SBC For Dummies PDF

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Session Border
Controllers
3rd Sonus Special Edition
by Kevin Riley and Mohan Palat
These materials are 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book......................................................................... 2
Icons Used inThis Book............................................................. 2
Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They

Protect Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Looking atthe SBCs Role.......................................................... 4
Understanding theNeed forSBCs............................................ 6
Stopping Attacks withan SBC................................................... 7
IPv6 is Here.................................................................................. 9
Why Not Other Options?............................................................ 9
Chapter 2: Identifying the Key Requirements

of an SBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Normalizing SIP......................................................................... 11
Transcoding Calls..................................................................... 12
Dealing withNAT Traversal..................................................... 14
Fax and Tone Detection........................................................... 16
Multimedia (Video) Support.................................................... 16
Performance, Scalability, Resiliency...................................... 17
Chapter 3: Virtualizing the SBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Understanding Why Virtualization is Such a Big Deal......... 19
Whats a Virtual Software SBC?............................................... 21
Looking atthe Benefits ofa Virtual Software SBC................ 21
Knowing What toLook forIn a Virtual Software SBC........... 22
Chapter 4: Deploying SBCs in Different

Environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
SBC inUC................................................................................... 23
SBCs inthe Contact Center...................................................... 24
SBC inthe Enterprise............................................................... 26
SBC inthe Wireless World....................................................... 27
SBC inIMS Networks................................................................ 28
SBC inWebRTC......................................................................... 29
iv
Chapter 5: Multimedia Matters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Video Should Just Work........................................................ 31
Adding Value toVideo with SBCs........................................... 34
Chapter 6: Saving Money with an SBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Benefitting fromOne-Stop Management................................ 35
Keeping theRevenue Flowing withRedundancy.................. 36
Saving withOne Box Instead ofMany Devices..................... 36
Saving Costs witha Virtual Software SBC.............................. 37
Saving Money withIntelligent Policy..................................... 38
Looking atCase Study Examples............................................ 38
Chapter 7: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus SBC . . . . . . . 41

Local Policy Configuration....................................................... 41
Networked Policy Management.............................................. 41
Peak Performance..................................................................... 42
Supports High-Level Transcoding.......................................... 42
Security fromAttacks............................................................... 42
Advanced Media Support........................................................ 43
Optimized Customer Firmware............................................... 43
Plays Well withOthers............................................................. 43
Scales withoutImpacting Performance................................. 44
The Software SBC...................................................................... 44
Introduction
odays business communications no longer just consist of

voice calls and email but now are a mix of video conferencing,
instant messaging, fax, data sharing, and presence management applications. Even voice calls are not only from legacy
Privately-Switched Telephone Network/Time Delay Multiplex
(PSTN/TDM) systems but also from Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) and mobile data networks. Fortunately, one
protocol binds all these forms of communication into a single
stream of communication data.
The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used

to establish a communication session between parties. This
combination of disparate communications media combined
into a single stream of data is commonly referred to as Unified
Communications (UC). SIP makes a UC happen by establishing
and controlling a session between parties. This session may
include voice, instant messaging, and data sharing application
data combined. SIP ensures the data travel from sender to
receiver efficiently even though each type of communication
uses its own protocol for data transfer.
As powerful as SIP is, it isnt without challenges that include
differences in implementation between device vendors and
the security issues involved when transporting data across
the Internet. But, Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd
Sonus Special Edition, is here to help with timely information
about session border controllers (SBCs)devices designed
to control the calls (or videoconferencing or other media)
coming in and out of an enterprises or service providers SIP
network, while also handling the signaling and media intermediation and translation required to make the SIP service work
smoothly all the time.
About This Book

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special
Edition, is a nontechnical book for business decision makers
looking to understand the role of an SBC in their VoIP networks. If you want to figure out whether an SBC can provide
features that your business and your network need, well,
youve come to the right place.
Icons Used inThis Book

This book calls out important bits of information with icons
on the left margins of the page. Youll find four such icons in
this book:

The Tip icon points out a bit of information that aids in your
understanding of a topic or provides a little bit of extra information that may save you time, money, and a headache.
Pay attention to the Remember icon because it points out

parts of the text to lock away in your memory for future use.
Watch out! This information tells you to steer clear of things

that may cost you big bucks, are time suckers, or are just bad
SBC practices.
We try to keep the hardcore techie stuff to a bare minimum.

You dont need to know these factoids to get the most out of
the book, but they may come in handy.
Chapter 1
Discovering SBCs and How

They Protect Your Network
In This Chapter
Discovering the role of the SBC
Understanding why enterprises and service providers need SBCs
Using an SBC to stop security attacks
Learning how SBCs work with IPv6
Looking at alternative options
ts far from breaking news to say that telecommunications

are vital to just about every type of business out there.
Whether a business is extremely technologically s ophisticated
or at the opposite end of the spectrum, activities such as
phone calls, email, electronic financial transactions, video
conferencing, file backups, or accessing customer service
records on a remote server are going to be part of the
day-to-day business goings-on. Business telecommunications
no longer means just voice calls. Bundling communications
services use Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology
and networks, and are commonly referred to as Unified
Communications (UC).
Ultimately, unless you own a very small blacksmith shop in an
even smaller village, your business relies on telecommunications
in one form or another. In this chapter, we introduce the session
border controller (SBC) technology thats designed to help enable
and secure important parts of any businesss telecommunications
infrastructure.
Looking atthe SBCs Role

An SBC controls a SIP network by admitting (or not admitting)
and then directing communications between two end devices
on the network, like a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
call between two phones, or the connection between the web
browser on your iPad and the web server youre accessing.
These communications are called sessions. A video call
between two devices is also handled in a similar way. The
SBC does this session controlling at the point where traffic is
handed off from one network to another (called the border).
Because of where the SBC fits in the network, it can be usefully implemented by both businesses themselves and also by
the service providers who serve them.
SIP network owners face constant threats to the security of
their networks and businesses. In addition, they must make
their networks as secure as possible while providing the high
level of efficiency that their customers demand. This is where
SBC really earns its keep. In this section, you look at the main
functions and roles of the SBC.
Securing thenetwork

An SBC protects and secures the network, and its built from
the ground up to eliminate spoofing attacks, denial-of-service
attacks, and toll fraud. The SBC secures the network by
Hiding the topology (or architecture) of the network,

making it difficult or impossible for bad actors to gain
access to vulnerable parts of the network
Enabling encryption that prevents communications from

being illegally intercepted or tampered with
Detecting and preventing denial-of-service (DoS) attacks

before they can impair network performance
Enabling SIP Trunking

SIP is a signaling protocol, developed in the 1990s by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF), designed to carry voice, data,
and video transmissions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks
rather than on Privately-Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs),
which were the primary communications networks at the time.
Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They Protect Your Network
SIP Trunking is a service delivered via SIP that allows a private

branch exchange (PBX) system, which is the multiline phone
system used by businesses, to aggregate multiple calls,
screen shares, or videoconferences over an IP connection. SIP
Trunking saves money by allowing a shared data connection
to handle voice and related traffic for an enterprise or service
provider instead of relying on expensive, dedicated voice and
data lines. In fact, typical savings from SIP Trunking, trunking
consolidation, and the move to VoIP and UC can reduce traditional enterprise telecom bills by 75 percent. Additionally, the
SBC can provide secured access to that SIP Trunking service,
so an enterprise can maintain security while saving money.
Interconnecting withtopology
hiding and protocol translation
While security and cost savings (through SIP Trunking,
covered in the preceding section) are a huge deal when
it comes to deciding to deploy an SBC, another factor is
equally important: providing a smooth experience in terms of
interconnecting and interworking between different networks
and the protocols running over them.
Specifically, the SBC performs tasks such as

Dealing with SIP variants: SIP is one protocol with

a million little variants as different vendors implement it.
The SBC can translate these variants between devices
(a process known as SIP normalization, covered in more
detail in Chapter2) so calls get through with all their
features intact without a hiccup.
Translating protocols: Different UC solutions may utilize

different audio codecs and other protocols that arent
completely supported on both sides of the session. The
SBC knows all these protocols and can translate between
them on the fly.
Acting assession traffic cop

