Telica launches second gen softswitch

BOSTON—In a move aimed at the large carrier market, Telica this week launched what it is calling its second-generation softswitch, which builds on the company’s existing Plexus 9000 box.

The Plexus Unified Service Architecture (Plus) includes a media gateway, media gateway controller (MGC), signaling gateway and management software. The architecture essentially is the same as the 9000 but significantly increases the scalability, reliability and deployment flexibility.

First generation softswitches have severe limitations in all three areas, which has led to carriers building an unmanageable series of boxes, said Bryan Sheppeck, vice president of sales for Telica.

On the scalability issue, Telica added to the MGC what it calls Compute Modules, which provide processing power equivalent to whole first-gen softswitches. The result is a softswitch platform that now can support 7.5 million calls per hour.

Additionally, the vendor has continued its open architecture support from the 9000 by including standard protocols and open interfaces with the Plus.

“We’ve really decoupled the hardware from the software,” said Jim Lane, vice president of marketing for Telica.