Softswitch

A switch usually means a device (hardware) used to break or open an electric circuit or to divert current from one conductor to another. Now this work used to be carried out by hardware can be done by software too. This behaviour achieved by software is called a softswitch.

A Softswitch is typically used to control connections at the junction point between circuit and packet networks. A single device containing both the switching logic and the switching fabric can be used for this purpose; however, modern technology has led to a preference for decomposing this device into a Softswitch (containing the logic used to correctly connect incoming and outgoing ports in order to make end-to-end connections) a Media Gateway (that actually contains the incoming/outgoing ports and the switch fabric in between them). Well known manufacturers of Softswitches include Lucent, Nortel, Siemens, Sonus, Alcatel, Santera, and Cisco.