How Service Providers Can Seize the SBC as a Service Opportunity

How Service Providers Can Seize the SBC as a Service Opportunity

Table of Contents Introduction..................................... 3 More Business for Service Providers....................... 3 Bringing the Benefits to the Enterprise Customer....................... 3 Building the SBCaaS Infrastructure........................ 4 Extending the Service Provider Network............................. 4 Over-the-Top Model......................................... 4 Virtual SBC Considerations.................................... 4 Configuration Options................................ 4 Major Service Provider offers SBCaaS Using Sonus............... 5 Conclusion...................................... 5 About Sonus..................................... 6 2

Introduction As virtualization technology infiltrates nearly every corner of the IT landscape, from servers to applications and networks, enterprise businesses are questioning the need to continue to invest in traditional customer premises equipment (CPE). From firewalls, intrusion detection and protection systems to load balancers and routers, service providers are interested in how they can move all of this hardware infrastructure into the cloud, and free themselves and their customers from the costs and management burden of CPE. One recent trend has been the consolidation of traditional CPE into multi-purpose edge devices. While this strategy reduces the amount of CPE, service providers must still provide a server onsite at the customer location and manage the server hardware, operating system, and patches. Increasingly, service providers see the cloud as a better option, enabling them to centralize management tasks and get out of the CPE hardware business. Today, as network function virtualization (NFV) is implemented in service provider networks, service providers are now able to deliver SBC as a Service (SBCaaS), and offer all the benefits of cloud environments to enterprise customers. This paper will explore the benefits of an SBC as a Service and describe a deployment example using the Sonus virtualized SBC. More Business for Service Providers The SBCaaS offering enables the service provider to move to a more efficient business model by leveraging the cloud environment. As with Managed Service Offerings, when service providers install SBCs at a customer location, it is expensive to buy, deploy and maintain the equipment. When the equipment becomes obsolete, it requires an onsite customer visit. These expenses can quickly erode the margins on such services. When a service provider can house all equipment in their own data centers, it is much easier and less expensive to manage the equipment. Service providers can charge a monthly fee to their enterprise customers for the SBC service and eliminate the overhead installation and management costs. Service providers also benefit from much faster time-to-market for new service offerings, as well as adding capacity based on customer demand in a pay-as-you-grow model. Bringing the Benefits to the Enterprise Customer Enterprises receive the same benefits and more when they purchase SBCaaS as part of an offering from a service provider vs. buying and managing an SBC in their own data center. Operational expenses for buying and maintaining equipment are eliminated, and the cost for SBC operations can be rolled into the broadband and voice budgets. There are many operational advantages as well, in addition to the large capital expense of an SBC. Two additional advantages for SBCaaS include scalability and security. NFV enables the creation of an SBC in just a few minutes. Scaling SBC services up or down is as easy as an email or website request to the service provider. For those enterprises that have seasonal business or deal with surges, adding or reducing capacity with a Pay-as-you-grow model is critical to managing costs. The need to carry and manage spare physical inventory across multiple sites and deal with space, power, equipment installation and configuration issues is eliminated. The enterprise customers can reduce their CPE footprint, eliminate hardware maintenance costs, and not be concerned with CPE obsolescence. The enterprise no longer has to worry about loading software, configuration, testing, monitoring, software updates, security patches, feature enhancement testing, and license management. As a result, they no longer have to hire staff to manage the SBC. That can lead to reduced IT staff requirements or shifting of staff to other strategic functions. The ongoing overhead for maintaining an SBC alone makes it worthwhile for an enterprise to purchase SBCaaS from a service provider. 3

Building the SBCaaS Infrastructure To build the infrastructure required to support SBC-as-a-Service, service providers have a few options, including extending their network to the customer or providing an over-the-top service of the Internet where the enterprise customer provides their own connectivity. Extending the Service Provider Network In this option, a service provider installs the physical servers required to support a virtual SBC in their data center. They ensure redundancy by running the server infrastructure in high availability clusters and by employing multiple data centers for backup. The enterprise customer uses the service provider s wide area network (WAN) services, typically SIP trunks over MPLS, to connect to the SBC. Essentially, the service provider is extending its network to its customers premises, and the customer uses the service provider s network to support voice, video, messaging, and other real-time communications services. This model is ideal for service providers that offer a full range of WAN network connectivity offerings. Over-the-Top Model With the over-the-top deployment option, service providers can offer service bundles without the overhead of a network infrastructure to maintain. The service provider has made the investment in virtual SBCs but does not provide the network infrastructure. Enterprise customers secure WAN connectivity from a third-party service provider and operate SIP trunking over these data pipes to connect to the service provider data center where the SBC service is provided. Most enterprise customers will likely purchase SBCaaS from a service provider they are familiar with, as well as one that is knowledgeable about SBC deployments and can offer network connectivity. Virtual SBC Considerations Service providers must ensure the virtualized SBC software they choose can handle the task of supporting users at scale. SBCs perform a number of distinct functions, including transcoding between different audio and video formats (G.711 to G.729, for example) and providing security functions such as encryption and protection against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. An SBC vendor must be able to handle these tasks in the hardware versions of their offerings, as well as in the software-based versions used in virtual SBC implementations. Sonus virtual SBC can dynamically allocate specific SBC application software to run on its own virtual processor, such as to handle DOS monitoring and protection. By dedicating different tasks to different process threads in the virtual CPU, service providers can configure how much processing power they want to dedicate to each thread, to ensure each function is delivered with optimal performance. This ensures proper performance at scale versus trying to perform multiple functions such as DOS protection plus SIP interworking in the same software thread. Configuration Options Service providers can configure an SBCaaS offering based on various functions that SBCs support. A base level configuration, for example, may include support for SIP trunking, providing basic call routing. From an IP-PBX at the customer premises, this configuration would support SIP-based, G.711 phone calls. In addition, service providers could offer optional security services, such as encryption of the connection between the customer s location and the service provider network. Policy-based routing is another option that SBCs make possible because they can identify different types of traffic and route them according to pre-defined policies. This enables providers to offer optional services such as support for unique dial plans and various quality of service levels. Another potential service offering is transcoding. While some service providers may mandate all calls on their network conform to a specific standard (typically G.711), others may offering transcoding as an optional service. This would enable enterprises to take advantage of higher compression codec formats such as G.729, and yet still be able to make and receive calls to or from phones using any other codec type. 4

