Can the soft switch technology become the core technology of the network?

In such an information society, the role of the soft switch technology is gradually emerging, mainly in three technology-integrated network architecture, not only the next generation network needs to include the soft switch technology, not necessarily all require the use of soft switch technology.

Obviously, the true meaning of the next generation network requires both the innovation and prosperity of smart endpoint businesses and the scale-up management of its systems. The difficulties discussed in the next-generation network architecture system are how to comprehensively balance multiple technologies.

I think that the current technology maturity and development, based on the ITU-H.323 protocol, IETF-SIP protocol and MGCP/H.248 protocol of soft switches are IP and next generation network implementation means. These three technologies have their own differences and expertise and need to complement each other. The best strategy is to adopt a network architecture system and implementation means that integrate the three technologies.

The access and aggregation nodes of the most popular and basic IP phone service in the next generation network rely mainly on the soft switch technology characterized by MGCP/H248 protocol; the integration of multimedia and end-to-end services in the next generation network may depend mainly on the ITU-H.323 protocol and IETF-SIP protocol technology. The next generation network architecture is determined by the H.323 and SIP network systems.

In fact, as many scholars have already pointed out, the soft switch technology can also be seen as the result of smart gateway decomposition under the H.323 and SIP systems. In this way, the network architecture of the three technologies may be more clear. Large-scale implementation of the IP telephone network with the architecture characteristics of the Next Generation Network System and its scalability, reliability and operability are an important part of the evolution towards the next generation network.

Not only does the next-generation network require business practices that integrate the three technologies, including soft switch technology, H.323 technology, and SIP technology, many other problems related to the Operation Management of the Next Generation Network also need to be verified through the operation implementation of the IP telephone network.

Therefore, domestic telecom operators should first build an IP telephone network with a distributed structure according to business and market needs, and actively carry out IP telephone services to verify the operability and manageability of the Next Generation Network. Practice has proved that the efforts and contributions made by domestic telecom operators in exploring and operating various IP phone technologies over the past few years are the most significant milestones in the evolution towards the next generation network goal.

The concept of "Softswitch is the core of the Next Generation Network" needs to be elaborated and discussed.

Another popular term in the discussion on next-generation networks is "Softswitch is the core of next-generation networks ". I think it is worth further consideration. To sum up, the soft switch technology is one of the most important and critical speech service aggregation node technologies in the Next Generation Network. There is no doubt that we should pay special attention and attention to it. However, the technical features of vswitches do not provide the only and direct core network technology.

In addition, in terms of concept, "Softswitch is the core of the Next Generation Network" will bring about confusion in some basic propositions and logical confusions. The core technologies of the Next Generation Network should fundamentally include various network technology systems that support voice, data, and video services. The soft switch itself is only a local device system and does not have the characteristics of a comprehensive network architecture.

Although the soft switch technology supports the access of smart endpoints, video endpoints, and multimedia endpoints, it does not mean that all voice, data, and video services must be centrally implemented on the softswitch machine. In theory, even if there is a possibility of such a device, there is absolutely no need to do so.

This system does not have any advantages but has a series of overall architecture defects. The soft switch technology does not directly provide IP data services. The soft switch technology can support the video endpoint call service, but generally does not regard it as the core device that focuses on the video conferencing service control.

The soft switch technology is mainly designed for centralized call control functions. The next generation network will also rely on a series of other existing IP technologies and other application technologies to support voice, data, video, and other services. In terms of policy, the phrase "Softswitch is the core of next-generation networks" often makes it easy to think that the soft switch technology is equivalent to the next-generation network technology, in this way, the focus of research and practice is only on the scope of a single soft switch technology and its surrounding areas, and the future investment is only on the equipment and systems related to the soft switch technology.

Technically, the term "Softswitch is the core of the Next Generation Network" tends to make everyone expect the next generation network to be on soft switch devices, next Generation Networks are constructed with soft switches as the core, so that the discussion and practices on next-generation networks remain at the conceptual level of basic, local, small-scale, and individual device system technologies for a long time, as a result, the local structure of the soft switch is the overall network architecture of the Next Generation Network.

In practice, it is easy to ignore the practice and discussion of other next-generation network technologies by testing and exploring the Networking Mode of soft switches as the core, this limits that the next generation network can only be a "no-network" mode in which soft switches are connected to each other ". Obviously, the "no-network" next-generation network architecture can only support one or several soft switches, which is not suitable for telecom operators to operate on a large scale. This phenomenon is called the "island phenomenon" of the soft switch technology practice ".

In terms of network structure, "Softswitch is the core of next-generation networks" cannot answer questions such as the need for next-generation networks without core network technologies. If not, how to avoid the "island" Phenomenon of soft switches, how to solve coordination and interconnection between soft switches, and how to carry out full-network services of the next-generation network, what is the core network technology of the Next Generation Network.

As a next-generation network covering the whole country, we should first consider the operational nature of the network. The operational nature includes the scalability and manageability of the network. That is to say, the next-generation network architecture and networking are very important. We believe that the architecture of the next-generation network system should comprehensively consider the network structure of the entire voice service network from both the horizontal and vertical aspects.

The system of the Next Generation Network should be composed of the core network and the local soft switch technology located in the next generation network access and edge location. The core network of the Next Generation Network is a backbone communication network covering the service scope of operators. The core network of the Next Generation Network implements interconnection and communication between soft switches, multiple operators, and different networks to implement traffic control and scheduling across the network; shared centralized database retrieval services across the network, shared business creation environment, and network management across the network.

The core network of the Next Generation Network provides networking methods, routing policies, traffic control, network-wide service creation and management, and network-wide maintenance and management. To achieve unlimited scalability and telecom-level manageability of the Next Generation Network, the core network of the Next Generation Network should adopt a layered call signaling system and a flat voice stream structure.

The main purpose of adopting this architecture is smooth speech stream transmission, which avoids the consumption of circuit resources in the traditional circuit switching network by the speech channel level-by-level convergence mode, and gives full play to the superiority of the sub-network; the hierarchical call signaling system is mainly used to meet the unlimited scalability of network operations. It avoids the scalability limitations caused by the point-to-point direct connection call establishment mode and simplifies the system configuration, unified resource servers or databases.

Obviously, in the next generation of IP telephone implementation of the three main technologies, ITU-H.323 protocol network technology, IETF-SIP protocol network technology will play a major role in the core network. Therefore, in the true sense, the core network of the next generation network does not necessarily need to use the soft switch technology, because the control function of the bearer media is mainly in the access of the endpoint and the edge of the PSTN switching network.

The core network of the Next Generation Network is located in the center of the services and applications of the IP network, and its function structure must be more distributed and independent. Its system equipment must be more open and universal, and its operation and management must be more flexible and mobile. Many telecom operators in the world have used H.323's Internet guard or SIP proxy servers and other network application servers for networking, networking, and network-wide business and O & M.

Recently, the emergence of some new core network technologies (such as ITU-T's Q. GTD1, Q. GTD2), more to illustrate this. Therefore, the term "Softswitch is the core of the Next Generation Network" is not accurate. This does not mean denying the importance and critical position of the soft switch technology in the Next Generation Network.

In fact, the true soft switch should be a general-purpose (classless) soft switch, which undertakes the responsibility of regional or local system platforms in the Next Generation Network, it is capable of simultaneously controlling network access traffic and controlling edge interconnected traffic of the PSTN network. Regional general-purpose soft switches and National Core backbone networks can build a complete next-generation network communication system.

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