Softswitch : Architecture for VoIP (Professional Telecom)

Rating:
Summary: Softswitch : Architecture for VoIP
Review: "FINALLY, someone has taken the time and effort to define softswitch and lay out the architecture for a VoIP replacement of the PSTN. Author Ohrtman goes into painstaking detail to overcome the usual objections to VoIP in general and softswitch in particular, that is: reliability ("five 9s"), scalability,
Quality of Service, features and applicaitons and signaling. Not only does this book lay out the technical details of this revolutionary/evolutionary technology, but the author also delves into the economics and politics of softswitch and VoIP. This book is both a snapshot of the telecom infrastructure of today as well as explaining how the PSTN will be replaced by an all-IP network. No serious telecommunications professional should be without this book!

Rating:
Summary: A very effective introduction
Review: Finally a book from a known publishing house about softswitch. The book is about the definition, need and scope of the softswitch from both a technical and economic perspective. The piece dealing with the current trend and the future market is particularly well written. Highly recommended to the newbies as well as to the know-it-all folks of softswitch world.

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Summary: Softswitch at your own risk!
Review: I got this book because the book claims to evaluate softswitch advantages as a Class 4 replacement. I work for a telecommunications company and one of our projects was to expand our long distance capability at the lowest costs possible. We evaluated the softswitches out there and determined the technology had not matured enough to replace hardware switches.

This book does explain the architecture and protocols, and for many SOHO's out there, it is a viable alternative. However, this book is deceptive in claiming that there is no reason not to immediately migrate from circuit switched Class 4 to a softswitch Class 4. After reading this book I believed that only configuration errors would stop migration, but my personal experience differs from the author.

I have experience to know that the softswitch products out there are either good for small scale migrations or as a MUX between real circuit switch hardware. Claims of Class 4 replacements are vaporware.

Because this book was the first one about softswitch does not make this a 5 star book. There is better white pages out there and sales literature that is better, and more realistic, than this book. I think the 5 star reviews are either shills or someone who has not read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Did I just buy a sales presentation?
Review: It was not until after I purchased this book and started to read it did I discover that the author "has many years experience in sales of VoIP and softswitch platforms." It shows. This book does not read like a major reference and learning tool, but more like a sales seminar only to answer potential customer's objections on softswitch technology.

I am a senior technician in a major telecommunications company. I have worked on several softswitch platforms from several vendors. I have hands-on experience in both the lab and live environments, and was hoping this book to be a valuable resource on softswitch technology.

There is a bullet point on the cover of the book, "Risks and payoffs" so I anticipated real world failings of softswitch issues and techniques to overcome them. Only minor theoretical "risks" are identified but quickly dismissed with a "car salesman" answer. Nothing substantial at all.

The book is adequate in discussing the protocols used in the VoIP and SIP environments. It is far lacking in the real world application of these protocols. It also fails in the argument that softswitch products are currently are as reliable as any major class 4/5 switch available. On a similiar vein, it appears that the figures used in the economic value chapter are best guesstimates of a salesman, not real world success stories. I can give the author several examples, one being a major US university, of organizations that attempted to migrate to softswitch, and pulled back after it was determined to be a major loss with no end in sight. They pulled back and remained with the legacy system.

In their current state, I would not dare replace my most important class 5 offices with a softswitch. For the near future, the 5ESS, DMS, or even the AXE are far superior products in providing class 5 services. This book could be a valuable reference if the hype was balanced with a more realistic assessment of current softswitch offerings.

I finished this book feeling like I watched a football game, but instead of listening to the professional analysis from the play-by-play announcer, the audio was fed in from the cheerleading squad.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good value
Review: Mr. Ohrtman spends much of the book to argue his case for VOIP rather than discussions of how it works and how it interfaces with the PSTN. The technical discussions, especially for the local loop alternatives, were very basic and not of much value.

Rating:
Summary: Repetition is the Key for this book
Review: The book can be interesting for anyone wants a first contact with Voip technology, however, the constant repetitions in the text, such as the countless mentions of the "Lucent 5ESS 3500 features", the "Clayton Christiensen axiom" and many others, make reading this book an extremely boring experience. I estimate that a basic review of the text for a second edition, can cut off roughly 10% of the text (and hopefully, the price too).

Rating:
Summary: This book pulls no analytical punches...
Review: This is the book that traditional switchmakers like AT&T, Nortel, Ericsson, Siemens and Alcatel and LECs like Verizon and QWest don't want you to read. Softswitch poses a highly disruptive threat to telecom monopolies. This book pulls no analytical punches in pointing out how the array of softswitch technologies (Class 4 and 5 replacement, IP Centrex, and IP-PBX) provide a lower barrier to entry to the service provider market and how this technology saves existing service providers in terms of OAM&P. If legacy telephone companies want to survive into the next decade, they must learn the lessons contained in this book.

Rating:
Summary: This book pulls no analytical punches...
Review: This is the book that traditional switchmakers like AT&T, Nortel, Ericsson, Siemens and Alcatel and LECs like Verizon and QWest don't want you to read. Softswitch poses a highly disruptive threat to telecom monopolies. This book pulls no analytical punches in pointing out how the array of softswitch technologies (Class 4 and 5 replacement, IP Centrex, and IP-PBX) provide a lower barrier to entry to the service provider market and how this technology saves existing service providers in terms of OAM&P. If legacy telephone companies want to survive into the next decade, they must learn the lessons contained in this book.

Rating:
Summary: This book pulls no analytical punches...
Review: This is the book that traditional switchmakers like AT&T, Nortel, Ericsson, Siemens and Alcatel and LECs like Verizon and QWest don't want you to read. Softswitch poses a highly disruptive threat to telecom monopolies. This book pulls no analytical punches in pointing out how the array of softswitch technologies (Class 4 and 5 replacement, IP Centrex, and IP-PBX) provide a lower barrier to entry to the service provider market and how this technology saves existing service providers in terms of OAM&P. If legacy telephone companies want to survive into the next decade, they must learn the lessons contained in this book.

Rating:
Summary: The only reference for softswitch
Review: We get a lot of inquiries from our corporate customers asking if and how they should transition to VoIP. Usually, we send them a copy of this book and we always get the contract to switch over the customer to a VoIP infrastructure. This book has done wonders for our business.