Ashwin Rana, Laurent Guégan, Alcatel-Lucent
The Session Border Controller (SBC) must evolve to support new rich communication services based on all-IP networks. By deploying IP solutions that focus on flexibility and security, operators will satisfy customers with various means to provide business requirements, reduce risks, increase security, and optimize overall costs.
SBC and new conversation experience
Our communication methods are changing. We are no longer satisfied with telephone communications. Now, we hope to know who is online, who is free, and where. We hope to send and receive multimedia messages at any time. We hope to seamlessly switch from voice to video call so that we can communicate face to face. In some cases, we hope to accomplish these things through other applications. They are all part of a new conversation experience and are challenging the first generation of SBCs that did not anticipate these businesses.
All-IP networks begin to support new conversational experiences, so the role of the SBC is evolving. Service providers are moving beyond fixed VoIP services to expand new IP services across multiple networks and devices, such as LTE-based voice (VoLTE), converged communications (RCS) and video. These services are also being integrated into web-based real-time communication technology (WEBRTC), which can support the application between browsers. SBCs at the edge of the network need to provide new capabilities to adapt and support the continuity required by the business.
Figure 1 What kind of business should SBC support?
Beyond First Generation SBC
The first generation of SBC did not provide these features. From the design point of view, they support relatively simple data flow as fixed VoIP services. They cannot cope with the ever-increasing risks of complex data flows, large volumes of traffic, and IP services such as VoLTE, RCS, and WebRTC.
As these businesses emerge, it is more important for service providers to build a solid, IP-based SBC architecture. This architecture should ensure and control economically and control the media flow and the signalling flow, these flows will pass the service provider to be compatible with the forefront fixed, mobile and cable TV fusion network.
To help service providers move from fixed VoIP services to support new conversational experiences, the SBC system must have three main characteristics:
It must incorporate VoLTE's key Enhanced Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (eSRVCC) feature. This feature simplifies switching between 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks. It must provide signalling and flexibility to carry independent extensions while guaranteeing security. This can provide operators with an effective way to extend the network in a trusted manner, including voice to converged communications (signal-intensive) and video (host-intensive) services. It must help operators use funds to enhance the user experience, especially to future market segments such as WebRTC.
Maintain security and continuity
The solid security foundation is the cornerstone of SBC's support for a new type of conversational business experience. The increase in the use of IP devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs, has made the operator's network more vulnerable. As shown in Figure 2, as we share sensitive information in everyday life and integrate various devices, various risks and stakeholders are also increasing.
Figure 2 SBC is an important security guarantee for new conversational experiences
Compared to traditional VoIP services, the complex flows of VoLTE, RCS and WebRTC are more difficult to guarantee. For VoIP, operators focus on establishing secure communications through the SBC. In order to ensure a new conversation experience, SBC needs to extend the security layer to cover the content exchanged for each session communication.
Operators are seizing the opportunity. Infonetics' second quarter 2013 report revealed that operators are adding SBC and IMS core network equipment to support VoLTE access and interconnection (LTE and 3G). Overall, the global operator's VoIP and IMS markets will grow by 30% to reach US$936 million.
Increase flexibility
With the growth of the network scale and the evolution of services, flexibility is the basis for operators to consider expanding SBC deployment. Operators hope that the new generation of SBC can support all networks and services including VoIP, VoLTE, Softphone and WebRTC. Operators also hope that SBC can provide trusted and always secure services and prevent distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS).
To meet these needs, operators need scalable, secure SBCs that can optimize total cost (TCO). A fully scalable solution allows operators to go beyond voice services and support converged communications and video services without degrading their performance. Efforts to increase scalability must be based on strong security recovery guarantees. Operators build networks with these capabilities:
Separate media streams and signaling interfaces: Separate interfaces ensure that attacks on one interface do not affect other interfaces. Dedicated hardware firewalls: Dedicated hardware firewalls can increase the level of protection. When an attack occurs, the scope of the attack can be quickly limited. Registration priority: The use of priority can guarantee the rapid recovery of the business by limiting the impact on the service quality in the case of overload.
Release WebRTC opportunities
WebRTC helps operators transform communications into web experiences. By embedding real-time communications in applications, sites, and browsers, it provides operators with new opportunities to expand their brands into the network. However, WebRTC does not define how sessions are established and how they are passed between endpoints. Most telecommunication cases require an IP communications network, such as IMS to facilitate routing calls between WebRTC, IMS, PSTN, and 2G/3G endpoints.
The combination of WebRTC and IMS has created new opportunities for leveraging the SBC architecture to enhance the WebRTC offering. The difference between the IMS and WebRTC specifications requires the introduction of a WebRTC gateway support adaptation function. With proper software extensions, the SBC can become a WebRTC boundary controller, which provides signalling and media adaptation between the WebRTC and the IMS core network, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 SBC Becomes WebRTC Gateway, Bridges Web and IMS Networks
When the WebRTC boundary controller provides adaptation, it can perform functions such as audio and video codec, security, firewall, address translation (NAT) traversal, media reuse and identity management. The ideal solution is to put the SBC and WebRTC functions in the same platform. The feature set prevents performance degradation and is ready to scale to support Web, fixed VoIP and VoLTE traffic. The combination of scalability and performance will help operators to quickly and better recoup their investment in border controllers.
Select SBC for long-term evolution
The SBC program can meet existing and future needs. Flexible IP-based solutions enable operators to support a mix of applications and leave enough room for growth and evolution. With the scalable SBC solution, operators can expand SBC deployment as the market grows, and optimize overall costs over the long term.
When selecting SBC, it is important to look for a solution that can meet the real needs of the market. The best solution does not mean the most features. It is a reasonable choice to be able to meet the short-, medium-, and long-term goals of operators.
Ultimately, operators should choose an SBC solution that offers the best combination of performance, functionality, and cost. Supporting high-performance solutions on the same platform can reduce operating costs. The commitment of the solution provider to innovation can enable operators to adopt new features to support new services. With the right choices, operators can meet the needs of all businesses on the same platform, thereby avoiding investment in each solution.
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