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S e r v i c e P r o v i d e r Te c h n o l o g i e s a n d A p p l i c a t i o n s

■ Voice ■ Data ■ Video ■

Session
Border Control
Making Dreams Reality

10
Hottest
Technologies
www.telecommagazine.com
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:19 PM Page 2

Session border controllers:

The new intelligent edge devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S2

SBC applications:
Any service, any protocol, any border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S2

Security: security, security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S2

Service assurance:
quality, revenues, profits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S4

Law enforcement: tap, tap, tap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S7

The Ultimate Dream: IP ubiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S7

Dream becomes reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S8

PointOne peers up with Acme Packet (Sidebar) . . . . . . . . . S4

Session Border Controllers

Voted a 2003 Hot Technology
by the Editors of Telecommunications® Magazine
The mantra for 2003 is making more out of what you've got, and no
place is that more true than in telecom. Gone are the days when
service providers deploy the latest and greatest just because it is the
latest and greatest. While service provider capex has been the
headline-maker the last 18 months, reducing opex has now taken
center stage.
Service providers need help maximizing their existing investments
while moving forward with next-gen services, which is why
Telecommunications® chose Session Border Controllers as one of its
top 10 Hottest Technologies for 2003.

Session Border Controllers: VoIP's Missing Link

While VoIP has become a cost-effective mechanism for transporting
long-distance voice traffic and PRI offload, the ability to provide native
VoIP peering between networks, which requires high levels of QoS, has
been all but nonexistent. Emerging to solve this problem are SBCs
(session border controllers), to provide a demarcation point between
two service providers' VoIP networks, allowing them to manage
signaling and control routing for VoIP traffic.
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:19 PM Page S1

Session Border
Control
Making Dreams Reality
New products overcome the roadblocks
to delivering profitable voice, video
and other real-time interactive communication
services across IP network borders.

I P NETWORKS HAVE TRADITIONALLY

been viewed as poor revenue generators.
And unfortunately, they have been plagued with
security and end-to-end performance problems
blocking the delivery of high-quality, real-time
interactive voice and video that could significantly
brighten the bleak picture.
After all, some 70 percent to 80 percent of all communication
services revenues still come from voice. As service providers
increasingly seek to converge networks to reduce CAPEX and
OPEX, the ills only worsen. But a new breed of products, called
session border controllers (SBCs), offer a way to address those
problems head-on while enabling new revenue-generating
A interactive communication services—voice, video, multimedia—
2003 across IP network borders.
As service providers look to creatively reach out to more
Hottest customers, offer new services and converge IP networks, an
Technology entirely new set of problems arises. Merely connecting two IP
networks—whether between service provider and customer or
between two service providers—creates an entirely new set of
security, service assurance and law enforcement requirements at
the network edge. Those new requirements have isolated today’s
voice over IP (VoIP) networks like islands and have severely limited
service provider revenue opportunities.

- S1 -
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S2
SBC Word Watch
Session any real-time, interactive voice, video or
multimedia communication using layer 5 IP
signaling protocols such as SIP, H.323, MGCP or
Megaco/H.248.
Border any IP-IP network border between two
service providers or between a service provider
and its end user customer/subscriber
Control functions spanning security, service
assurance and law enforcement requirements
• Security • protect service infrastructure and
customer/supplier relationships from attack
• Service assurance • guarantee SLAs,
maximize service reach, enable new
services, protect against service theft and
minimize costs
• Law enforcement • provide legal intercept
capabilities
Session border controllers: the
new intelligent edge devices
Service providers are not helpless,
however, thanks to new technology.
Unlike many new products that are
developed first and then adapted to
handle network problems later, a new
category of products called session
border controllers has been designed
specifically to tackle the sticky issues
associated with delivering interactive
communications across IP network
borders. A Massachusetts, U.S.-based
equipment vendor, Acme Packet, has
developed a family of SBCs now being
deployed by providers worldwide in a
variety of applications.
A “There is a strong need for a secure
bridge between IP islands,” said Sam
2003 Shiffman, vice president of engineering at
Texas, U.S.-based service provider
Hottest PointOne. PointOne concentrates on
selling VoIP services to service providers
Technology and is using Acme Packet’s Net-Net SBC
to connect the islands of VoIP networks,
according to Shiffman.
This is where the SBCs come into
play. SBCs reside at the service provider’s
network borders complementing existing
edge routers. They closely integrate
signaling and media control and serve as
- S2 -
both the source and destination for all
signaling messages and media streams
entering or exiting the provider’s network.
In more technical terms, they act as SIP
(Session Initiation Protocol) B2BUAs
(back-to-back user agents), MGCP (Media
Gateway Control Protocol) proxy/NAT
(Network Address Translation), and/or
H.323 back-to-back gateways or
gatekeepers.
SBC applications: any service,
any protocol, any border
Generically speaking there are three
different applications, or scenarios, for the
SBC deployment.
The first is peering service provider
networks. Today many providers employ
managed IP networks with softswitches
and gateways to reduce the operational
and capital costs of trunking PSTN traffic
between central offices. The next step in
this network evolution entails connecting
these softswitch-gateway “islands” to
expand network reach and minimize
PSTN termination costs. SBCs enable
these VoIP providers to peer networks for
PSTN origination and termination, IP
transit and, ultimately, IP termination and
origination.
Facilities-based providers offering
hosted IP-based interactive
communication (IC) services—voice,
video, unified messaging, conferencing,
presence and instant calling, multimedia
collaboration, gaming and IP PBX
transport—will also benefit from the use
of SBCs at the borders to their business
and residential customers in addition to
other providers.
The third application is at the
doorway to the data centers of voice
applications service providers. These
providers deliver calling card, directory,
messaging, and other services to other
retail providers or directly to users.
Across all of these applications,
there are critical security, service
assurance and law enforcement
requirements that must be satisfied.
Security: security, security
For both service providers and
enterprises, ensuring network security is
one of their biggest concerns. “As you
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S3

