VoIP industry uses various VoIP solutions to keep various businesses running. One of the most widely used VoIP solutions is a class 4 softswitch. It is also popularly known as class 4 switch, wholesale VoIP Softswitch, wholesale softswitch, and wholesale switch. One can refer to this solution via any name.
Traditionally, class 4 softswitch was used only to route wholesale VoIP traffic, specifically, calls from one location to another. This is the reason it is called wholesale Softswitch. However, modern class 4 switch supports many more functionalities and empower wholesale VoIP businesses as well as benefit them in multiple ways.
Depending on the provider, a class 4 softswitch can support different functionalities. We will talk about the top 4 functionalities that must be supported by the class 4 switch to get a hold on the operations.
- Call routing of wholesale call traffic
Yes, class 4 switch supports various functionalities, but it cannot stop supporting its core functionality which is call routing. In fact, modern day wholesale softswitch is more robust and can handle more calls. It can also provide different call routing strategies that were not available earlier or still not available in some class 4 softswitch solutions. Below is the list of call routing rules that your softswitch must have:
- Least cost routing (LCR)
- Prefix based call routing
- Lossless routing
- CLI and Non-CLI based call routing
- Priority based call routing
- Cost based call routing
- Security
Yes, this is very important and one of the must have features in the class 4 softswitch. As it handles wholesale traffic, the loss and damage due to hacking or failure are high. In fact, there are many cases in which class 4 switch is getting hacked and providers need to face the big loss of money and reputation. Thus, it is necessary for a class 4 switch to have security functionality. It must have the capability of fraud detection. It must detect unusual activities and take immediate actions to prevent the system from getting compromised.
- Billing
Nowadays, VoIP billing has become an inseparable part of a class 4 softswitch. It is one of the must have functionality in the VoIP wholesale softswitch. As this switch handles traffic in wholesale, its billing process has to be automatic. Adding human resources in taking care of billing manually would not only be time consuming, but it can also be inaccurate sometimes as data is in bulk. Thus, it is necessary to get a class 4 softswitch that supports billing and that also completely automatic.
- Compatibility
This is one of the best functionalities offered by the modern class 4 switch. It supports features like protocol conversion and transcoding. It also supports all different protocols, codecs, etc. Thus, its users can work with systems that use different protocols or codecs. This helps in providing compatibility between different systems.
Conclusion
These are the top 4 functionalities that are offered by the modern class 4 softswitch solution. You must get a wholesale switch that offers these functionalities and more. However, not less than this!