In telephony, call control refers to the software within a telephone switch that supplies its central function. Call control decodes addressing information and routes telephone calls from one end point to another. It also creates the features that can be used to adapt standard switch operation to the needs of users. These are called supplementary services and are commonly invoked by a Vertical service code. Examples include "Call Waiting", "Call Forward on Busy" etc.
Call control software, because of its central place in the operation of the telephone network, is marked by both complexity and reliability. Call control systems will typically require many thousands of person years in development. They will contain millions of lines of high level code. However they must and do meet reliability requirements that specify switch down time of only a few minutes in forty years.
The required functionality and reliability of call control is a major challenge for Voice over IP (VoIP) systems. VoIP systems are based on Internet standards and technology which have not previously attempted to satisfy such complex and demanding requirements as those that specify call control.
An alternative name often used is call processing.
Famous quotes containing the words call and/or control:
“They call, even if I’m pinned behind bars.
They call, they call their green death call.
They want me. They need me.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real process of thought. Thought’s dictation, free from any control by the reason, independent of any aesthetic or moral preoccupation.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)