Updated on February 27, 2018 by John Clarke
For over a decade, Ohio.net has been changing and expanding services to keep up with the latest industry technology. This time, we’re rolling out our very own industry first: Software Defined Trunking.
Software Defined Trunking is our newest phone system solution for multi-location businesses, designed to be both cost effective and resource efficient. Instead of each location having its own phone lines, a pool of lines is available (from the cloud) to all locations.
If you aren’t yet taking advantage of Cloud Telephone Technology, don’t think this isn’t for you. This process works for both cloud and traditional systems, which we will discuss further on.
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Old Concept, New Use
You know how we said Software Defined Trunking was a new thing? Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s modeled off of a similar process used internally by phone companies every day: tandem switching. We’re just taking this concept and applying it at the customer level.
How Software Defined Trunking is like Tandem Switching
A tandem is a switch located at the central office of a telephone company; it does not directly connect to other telephones or PBX’s, but rather routes calls between other carrier switches.
Traditionally, when an outbound call is made it doesn’t take a direct route through the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), but rather tandem switching occurs to pass the call from switch to switch until it reaches the correct destination. In this way, Switches provide resource management when connecting to upstream carriers or the PSTN.
Typically, telephone carriers treat every location as a distinctly separate endpoint and do not provide the ability to share resources. But with Software Defined Trunking, we remove the necessity for excess lines by implementing an “economy of scale” trunking model.
Much like tandem switching, Software Defined Trunking eliminates geographic and call routing restrictions. Let us show you how.
So what does tandem switching look like at the customer level?
Let’s say a company has 50 locations, and each location has 20 phone lines. That makes for a grand total of 1,000 phone lines. (Grand = 1,000. See what we did there?)
Will the company ever being using all 1,000 phone lines at any given time? Very unlikely. Yet, they are paying for this number of lines because, individually, a location may use up its 20 available lines—resulting in busy signals, delays in call completion, annoyed customers, etc.
Instead of a number of phone lines allocated to each separate location, a pool of lines, as said before, is available to use between all locations. This method provides an optimal use of resources across multi-location even when delivering POT’s or PRI service.
Now, our company with 50 locations has only 500 phone lines all of which are available from a single cloud system. When any of the company’s locations makes or receives a phone call, the call goes directly to the pool of lines on the cloud, which recognizes the location and passes the call on accordingly. This ensures that each location has open lines as needed, while still retaining phone numbers and DID (Direct In Dial) lines specific to each location.
The Benefits of Software Defined Trunking
The benefits here are obvious. Not only is the company no longer paying for duplicated resources, but the simplified structure is easy to manage and service. Another benefit is the ease of making changes to the system. Since phone lines are all in a single cloud location, increasing/reducing the trunk capacity and adding/removing DIDs is quick and streamlined.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming post which will dive deeper into the benefits of Software Defined Trunking.
Traditional or Cloud Application?
While many new features emerging for phone systems are geared towards enhancing the VoIP or “cloud” experience, our new system benefits companies still using traditional phone services, too.
With Software Defined Trunking, phone lines are hosted in the cloud, yet because this is a SIP-based technology capable of emulating other line types, it can support both traditional phone lines (POTS) or PRI, as well as IP-based phone systems utilizing SIP trunking. So no matter which your company is currently utilizing, you can reap the benefits of Software Defined Trunking without the cost expense of upgrading your equipment.
Ready to take advantage of our unique offering?
If your business has multiple locations, chances are there is a discrepancy between your allocated resources and actual usage. We’re already helping companies take efficiency to the next level by providing an innovative, cost effective solution.
This is a new thing, so we’re sure you have questions. Want to learn more about how Software Defined Trunking works and how it can work for your business? Contact us to set up a time to talk.
