SIP has become the protocol of choice for enterprise-wide IP networks. Today’s enterprises want to get the most out of their SIP network investment and leverage it for unified communications and mobility. This eBook explores the latest ways businesses are using SIP to maximize network efficiency, deploy advanced applications and ensure network security.

1. FierceTelecom Custom Publishing
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VoIP’s New
Resiliency: How
Enterprise VoIP applications and remote session
capabilities (such as mobile
application delivery and supply
Trends & Insights
SIP Trunking chain management) without the
Can Help need to provision additional
Improve Capacity transport services. From an
Management enterprise point-of-view, this
is critical because SIP offers
6
for 2012 and Beyond seamless connectivity options
for branch locations, remote
workers and trading partners.
SIP Trunking • Mobility and
and the Presence Support
Ever-changing SIP is incorporated into a range
SBC of user devices, including
mobile wireless devices and
desktop clients. Using SIP,
9
session establishment requests
are not sent to a device; they
The Great are sent to the network, which
Enabler: SIP locates the user’s “presence”
Trunking and establishes a session
Underpins Unified based on the user’s current
Communications location and usage profile.
and Mobility Because SIP unshackles
Why SIP Makes Sense: Advantages and Applications • SIP is Part of the data is critical. SIP relies on a users’ physical location from
Overall IP Suite text-based command structure their logical address, they
 SIP is an application layer protocol that is used to establish,
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As part of the IP suite, SIP that uses HTTP syntax and can have fully integrated
maintain, modify, and end communications sessions between two or is flexible and extraordinarily URL addressing, both ideal for corporate communications —
more parties. The driving force behind the development of SIP was dynamic. Its functionality can delivering telephony over an regardless of location. They
Saving Your
Voice: Security a
the need for a signaling protocol for IP-based networks that can be extended to numerous IP network where the logical can also integrate instant
Key Component support the standard call processing functions found in the PSTN. applications, including integration of applications messaging and desktop
in VoIP Buying enhanced signaling for value- (e.g., voice, messaging, collaboration applications.
Decision SIP Advantages and Applications protocol designed around the limited added services, VoIP, and conferencing, and Web access) Users can customize their
When deployed in a network, SIP offers requirements of telephone sets — XML-tagged applications. can create an enhanced availability profile and publish
distinct advantages that can be used to which have no innate intelligence. SIP, Because XML is used to customer experience. it for the world to see, thus
develop powerful and compelling end- on the other hand, is a peer-to-peer structure, store, and send • Supports Any Network making communications much
user applications. For example: protocol, which requires a different information across the Transport Medium more efficient. In short, SIP
 Brought to you by: • Intelligence at the Edge type of network core infrastructure network, it works well with Because SIP is an application is the protocol that supports
SIP-enabled telephony systems (preferably MPLS built on an IP SIP in environments where layer protocol, it can ride the universal availability of
offer most of the call processing platform) with a blend of intelligence data needs to be retrieved seamlessly across any transport presence information.
and feature invocation procedures located at the edge (i.e., software or and used, as in a call center scheme and be transported SIP is a fundamentally important
offered through traditional voice end-user device hardware or PBX), environment where customer across any access modality technology in the evolving con-
networks — but in a different way. complemented by more scalable, records must be accessed, or — cable, DSL, private line, verged network and will play an
Traditional voice networks use a granular, and rapidly deployed services in a healthcare environment Ethernet, and wireless. Thus, increasingly important role in enter-
hierarchical, centralized, core-based offered by network operators. where access to customer SIP can enable a broad range of prise and SMB networks. l
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VoIP’s New Resiliency: trunking service, enterprises can son, a traditional PSTN/PRI trunk affected by unplanned or even the day. One office may see a traf-
How SIP Trunking Can Help make the most of their new-found can accommodate only 24 calls per planned spikes, said XO’s Carter. fic spike while another office’s call
Improve Capacity Management voice capacity, said Elka Popova,
director of unified communications
channel, which in actual implemen-
tation scenarios is typically reduced
An important aspect that should be
considered when choosing a SIP
volume remains relatively low.
