Softswitch Multicriteria Analysis for Software Quality based on IPCC Reference Architecture

Quality of service (QoS) is difficult to achieve in modern voice over IP (VoIP) systems because software and hardware have a symbiotic relationship. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of softswitch quality that identifies where higher quality requirements should be enforced when designing or evaluating VoIP solutions. The work is based on the international standard ISO/IEC 9126 and the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) reference architecture. Therefore, it applies to most vendors and architectures regardless the underlying technology. Since the softswitch is fairly complex and involves many software and hardware modules, quality attributes have been analyzed through their functional behavior. This paper provides softswitch vendors and buyers with results that help them make better resource allocation decisions and therefore reduce both their capital and operational expenses