Major Service Provider offers SBCaaS Using Sonus A major U.S. service provider is deploying an SBCaaS offering based on the Sonus SBC SWe. The service provider wants to eliminate the constant battle associated with CPE at customer sites, which increases costs involved with installation. The service provider also wanted a way to address those enterprises that don t want CPE on their site. To implement its SBCaaS offering, the service provider is offering a turn-key version of the Sonus SBC SWe, hosted in one of its data centers, with the ability to turn up more instances of SBC SWe as demand warrants. Sonus handles all technical aspects of the virtual SBC solution, including SWe licensing and configuration. Sonus also provides ongoing management and monitoring for the solution from its Network Operations Center. Sonus makes the offering easy to deploy and simple for the service provider. The provider integrated the SBCaaS into its quoting system to easily produce a customer quote. After receiving a purchase order, the service provider deploys a virtual machine (VM) and relays the specific customer configuration to Sonus. Sonus builds the SBC configuration in the service provider s VM. The service provider s help desk handles any Tier 1 support calls, but can escalate to Sonus when necessary. The setup enables the service provider to get the service to market quickly and scale up only as demand warrants without investing in any CPE. Conclusion Service providers and enterprise customers have a vested interest in getting CPE away from the customer premises. Enterprises prefer to make use of cloud-based services that reduce capital expenses and provide greater agility and scalability, and avoid buying and managing the equipment. Service providers don t want to deal with the turnover of equipment as new generations come along, forcing them to re-visit customer sites. The solution to both issues is a cloud-based service such as SBCaaS. The SBCaaS must be based on software that is well-suited for a virtual environment. Sonus legacy is in building carrier-class SBC solutions that are robust enough to handle transcoding, security (including encryption) and DOS attack prevention, alongside high-performance sessions. Sonus has taken the 10+ years it invested in its SBC code and optimized it for a virtual SBC software platform. Sonus has ensured that its virtual SBC has the scalability required in a service provider environment. With its innovative architectural approach, Sonus ensures that providers and enterprises don t have to settle for any less performance or capability when they choose a virtual SBC or SBCaaS offering. For service providers, Sonus recognizes the many specific migration paths from the traditional vertically integrated, customized, hardware-centric way of building networks, to the more flexible, software-defined and highly elastic future way of building networks. Because Sonus shares a common codebase between its hardware and virtualized SBC, this evolution can begin at multiple points within a service provider s network, in concert with adoption plans for NFV, SDN, and the overall cloud infrastructure. Based upon our strategic vision for virtualized cloud-based SBCs, Sonus is committed to working with each service provider to achieve the best possible deployment model for their specific network and in alignment with their network evolution strategy. 5

About Sonus enables and secures real-time communications so the world s leading service providers and enterprises can embrace the next generation of SIP and 4G/LTE solutions including VoIP, video, instant messaging, and online collaboration. With customers in more than 50 countries and nearly two decades of experience, Sonus offers a complete portfolio of hardware-based and virtualized Session Border Controllers (SBCs), Diameter Signaling Controllers (DSCs), Cloud Exchange Networking Platform, policy/routing servers, and media and signaling gateways. For more information, visit www.sonus.net or call 1-855-GO-SONUS. Sonus is a registered trademark of Sonus Networks, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. North American Headquarters APAC Headquarters EMEA Headquarters CALA Headquarters 4 Technology Park Drive Westford, MA 01886 U.S.A. Tel: +1-855-GO-SONUS 1 Fullerton Road #02-01 One Fullerton Singapore 049213 Singapore Tel: +65-68325589 Edison House Edison Road Dorcan, Swindon Wiltshire SN3 5JX Tel: +44-14-0378-8114 Homero No. 1933-902 Col. Los Morales, C.P. 11510 Mexico City, Mexico Distrito Federal Mexico Tel: +52-55-1950-3036 Int l Tel: +1-978-614-8741 To learn more, call Sonus at 855-GO-SONUS or visit us online at www.sonus.net The content in this document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change by without notice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this publication to assure its accuracy, assumes no liability resulting from technical or editorial errors or omissions, or for any damages resulting from the use of this information. Unless specifically included in a written agreement with, has no obligation to develop or deliver any future release or upgrade, or any feature, enhancement or function. Copyright 2015, Inc. All rights reserved. Sonus is a registered trademark of, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks or registered service marks may be the property of their respective owners. DS-1501 12/08 6