In many cases, business
and collaboration at Frost & Sul- to about 17.5 calls. Dynamic capac- trunking service is how well that customers see their ports over-
 SIP trunking services offer each individual location where you livan. “Through dynamic bandwidth ity management allows businesses service handles bursting traffic. provisioned by the carrier to
corporate enterprises more cost- want VoIP.” allocation and a larger compres- to add or reduce the simultaneous Daily peak hours and seasonal handle potential spikes, but they
effective ways of carrying voice Once an enterprise can do that, it sion, a SIP trunk can carry a large call paths on the trunk based on usage trends are two things that end up paying whether or not the
calls and managing the expansion can start working on how to better number of simultaneous calls—any- actual demand without paying for create bursting traffic. For example, extra circuits are used.
of VoIP to all of their locations, manage capacity on a per session where between 28 and 41 per SIP the additional capacity.” That logic a company with office branches in “It would be more logical to
but these bottom-line improve- basis. Steve Carter, senior man- trunk depending on call volume and also should apply to business cus- four different time zones may see extend the capacity where and
ments would be impossible ager of product management at XO call patterns,” she said. “In compari- tomers that see their usage trends rolling peak calling hours throughout continued on page 5
without features that change how Communications, said, “To keep
voice capacity can be managed costs low, what customers really
and shared across the enterprise. want to do is manage their session
Unlike legacy voice services and costs, but the first thing they need
even other enterprise VoIP mod- to understand is that not all ses-
els, SIP trunking frees voice from sions are created equal.”
the capacity limits of individual Understanding how to best man-
lines, and makes it a common age voice capacity is not all that
resource that can be allocated on simple in the current market, Carter
a flexible basis. said. For example, if a business
“What SIP trunking really does is customer needs support for 1,000
change how you look at the net- simultaneous call sessions through
Dynamic capacity management features lend a new
sort of resiliency to VoIP in the business enterprise,
a quality that may surprise some users who
thought of it as nothing more than a bargain.
work,” said Nena Dodson, national one data center, they may also find
enterprise services engineer at XO themselves paying for back-up
Communications. “You can look sessions at a second data cen-
at the network more holistically, ter—even if the second allotment of
and at bandwidth as a centralized sessions is not used.
resource, rather than a decen- “You shouldn’t be charged you
tralized one. You can buy voice for sessions that you don’t need,”
capacity in the form of one big pipe Carter said. “You shouldn’t be
rather than individual circuits. You forced to double up.”
can size your investment on the With bandwidth becoming a
size of your network rather than by centralized resource through a SIP
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continued from page 4
added, “If you have many sites traffic. Typically, connectivity is
when the business users need with heavier call volumes, you can
handled separately for each site, SIP Trunking and the Ever-changing SBC
it,” said Robert Mason, research centralize control for more efficient
so the more sites, the larger the
director of network services at use of your trunk capacity. You excess bandwidth. If businesses
Gartner. “Not a lot of service pro- can allocate capacity where you can “borrow” available bandwidth
viders do that.” need it most.” from one site to use it for other
Carter said XO does. “You need Popova added, “Bursting pro- sites, they can save a lot of money
to provision a port that meets your vides superior benefits, especially
by avoiding the over-provisioning.”
capacity requirements. However, to larger, multi-site businesses. InXO is among the few SIP trunking
if you need just part of the port, most cases, businesses over-pro- providers that have begun to offer
we’ll only charge you for the por- vision bandwidth to limit downtime
a bursting capability, according to
tion you use.” Infonetics’ Myers and quality issues with real-timePopova. XO distinguishes its own
burstable capability by
offering redundancy at
all customer locations,
Daily peak hours and seasonal usage trends are two things that create and by being able to
bursting traffic. For example, a company with office branches in four route traffic across sites,
different time zones may see rolling peak calling hours throughout the and from other carrier
day. One office may see a traffic spike while another office’s call volume networks. Popova also
remains relatively low. pointed out that the
ability to flexibly adjust
capacity also extends
to business continuity
and disaster recovery
situations. She cited the service’s  Session border controllers overall capacity management. For
“inherent business continuity capa- (SBCs) are important components example, they can ensure out-
SBCs also are used within
bility to provide automatic failover in SIP trunking service deploy- bound calls are transmitted even at
enterprise networks to
from one Enterprise SIP connec- ments because they provide times when in-bound call volumes
handle increasing network
tion to another, ensuring redundant gateways between the various are very heavy, Pandurangan said.