The SBC is the gatekeeper to the SIP network in an enterprise
or in a service provider network. UC is an example of a SIP
network. In its role, the SIP network performs a task known as
session admissions control, which is the process of determining

who has access to the network. The SBC is the traffic cop of a
SIP network, keeping your SIP h
ighways safe and orderly and
creating and accessing three listswhitelists, blacklists, and
greylists. More on these lists in the section List monitoring.
Centralized policy management

In larger deployments, where multiple SBCs are installed at
multiple network borders, the task of individually configuring
policies on all SBCs can be tedious and expensive. An alternative
to localized policy control is further centralization by using
a master policy server that can propagate a single set of policy
rules (and policy rule changes) to each SBC on the network
without requiring an expensive IT professional to manually
configure each one.
Understanding theNeed
forSBCs
SBCs were first deployed primarily within service provider
networks. SBCs ensure that UC data are properly routed
between network providers, that differing protocols are
understood so the call can be delivered across different
networks, and that calls are secured.
As UC has become more common, the SBC is useful in more
places in the network, including at the border between an
enterprises network and the carriers. The most talked about
driver for the adoption of the SBC is security. VoIP (as well
as other session-oriented applications) is an application that
by its very nature is exposed to devices and networks that
are out of the control of an enterprise or a network provider.
VoIP isnt like traditional telephony where a very highly
circumscribed set of devices, protocols, and private networks
are involved in the process of placing and carrying calls.
In the old days when you placed a phone call (via landline
or cellular), the call was placed on an approved device and
carried across the private phone company network.

Like other IP applications, VoIP is carried over public

etworksoften across several public networksand calls
n
can be initiated or completed on devices, such as personal
computers (PCs) or smartphones, by using VoIP apps that
arent under the control and regulation of the phone company.

This fact leaves the VoIP world considerably more vulnerable
to the same kinds of malicious and fraudulent security threats
that any Internet service faces.

Some common types of attacks are as follows:
Service theft and fraud: When a hacker (or organized

group of hackers) accesses an inadequately secured VoIP
system to route traffic across the network without paying
for it; hackers use up network resources without paying
for them and often enterprises or service providers end
up paying for the unauthorized toll charges.
Spoofing: When people deliberately modify or disguise

their identities (for example, caller ID phone numbers)
on the network; may occur to intercept calls intended for
another (legitimate) party or simply in order to confuse
or annoy.
Denial-of-service (DoS)/Distributed denial-of-service

(DDoS) attacks: Seek to flood a server or SBC with
requests in order to take it out of commission; DoS
attacks typically originate from a single point/user, while
DDoS attacks can involve sometimes hundreds or even
thousands of zombified computers (known collectively
as a botnet, for robot network).
Registration storms: When thousands or millions of devices

attempt to register with the SIP server all at once in a UC
network; can also occur for non-malicious reasons.
Stopping Attacks withan SBC

Networks are increasingly subjected to both malicious and
fraudulent attacks. The common attacks of service theft and
fraud, DoS, DDoS, spoofing, and registration storms can be
dealt with through SBCs. So what tools should an SBC bring to
the table to defeat these attacks? This section tells you.
Media and signaling encryption

This approach applies cryptographic scrambling, called
encryption, to both the signaling SIP and media (voice, video,
IM, and so on) portion of the call. Encryption provides more
than just scrambled data; it also relies on an authentication

mechanisma way of identifying that a client is who it says
it is. This authentication happens when a client has the proper
half of a secret key, known only by that client. A properly implemented encryption system means that malicious parties cant
eavesdrop on VoIP calls, videoconferences, and other SIP-based
communications. UC communications are typically secured by
TLS or IPSEC encryption algorithms.
Dynamic pinholing
A pinhole is a port opened in a firewall designed to allow an
application to access the network. Leaving a port opened for a
long period of time enables security breaches by unauthorized
applications. SBCs can create pinholes programmatically and
leave them open for only a short period of time to minimize
security exposure. SBCs can then re-open ports as needed for
trusted applications to send and receive data.
Topology hiding withB2BUA

A back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) system controls SIP calls
by a logical or virtual proxy configured for the call. This agent
sets up the pathways across the network for both signaling and
data. B2BUA causes all signal and media traffic to run through
the SBC and hides the topology, or architecture, of the network
so clients arent shown things like private IP addresses of
servers and devices in the network. The net result is a network
thats easily accessible to clients for making and receiving calls,
but the innards of the network are effectively invisible, which
makes them less vulnerable to attack.
List monitoring
The SBCs policy management system monitors incoming
requests and calls, uses rules to identify people who are and
arent abusing network resources, and maintains certain lists:

Whitelists: People and devices that always have access

to the network
Blacklists: People and devices that never have access to

the network.
Greylists: People and devices that sometimes have

access to the network
IPv6 is Here
The IP variant that has powered the world through the Internet
revolution for the past 20 years or so has an issue, and its a big
one. IPv4, the first version, has a limited number of IP addresses.
IPv6 increases the address space of IP from 32 to 128 bits, which
means that there are potentially more than 3 billion, billion,
billion, billion IP addresses available in IPv6hopefully enough
for another 30 years, at least!
Not all networks themselves are going to support IPv6 at the
same time. When two clients want to communicate and one is
on an IPv4 network and the other on IPv6, something needs to
get in the middle and help them communicate. These issues
can be solved by an SBC in two ways:

An SBC can be dual stacked, meaning it contains the

network stack software (the basic network protocol software suite) for both IPv4 and IPv6. The SBC can communicate by using both versions of IP and can connect to an
IPv6-only smartphone by using IPv6 while connecting to
an IPv4 server by using IPv4.
The SBC can act as an interworking agent between an

IPv4 network and an IPv6 network. In this case, the SBC
(which, of course, sits at the network border) can translate all traffic flowing between an IPv4 and an IPv6 network on the fly, as it crosses the network border.
Why Not Other Options?

Alternate options to the SBC do exist, so in this section, you
explore two alternative scenarios to having an SBC.
VPN tunneling
Pretty much all enterprise and carrier IT professionals are
old hands at implementing virtual private networks (VPNs),
which are private and secured network connections carved
out of a shared or public telecommunications facility (like an
Internet connection) by using encryption and authentication.
Theoretically, all the traffic in a VPN connection flows over a
10

cryptographic tunnel (the virtual private connection on the
public/shared network) without being seen or accessed by
those who arent authenticated users. This allows branch
offices or telecommuters access to shared enterprise network
resources or even within a service providers network to
offer private networking services to customers over shared
facilities.
A VPN can cause trouble when theres a need to look inside

the packets encapsulated in the VPN to route calls and
provide services. VoIP packets must be decrypted and acted
onremoving the end-to-end encryption element that keeps
a VPN secure. With an SBC with Secure Real-Time Transport
Protocol (SRTP) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), you get a
high level of security between the border controller and the
target device. Because the session is encrypted, its thought
to have better security than possible on the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN).
Data firewalls
Every carrier or enterprise network has at least one type of
data firewall device installed at the edges of the network,
designed to allow only appropriate traffic to reach within the
network. Firewalls are great at keeping unauthorized users off
your file servers or even deflecting attacks on your web server.

