Challenge to Softswitch Vendors: Understand the Problem before Porting the Solution
When people translate words from one language to another, one looks at the origins of the words (the etymology) to help find the best word in the target language which makes the most sense.
My word of advice to the softswitch industry is to apply the same approach when developing softswiches. Like it or not, there are over 3,000 features in a class five switch. What I find interesting (and alarming) is that at Fall VON it was common to overhear a conversation from vendors that "we have ported the 25 needed features", "the 75 revenue-producing features", "all of the features one needs to replace a class 5 switch".
While everybody seems to be approaching the problem by simply porting subsets of the real feature set, what is sometimes missing is the understanding of the problem which caused the feature to be created in the first place.
The telecom industry has been in business for over 125 years. Back in 1897 there may have been a customer who requested a certain feature to solve a basic business need. Somebody took the request and decided to implement a new feature. Using the tool sets available in 1897, some engineer solved the problem and the resulting feature set became embedded inside of the class five switch we use today. Fast forward 100 years and each time a new innovation for a switch was introduced, the same feature was included just in case it was needed for backward compatibility. Unfortunately, what was not always kept was the trouble ticket which cased the feature to be implemented in the first place. In some cases the person who requested the feature has died and it has become difficult to research the history behind the specific feature.
My advice to the Softswich industry is that now would be a great time to show off some of the things which IP-based networks can do that are just not possible using circuit-switched technologies.
This way, the next time somebody decides it would be great to create yet another softswitch or add yet another old feature, why not take the time needed to re-solve the problem using the tool sets available in 2000 and maybe introduce a more inituitive user interface than a rotary phone dial or a touch-tone keypad.
Looking at class features, I believe the time has come to consider the VoIP Class features for 2001. Looking at the space, the features which come to mind include:
presence capability for an always-on end user
support for a variety of edge devices
capability to reach both mobile and roaming end users
interactive multimedia support including web and video
end-user configurable
support for third party enhancements
handicapped-friendly and CALEA-capable
adaptable and rapid management and provisioning
dynamic routing/forwarding
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Softswitch Anonymous: Local Chapters are opening near you
After walking around the exhibit hall at Fall 2000 VON, I decided it was time for somebody to create "Softswitch Anonymous". Don't be surprised when you hear of the weekly Thursday night meetings at a secret hotel meeting room in Santa Clara.
"Hi, my name is Jeff and it has been one week since I told a prospective customer that they can throw out their Class 5 switch and related infrastructure and replace it with the softswitch from my nine month old company."
"Hi, my name is Carl and I admit that I have made my customer's expectations unmanageable."
"Hi, my name is Mike and it has been five days since I told my partners we should invest in another softswitch company."
In all seriousness, something has to be done with the outrageous amount of noise/hype being generated by the 85+ softswitch vendors in the marketplace. While there will be winners and losers in the softswitch space, too much overdone hype doesn't help anybody and could have a negative effect on the marketplace.
Some of the more successful softswitch vendors will be those who realize that a Class 5 switch may not be going away so fast, so instead of promoting a fork-lift replacement, they should consider positioning their solutions to add value to the existing infrastructure and when/if a company replaces their switch, be in a position to offer a compatible replacement.
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