complexity created by
paths to the PSTN in the event that service provider and enterprise “The SBC can be used for header
corporate mergers that bring
one of the primary SIP connections networks that SIP trunking call manipulation to adapt to different
together once-disparate
is unavailable.” sessions must traverse. That Carriers,” he said. “They can also
corporate networks.
Gartner’s Mason added, “Having makes them critical to the security be used to do traffic policing—set-
that flexibility to deal with a sudden of SIP trunking connections. How- ting policies for routing data—and
event like an outage is a very valid ever, SBCs actually predate SIP can collect traffic data to be used
benefit. Otherwise, it would take trunking services, and they play in reports.”
too much time to get capacity back a variety of roles in all kinds of IP SBCs started in carrier networks, However, Elka Popova, direc-
up at the affected site.” Dynamic service deployments. deployed at the border between tor of unified communications and
capacity management features “They are traffic cops, but that network peering partners to sup- collaboration at Frost & Sullivan,
lend a new sort of resiliency to is not all they do,” said Ramani port internetworking. They handled said SIP’s maturation into a more
VoIP in the business enterprise, Pandurangan, director of voice transcoding between TDM net- ubiquitous protocol has lessened
a quality that may surprise some architecture and technology at XO works and evolving islands of IP the need for protocol transcoding
users who thought of it as nothing Communications. “They do legacy coverage and, like VoIP gateways, and VoIP gateways designed for
more than a bargain. SIP trunking protocol mapping to SIP and do a lot could also translate between IP that purpose, which has given rise
is cost-efficient, but it’s also capac- of signal internetworking functions.” networks using different protocols— to more full-featured SBCs. “As SIP
ity-efficient. l In addition, SBCs can assist in SIP or H.323, for example. continued on page 7
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continued from page 6
services engineer at XO, said, “An voice service component. How- connectivity issues. They provider working with an
becomes increasingly standardized SBC allows customers to bring all of ever, SBCs that have traditionally are unable to perform SBC vendor, you have to do
and mainstream, both in enterprise the traffic from all of their separate been deployed to support data VoIP signaling and media interoperability testing. You
and carrier networks, it becomes networks, hub them all together, sessions may not be the most deep packet inspection. want to give the customer
less important to use VoIP gate- wrap them up with a big bow on appropriate for supporting voice They have an inability to options for which SBC they
ways [as protocol conversion is less them, and present them to the services, said Steve Carter, senior track session state and want to have, but not too
required], and SBCs are becom- carrier as one. If an enterprise can manager for product manage- provide uninterrupted many, or it just becomes too
ing one of the most critical border do that, it won’t have all of these ment at XO Communications. service. Also, firewalls confusing. If the customer
elements,” she said. “They enable separate trunk groups going over to “Today’s data focused solutions and routers in data SBCs wants you to work with an
protocol normalization and handle the carrier network.” are not enough,” he said. “They lack can’t protect unified com- SBC they already have, then
security at the demarc point where Dodson said such situations have ability to dynamically correct VoIP munications resources.” you have to make it work.”