Theoretically, a data firewall can be configured to allow

the opening of communications channels that allow VoIP
sessions to pass through the network and on to appropriate
clients within the network. The problem is that VoIP (and UC)
sessions are exceedingly dynamic. Calls are set up and taken
down frequently and in large numbers. Additional services are
added during the middle of a call (for example, when someone
begins to IM another user during a conference call, or when
someone shares a picture or video during a voice call).
Typically a data firewall just isnt set up to handle this kind of
dynamic service provisioning, nor is it particularly VoIP- and
SIP-savvy. The result is that a firewall tends to be opened up
too much when its used to provide VoIP security, with ports
being left open when they arent currently in use. Without the
B2BUA that an SBC provides, intruders are more likely to use
those open ports to gain access to parts of your network that
you dont want them near.
Chapter 2
Identifying the Key

Requirements of an SBC
In This Chapter
Understanding SIP and call transcoding
Learning NAT traversal
Using multimedia support
heres more than just security to the role of a session

border controller (SBC). In fact, many in the industry say
that its the security that causes customers to become interested in the SBC, but its the other functionality that really
makes the sale. This other functionality is all about SBCs
making Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and Unified
Communications (UC) sessions work in situations where they
may otherwise not work, and beyond that, SBCs make all VoIP
and UC services simply work better.
What does it take for an SBC to do this? The functions discussed in the following sections are the essentials.
Normalizing SIP
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the primary protocol that
makes the connection between two endpoints and closes the
connection when the call is finished. At the most basic level,
SIP is the VoIP equivalent of the dialing tones that directed
old-fashioned analog calls to the right switches and across
the private phone network. The use of SIP is critical to the
capability of disparate network topologies from different
vendors to be able to communicate with each other.
12

SIP is a communications standard authored by a global community of engineers known as the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF). The standard, however, is more of a series of
recommendations and suggestions on how SIP should be
implemented. The actual SIP implementations are left up to
individual engineers and vendors, resulting in a multiplicity
of SIP variations that are technically in compliance with published SIP standards but not necessarily compliant with one
another.
There are enough variations in SIP that sometimes two systems connecting to each other using SIP find that they arent
really speaking the same language. The basics are all there
but with differing syntax and dialects in what otherwise
appears to be a common language (kind of like American
English versus British English). Theres just enough
difference to cause confusion. When two people are talking,
that confusion can be overcome by context or by a simple
huh? But when two machines are talking, that simply isnt
going to happen.
An SBCat least a useful onemust be able to speak all the

different dialects of SIP and do on-the-fly translations in both
directions. So if a call is crossing a border between a system
using Dialect X and another system using Dialect Y, the SBC is
required to find the parts of Dialect X and Y that dont quite
match up and convert them back and forth as the call moves
across the SBC. Its not rocket science in concept, but its hard
to do, and the best SBCs make the whole process transparent
and seamless.
Transcoding Calls
The SBCs jobor at least an SBC worth its saltis to
transcode, or change, codecs as sessions pass through
the SBC. The SBC knows which codecs are supported on
each side of the network border and is required, using a
combination of software and special-purpose digital signal
processors (DSPs), to decode and then re-encode the voice
or video signal as it crosses the network border.
Many codecsthe encode/decode algorithms that compress
voice and other signals (like video streaming across the network
in a videoconferencing environment)are in use in various VoIP
Chapter 2: Identifying the Key Requirements of an SBC
13
and UC systems. UC is the beyond voice variant of VoIP, where

things like video conferencing, screen sharing, and instant messaging (IM) are delivered over the VoIP network platform.
Low- and high-bandwidth video and voice codecs are
designed differently to work on various devices:

Computers and tablet devices
Dedicated VoIP phones
Mobile devices (smartphones and iPhones)

In a VoIP call (or any session-based communication, for that
matter), there are always differing capabilities to support
codecs. So if an enterprises private branch exchange (PBX)
supports one specific codec and the incoming call from an
important customer is using a different codec, the SBC will
understand both codecs and, in real time and in both directions, modify the codec as the call passes through it.
Some codecs may simply not be implemented on a device for
a mixture of reasons:
Because the developers havent gotten around to it yet
Because the software licensing fee is too high
Because the device has a relatively slow CPU and cant

handle the codec computationally
Transcoding frequently comes into play in two specific
instances covered in this section.
HD Voice
The sound quality of voice calls in general has taken a step
backwards over the years as convenience (mobile) and economics (VoIP) have caused a movement away from traditional
landline phones. A new effort called High-Definition (HD) Voice
has been brewing in the industry for a few years with a goal
of reproducing a greater range of frequencies at higher clarity
(known as a wideband codec) instead of traditional narrowband codecs (so called because they cut off both the top and
bottom frequencies normally found in a persons voice).
14

The result is a voice call thats easier on the ears and that lets
you actually tell whos talking (handy during a conference
call, huh?). Its like moving from AM radio to CD (or, for the
modern music buffs out there, to lossless music codecs).
But theres a gotcha to HD Voicetheres no one single

implementation of the service and no one single codec in use
by every HD Voice-capable system, but having an appropriate
SBC in the middle of the call (one with robust transcoding
capabilities) solves the problem. The SBC can transcode and
keep the call HD all the way (but theres a lot of software and
hardware doing some heavy lifting behind the scenes).
Bandwidth restrictions
As much as you may like to have limitless bandwidth available to you, wherever you are (and personally, wed prefer it
to be very inexpensive too), thats simply not always the case.
Sometimes a call is made to someone whos connected to a
mobile network outside of not only 4G but also even 3G coverage. Other times, a call is made to a person in a home office
with a dial-up connection or someone using a spotty hotel
Wi-Fi connection.

Bandwidth cant always be taken for granted across the entire

network portion of an SIP call, videoconference, or screen
sharing session. There are codecs available that trade fidelity
and audio/video quality for greater compressionthereby
using less bandwidth.
You may not want to default to these low-fidelity codecs all
the time, but sometimes theyre necessary over at least part
of the calls path. An SBC, sitting as it does at the border
between network segments, can recognize this situation
and transcode to and from lower bandwidth codecs when
required. This situation is much better than relying on the
VoIP clients themselves to do this kind of calculation upfront,
especially because not all clients support all codecs.
Dealing withNAT Traversal

Do you have a Wi-Fi router in your home? Chances are very
good that you do and, if thats the case, you probably have a
15
Network Address Translation (NAT) network configured for

your laptop, iPad, Android phone, and other devices connected to your homes broadband connection.
NAT is a technology service that translates (its right in the
name) between a single public Internet Protocol (IP) address
(the IP address of your broadband cable or DSL modem) and
the private IP addresses that your router assigns to all the
attached devices on your home network. NAT is a configuration thats used because there arent enough IP addresses
available in the world to assign each and every individual
device its own unique address.

The newer version of IP that will eventually replace todays

current IPv4 is IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). IPv6
increases the number of available IP addresses and
eliminates the need for NAT. The gradual adoption of IPv6
actually provides another reason to use an SBC, because
the SBC has the intelligence to enable IPv4 and IPv6 network
segments talk to each other.
NAT is a neat and inexpensive technology for network
addressing because it lets a small pool of IP addresses get
used over and over in different private networks while letting
the devices attached to that network communicate with the
broader Internet using a single, unique public IP address.
The problem with NAT is that creating an end-to-end session

is difficult because the IP address of a device on a NAT isnt a
public IP address (that would be the IP address of the network
itself). This creates issues with end-to-end sessions like VoIP
and requires some translation to happen between public and
private addressestranslation beyond what the private
networks router can do.
Many SBCs explicitly support whats known as NAT Traversal,
providing the ability to work with VoIP session packets and giving
them the instructions they need to get through the NAT router
and to the actual device thats on the end of the session. NAT
traversal requires a significant amount of computing capacity in
the SBC because a large number of devices participating in VoIP
and other sessions are behind a NAT. An SBC requires a lot of
processing power to do all the translating and routing required to
traverse NATs.
16
Fax and Tone Detection

As much as any carrier engineer or enterprise IT professional
would like, its usually just not possible to have a clean break
with the past (like Apple removing the floppy drive from the original iMac). Oftentimes, legacy technologies linger on well past
their sell by date, and the network needs to support them.
A prominent example of this in the VoIP world is facsimile
(fax) technology. Weve spent enough time in the telecom
world to have heard of IP faxing being the next big thing for
at least 15 years. But that doesnt change the fact that there
are still people out there using fax machines every single day
of the week. VoIP systems would, if they could form opinions,
probably be opposed to this, but the reality remains.
An SBC, however, can come to the rescue here by incorporating tone detection (the ability to recognize and act on standard
analog telephone touch tones) to recognize and then properly
route that awful screech of a fax preamble.
Multimedia (Video) Support

