence the carriers reach the point where they have to commit to a future based on packet- rather than circuit-centric infrastructures. The new transformation, from networks based on Class 5 telephone switches to VOIP (voice over IP) solutions, promises to be just as significant and redefining the telecommunications.

Softswitches:
Softswitch is a generic architecture for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that enables the sending of telephone voice transmissions over the Internet and any other IP network. Softswitch is an open Application Program Interface (API) used to connect the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the Internet by separating the call control functions of a phone call from the media gateway or transport layer.

Softswitch is cheaper, simpler, smaller and more convenient than conventional telephone switches, especially compared to Class 4 switches (for long distance calls) and Class 5 switches (for local calls). These hardware switches cost $10,000,000 or more and occupy the space of a city block. The Softswitches is about the size of a refrigerator and is proportionately cheaper. Therefore, it is ideal for helping new telephony service providers compete with established companies. It is the platform for the next generation of packet communications - which will carry voice, data, video, broadband and wireless data.

The current telephone infrastructure is out of date. The softswitches provides call control or intelligence for managing a call over an IP or other type of network. Softswitch is based on open standards and Voice XML

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