the carrier and the enterprise net- occurred frequently in industries As others noted, SBCs Carter added, “Carri-
work come together. such as banking, where banks often can do a great many ers should be able to talk
SBCs also are used within merge with one another, and then things, but securing about their deployments
There are many SBC vendors,
enterprise networks to handle use SBCs to help them integrate networks is probably with SBCs, but saying they
and while service providers
increasing network complexity and combine enterprise networks the most critical role are certified on a specific
will want to be able to
created by new services like uni- that use equipment from different they play. To Carter’s SBC doesn’t really address
work with an enterprise’s
fied communications and mobility, vendors. “SBCs help them unify that point, SBCs that are tions,” said Deborah Kish, principal the need. Number of ses-
preferred vendor—if there is
as well as by corporate mergers landscape,” she said. deployed to support SIP trunking analyst, communications service sions, availability requirements,
one—they may not work with
that bring together once-disparate As SBCs have evolved, they voice services are often deployed provider technology at Gartner. “We security and reporting drive what a
every SBC on the market.
corporate networks. also have grown from being an IP with security in mind as a main see carriers buying vendor solutions customer would order. XO recom-
Nena Dodson, national enterprise data service component to an IP function. “Security is paramount,” and reselling to enterprise, and in mends testing based on customer
Carter said. “The multi-protocol some cases, hosted SBC services.” application.”
and real-time nature of VoIP XO partners with SBC ven- SBCs will continue to evolve as
demands a sophisticated stateful dors ACME Packets and Sonus IP services continue to evolve. It’s
defense strategy. Signaling attacks Networks to deploy SBCs as a possible that some of the functions
are among the simplest to launch. managed network element at the they support today could become
SBCs help protect the network customer premise as part of XO’s integrated into other equipment.
and other devices from malicious Enterprise SIP Service. “A man- “More SBC functions are being
attacks of different types, such as aged SBC offering is something you built into PBXs now,” said Infonet-
a denial-of-service attack, toll fraud will more often see a TDM customer ics’ Myers. “That could become
or topology hiding.” who is moving to IP have an inter- another way of getting the SBC
SBCs also can provide encryp- est in,” said XO’s Dodson. “A lot of functionality into businesses.”
tion of signaling via the Transport customers will just want help setting XO’s Pandurangan said examples
Layer Security (TLS) and IPSec, and up and configuring the SBC, but of how that is happening include
media via Secure Real-Time Trans- some may want the service provider manufacturers of PBXs that are
fer Protocol (SRTP), Carter said. to manage it on an ongoing basis.” incorporating “SBC functions” to
As SBCs have matured, the There are many SBC vendors, support functions such as security
market dynamics around their and while service providers will want and protocol mapping. “It’s a way
availability also have changed. to be able to work with an enter- of reducing the number of boxes
Increasingly, SBCs are available not prise’s preferred vendor—if there is needed to support the enterprise’s
only directly from SBC vendors, but one—they may not work with every networking needs,” he said.
also from SIP trunking service pro- SBC on the market. However border network ele-
viders, either included in the price Diane Myers, directing ana- ments do evolve in the future, one
of the SIP trunking service, or as a lyst, VoIP and IMS, at Infonetics thing is certain: SBC functions go
separate item. “We see both situa- Research, said, “If you’re a service hand in hand with SIP trunking. l
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The Great Enabler: ownership for unified communica- Another way is that the UC platform efficiently deployed over SIP. By ing allows application management
SIP Trunking Underpins Unified tions, with less equipment to buy can act like the PBX and directly using SIP trunking services, organi- to be centralized, which in turn
Communications and Mobility and manage at every location,” Cart-
er said. He added that one of the
connect to the SIP trunk, and a third
model could have a session border
zations with SIP-enabled IP PBXs or
UC solutions can eliminate the cost
allows for greater IT operational
efficiencies. “In an advanced UC
first factors that business enterprises controller mediating between the UC of VoIP gateways and other border environment with SIP trunking,
will have to consider when evaluat- platform and the SIP trunk.” control elements needed to connect users can access applications
ing how, where and when to pursue Once in place, SIP trunking can their next-generation communica- based on their roles and actual
a unified communications strategy is allow business customers to reduce tions systems with the PSTN.” needs, rather than their location,
exactly how much it will cost them costs, in part by allowing them to Popova also said that SIP trunk- platform, or device,” she said
to set up the new capabilities at all potentially eliminate other border Also, Carter said a SIP trunking
of their wide area network sites. If control elements, said Elka Popova, service supporting a unified com-
the hardware costs are too high, director of unified communications munications deployment should
Whatever SIP trunking
they will end up with a limited unified and collaboration at Frost & Sullivan. allow data to share the enterprise
service a business enterprise
communications deployment, and “SIP trunking allows such busi- SIP access, or at least provide
chooses must also work with
limited benefits. nesses to significantly reduce the separate access. “Many SIP trunk-
other unified communications
“SIP trunking is really how unified total cost of ownership of their com- ing providers still charge additional
components the business is
communcations capabilities get out munications infrastructure,” she said. fees for data and Internet,” he said.