The service provider and enterprise are converging on an endto-end IP networking strategy including data and rich-media
communications traffic (voice, video streaming, and so on).
Businesses require the ability to conduct face-to-face virtual
meetings to save on the time, expense, and stress of business
travel. Waves of price decreases and performance improvements make video conferences more accessible to smaller
business, but still some challenges remain.
Intercompany communication
Enterprise NAT routers and firewalls are vital for securing a
private network, but they often wreak havoc on video communications because they block all incoming calls and
session requests, hide the network address of internal
devices, and degrade the performance by inspecting each
packet that traverses the firewall. There are ways to get
around NAT/firewall-related issues, such as disabling the
firewall, deploying a video-friendly firewall, or a video bridge
with dual network ports, but each of these options compromises security and performance and involves added security,
cost, and network complexity.
17
Interoperability issues
A wide range of video conferencing standards exists, but
despite these standards, interoperability issues still prevail
due to different protocols (SIP, H.323) or video/audio compression (H.264, H.263, G.722, and so on). Some other issues
also include basic connectivity and interoperability with
devices that provide a less than optimal experience due to
call speed and device type.
SBCs can serve many purposes within an IP network by offering
features within the same device. An SBC can provide video proxy
services, NAT /firewall services, protocol conversion and transcoding, QoS monitoring, and more, driving down the cost and
complexity of a video conferencing environment. SBCs can also
perform protocol translation between SIP and H.323 as well as
H.264, H.263, G.722, and many other video and audio protocols.
Performance, Scalability,
Resiliency
If youve read the previous few sections talking about all the
things that an SBC must do, you may begin to imagine that
the SBC cant be a low-powered (computationally speaking),
dumb box. And in fact, youd be right. SBCs need to be powerful and robust devices with the right degree of extra capacity
and redundancy to handle not only the average number of
calls coming through the system simultaneously, but also to
scale up and handle peak callslike the flood of telephone
orders when a hot new product is announced.
When evaluating an SBCs performance, scalability, and resiliency,
consider the following factors:

CPU utilization: The SBC does a lot of computationally

complex work, what with all of the audio/video transcoding, SIP translation, and other functions that it has to
do in essentially real-time (where delays can keep calls
from being completed or cause latency and delays in
calls); the CPU utilization in both a normal steady state
and during peak periods should allow plenty of overhead.
18
Concurrent calls (or sessions) supported: This objective

measurement is simple to understand. How many concurrent calls is the device rated for; how does this match
your networks usage patterns; if your usage grows and
begins to exceed the capacity of your SBC, how can you
upgrade?
The need for scale: This becomes very real as multipoint

videoconferencing becomes a reality and as the adoption
of presence-based communications tools like IM becomes
more prevalent.
Redundancy: Put a different way, this means a lack of

single points of failure. An SBC is performing a missioncritical role for an enterprise or carrier. Are there any
elements within the SBC that dont have a redundant
element that can take over on a milliseconds notice? If
so, remember downtime means lost money (in revenue
or employee productivity).
Registration rate: How many clients can the SBC register

in a fixed period of time; this relates to the registration
storms (see Chapter1). When a lot of users are connecting
at once, make sure the device can handle it.
Quality of Service policies: The Quality of Service (QoS)

policy of a network and prioritization of data flow is
implemented by the SBC. Often QoS policies perform
such functions as traffic policing, resource allocation,
rate limiting, call admission control, and ToS/DSCP bit
setting. For example, the SBC could give higher priority to
voice traffic so users have an uninterrupted audio transmission on calls. Chat and web traffic would be relegated
to simple best-effort service to avoid clogging the voice
traffic with lower-priority data.
Chapter 3
Virtualizing the SBC

In This Chapter
Discovering the hype around virtualization
Defining virtual software SBCs
Identifying the benefits of a virtual software SBC
Understanding what to look for in a virtual software SBC
irtualization is the latest hot topic in the field of c

omputer
technology. Virtualization is the ability to use a single
device while making it appear that youre using m
ultiple
devices in order to save costs by reducing the need for m
ultiple
physical devices.
Understanding Why Virtualization

is Such a Big Deal
In recent years, certain trends in the computer industry that
brought virtualization to the forefront and to the front pages
of industry publications.
Underutilized hardware
Before the use of virtualization in the computer industry,
many data centers used about 10 percent of their total
capacity, meaning that nearly 90 percent of their capacity
went unused. Virtualization is the solution to this problem
by creating logical representations of physical devices so
organizations can increase their hardware utilization rates.
20
Being atfull storage capacity

The massive amounts of e-mail, websites, video, and mobile
application data must be stored in the businesss data centers,
which are reaching full storage capacity. Virtualization can
host many guest systems on a single physical computer,
allowing organizations to better utilize data center server
resources to avoid costs that can run into millions of dollars
to build onto their data centers to add more capacity.
Rising energy costs

In todays business environment, companies are looking in every
corner of their business to find cost savings. The costs of running
desktop computers, servers, network hardware, and storage
are a growing concern as more and more power is required
to keep data centers up and running even though hardware
is running at only about 10 percent of capacity. Virtualization
makes more efficient use of hardware resources so companies
can significantly reduce their energy costs and improve their
bottom lines.
NFV
Virtualization isnt just for the data center. Communications
systems can also take advantage of the cost savings and
efficiency of virtualization technology. Network Functions
Virtualization (NFV) helps design, deploy, and manage network services by separating network functions from hardware
devices so they can run in software. This process removes the
need for you to purchase expensive, privately-owned hardware.
NFV allows for consolidating and delivering network functions
to support a fully-virtual infrastructure, including the servers
and storage devices, by using standard IT virtualization technology that runs on high-volume servers, switches, and storage hardware in wired and wireless networks. Virtualization
technology makes deploying and maintaining network
services much more cost-efficient than in the past.
Chapter 3: Virtualizing the SBC
21
Whats a Virtual Software SBC?

A virtual software SBC is a session border controller (SBC)
device thats implemented entirely in software that can be
deployed on any commercial, off-the-shelf computer in a
communications system. In many cases, the core of the SBC
software is the same code that executes in the hardware-based
SBC firmware but runs on off-the-shelf server hardware, which
allows for the software SBC to behave in the same manner
as the hardware-based SBC and eases maintenance of the
software that runs on both devices.
Because the SBC is implemented in software, it can be
deployed easily on the same type of virtual server farm that
hosts your favorite media-streaming service. Because the SBC
is now software, it can be deployed on virtual servers and
deployed in cloud-based architectures.
Looking atthe Benefits of

a Virtual Software SBC
Some of the benefits that organizations get when choosing to
use a software SBC are covered in this section.
Low Total Cost ofOwnership

Software SBCs provide a much lower Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) than hardware devices, and because they run on
less expensive off-the-shelf hardware, they dont need
to be powered and cooled, and they can be turned on and
off automatically without requiring IT staff to configure and
deploy them. Software SBCs also support a pay as you grow
model, meaning businesses dont have the wasted costs of
providing system capacity that isnt yet needed.
Accelerated time tomarket

Software SBCs allow service providers to deploy new network
services very quickly to support changing requirements and seize
market opportunities as they arise. Because software SBCs are
22

much less expensive to deploy than hardware SBCs, service providers can increase their return on investment (ROI) for the services they provide. This flexibility and cost savings also reduce
risks with rolling out new services, as they can easily try out and
modify these services to meet the needs of their customers.
Delivering agility
Agility is an absolute must in todays competitive marketplace
for businesses to survive and thrive. Service providers must be
able to quickly scale up or down their services to meet changing
market demands. They also need to innovate quickly and get
those innovations out to the market as quickly and easily as
possible. Virtual software SBCs allow for services to be delivered
via software to customers on industry-standard server hardware,
making it quick and easy to get these out to customers.
Knowing What toLook for

In a Virtual Software SBC

When choosing a virtual software SBC, take into consideration

some important points:
Virtual software SBCs give businesses flexibility. Choose

a vendor that has SBCs that meet the needs of small and
medium-sized businesses as well as large ones so you
can start off small with your deployments and scale them
larger at your own pace.
The SBC provider should use the same codebase in all

its products. Make sure the software SBC has the same
features as a hardware SBC and is compatible with
other hardware devices provided by the same vendor.
This simple check makes it much easier and more
cost-efficient for businesses to migrate more of their
network into the virtual domain over time.
The virtual software SBC should be able to work with

many types of media, such as faxes, Interactive Voice
Response (IVR), collaboration, and other applications on
the IP networks.
Make sure that the virtual software SBC works well with
the industry-leading virtualization platforms.
Chapter 4
Deploying SBCs in Different

