A softswitch is the central component of any VoIP business network. Business critical functions such as routing, billing, monitoring and reporting are undertaken by VoIP softswitch. So, how well these functions are facilitated by softswitch is what defines a successful VoIP business. Thus, quality and security are given much emphasis while selecting a softswitch.

Although VoIP itself is considered secure as the data is encrypted unlike in the traditional telephony network, still there are chances of external attacks which needs to be tackled efficiently without affecting the regular business operations. To begin with, the following are some of the important business functions which can be affected if proper quality & security measures aren’t taken into consideration while selecting a softswitch.

Routing

This is a key business function of VoIP providers. They aggregate the traffic from various channels and process it through the switch for proper termination. In doing so, the softswitch allows providers to choose different routing types that are cost-effective, reliable and profitable. For instance, least cost routing is one such routing type where the softswitch chooses the lowest priced termination gateway among various available gateways for calls termination. Therefore, it offers more cost savings for VoIP providers.

Billing

Another important function, an integrated billing of softswitch can easily generate invoices for any volumes of traffic and bill them accordingly. Its function is not to miss any calling minutes while taking all billing factors into consideration to generate accurate bills. Even client accounts are duly maintained to go through the billing history whenever necessary. Also, billing becomes of much significance when providers expand their business.

Reporting & Monitoring

Appropriate report generation for effective decision making is quite an important function of softswitch. Various reports such as revenue report, performance report and retail account report will allow providers to find out the loop holes and fix them for a beneficial business. Similarly, live call monitoring will allow them to have full authorization over hundreds of concurrent calls taking place through the switch.

Web UI to Manage Softswitch Functions

All VoIP softswitch functions can be easily managed and monitored through a centralized web user interface. The UI can be accessed by multi-level users with valid login details. It allows users to take up prefix management, carrier management, balance management, report management, billing management, gateways management, domain management, etc.

In view of these business critical functions, a softswitch should have a powerful OS firewall and should make use of bandwidth optimization software to overcome quality and security issues.