deploying, such as PBXs.
to the PSTN,” said Nena Dodson, “Many UC services such as mes- Service redundancy and failover
national enterprise services engineer saging, mobility, application sharing, capabilities also are important in
at XO Communications. “And you and conferencing can be more any kind of enterprise VoIP deploy-
make the most of that benefit by ment, but especially in
 Two of the hottest technology trunking fits in the scenario of a uni- having a direct link between the SIP unified communications
trends in the business enterprise fied communications deployment: trunk and the unified communica- environments, where
sector are unified communica- “SIP trunking allows businesses tions platform.” disruptions in service
tions and workforce mobilization. to deploy unified communications The platform that XO has most means a disruption of the
Depending on an individual busi- across an entire network by lever- frequently seen requests to link to enterprise’s collaboration
ness’ unique needs, it may be aging the customer’s wide area is Microsoft Lync. “That platform environment. Carter said
doing more of one than the other, network, and by providing access to has a capability that allows the XO enables fail-over from
but for many companies, adoption unified communications capabilities Lync server to automatically con- one XO Enterprise SIP
of unified communications and to all of their branch office locations.” figure it based on preset rules that connection to another so
mobility capabilities will go hand in In that sense, SIP trunking is the were defined by the provider and that customers do not
hand. technology that helps unified com- Microsoft during the certification lose their collaboration
An underlying enabler of these munications expand beyond the process,” Dodson said. “For other capabilities.
two service sets that does not get main corporate campus. unified communications platforms, Whatever SIP trunk-
nearly as much attention is SIP One of the main benefits of we put out a guide on how you to ing service a business
trunking, and as businesses invest using SIP trunking to support such configure the connection.” enterprise chooses must
in unified communications and an expansion is cost savings. Ramani Pandurangan, director also work with other
mobility technologies, they should Without it, business customers of voice architecture and technol- unified communications
consider how SIP trunking services would have to spend money on ogy at XO Communications, added, components the busi-
can help them get the most out of new hardware and software at “There are different ways to create ness is deploying, such
both evolutions. every branch location where they these connections. You might have as PBXs. There are
Steve Carter, senior manager for wanted to extend the unified com- a connection between the UC plat- dozens of different PBXs
product management at XO Com- munications capabilities. form and the IP PBX, and the PBX on the market. For a SIP
munications, explained where SIP “SIP trunking reduces total cost of connects to the SIP trunk service.
continued on page 11
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continued from page 10
Supporting enterprise mobility The SIP trunking provider also
trunking provider, it might not raises similar challenges. Business is currently working on develop-
necessarily be efficient to certify
interoperability with every last
enterprises will want to use their SIP
trunking services to extend office
ing a fixed-mobile convergence
capability that would make mobile
Saving Your becomes in effect another data
service.
Mason, research director of network
services for Gartner.
one, but if customers have a PBX VoIP capabilities to as many of their service more integrated with the Voice: Security a It may come as a surprise then Infonetics’ Myers recalled that one
preference, it is good to be ready.
“We are very methodical about
mobilized employees as possible.
Trying to certify a service to work
VoIP application and able to be
used seamlessly.