Environments
In This Chapter
Deploying SBC in the UC
Implementing SBC in the contact center
Looking at deployments of SBC in the enterprise
Checking out how SBC is adopted in the wireless world
Deploying SBC in IMS Networks and WebRTC
session border controller (SBC) plays a role in many

different types of environments and configurations
such as Unified Communication (UC), Contact Centers, SIP
Trunking, wireless and IMS networks, and WebRTC. Each one
of these configurations has its own unique requirements and
challenges, so in this chapter, you take a look at how the SBC
can be deployed in each of them.
SBC inUC
Gone are the days when enterprise communications meant a
PBX-centric (you can find more info on PBX in Chapter1) solution that met nearly every employees requirements. Todays
employees want it allvoice, video, instant messaging, and
web-based appsand they want it wherever they are on whatever device they choose. The world is a mobile one, and enterprises need to harness the power of UC and the flexibility of
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies to increase employee
productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer service.
24

CIOs are looking to UC and Cloud-based services to meet the
rising demand for mobile multimedia communications, yet a
fundamental barrier to UC adoption is a lack of interoperability between the vendor-specific voice, video, and messaging
systems that exists in most enterprise networks.
While Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was originally intended
to break down many of those barriers, even SIP-based systems face their own issues and often require significant interworking and transcoding in order to provide acceptable levels
of interoperability. As a result, most enterprises fall short of
a truly unified model of communications and collaboration.
That model allows users to consistently consume rich media
services regardless of the underlying PBX, application server,
or end-user device.
The road to UC has been paved with wasted time and money:
time spent on long service engagements and endless interoperability testing and money spent on PBX upgrades and new
equipment. But an SBC can provide a session management
framework (in addition to providing security) for UC and SIP
communications that coordinates PBXs, video services, business collaboration tools, and a wide variety of multimedia
devices (smartphones, tablets, and so on), so enterprises can
more easily integrate and create true UC.
As you move more services and applications into the Cloud,

the SBC-based session management framework unifies Cloudbased services with your premised-based enterprise communications to ensure a rich, easy-to-manage UC experience.
SBCs inthe Contact Center

The contact center is vital to a businesss success because in
the competitive marketplace, high-quality customer service
is essential. The contact center has evolved from simply a
center where customer service agents take voice calls to a
multimedia contact center where agents handle voice, e-mail,
chat, SMS, and video calls. Contact center efficiency is crucial
to a companys bottom line, so increasing requirements exist
for agent productivity and quality control. The SBC can add
value in these areas.
Chapter 4: Deploying SBCs in Different Environments
25
Call recording
Call recording is one of the most important features in the
contact center. Contact center managers use call recording as
both an agent evaluation and an agent training tool to ensure
agents provide the utmost quality in customer service.
In many cases, government regulations require calls to be
recorded for legal reasons and consumer protection as well.
Traditionally, call recording in communications networks
was done by consuming an extra data port on a switch to
replicate the call data to the recording system. Consuming
an extra data port to record calls doesnt scale well in many
contact centers that need to record each call that comes into
the system. The SBC simply replicates the SIP session for the
call to send the call data to the recording system, providing
reliable data transfer and freeing up data ports to allow more
incoming calls from customers.
Emergency and 911 calls

Contact centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico
must meet requirements for emergency 911 services. SBCs
can be used to identify 911 calls, remove any restrictions,
assign priority, and route them efficiently to a Public Safety
Answer Point (PSAP). First responders need quick access to
emergency situations in places such as office buildings or
campuses that have multiple entry points, so knowing the
exact location of the emergency call is essential.
Mobile agents
One of the largest trends in contact centers is the use of
mobile or work at home agents. Mobile agents allow for
contact centers to be flexible and scale up or down as business requires without the added expense of office space and
facility expansion. Consider, for example, a retailer that sees
dramatically expanded sales at Christmas. This retailer can
add temporary mobile agents to handle peak demands of customer service. Mobile technology allows for workers to work
out of their homes with flexible hours, making this arrangement appealing to workers.
26


Mobile agent configurations do, however, present some
challenges to the contact center. Contact centers require a
scalable solution where Internet access devices dont need
to be configured and agents dont need to use VPN (see
Chapter1 for more info on VPNs) IP phones to communicate.
Security is also a very important factor with mobile agent
configurations because sensitive customer data transfers through
the network during these interactions. The SBC eliminates the
need for VPN IP phones and provides the necessary security
(see Chapter1 for more information).
Internal transfers
In many cases, calls may need to be transferred to another contact center within the organization. This can often lead to higher
costs and increased security risks because these transfers may
have to traverse public networks. SBCs can identify internal
transfers and use a feature called Take Back and Transfer, which
keeps the call on the private network, avoiding any costs and
security risks inherent with traversing public networks.
One case to consider is a video kiosk in a remote store where
a customer can make a video call to ask for assistance from an
agent in a contact center. In a non-SIP environment this setup is
complicated because both voice and video data travel though
many endpoints across networks, requiring each border
traversal to be secured and load balancing to be performed
across the network. The SBC provides the necessary security,
call routing, and load balancing features to make this type of
data transfer secure and cost efficient.
SBC inthe Enterprise

The market for SBC in the enterprise has gained much renewed
interest as businesses replace their existing TDM-based
systems for a SIP-based UC platform for telephony, e-mail,
instant message, presence, and video conferencing
applications. For the enterprise, the SBC is the first line of
defense in the UC system providing cost-effective and secure
connections to corporate networks and branch offices. In
addition, enterprises in various industries come under regulatory requirements such as HIPPA for healthcare companies
and customer data security requirements for credit card and
banking industries.
27
Today, many companies also have the complexity of many

branch offices and a mobile or virtual workforce as well that
add to the necessity of reliable and secure communications.
Enterprises must maintain the highest layer of security to protect their customers information and to maintain regulatory
compliance. In all of these areas, theres a role for the SBC.
In the enterprise, SBCs perform connectivity, quality of service
(QoS), emergency 911 call routing and prioritization for regulatory compliance allowing access by first responders, and media
transcoding for IP communications. SBCs also offer gateway,
VoIP mediation, access to PSTN networks, and survivability
features for the enterprise. The SBC is the secure boundary
between the enterprise and service provider networks.
SBCs in the enterprise can be configured with various deployment options. SBCs can be hardware appliances, an integrated
component of media gateways and routers, or more recently,
software-only virtual machines enabling the deployment to a
virtualized data center or to the Cloud.
SBC inthe Wireless World

Telephone communications have changed rapidly from home
and office phones to wireless mobile phones. An increasing
number of homes no longer have landline or even IP telephones, and a growing number of businesses are replacing
their landline phones with mobile devices.

Mobile devices introduce some new scalability and security

challenges into the UC architecture. From a scalability standpoint,
there are concerns related to the volatility and growth of video
usage carried over the media network. Also there are challenges
for the mobile operators with increased signaling impacts of
these devices as well as messaging and presence applications
that are common to these devices. A design challenge for the
SBC is the impact of mobile devices on the signaling plane of the
SBC. Mobile sessions are typically shorter in duration than other
device sessions, but the signaling requirements of these devices
translate into more concurrent sessions straining the SBC.
The latest trend in wireless data communications is the 4G
LTE standard. (Youve probably heard of LTE. It stands for
Long Term Evolution.) These systems allow for the latest in
28

high-speed data for mobile phones and other mobile devices
for streaming voice calls, video, and data from all those important applications in social media and streaming services such
as Pandora or Spotify.
The newer LTE standard only supports IP packet switching
on SIP networks, meaning that network links are shared by
packets from multiple communications sessions. Older mobile
phone standards such as GSM, UMTS, and CDMA2000 work on
circuit-switched networks, meaning that a dedicated network
channel from sender to receiver is maintained throughout the
duration of the call. So how do mobile carriers reengineer their
voice networks to accommodate the newer LTE standard?
The mobile phone industry standards have settled on the
approach of using Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for delivering
voice as a data stream within the LTE data transmission. This
approach is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
which provides for both voice and data transmission.
SBC inIMS Networks

