Hosted PBX Description General Info about Hosted PBX

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1 Hosted PBX Description General Info about Hosted PBX Version Control Revision Date Name /12/2012 Operations 2.1 6/14/2013 Sales & Marketing Product Information Sales & Marketing VoIP Logic LLC, 529 Main Street, Williamstown, MA USA

2 Hosted PBX Product Definition Overview A Hosted PBX platform delivers PBX functionality as a service, available over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), dedicated IP circuit, or the public Internet. A Hosted PBX is typically provided by telephone, cable, and wireless service providers, using equipment located at a core centralized or geographically redundant data centers. The enterprise customer organization or the Service Provider does not need to buy or install telephone equipment on the office site other than telephone handsets and/or handset aggregator devices. The Service Provider can use the same core switching equipment to service multiple enterprises spread-out over a large geographic area. Instead of buying PBX equipment, Enterprises and End users contract for PBX services from the hosted PBX Service Provider often leasing telephone handsets as part of an overall service package. Hosted PBX offerings deliver traditional Class 5 switch features and services, in addition to more advanced services. A more detailed description of the features and services available using the VoIP Logic Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) can be requested from your sales representative. Below are some of the high level benefits of a Hosted PBX platform as a means of providing enterprise telephone/communications services. Supports a partially or totally dispersed work force. Allows a single number to be presented for the entire company, despite its being geographically distributed. A company could even choose to have no premises, with workers connected from home using their domestic telephones but receiving the same features as any PBX user. Supports many different device types even within the same organization. This allows users to utilize the device which best suits their needs and allows for greater efficiencies. Allows multimodal access, where employees access the network via a variety of telecommunications systems, including POTS, ISDN, cellular phones, and VOIP. This allows one extension to ring in multiple locations (either concurrently or sequentially). Supports integration with custom toll plans (that allow intra company calls, even from private premises, to be dialed at a cheaper rate) and integrated billing and accounting (where calls made on a private line but on the company's behalf are billed centrally to the company). Eliminates the need for companies to manage or pay for on-site hardware maintenance. Supports integration with a large range of add-on communications technology like Instant Messenger (IM), Audio and Video Conferencing, Call Center systems and Call Recording. 2

3 Key Components of VoIP Logic s Hosted PBX Platform Application Server The BroadWorks application servicer provides an extensive list of standard PBX functions as well as some enhanced services including call centers, conferencing, SIP Trunking, Unified Messaging, voice, video, and fax mail, as well as the ability to integrate other devices notably mobile phones, tablets or other devices. All setup and configuration can be managed through a native Web portal and a range of client software or through third party software purpose built to streamline interaction with BroadSoft technology including Loki for provisioning and end user self-care, Akixi ACD management for call center wall-boarding, Microsoft Lync for desktop client integration, CTI and Orecx for call recording and a wide range of billing and reporting solutions. The core application server allows Service Providers to target businesses with as few as five end users or large enterprises with thousands of users distributed across the globe. With its powerful feature capabilities, its geographic redundancy failover capabilities and the unsurpassed scalability of the application technology, BroadWorks Hosted PBX empowers Service Provider to manage and grow their telephony business on a reliable foundation. Session Border Controller A session border controller (SBC) is a multi-purpose device used in VoIP networks to exert control over the signaling and, usually, also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing down telephone calls or other interactive media communications. SBCs reside between two service provider networks in a peering environment, or between an access network (public IP, MPLS, private IP, private circuits, etc.) and a backbone network to provide service to enterprises and other end users. VoIP Logic employs Genband s Quantix-series SBCs as part of its platform for VoIP Peering and routing which allows Service Providers, by partitioned control, to provision, route and manage call information in a self-sufficient manner. VoIP Logic employs Oracle Communications Acme Packet Net-Net SBCs as part of its platform for access network control. In aggregate, these devices maintain full session state and offer the following functions: Security protect the network and other devices from attacks such as denial of service. Connectivity allow different parts of the network to communicate by, for example, supporting NAT traversal. Quality of service the QoS policy of a network and prioritization of flows is often implemented by the SBC. Regulatory many times the SBC is expected to provide support for regulatory requirements such as emergency calls and lawful interception. Statistics since all sessions that pass through the edge of the network pass through the SBC, it is a natural point to gather statistics and information on these sessions. 3

