Interview with Anne Kwong, Chief Architect of DeNoVoLab

1- Can you tell me why DENOVOLAB decided to release a freeware version of its high-performance Class 4 switch?

We are the only commercial soft switch vendor that is releasing our software free of charge.  We do this because we see ourselves as software developers and we just want more our work to be benefiting more peoples. It does give us a lot of proud when seeing telecom carriers using our products.  We are offering our free version at http://www.denovolab.com/download.html

2- What is the key differentiator of DENOVOLAB?

Unlike many commercial class 4 switches that are also developing the core switches themselves, we are probably one of the most economical and yet highest performance. We develop the entire switch based on the sofia-sip stack that we modified on.  Also, unlike many low-cost switch vendors are simply using an open source switch wrapped with a user interface, we developed our own core switching and routeing login from the group up.  This has given us much more flexible in developing innovative features and yet keeping our price one of the most affordable in the market.

3- How do you see as your key advantages against your competitors?

First of all, because we developed our switches from scratch.  We understand everything in and out of our switch.  It makes it possible for us to develop new features with more flexibility and shorter time frame. We can continuously optimise the performance of our own code.  There is ultimately nothing that we can’t do with our switch.

Also, since we own the intellectual property of our entire product, we can offer much more competitive pricing and yet maintain a healthy business model ourselves.

4- What is the future direction of DENOVOLAB?

We will be rolling out different business models on top of our core switching technology.  In the product pipelines, we have SDN switch, Cloud switching, API-driven Class 4, Class 4, Call Center, Communication-as-a-service.

We want to apply our switching technology to different segments of the telecommunication market.

5- Can you tell us about DENOVOLAB?

Denovolab started in 2008 as a software company focusing high-performance switch development. We have over 50 implementations worldwide and terminate over 100 million minutes daily of voip traffic in total.

6- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

The core of our development is our switching engine.  We will continue to refine our core technology so that it can switch much higher traffic volume,   higher CPS, lower processing time.  We are exposing our core switch engine with APIs.  We want to work with other software developers to use our core switching technology to build innovative products together with us.  We see ourselves as the core switch engine developers and other developers can use us to develop much more interesting products on top.

7- What were some of your development challenges?

Our biggest challenges are to make our core engine to terminate more traffic and higher density of call volume with smaller hardware footprint.  For example, we have invented a kernel level algorithm that would let carriers to retrieve real-time CDR, SIP capture, and report without additional hardware.  We have built in Big Data analytic capability to our core switch so carriers can perform real-time reporting without a separate reporting database or engine.

8- What do you see as today industry trends?

Many telecom carriers are making less money due to a widespread use of Whatsapp, Skype, and similar App.  There is less volume of overall call traffic has significantly decreased.

Many telecom carriers are making less profit and therefore, they need a lower cost solution to terminate traffic.   This has given us, Denovolab, the opportunity to outperform our competitors in the market.  This is because we offer the highest price/value ratio products in the market.  Our core switch is not only more affordable but also our performance exceeds most of the higher cost commercial alternatives out there in the market.

9- What do you see the future of DENOVOLAB Class 4 Switch?

The future of Class 4 Switch is with automation and artificial intelligence.  We now have a team of software scientists developing a new suite of the automation solution. For example, Our new switch engine version 7 will have the capability of identifying and repairing routing issues.

10- What is DENOVOLAB’s business strategy?

In 2017, we will be rolling out cloud switching solution.  This cloud solution will further lower the cost of operating the switch.  At the same time, we can translate cost saving to lower fee to our clients.

We believe in giving out software for FREE.

DeNovoLab will also be releasing more FREE tool that is meant to serve as a way to give back to the industry and benefit everyone.  We are launching a portal that has rate generation, auto route test, CDR comparison, and LRN dipping all offered free of charge.