Net-Net 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer
Acme Packet’s Net-Net® 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer (SLB) enables linear, non-disruptive scaling of capacity to 2 million subscribers from a single SIP IP address. It supports the delivery of any IMS, RCS or NGN service; any SIP application - voice, video, presence, messaging and multimedia; over any mobile or fixed line access network including the Internet.
The Net-Net 4500 SLB is deployed with Acme Packet SBCs to create a Net-Net SBC Cluster. The Net-Net Cluster is comprised 2 or more Net-Net SBCs front-ended by the Net-Net SLB for SIP signaling. The Net-Net 4500 SLB is a high-performance Layer 5-7 aware load balancer optimized for Acme Packet SBC clustering. It provides dynamic, adaptive load balancing of subscribers based on SBC availability and health score; and subscriber capacity, load, and session state. Like all Net-Net solutions, the Net-Net SLB features carrier-class high-availability to ensure no loss of active sessions in the event of single system failures. Deployed as 1:1 active-standby units, the SLBs checkpoint configuration and cluster state.
The Net-Net SBC Cluster scales subscriber capacity without requiring architectural forklifts or network disruptions. As all elements of the cluster are SIP subscriber and session-aware, it provides a superior solution in terms of scalability, dynamic adaptive load balancing, redundancy and management compared to traditional Layer 3/Layer 5 Web load balancers and SIP redirect servers.
Services & applications
- IMS, RCS or NGN services
- Mobile, residential or enterprise services
- FMC (femtocells and dual mode endpoint) services
- Network-based or over-the-top services
- Any application – voice, video, presence, messaging, video conferencing, telepresence, content and video share, unified communications and collaboration
- Any access network – 3G, LTE, WiMAX, DSL, cable, FTTx, leased line, Internet; IPv4, IPv6 and interworking; enterprise VPNs and overlapping IP addresses
Features
- High-capacity, high-throughput, low latency virtual SBC
- Low-latency, hardware-based SLB signaling plane
- Intra-cluster protocol for state exchange
- Dynamic, adaptive, stateful load balancing
- Graceful cluster expansion and contraction
- Co-located or geographically distributed deployment models
- Supports heterogeneous Net-Net SBC hardware and software configurations
- Centralized management
Benefits
- Scales linearly to 2 million subscribers
- Simplifies endpoint management
- Protects against site disasters and loss of network connectivity
- Satisfies all access border control requirements
- Protects Acme Packet SBC investments
The Acme Packet edge
High-capacity, high-throughput access SBC cluster
The Net-Net 4500 SLB enables creating a Net-Net Cluster that supports up to 2 million subscribers from a single IP address for SIP signaling. RTP media flows directly from endpoints to the SBCs when needed and can be released within an access network, maximizing cluster throughput and minimizing media latency.
Dynamic, adaptive stateful load balancing
The Net-Net 4500 SLB distributes subscribers to specific SBCs in the cluster at time of registration based upon SBC availability, health score, capacity and current load. This information is exchanged between SBCs and the SLB using an intra-cluster protocol. SBCs can be easily added or even removed from the cluster without any service disruption assuming sufficient capacity exists in the cluster. Subscribers are rebalanced only when they do not have active calls or sessions in process.
Low-latency, hardware-based signaling plane
Only the packets of a subscriber’s SIP REGISTER message are processed by the Net-Net SLB’s software system. Once a subscriber is assigned to a specific SBC, all subsequent SIP signaling messages are processed in hardware. Hardware latency is only 10 microseconds, compared to 10 milliseconds for software processing latency.
Any service, application or access network; virtualization supports multiple services A Net-Net SBC Cluster can be virtualized to physically support multiple services, applications and access networks:
- Any service – mobile, residential, enterprise
- Any application – voice, video, presence, messaging, video conferencing, telepresence, content and video share, unified communications and collaboration
- Any access network – 3G, LTE, WiMAX, DSL, cable, FTTx, leased line, Internet; IPv4, IPv6 and interworking; enterprise VPNs and overlapping IP addresses
Co-located or geographically distributed deployment models
To enable geographic distribution and preserve the transparency of the endpoint’s IP address, the Net-Net SLB uses IP-in-IP encapsulation (RFC 2003) to forward traffic to the SBC. Three deployments models provide increasing degrees of geographic redundancy and network resiliency:
- Co-located SBC cluster – Net-Net SLBs and SBCs are physically co-located in the same data center, or aggregation POP.
- Distributed SBC cluster – Net-Net SLBs and SBCs are physically distributed and separated from each other. Each SLB only has access to a specific group of SBCs. This solution provides geographic redundancy.
- Fully distributed, fully meshed cluster – The Net-Net SLBs and SBCs are physically distributed and separated from each other. Each SLB has access to all SBCs. This solution provides maximum capacity, geographic redundancy and network resiliency.
Investment protection
The Net-Net Cluster supports existing Acme Packet SBCs and can be comprised of a heterogeneous mix of SBC hardware platforms—4250, 4500 and 9200. It also supports all access SBC configurations—access SBC with P-CSCF and IMS-AGW, P-CSCF signaling function only or access SBC only.
Industry-leading Net-Net OS SBC functions & features including Net-SAFE security
The Net-Net Cluster solution supports all of Acme Packet’s industry-leading Net-Net OS border control functions and features in the areas of security, service reach maximization, SLA assurance, revenue protection and regulatory compliance.
Centralized management
Cluster configuration and provisioning can be performed by the Net-Net EMS which manages the cluster as single virtual SBC. From the Net-Net EMS, SBCs can be added or removed from the cluster, subscribers can be migrated, and software upgraded. Centralized fault and performance management is supported through SNMPv2c and Acme Packet’s historical data recording capabilities. The Acme Packet CLI and syslog enable the management and troubleshooting of individual systems.