Key Component that the biggest security threat for
customers of a service like SIP trunk-
SIP trunking security breach she had
heard about involved a hacker tap-
how we support unified com- with every mobile device on the mar- Ultimately, when a business is in VoIP Buying ing is not a massive, coordinated ping into a business’ IP connection
munications, and which PBXs we
work with,” Carter said. “Ideally,
ket would be a task without end.
Fortunately, Carter said there
looking at investing in unified com-
munications or mobility, they should
Decision attack by a global botnet army, but
instead something decidedly more
and directing thousands of rogue
calls through their phone system.
we would test with every IP-PBX are a number of mobility solutions also consider a SIP trunking service old-school. “Toll fraud may not sound like a huge
vendor and have, in fact, tested that do not require integration with that best meets their requirements. “There is not a particular amount problem, but if you see it happen on
with over 20 of them. The key is to mobile devices. “XO provides a ser- Because these new technologies  At first glance, a VoIP line may of effort being taken [by hackers] to that scale, it can be a huge financial
not only test, but document what is vice called XO Anywhere, which can extend capabilities beyond the seem an unlikely target for secu- compromise SIP right now, but what loss,” she said.
tested so that the carrier can pro- be used with certain services that corporate campus, they should rity threats. Voice services do not you do see is toll fraud,” said Robert Steve Carter, senior manager of
vide detail to customers as to how provide capabilities like simultane- choose a SIP trunking service that receive nearly the same amount product management at XO Com-
to configure their IP-PBX. Unless ous ring, or that let users call from has the network coverage they of hacker attention as data and munications, explained that IP
vendors standardize, testing will their mobile devices and appear to need to reach all of their offices. Internet traffic, and unlike the gear like PBXs and gateways can
The most important network
always be important.” be calling from their landline.” Pricing is important, too, but Carter global publicity garnered by notori- be hacked to gain access to voice
equipment component to
said a single piece of advice above ous Internet worms and viruses capacity. “When you access a PBX
consider is the session
all should be remembered: “Find the industry has seen very few, if remotely, it may not recognize a legit
border controller for
a partner that will work well with any, headlines about major VoIP call versus one that’s not legit,” he
Ultimately, when a business is looking at investing in unified creating secure borders
the CPE vendors, will be flexible in attacks. said. A fraud occurrence involving
communications or mobility, they should also consider a between networks and
their solution, and doesn’t try to cut However, that does not necessarily an IP voice service actually could
SIP trunking service that best meets their requirements. customer premises.
corners on delivering capabilities to mean they have not happened—or have the potential to be even more
save on price.” l could not happen. That is some- costly to a business customer than
thing that customers of SIP trunking continued on page 13
services should consider when mak-
ing their buying decisions, and that
providers of these services should
be ready to address.
“It’s true that we are not hearing
much right now about businesses
being attacked, but it is also possible
we’re not hearing about breaches
because businesses don’t want to
tell the world that their systems have
been compromised” said Diane
Myers, directing analyst, VoIP and
IMS, at Infonetics Research.
Traditionally, VoIP services have
been viewed as somewhat more
susceptible to security threats than
TDM voices services because on
TDM, voice traffic was isolated from
data traffic. On the IP network, voice
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continued from page 12
network equipment component to security,” she said. “What an SBC support encryption of signaling traffic like an SBC for them. They are look-
toll fraud on a TDM network because consider is the session border con- brings is that you can do topology or content by enabling encryption SBCs are key to ensuring ing for providers they can trust with
call sessions can be compressed troller, for creating secure borders hiding. It also gathers information schemes such as the Transport SIP trunking security, but that responsibility.”
