SoftSwitch

What is a SoftSwitch ?

PortaSwitch is an integrated platform for telecommunication service providers, wholesale carriers, ISP, MVNO/MVNE and NGN operators for unifying voice, messaging, IoT/M2M, and data traffic within a single converged network.

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PortaSwitch includes 2 main components

PortaBilling, a business and operation support system (B/OSS) with convergent billing and online charging system (OCS) designed for Communication Service Providers (CSP) to manage communication service networks for voice, data, SMS, IPTV, and IoT/M2M projects.

PortaSIP, a clusterable and highly scalable session border controller (SBC) and a class 4 and class 5 SIP softswitch with media application that plays IVR (voice prompts) offering advanced features for hosted IPPBX or IP Centrex services.

How does it work?

The key difference between PortaSwitch and more traditional “switch” products is that PortaSwitch offers much more. It includes the B/OSS component, and so is a unified service management and delivery platform that:

provides a real-time verification of available funds,
detects and prevents potential fraudulent activity,
automatically disconnects calls to prevent balance overdrafts,
manages flexible rating of service usage,
offers a tool to create attractive product bundles,
automatically assesses monthly recurring charges,
generates and delivers invoices electronically, and
enforces the payment collection process.

PortaSwitch stores all the information about the products, rates and customers and the service configuration for individual customers or phone lines. It is managed via a web interface and includes a self-care portal for your end users. Internally, PortaBilling controls call processing as well as real-time routing.

PortaSwitch communicates with IP phones, mobile dialers and communication clients, and media gateways via the SIP protocol. There are no restrictions as far as the vendor or model of the equipment, so any communication device that supports SIP can be used in conjunction with PortaSwitch for services such as voice or video calls, presence or instant messaging.

PortaSwitch highlights

Includes PortaBilling
High availability and load-balancing to efficiently distribute network load to maintain operational uptime
Capacity provisioning to improve performance
Remote Site Redundancy for disaster recovery
Online self-care for easily accessible management
Seamless Integration with standardized third-party APIs saving time and money by reducing complexity
Easy-to-use configuration server to quickly manage the configuration of all servers simplifying staff work load
One converged billing and switch platform across multiple communication systems
Geographic distribution architecture using PortaSIP servers to maintain operational uptime across different geographical regions

Independent PortaSIP physical servers may be used in a single system cluster environment to provide fault-tolerant services. Connected to PortaBilling, the system of multiple PortaSIP servers provides all the required service provisioning information and maintains a global database of SIP phone registrations. A SIP phone user may connect to any of the available PortaSIP servers. If one server is unavailable due to a hardware failure or network problem, the other PortaSIP servers will handle calls.

The PortaSwitch architecture can be expanded to utilize multiple physical servers in various distributed clusters to process more RADIUS requests improving performance (linear capacity), ensure uninterrupted service and zero downtime updates, as well as provide geographic redundancy across the globe.

Geographic distribution

Service providers with global business exposure may choose to install a clustered system of multiple PortaSIP servers in various separate geographical locations. This allows them to keep the service running even if an entire hosting center in one place goes down.

Geographic distribution architecture overcomes catastrophic events to provide uninterrupted service using multiple servers in different geographic locations that continue operating during the main site outage. Geographic distribution also improves network utilization: users in Asia primarily use a PortaSIP server hosted in Singapore or Hong Kong, while European customers will work with a PortaSIP server in Frankfurt or London.

PortaSwitch site redundancy allows:

protect against hosting facility outages
continued service to multiple geographic regions when network connectivity is lost
updates to new software versions with zero downtime