[Asterisk-biz] softswitch dilemma

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Jeremy McNamara wrote:

> "Simply put, Softswitch is the concept of separating the network
> hardware from network software. In traditional circuit switched
> networks, hardware and software is not independent. Circuit switched
> networks rely on dedicated facilities for inter-connection and are
> designed primarily for voice communications. The more efficient packet
> based networks use the Internet Protocol (IP) to efficiently route voice
> and data over diverse routes and shared facilities."
In my definition, softswitch is the "call control" part, once you separate
the "call control" from "media gateway and cross-connect" functions of a 
traditional switch.

In other words, softswitch needs to be able to interface with a media
gateway telling it how to process the calls, without necessarily being in
the media path. Asterisk by design has to be in a media path for a call
that it is controlling, thus it does not really qualify to be defined as a
softswitch.

-alex