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an integrated network
for telecommunications providers to deliver voice, video, and
data using the IP protocol. In recent years, the arrival of LTE
networks has revived the interest in IMS because VoLTE has
become the standard for providing voice services over LTE
networks. IMS doesnt contain an SBC in its architecture, but
many IMS systems add SBCs as edge devices that provide
additional features to perform functions such as SIP interoperability, media transcoding, security, and lawful intercept.
Even though IMS standards such as 3GPP (3rd Generation
Partnership Project) dont include an SBC component, SBCs
do perform many of the following functions:

Proxy-Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF): The entry

point into the IMS subsystem from user endpoints. An SBC
integrates the P-CSCF with the Access Border Gateway
Function (A-BGF) to handle the media and signaling data
appropriately. The SBC provides capabilities such as
NAT/firewall traversal, user identity privacy, encryption,
and policy management.
29
Access Transfer Control Function (ATCF) and Access

Transfer Gateway (ATGW): The ATCF and ATGW functions
ensure that the handoff of the call doesnt introduce an
unacceptable interruption of media flow.
Interconnect Border Control/Gateway Function (I-BCF/

I-BGF): Handles the signaling and media of calls. The
Interconnect SBC performs functions such as network
topology hiding, monitoring and lawful intercept, routing
of signaling into the core of the IMS, and policy management on a per-trunk basis.
SBC inWebRTC
WebRTC is a new technology that lets you use phone, video,
or text right from the web page you go to. You can also share
screens (see the same web pages or files) and all sorts of new
things. The SBC plays an important role in WebRTC as you see
in this section.
Enterprise security
Because WebRTC applications run in a browser and transmit
application data across the unsecured public Internet, there
is a risk of attacks on the enterprise servers. Lets consider
a case where a customer initiates a customer support call
from a WebRTC-enabled browser. The SBC can secure the SIP
network in the contact center by being placed between the
WebRTC application server and the SIP network at the contact
center. The SBC can also provide session control and management between the WebRTC server and the SIP server at the
contact center.
VoIP phone calls

In this scenario consider a VoIP call from a WebRTC-enabled
browser to a VoIP phone. The SBC can provide security
between the WebRTC application server and the SIP network
as well as session control. In addition, the SBC can provide
transcoding between Opus and G.711 telephony protocols,
for example.
30
PSTN phone calls

In this scenario consider a call from a WebRTC-enabled browser
to a landline phone on a PSTN (privately-switched telephone
network). In this case the SBC once again provides security
between the WebRTC application server and the TDM gateway
as well as transcoding and internetworking between the WebRTC
application server and the TDM network.
Media support
Consider a WebRTC-enabled browser initiating a video chat
with a non-WebRTC-enabled IP video phone. In this situation
the SBC can provide transcoding between the VP8 and H.264
video conference codecs between the WebRTC application
server and the IP video phone. The SBC can also provide
protocol internetworking between IP6 and IP4 and SRTP and
RTP for video media transfer. The SBC can also perform QoS
and policy control, ensuring the real-time media data get
network priority.
Lawful intercept
The SBC supports lawful intercept of both signaling and media
data transferred between the WebRTC server and the destination IP phone. As you can see, there is a vast role for SBCs in
many different environments. The SBC is a vital part of any
communications architecture.
Chapter 5
Multimedia Matters
In This Chapter
Meeting customers video network requirements
Analyzing the challenges of video in IT systems
Using SBCs to create a video network that works
Deriving business value from SBCs in your video network
s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) sessions move beyond

simple voice calls and become more sophisticated, your
SIP network needs to handle more than just audio and its related
audio codecs (for more info on codecs, see Chapter2). From
the boardroom to the browser, tablet, and smartphone, video
and audio conferencing have become essential parts of business
communications. The workforce is increasingly mobile, and businesses have many workers who work part- or full-time from their
home offices.
Businesses need all sorts of different devices to collaborate
effectively. This chapter focuses on video and audio where
you discover what businesses need to make their systems
just work, the IT challenges video and audio requirements
bring, and how SBCs are a cost-effective solution to the
challenges of these systems.
Video Should Just Work

People in the high-tech business world expect to use video
and audio to collaborate with their colleagues, customers, and
partners. Todays abundant smartphones and tablets have
high-resolution video screens that can send and receive video
on wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks or 3G and the newer
4G LTE mobile data networks. People expect that video and
32

audio conferences work perfectly with high resolution video
and audio without jitter and distortion. Working can mean
different things to different users. Here are some examples of
what customers want video conferencing to do for them:
Employees using a Cisco Jabber endpoint need to collaborate with other employees who are using Microsoft Lync.
High-definition video conferencing with partners and

customers helps build important relationships. These
video connections must securely pass through the
network firewall that separates a trusted network from
an untrusted network.
An auto insurance customer wants to use video on his

smartphone to contact his agent to make an accident
claim from the scene.
Software developers located around the world need to

meet daily for scheduled stand-up meetings to review
project progress.
Making this all work smoothly brings on some challenges:
Desktop communications applications like Microsoft

Lync and Cisco Jabber use different signaling protocols,
so they need some translator to get the two applications
to talk to each other.
Video meetings with people outside of the organization

require video and audio data to pass through the organizations firewall securely with necessary encryption to
ensure that data cant be intercepted by hackers.
The customer using the smartphone must have video

and audio pass through the public Internet and firewall
which must then be routed to the correct party in the
organization.
Software development teams cant flood the network

with video streams. Functions like call admission and
bandwidth control must be used to ensure a high quality
experience even with limited bandwidth capacity.
The SBC meets these IT challenges to give businesses high
quality conferences that just work. Successful video and audio
systems have up to five components that are often separate
devices or servers, but that doesnt always have to be the case.
In a simple video system where all of the video endpoints use
Chapter 5: Multimedia Matters
33
the same protocols and compression/decompression algorithms (codecs), only two components are required: a multipoint contact unit (MCU) and a gatekeeper or SIP proxy.
Think of the MCU as a funnel that takes in all of the video from
the participants cameras and combines them into one video
stream that is sent back to them. The gatekeeper or SIP proxy is
like a traffic cop that makes sure all ends of the session are connected and handles requests like those to let new participants
join and others hang up and leave.
The simple video system works well when all endpoints use
the same protocols, but what happens if the call has to pass
through a network firewall or one of the endpoints uses a different protocol? You can put in pinholes in the firewall to allow
traffic to pass through, but this can compromise security which
isnt desirable in most cases. In any case, the simple video
system breaks down when you have devices with different protocols and the video traffic must pass through a Network Address
Translation (NAT) (for more info on Network Address Translation,
see Chapter1) layer and corporate firewalls.
In real world video systems two additional video infrastructure
components, firewalls and SBCs, are crucial. It is important that
you understand how firewalls and SBCs work in a video system.
In a video system, firewalls and SBCs work in parallel.
Firewalls handle normal IP traffic and SBCs, handle the realtime communications traffic. Firewalls are designed to isolate
the computer resources in one network from those in another
to keep them safe from malicious attacks. Firewalls block
most incoming traffic except on certain ports coming only
from trusted connections configured by the network administrator. The firewall examines incoming or outgoing packets
and determines whether to forward them on. Devices from
outside the firewall on an untrusted network may send unsolicited invitations intended for someone inside of the firewall
to join in a voice and/or video communication session. In
cases where a device inside the firewall did not request the
invitation, the firewall just discards these requests. The IP
addresses of where to send the audio and video packets are
embedded with the IP packets. The firewall rejects the packets when it cant determine how to route them.
SBCs understand media protocols and can work side-by-side with
firewalls. You can think of an SBC as a real-time communications
firewall that makes a video system work securely and efficiently.
34
Adding Value toVideo with SBCs