4 Media Gateway A media gateway is a translation device or service that converts digital media streams between disparate telecommunications networks such as PSTN, SS7, Next Generation Networks (2G, 2.5G and 3G radio access networks), VoIP and PBXs. Media gateways enable multimedia communications across Next Generation Networks over multiple transport protocols such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Internet Protocol (IP). Media streaming functions such as echo cancellation and DTMF are also located in the media gateway. Depending on the specific requirements of the Service Providers offering, media gateways can play a vital role converting legacy technology to make it compatible with VoIP. Increasingly, SBCs and other devices have on-board media gateway capabilities. Where a standalone media gateway resource is required, VoIP Logic employs Cisco technology. Modern media gateways used with Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) are often standalone units with their own call and signaling control integrated and can function as independent, intelligent SIP end-points. These devices are often miniaturized and placed at the enterprise customer site as an aggregator device. In essence, VoIP media gateways perform the conversion between TDM voice to a media streaming protocol associated with packetized voice (usually Real-time Transport Protocol, RTP), as well as a signaling protocol used in the VoIP system. Integrated Access Devices (IADs) and other Edge Access Equipment Edge Access Devices combine multiple voice and data features, network firewall, and SIP Application Level Gateway (ALG) into a single network services gateway. Typical models may have up to 4 T1 WAN interfaces or a single Ethernet WAN, a 4 port managed VLAN switch, a call quality (QoS) probe and a Wireless Access Point. Some models may also include integrated analog phone and line ports. The majority of all SIP-capable firewalls today use the SIP Application Level Gateway (ALG) architecture, which solves firewall traversal by taking care of the SIP packets on-the-fly, making sure that they reach the right destination on the LAN. It does not provide the full protection and flexible functionality necessary for today s secure enterprise. Some benefits of an edge access device with SIP ALG include: Far-end-NAT traversal (FENT) to support remote users; Encrypted SIP signaling (TLS) and media (SRTP); Authentication; Advanced filtering; Advanced routing and control features; and Intelligence to enable the firewall to act as a backup for a hosted or centralized IP-PBX. VoIP Logic supports a Bring Your Own IAD model which currently has all leading IAD brands deployed in production environments including Adtran, Edgewater, Audiocodes, NET (Sonus) and Mediatrix. Telephones and other End User Devices and Clients A VoIP handset or VoIP client software allows telephone calls to be made over an IP network such as the Internet or another network scenario that uses packet 4

5 switching as opposed to the PSTN. The phones and soft clients use control protocols such as SIP or SCCP (Skinny Client Control Protocol). These IP phones can be simple software-based soft-phones, mobile applications, purpose-built hardware devices that appear much like an ordinary telephone or a cordless phone or ordinary PSTN phones plugged into an analog telephony adapters (ATA). There are a myriad of variables within the firmware of software configuration of the device or client that create differences in what features and services it can support or will not support. These include on-the-fly configuration of soft-keys, busy lamp indicator, shared call appearances, insufficient number of soft-keys, inability to mimic legacy voic systems, limited line-use display capabilities and problems handling call transfer variations among others. VoIP Logic supports a Bring Your Own Device model which currently has all leading telephone devices deployed including Polycom, Cisco, Panasonic, Bria, X-lite, snom, Aastra, Grandstream, Portico and Yealink. Monitoring and Troubleshooting Platform While each network device may provide independent monitoring and limited troubleshooting tools, a network-wide tool is necessary to ensure proper deployment and troubleshooting across your dispersed Hosted PBX network which includes your core and extends out to the premises of all of your enterprise customers. There are several types of network assessment, monitoring and troubleshooting tools available to include software-only, appliance and cloud-based. Cloud-based solutions differ from other types, in that the intelligence of the system is located in a cloud-based hosted service, enabling the appliance to be small, simple, plug-andplay and inexpensive. Using a central hosted infrastructure to control and coordinate appliances and serve as the central storage repository allows test planning, test execution, data collection, correlation and reporting to become highly simplified and executed in a lights-out manner. Most importantly, purpose built appliances can go beyond pure call generation and act as deep packet inspection probes to perform live VoIP call and data traffic monitoring. As a complement to the core platform technology, VoIP Logic offers Oracle Communications Palladion SIP monitoring software package. This gives Service Providers full visibility to the call sessions traversing all aspects of the core PaaS and complements other systems for QoS metrics to the customer premise site. Managed Services options for monitoring often, more or less, look like the diagram below. 5