Success Story and Advantages of ZTE´s Softswitch System—Forerunner, Taking the Lead

• The NGN employs a layered architecture, and standard interfaces are used to communicate between layers;
• The system supports integrated media gateways and terminal devices, and can interwork with the legacy PSTN/ISDN, Broadband Access Network, Private Network, SS7 Network and IN;
• Vocie, data and media services are transported via the core packet network.

More information at:
http://www.zte.com.cn/English/03product/list1.jsp?CateID=281

1 Success Story
Six years ago, while the industry was talking a lot about Next Generation Network (NGN) architecture and the significance of epoch-making revolutions in the communications field brought by NGN, ZTE embarked on a feasibility analysis of the NGN technology and proposed Softswitch-based NGN architecture. The sketch map of ZTE’s NGN total solution is shown in Figure 1.

  The year 2000 saw ZTE turning the NGN concept into reality. During this year, ZTE devoted a lot of manpower to the research and development of NGN products, and churned out a series of products. To date, ZTE has become one of the very few companies in the world that can provide a complete range of Softswitch products. More importantly, ZTE’s Softswitch products are designed for carrier-class applications and feature robust scalability and reliability, while providing complete NGN solutions for operators, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Intranet users.

   In 2001, ZTE obtained China’s network access certificate granted by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
ZTE has made a series of breakthroughs in NGN applications and fully participated in the construction of Softswitch-based networks for China’s 5 leading operators since 2000. In 2001, ZTE put China’s first Softswitch-based commercial trial network for China Netcom into operation. In 2002, ZTE constructed China’s first and largest Softswitch network for commercial use for China Netcom in a real sense covering more than 20 cities nationwide. Also, ZTE participated in the China Telecom-sponsored NGN trial network project, and passed more than
2 000 rigorous test criteria set by China Telecom.

2 Building the World’s First Nationwide NGN Network
On August 20, 2003, ZTE clinched a cooperation agreement with Romania’s POSTelecom at the People’s Great Hall for the construction of a national telecommunication network in Romania. Under this agreement, ZTE will construct a backbone data and voice network across Romania in the next three years by taking full advantage of ZTE state-of-the-art Softswitch, broadband data and wireless access products, especially the advanced technology such as Softswitch. Once established, the network is expected to become the world’s first Softswitch nationwide commercial network.

  Following the success of the above projects, ZTE’s NGN solution and equipment have been brought into commercial use for all the Chinese telecom operators and in the international market in countries like Hong Kong SAR (China), Philippines, Thailand, USA, UK, India and Singapore. ZTE’s NGN products have become an industrial pacesetter in terms of technical performance and commercial maturity.

3 Standardization Follow-up
As a key participant in setting China’s Softswitch standards, ZTE has also performed well in standards tracking:

• In May 2000: Joined the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC);
• In June 2000: Participated in establishing national standards relating to Softswitch;
• In January 2002: Together with Beijing Research Institute of China Telecom and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, undertook the "863" project called "Total Softswitch Technologies and Solutions that Support Multimedia and Mobile Services";
• In September 2002: Independently undertook the "863" project called
  "Softswitch System that Supports Multimedia and Mobile Services";
• In 2004: Attended 2004’ Global NGN Summit hosted by the Telecom Research Institute of MII of China, and delivered a speech focusing on NGN evolution trends, services and operation models;
• In 2004: Submitted 24 articles to Focus Group on NGN in ITU-T.
  

4 Strengths of ZTE’s  Softswitch System
What is the design philosophy of Softswitch? According to the prevailing definition in the industry, Softswitch is designed based on the philosophy of separating service from control, and transport from access for various entities to interconnect and communicate with each other over standard protocols. In addition, when we consider the service model, Softswitch isolates service operation from network operation and uses service operation independent of network operators. Geared to the need of NGN development, the basic philosophy and service model of Softswitch can shield details of lower-layer networks, to deliver a broad range of value-added services for users quickly and easily.

  Built on the basic philosophy and service model of Softswitch, ZTE’s Softswitch product series provides a wide range of carrier-class solutions, such as conventional PSTN transformation and optimization solution, multimedia integrated access solution, toll tandem exchange solution, NGN value-added service platform solution as well as wireless access-based Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), 3.5 GHz Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) and CDMA 1x access. It also supports Fiber to the Local Area Network (FTTLAN) access, private network access, Hybrid Fiber/Coax (HFC) network access and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) network access. Also, ZTE’s Softswitch product series can support a wide variety of networking patterns like plane networking, hierarchical networking and inter-domain extension.

  In terms of service development, ZTE provides the Parlay API/OSA-based service management platform and service implementation platform. This eliminates the need for service developers to know the details on communication technologies and protocols. Instead, they are able to compile application programs based on the service control logic. This service architecture allows independent third-party vendors to develop a great variety of service logics using open network capabilities and resources.

  At present, in addition to traditional C4/C5 voice services over PSTN, ZTE’s Softswitch products can provide most sought-after multimedia services, non-multimedia services integrated with the Internet and traditional Intelligent Network (IN) services. For example, ZTE’s Softswitch system can provide a great diversity of multimedia services with ease including synchronous browsing, electronic whiteboard and videophone. When it comes to non-multimedia services integrated with the Internet, ZTE’s Softswitch system has launched new services integrated with traditional data networks like Web 800, Web Call, Web Conference, voice mailbox, Unified Messaging Service (UMS) and a full-featured digital assistant service.

  With the advent of mass NGN applications, operators that spearhead commercial NGN use are bound to gain a competitive edge in the near future thanks to lower operation cost but more value-added services. With many years of R&D experience, strong R&D power and mature applications, ZTE is sure to cut a brilliant figure in the field of NGN.

Manuscript received: 2004-12-10