SBCs sit at the edge of a network and work as a boundary
point on the network between endpoints on the trusted
network and those on the untrusted network. SBCs provide
session control and security whether the sessions are inside
of the trusted network or not. SBCs provide several benefits
to companies making the system just work.
Session management
The SBC is the ideal element in a complex network to enforce
call admission control on a session-by-session basis. Multiple
UC and video devices can access the SBC to perform call admission control (CAC). SBCs can perform Quality of Service (QoS)
(for more info on QoS, see Chapter2) functionality, making
audio and video pass through the network as with as much
quality as possible given any bandwidth constraints. CAC
helps to provide optimal end-user experience by regulating the
number of endpoints allowed on the network and making sure
theres enough bandwidth for each video and audio stream.
Endpoint interoperability
Many organizations have communication endpoints created
by different manufacturers or software developed by different vendors, such as Cisco Jabber and Microsoft Lync. Some
of these video systems use different video codecs so the SBC
must be able negotiate with each device so the same video
codec is used, ensuring interoperability with all devices.
Even if all endpoints in a video call use the same video codec, the
SIP protocol implementations used by Cisco, Microsoft, Avaya,
Polycom, and others are different enough to require a translation
device to make sure the signaling works to connect to all devices.
SBCs solve this problem by modifying the signaling information
contained with the SIP packets so that these endpoints can communicate with each other in what is called protocol normalization. Protocol normalization allows an organization to keep their
hardware and software investments while making video solutions
from different vendors work so they dont have to get all of their
network components from a single vendor.
Chapter 6
Saving Money with an SBC

In This Chapter
Reducing costs with one-stop management
Using redundancy to keep the cash flowing
Switching from many devices to one box
Taking a look at money-saving examples
oure all hyped up. Youve done all your session border controller (SBC) research. You know the benefits (Chapter1)
and the services (Chapter2) you get from an SBC. Now, you have
to pitch the idea to your CIO or CTO. Everyoneand we mean
everyone from enterprises to the biggest telecom carriersis
worried about budget and cost control. And while an SBC isnt a
massive expense, if your CIO or CTO sees a new budget item, hes
going to want some s erious justification.
In this chapter, we present the cost savings justifications
for SBCs and focus on how an SBC saves money relative to
a build-it-yourself approach where you cobble together the
functionality of an SBC by using other devices and custom
integration efforts. As a bonus, we give you two case studies
that show how SBCs are used in the real world.
Benefitting fromOne-Stop
Management
Localized policy management (see Chapter3) is a benefit of SBCs
from the perspective of cost and performance. The a
bility to
manage VoIP policies and media/signaling at one point in your
networkright at the border of the network in the SBCmeans
that you spend less technician time and money managing multiple devices like routers and adding additional transcoders.
36


If you have a large networkor if your network grows over
timefurther simplify SBC management by using a centralized policy server. In this scenario, you perform your initial
configuration and any future policy changes one time in one
place (the master policy server) and have those changes
automatically circulate through the network to all your SBCs.
Keeping theRevenue Flowing

withRedundancy
Redundancy means that you have capacity and network
elements (within a single device in this case instead of in sideby-side installations of similar equipment) which are sitting
there in your network, unused. You may wonder how thats
saving you money. Redundancy is responsible, not wasteful,
because it ensures that your network stays up when something goes wrong and works well when the loads get high.
Redundancy keeps your network working and working for you
instead of leaving your business stranded and unproductive.

All networks can fail at some point; oftentimes, something

besides the SBC causes the failure. A redundant network
provides a graceful recovery by having extra capacity ready
to go the instant something stops working. Perhaps some
other element to the network goes out. A well-designed SBC
has the ability to quickly recover from these disasters and has
the capacity to restore its state and to handle the flood of registrations it faces as the network is restored and all your VoIP
clients are re-registered with the network.
Saving withOne Box Instead

ofMany Devices
Say you wanted all the features and benefits of an SBC, but you
decided to just build it yourself. Youd need to cobble together a
set of firewalls, routers, servers, gateways, and/or softswitches
that could individually handle all the security, Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP) translation, media t ranscoding/transrating, and
call admission control functions that an SBC provides. But if
you consolidated all that functionality into a single hardware
devicethe SBCyoud realize big cost savings:
Chapter 6: Saving Money with an SBC
37
Deconstructed SBCs
Some vendors offer deconstructed
SBCs, which provide functionality in several distinct chassis/
systems. For example, one is for
signaling functions and another is
for media functions. You can present valid arguments either way for
this approach as opposed to the

more common integrated, single
chassis SBC, but keep in mind that
a deconstructed SBC wont have all
the one box cost advantages of
an integrated SBC.
Reduced capital expenses: Simply put, you have fewer

things to buy. For those network elements that you need
for other functionality, you dont need to overbuild/overspecify them to allow capacity for the SBC functionality
that is handled elsewhere.
Operating the devices: You save money on the following

examples:
Real estate: Whether the SBC is in your telecom

equipment room, data center, or collocation facility,
you need less rack space for a single box solution.
Power: You dont need to pay for electricity for

devices you dont install.
Reduced configuration and management: A non-unified

solution means that you have to use more than one system
to configure, maintain, and manage the system and to
process all your configuration and policy changes. An SBC
provides a single user interface and a single management
console instead of the swivel chair approachwhere your
network manager turns knobs and flips switches on multiple
consoles to effect one single change or configuration.
Saving Costs witha Virtual

Software SBC
A virtual software SBC can be a significant cost saver for a
business by allowing you to use the existing infrastructure to
scale up or down your SBC capacity without adding hardware
and requiring more rack space. In addition, software SBCs can
38

be provisioned and configured by a simple software download
providing ease of configuration and deployment. Software
SBCs can provide the same features and scalability as
hardware-based SBCs deployed in a virtualized environment.
Saving Money with

Intelligent Policy
In Chapter1, you discover that SBCs provide local and centralized policy controls for a network. SBCs provide a robust policy
engine that allows you to implement hundreds of policies, such
as intelligent call routing, custom dialing plans, call blocking
and screening, emergency call routing, local number portability lookups, and calling name delivery. The policy engine of an
SBC can allow service providers and enterprises, for example,
to develop intelligent routing policies that can save millions of
dollars in toll charges by routing calls based on least cost as
well as avoiding transferring calls to external, public networks
whenever possible. Because SBCs can provide centralized
policy control, routing and policy changes can be delivered
globally across multi-vendor networks from a single point.
Looking atCase Study Examples

Sometimes you need more than a few words of theory to
understand how a technology makes a difference in your
businessyou need to understand how other companies are
actually implementing a technology to further their business
goals and what their tipping points were to make the changes.
Well, theres nothing better than an actual case study so you
can see things in action.
Flying thefriendly skies

A major U.S.based international airline is a marquee customer
for SBCs. The primary voice application for this company supports its global call center. As you may imagine, this undertaking is a massively important function for an airline that deals
with reservations, rewards programs, and the countless flight
changes, seating assignments, and related calls.
Chapter 6: Saving Money with an SBC
39
In addition to the call center, the airline needs to support a large

number of other voice lines for things such as maintenance and
support teams, ground support (baggage, fueling, and so on),
logistics, in-cockpit and paging systems, airport ticket counters,
a highly mobile workforce, and even systems as seemingly prosaic as airport courtesy phones. The airlines massive telecom
needs face functional and expense-related issues with its legacy
systems. Specifically, the airline wants to

Move to an all-IP voice infrastructure without discarding

an installed base of legacy equipment
Save money
Reap the benefits of UC by improving employee

productivity
Maintain voice security
Improve customer responsiveness and satisfaction in a

customer-facing environment
The legacy voice systemsTDM PBXs and circuit-switched
(ISDN-PRI) voice circuitsmigrate to IP PBX and SIP Trunking
to reduce voice costs while not immediately abandoning the
installed equipment base. At the same time, the airline wanted
to centralize control of its voice communications to best provide load-balancing and least cost routing for inbound IVR
(Interactive Voice Response) calls from customers.
The airline needed a solution. The answer was SBCs. The airline installed the Sonus SBC as well as a Sonus Policy Server.
The Sonus SBC solved the airlines problems with
Interoperability between legacy TDM and H.323 voice

systems and SIP Trunking
Centralized call control and routing
Secure access for both on-campus and remote call center

agents and mobile employees
The airline achieved the following results:
Reduced call costs
Least cost routing for all calls
Keeping internal calls on the airlines MPLS network

instead of carrying them over a carriers network
40
Reduced network operating expenses
Lower capital expenditures
Improved uptime and reliability for call center calls
Secure connectivity for remote workers and home-based

call center employees
Looking ata retailer

A U.S.based retail chain wanted to consolidate its voice management into a centralized system while migrating from traditional circuit-switched TDM to SIP Trunking for cost reduction
purposes. Additionally, the retailer had some specific functionality and security requirements related to its business that
required features not provided by all competing solutions.
The retailers needs included the following:

Saving money with SIP Trunking
A centralized policy and call routing control for all stores
A rapid roll-out, with the ability to convert all stores to

SIP Trunking within a few years
Specialized routing for inbound IVR calls directed to its

in-store pharmacies (specifically, the ability to provide
dial tone to these calls)
Data security restrictions related to its pharmacy

business
Maintaining security on all calls

With a Sonus SBC and a Sonus Policy Server, two data centers
provided the centralized dial plan for all stores. The initial
deployments leveraged Sonus to develop an installation plan,
to perform configuration, and to develop and implement a
test plan. The initial deployment was successfully defined,
designed, tested, and implemented in just a few weeks.
Chapter 7
Ten Reasons to Choose

Sonus SBC
In This Chapter
Performing under pressure
Being protected from attack
Attaining better scaling and deployment
hether you have an enterprise Voice over Internet

Protocol (VoIP) or Unified Communications (UC)
network or youre a service provider offering VoIP or UC
services to your customers, a session border controller (SBC)
can be the right choice for you. The Sonus SBC is a fast-growing
SBC solution on the market, and in this chapter, we provide ten
reasons why a Sonus SBC may be the best fit for your network
needs.
Local Policy Configuration

Sonus SBCs offer local policy control systems via an e
mbedded
policy engine. That means no extra management equipment
to install and a system that has all the intelligence needed to
screen, route, and modify calls right in the box.
Networked Policy Management

Without sending an expensive and already overworked
technician out to each location to do the work, if your SBCs
are connected to a centralized policy server, you only need
42

to make your changes once in one place. The rest is all
automatic. Oh yeah, and theres less chance of a change not
happening in one location when you do it this way.
Peak Performance
The simultaneous proliferation of applications and devices has
led to a situation where the quantity of SIP traffic on any n
etwork
is explodingno matter how you measure it (more on that
in Chapter4). Sonus SBCs provide peak performance under
different load scenarios. Theyve been tested under extreme
conditions and even at levels that simulate a full-fledged network
attack. Sonus SBCs are designed to have sufficient overhead to
keep up.
Supports High-Level Transcoding

Both transcoding and transrating are computationally complex
processesimagine what it takes to completely disassemble
and reassemble a voice or video stream in real-time without
inducing noticeable latency or delay into the stream. Many
first-generation SBCs dont even include transcoding/rating
functionality and not all that do can scale this feature for
thousands of simultaneous sessions.

Sonus SBCs can support high levels of transcoding by using

dedicated hardware without any effect on other c
omputational
functions, such as security and call admissions c
ontrolthat
the SBC must perform.
Security fromAttacks
Securing the SIP network is an increasingly high priority for
enterprises and service providers alike. Sonus SBCs are
designed to

Provide end-to-end encryption on both the media and the

signaling components of network traffic.
Hide the topology of the private portions of your network

with B2BUA (see Chapter2 for more on B2BUA).
Chapter 7: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus SBC
43
Protect the network from DoS and DDoS attacks, while

maintaining the capability to still connect legitimate
sessions (DoS/DDoS attacks are covered in Chapter1).
Implement blacklists, greylists, and whitelists (these lists

are covered in more detail in Chapter2).
Advanced Media Support

Todays SBCs need to be built with a robust media component
that has both the computational horsepower and the appropriate
software to perform on-the-fly the transcoding and transrating
(see Chapter3 for more detail) of all sorts of media. The trend in
corporate networks is moving away from segregated voice, data,
and video networks into a single network to handle all UC traffic.
This convergence makes the SBC an important component to
secure this network, provide Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure
quality of the multimedia experience, and the necessary
transcoding to interoperate on all of these data streams.

Sonus is future-ready today. Its SBCs have these capabilities

currently available.
Optimized Customer Firmware

Sonus takes advantage of commodity DSP chips and off-the-shelf
components like the audio or video codec software itself and
then does the harder work of developing the firmware that makes
it all work. This work means big benefits for you because fixes (if
needed) or upgrades can be implemented much faster. And if you
have special circumstances in your VoIP network, you can look
for custom firmware p
rogramming to make your network work
for you.
Plays Well withOthers

Different vendors and different VoIP networks may speak in
slightly incompatible ways when they use Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP), covered more in Chapter1. The result can be
calls that simply cant be completed or are degraded in some
way (perhaps missing some functionality). The SBC plays ahuge
role here in understanding the different variants of SIP on the
market and can translate between them on the fly.
44

Sonus SBCs adhere to industry standards for SIP Trunking and
other applications and can support all known variants of SIP
through SIP normalizationtranslating between different
variants of SIPboth according to static rules set up in the
SBC or on the fly as varieties of SIP are encountered by the SBC.
Scales withoutImpacting
Performance
Sonus uses a three-dimensional approach by discretely separating the processing functionality of the SBC so individual
tasks, such as transcoding or encryption, can scale up or
down without impacting the performance of other SBC tasks.

Sonus divides the SBC processing into three categories:
General computing for things like policy management

and call control
Network processing for networking stuff like the interworkings among different IP protocols and routing packets
Media processing for things like transcoding and

transrating (covered in Chapter3)
With this approach, when certain functions in your VoIP
network need more horsepower, you have it. But you dont
lose capacity in other areas that already have a comfortable
degree of overhead.
The Software SBC

In 2013, Sonus introduced the industrys first full-featured,
software-based SBC thats architected for unlimited scalability
and offers the same advanced features as the Sonus SBC 5000
Series deployed on a virtualized platform. Sonus provides
commercially-available software SBCs that have all the same
features as a hardware-based SBC. The ability to scale from
low-density deployments of less than 800 sessions to much
denser deployments that are all provisioned via a software
download is a key selling point for customers because of its
easy of setup and configuration.

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These materials are 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

by Kevin Riley and Mohan Palat

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They

Chapter 2: Identifying the Key Requirements

Chapter 3: Virtualizing the SBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 4: Deploying SBCs in Different

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

Chapter 5: Multimedia Matters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter 6: Saving Money with an SBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 7: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus SBC . . . . . . . 41

odays business communications no longer just consist of

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

About This Book

Icons Used inThis Book

Pay attention to the Remember icon because it points out

Watch out! This information tells you to steer clear of things

We try to keep the hardcore techie stuff to a bare minimum.

Discovering SBCs and How

ts far from breaking news to say that telecommunications

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

Looking atthe SBCs Role

Hiding the topology (or architecture) of the network,

Enabling encryption that prevents communications from

Detecting and preventing denial-of-service (DoS) attacks

Enabling SIP Trunking

Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They Protect Your Network

SIP Trunking is a service delivered via SIP that allows a private

Dealing with SIP variants: SIP is one protocol with

Translating protocols: Different UC solutions may utilize

Acting assession traffic cop

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

Centralized policy management

Like other IP applications, VoIP is carried over public

Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They Protect Your Network

arent under the control and regulation of the phone company.

Some common types of attacks are as follows:

Service theft and fraud: When a hacker (or organized

Spoofing: When people deliberately modify or disguise

Denial-of-service (DoS)/Distributed denial-of-service

Registration storms: When thousands or millions of devices

Stopping Attacks withan SBC

Media and signaling encryption

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

Topology hiding withB2BUA

Whitelists: People and devices that always have access

Blacklists: People and devices that never have access to

Greylists: People and devices that sometimes have

Chapter 1: Discovering SBCs and How They Protect Your Network

An SBC can be dual stacked, meaning it contains the

The SBC can act as an interworking agent between an

Why Not Other Options?

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

A VPN can cause trouble when theres a need to look inside

Theoretically, a data firewall can be configured to allow

Identifying the Key

heres more than just security to the role of a session

Session Border Controllers For Dummies, 3rd Sonus Special Edition

An SBCat least a useful onemust be able to speak all the

Chapter 2: Identifying the Key Requirements of an SBC

and UC systems. UC is the beyond voice variant of VoIP, where