Session border controllerAcme Packet Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) provide critical control functions to allow OTT/ASPs to deliver trusted, first-class interactive communications across IP network borders. A broad range of SIP and H.323 services and applications are supported ranging from basic voice-over-IP to any session-oriented service—audio and video conferencing, person-person interactive video, presence, instant messaging, IP TV, video on demand and Web 2.0 server triggered services over any type of IP network, including the Internet. A “session" is any real-time voice, video, presence, instant messaging or multimedia collaboration session using IP session-layer signaling protocols, such as SIP. The "border" is any IP-IP network border and the "control" functions satisfy critical OTT/ASP requirements in five major areas: - Security—A Net-Net SBC secures the subscriber access border and the interconnect/peering border. They protect themselves and other elements of the service delivery infrastructure from malicious denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks and non-malicious overloads. They protect subscriber endpoints and privacy.
- Service reach maximization—The SIP and H.323 interworking capabilities of a Net-Net SBC ensure interoperability with-and-between subscriber endpoints, SIP servers, H.323 gatekeepers, MCUs, application servers, media servers, media gateways and SBCs in peering networks. They enable sessions to traverse NAT/firewalls, IPv4 and IPv6 networks, public and private networks using overlapping IP addresses, and virtual private networks. Net-Net SBCs mediate between different signaling, transport and encryption protocols, converting between incompatible codecs, and translating signaling-layer telephone numbers, addresses and response codes.
- SLA assurance—A Net-Net SBC plays a critical role in assuring session capacity and quality. It performs admission control using local policies and/or external policy servers to ensure that both the network link to the data center and the service infrastructure have the capacity to support a session with high quality. SBCs can also control IP network transport, can and monitor and report actual session quality to determine compliance with performance specifications set forth in service level agreements between service providers.
- Regulatory compliance— Government-mandated regulations worldwide, including national emergency services such as E911, and lawful intercept such as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the United States are supported by Net-Net SBCs.
- Cost and revenue management—A Net-Net SBC helps service providers control costs and increase revenues by routing sessions optimally to minimize costs and by providing accounting and related mechanisms to maximize billable sessions.
Our SBC configurations for OTT/ASPs are supported on a family of hardware platforms — the Net-Net 3820, 4500, 9200 and 14000. This family delivers the highest levels and broadest range of signaling performance and media capacity. In addition, our Net-Net Session-aware Load Balancer (SLB) is used with Net-Net Session Director SBCs to create a Net-Net cluster supporting two million subscribers from a single SIP IP address. All Net-Net products support carrier-class high-availability (HA) operation.
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