on the IP network, allowing for more between networks and customer on unused phone numbers and IP Layer Security protocol, IP Sec, or not to the exclusion of These security options are not
calls to be made. premises. addresses on your network that you the Secure Real-Time Transfer pro- other security measures. things that business customers
Carter said XO’s SIP trunking ser- “Security is becoming a major may not have known even existed. It tocol. Gartner’s Kish said that in the may think of first when they buy SIP
vice has the capability to recognize component and function [of SBCs], helps you know your network better.” future, she can see SBC equipment trunking and enterprise VoIP servic-
call anomalies and detect fraud pat- and this will become more apparent Dodson added that installing vendors continually improving the es, but Infonetics’ Myers noted that
terns. He also said that voice traffic and necessary as enterprises adopt firewalls at the enterprise network security capabilities of their SBCs by Mason added that this trend is even voice security considerations
on a SIP trunk can be carved out SIP trunking—and this is not just is an important step in securing the adding, for example, features such happening partly because enterprise ultimately affect the bottom line.
and separated from data traffic so from an enterprise angle, but from customer VoIP traffic from other as 256 bit encryption. customers want service providers “Security of voice trunks is not
that it is not affected by other types the carrier as well,” said Deborah applications that may traverse the Businesses looking to buy SBCs to help them protect their networks. really top of mind for most busi-
of data-focused security attacks. Kish, principal analyst, communica- same infrastructure. Sometimes, the have a wide range of vendors to “Customers are concerned about nesses,” she said. “They probably
In addition, there are other steps tions service provider technology, firewall will be inside of the SBC, and choose from, but increasingly, they deploying new technologies and are thinking about threats to their
that can be taken to avert fraud, at Gartner. “That doesn’t mean you other times it will be outside. “The may also find their SIP trunking having it turn into a Wild West kind data, but voice attacks can result
said Myers, adding, “It takes some have to give up your firewall, but ideal secure situation is to have an service provider reselling SBCs from of experience,” he said. “They want in minutes being stolen, and those
education of the business custom- SBCs will add an extra layer of secu- SBC on the carrier side linked to an various vendors as an added service service providers to help them man- lost minutes are a financial cost to
er by the service provider about rity that a firewall can’t do.” SBC on the customer side, this con- option, Kish said. age security by deploying something them.” l
the threats and measures that can Nena Dodson, national enterprise figuration will ensure the maximum
be used.” services engineer at XO Communi- amount of security for the customer,”
Using fraud monitoring software cations, agreed that SBCs are key to she said. XO® Enterprise SIP Trunking
Share Voice Capacity Across
can help, but there are also protec- ensuring SIP trunking security, but Where and how firewalls are
tive measures that can be taken at not to the exclusion of other security placed for security also can depend
Multiple Locations & Save
the network level. Service providers measures. “Ideally, you should use all on the nature of the service—wheth-
use firewall software and encryption of these measures—encryption, fire- er it is mostly voice or mostly data,
technology, but the most important walls and SBCs—to provide layered Dodson said. “In a mixed voice and
data network, the firewalls Ideal for businesses with multiple locations, XO Enterprise SIP can help you trim your telecom costs
will usually be separate from and improve efficiencies in the following ways:
the voice part of the architec- ü Deliver VoIP services over your wide area network to branch locations, no matter if it’s five or
ture,” she said. thousands of locations
Regarding data security, ü Dynamically share voice capacity across your locations and enable bursting when you need it
it is important to recognize ü Reduce operating costs by eliminating the need for multiple trunks and phone systems at each
that MPLS IP VPN is a major location
component for SIP solu- ü Eliminate long distance charges between your branch locations
tions, and that security plays ü Standardize and centralize the management of voice services
a critical role in ensuring
that bandwidth is available Discover How Much You Can Save
for the most mission critical If you’re exploring SIP Trunking costs and benefits, or are looking to implement SIP, we can help you.
applications. There are edge Call 877-617-2111 or visit http://www.xo.com/sip for more information.
(appliance) based and cloud
based security solutions that About XO Communications
can be utilized to ensure that XO Communications is the #1 nationwide business VoIP provider serving over 1.2 Million business VoIP
the MPLS portion of the net- users. XO operates its own Tier 1 IP network. Network assets include an advanced transport network
work is secure from outside with terabit capacity nationwide, more than 3,300 on-network buildings, highly secure data centers,
threats. and 24x7 network operations center. http://www.xo.com.
Meanwhile, SBCs also
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