Can a Class 4 softswitch really run in the cloud?  This was a question I got at Mobile World Congress from a prospect because he was questioning whether a core telecom infrastructure node can actually run in the Cloud / AWS. The answer is yes, for sure - the networks have improved so much, and AWS has been running many mission critical, latency critical apps outside of telecom that a switch can certainly run in AWS. In fact, we have made the Dialogic NGN Softswitch and IMS MGCF (Dialogic ControlSwitch System) run on AWS and have already sold it and deployed it with customers.

Remember as a kid your TV show or radio broadcast being interrupted by an announcement, “this test of the Emergency Broadcast System,” followed by the squeal of a test tone?  Reverse 911 has essentially made that old system obsolete – what is Reverse 911 and how does it work? 

I was recently talking to STL Partners / Telco 2.0 and we had a discussion about service providers now facing the similar disruption from over-the-top (OTT) players in enterprise communications as they saw with consumers. It’s an interesting issue. The “bring your own” app phenomenon has started, and enterprises are starting to see their  employees bringing WhatsApp and WeChat to the office to use for work, similar to how I brought non-enterprise Skype to the office to use. 

Mobile World Congress is right around the corner. Once again, Dialogic will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress on Feb 27 to March 2 in Hall 6 B62. We’ve prepared some exciting demos featuring our PowerVille Applications, media processing enabling technology, and innovative capabilities from our Dialogic Applications Lab that bring together real-time communications and IoT. We’ll also be  hosting a developer’s meet up and will be participating in the MWC IoT Tour. Here are some details on what we’re doing at Mobile World Congress this year.

If you keep up to date with the latest innovations in communications technology, ITEXPO has always been one of the places to learn, meet key vendors, and network.  With a regular winter event in southern Florida every year, it’s hard to say “no” to attending.  This year did not disappoint, especially with the addition of a co-located Internet of Things (IoT) event and even more to see and experience during your trip to Florida.  A few key observations:

Service Providers don’t just provide services to consumer subscribers like you and me.  Service providers also provide a lot of services to enterprises. And the revenue derived from these services, such as text messaging, other messaging, and voice services, has declined as data usage has soared, the same trend they saw with consumer subscribers. 

Back in April, I wrote a blog about LTE subscription growth and ended that blog with “by the end of 2020, half of all mobile connections will NOT be LTE.  In fact, in 2015, 3G still grew.”  On June 9^th, the GSA put a press release out about LTE, but that press release also contained the words “3G/HSPA subscriptions grew by 48 million” in Q1 2016.  So even though all we hear about is LTE these days, 3G remains important.

With legacy circuit-switched equipment rapidly reaching retirement age, telecom service providers around the globe are focused on evolving to all-IP networks utilizing SIP and Diameter signaling, and additionally, on migrating to virtualized and cloud-based platforms. With compelling advantages that range from opex and capex cost savings to multimedia applications and service portability, all-IP Next Gen and IMS networks certainly do represent a big leap forward from the installed base of circuit-switched networks that rely on Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocols and Signaling Transfer Point (STP) switches for end-to-end connectivity.

However, despite the many compelling advantages of all-IP broadband networks, it would be premature to declare SS7 and STP’s “dead”.

How would you feel if while trying to pay some bills, you found your bank’s web site overloaded, slow, or down?   Online business applications have become the primary means of providing services to consumers, so reliability of those applications is not optional. This was the topic of discussion during a recent Frost and Sullivan and Dialogic webinar.

It’s exciting times in the world of communications as technologies and our daily usage patterns evolve.  This is most apparent when considering the Dialogic PowerVille Load Balancer (LB) which rides in tandem with the ever evolving demands placed on it by its leading edge customers and partners.  It’s a tough ‘Act’ to follow and provides a key indicator into the future direction that solution designers must take if they want to stay ahead of the curve and deliver on the promise that is being widely touted by our industry.