Acme Packet Dramatically Simplifies SIP Trunking Implementations

Enterprises can reduce long distance and international calling fees and improve service agility by using a SIP trunk service provider (SP) for PSTN ac­cess. In fact, many enterprises have reduced their telecom­munications expenses by 30-70% by migrating to SIP trunking. A SIP trunk allows traditional fixed PSTN lines to be replaced with connectivity via an IP connection. And, as reported at Enterprise Connect 2012, SIP trunking is in 80% of Fortune 1000 organizations.

Despite industry efforts to reduce the complexity of deploying SIP trunks between enterprises and service providers, interoperability issues and lack of consistency among implementations from leading SIP solutions vendors threatens to limit the adoption of SIP trunking over time. Security and reliability pose additional challenges in SIP trunking service adoption, since enterprises expect similar performance in these areas from a SIP trunking service that they would from traditional TDM trunks.

To address these challenges, successful deployment of SIP trunking services generally requires implementing session border controllers (SBCs) at both ends of SIP trunks. SBCs solve the interoperability, security, reliability and quality issues that would otherwise hinder successful SIP trunking service deployment. Moreover, because of the functional disparities between SIP trunking solution elements, service providers desire innovative ways to provision the SBCs that terminate SIP trunks in order to reduce the time and effort required to add new SIP trunking customers to their services.

On the other side of the coin, enterprises are eager to reduce the burden on their own support organizations, increasingly relying on their SPs to rapidly enable SIP trunks so that they can begin to reap the cost and productivity benefits of those services as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

Acme Packet’s solution for simplifying and streamlining the provisioning of SIP trunking services for enterprises was recently announced at its Interconnect 2012 customer conference. This solution consists of three components:

1. SIP Trunk Xpress – a solution for simplifying and streamlining the provisioning of SIP trunking services
   
   
2. Interop Xpress – Acme Packet’s program for SIP PBX and UC solutions testing, integration and certification, and
   
   
3. Acme Packet’s family of enterprise SBCs (E-SBCs) of which two new software-based products were announced, which complement and operate in tandem with Acme Packet SP-SBCs already deployed in the service provider’s network.

SIP Trunk Xpress

The SIP Trunk Xpress (STX) application is a management tool enabled through Acme Packet’s Net-Net Central application framework, and used by service providers to remotely and automatically configure and provision SIP trunks for their enterprise customers. E-SBCs must be configured to normalize the session traffic between each enterprise location and the service provider so that the enterprise complies with all service parameters. Configuring each E-SBC can be a cumbersome and resource-intensive task that causes delays in service deployment, negatively affecting enterprise customer satisfaction and increasing SP OPEX.

STX works across all of Acme Packet E-SBC platforms and can be delivered as a service to enterprise customers from medium size on up to the largest corporations. However, it’s the large SP who will benefit the most from the remote provisioning opportunity.

Interop Xpress

Interop Xpress is Acme Packet’s program designed to accelerate and simplify “any-to-any” communications over SIP trunks by testing and certifying SIP trunking services in conjunction with leading IP-PBX and UC solutions. The program will be run by Acme Packet’s Business Development and Professional Services Organizations. The goals of Interop Xpress are twofold:

1. Reduction of interoperability challenges between customer-located IP PBX, UC or other SIP-enabled communications solutions and SIP trunking services
   
   
2. Creation of configuration templates for SIP Trunk Xpress representing both the SIP trunking service provider configuration profiles and those associated with leading IP PBX, UC or other SIP-enabled communications solutions.

As pointed out by David Rhode at this year’s Enterprise Connect, carriers have historically been agnostic about full standardization of SIP trunking, and, in particular, lukewarm in their contributions to SIPconnect 1.1. Hopefully Acme Packet will have more luck here.

Software-based Enterprise Session Directors (ESD)

Acme Packet is now offering its E-SBC operating system and feature set in software models designed for industry-standard x86 Linux servers and virtual machine environments. The Net-Net ESD Server Edition (SE) and Virtual Machine Edition (VME) were designed to make SIP trunk deployments in small-to-medium enterprises and branch offices price-effective, quick to install and reliable. Net-Net ESD-SE software can be pre-installed by Acme Packet channel partners on certified industry-standard servers and delivered to the end-customer as a turnkey E-SBC appliance. Net-Net ESD-VME is delivered as software for VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V environments. It can be installed on servers that meet minimum Acme Packet application requirements.

The ESD-SE is fine for 100 to 4,000 employees, whereas the ESD-VME is targeted at 100 to 1000 employees. ESD deployments could be undertaken by a large enterprise deploying a distributed SIP trunk topology at its branch offices. Both the ESD SE and VME can be centrally managed using Net-Net Central.

It’s worthwhile mentioning that neither the ESD SE nor VME include the highend hardware acceleration encryption and transcoding that Acme Packet incorporates with specialized hardware. Remember, however, that the sweet spot for these models is the SIP trunking environment where security requirements are not as extreme as found elsewhere, and where transcoding is not anticipated to be a huge issue. In situations where SBCs are deployed at Internet boarder points or in contact centers where transcoding is a likely requirement, Series 3820 or the 4500 Class E-SBC platforms would be required.

What This Means to You

For Customers: In the most likely scenario SPs, who are SIP trunking providers, will be reselling Acme Packet E-SBCs to enterprises. What they’ll likely do is package the E-SBC as part of the service. They’ll first have it shipped to the customer. They will then email a bootstrap file to the customer that will be used by the customer’s IT department to bring the E-SBC up and running. Once it’s up online, the SIP Trunk Xpress app will take care of the provisioning. This is all well and good, but enterprise end-users need to do their SIP trunking homework first.

The design and implementation of a SIP Trunking solution, or any communications solution for that matter, must be shaped to each enterprise’s unique needs if an optimal tradeoff of benefits and costs is to be achieved. The best way to get from here to there is with a plan. It’s been said many times that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Whichever plan you create will not be the one ultimately implemented. Nonetheless, having a plan is better than not having one. Having a collective understanding of the business context and intentions of the solution will enable the enterprise project team to select and communicate alternate directions knowledgeably and quickly. In this regard then, begin by addressing the business requirements for voice connectivity – availability, capacity, quality, security, and features. Then gather existing voice communication costs by reviewing existing infrastructure, rates, and bills from the service providers. Issue an RFP to appropriate SIP trunking providers in order to get their proposals inclusive of managed service options. Query SBC vendors, as well, to insure that the SBC the service provider intends to install has the flexibility and the feature/functionality that will solve the problems that you need to be solved in your network. Lab test and pilot the top 2-3 selected carriers and SBCs before making a final selection and initiating deployment.

For Partners: Acme Packet has a multi-channel distribution strategy. First and foremost is the service provider channel. These partners resell Acme Packet SBCs as well as their own SIP trunking services, and may very well package both as part of a managed service configuration. Both of those solution options are enhanced by the new offerings Acme Packet has announced. First, the availability of SIP Trunk Xpress and Interop Express shortens SP time to revenue and time to customer satisfaction. And then the flexibility of the new software versions of the SBC allows customers and SPs, in the case of the managed service option, to deploy the E-SBC on their platforms of choice. Taken together, the entire solution becomes a lot easier to source, configure, operate and manage.

Advantages also accrue to the UC VAR channel. Apart from obvious E-SBC resale opportunities, those VARs who also resell Microsoft Lync can now deploy virtual instances of the E-SCB and Lync on a single server as a turnkey package for their customers.