join networks together, you have to be Session border controller applications

concerned about who can get to you,”
said Shiffman. PSTN
“No one trusts anyone else
anymore,” said Jim Hourihan, vice Peering VoIP PSTN Origination
president of marketing and product providers & Termination PSTN Termination
- PSTN O&T SBC
management for Acme Packet. And when - IP transit SBC

it comes to IP networks, that lack of trust IP Transit

SBC SBC
is only magnified, according to Hourihan. & PSTN O&T
Voice ASP Directory
Calling card
“There is a great need for border services SBC SBC
- Calling card
elements because [VoIP networks] are - Directory RADIUS AS AS MS MSSBC
RADIUS AS AS MS MS

inherently insecure,” said Michael Aglietti, - Messaging

Senior NexGen Network Design Engineer

at a major U.S.-based service provider.
“We have to protect the VoIP network
from attack, fraud or misuse while
maintaining voice quality.”
A service provider must allow
authorized users into its network and
concurrently shield its internal service
infrastructure from denial-of-service
attacks. The problem is, the internal
service infrastructure includes a vast
number of devices such as call controllers
(softswitches, SIP proxies, H.323
gatekeepers or MGCP call agents),
application and media servers for unified
messaging and media gateways for
connection to the PSTN. The geographic
distribution of all that equipment makes
the security problem extremely difficult.
The need to conceal sensitive route
information from other providers or
customers is also a top concern. For
example, a provider (P) who provides
PSTN termination services through
another supplier (S) must not expose that
supplier to his customer, provider C.
Why? Because provider C might
approach provider S directly for a better
price, cutting provider P out of the
revenue picture.
An SBC uses the provider’s signaling
infrastructure to control network access
based on layer 5 signaling messages
instead of the layer 3 IP addresses utilized
by firewalls or routers. When
communications are authorized, SBCs
allow the media streams in by opening
and closing firewall pinholes. Most of
today’s firewalls lack the ability to
dynamically open and close the multiple
ports required, according to Mark
Bieberich, senior analyst with the Yankee
Group.
Hosted IP IC SBC Residential
services SBC Services
Business
- Voice & video Services SBC SBC
- Unified
messaging SBC SBC
- Conferencing
- Presence & IC
- Multimedia
collaboration
- Gaming
- IP PBX
transport
Concealing network topology is also
absolutely critical. SBCs perform NAPT
(network address and port translations) on
all of the signaling and media packets
including all IP addresses embedded in
signaling and error messages. As an
additional layer of security, SBCs strip all
layer 5 routing information to hide network
topology and hide suppliers from
customers. The same layer 3 and layer 5
NAPT features can also be used to
preserve IP addresses by enabling the
use of private addresses for CPE behind
an SBC serving as a network-based
firewall.
According to Aglietti, the firewalls
available today can’t keep up at a
reasonable level. That’s one of the
reasons why the provider is deploying
Acme Packet products. Aglietti believes
the SBC market has suffered somewhat
because many perceive that the functions
SBCs perform are as simple as those that
off-the-shelf firewalls are designed to
perform, which they are not.
SBCs also protect against service
infrastructure overloads by intelligently
limiting incoming signaling messages. In
the case of a softswitch that may only be
capable of handling 50 calls per second
before malfunctioning, the SBC in front of
it can gracefully reject new call requests
above the critical threshold.
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PointOne Peers Up with
Acme Packet
One Texas, U.S.-based service provider, PointOne,
sees the benefits of peering with the help of session
border controllers (SBCs) and is deploying Acme Packet
equipment in its network. PointOne, which offers VoIP
services to other service providers, initially looked at SBC
technology because of the infamous “islands of IP” and
the need to build a bridge between these islands.
The need to communicate at the IP level is on the
rise, according to Sam Shiffman, vice president of
engineering at PointOne. That is compounded by the
cost advantages of using cheaper IP interfaces that are
more efficient, Shiffman added. “The big push in our
network today is definitely on the peering side,” Shiffman
said.
VoIP, which got its legs in the international market,
is bringing PointOne’s service provider customers to the
realization that they can save a lot of money if handoffs
can be made in IP without the need for TDM interfaces.
The burning desire is for revenue-generating customers
and cost savings advantages of addressing other
customers, according to Shiffman.
For PointOne, the SBC functionality essentially
solves three problems, Shiffman said, including:
■ Addresses security concerns associated with
joining networks together;
■ Tackles network address translation inside the IP
network;
■ Provides signaling interworking (SIP-H.323) to
maximize service reach and the number of
potential customers
The immediate reaction: PointOne customers have
wanted to grab up the services enabled by the
technology, while there aren’t a lot of others who can,
according to Shiffman.
PointOne is in the early stage of its deployment
and initially the company is equipping one peering point.
“We can bring anyone in from any location,” Shiffman
said. “The initial results are good.” PointOne is looking
for a return on investment in roughly three to six months.
And although the provider will start off with the
equipment in the peering environment, Shiffman sees an
excellent transition for the SBC product as Class 5
services take off. “The SBC concept provides an
excellent set of services not provided before,” he added.
“It can turn businesses into more than commodities.”
- S4 -
Another facet of the security
problem facing providers is getting traffic
through premise-based firewalls. “All
businesses and an ever-increasing
number of residential users use firewalls
with NAT to protect their IP networks and
computers from external attack. But
firewalls only let traffic in if requested from
the inside,” said Acme Packet’s Hourihan.
While NAT works fine for web traffic,
it presents a huge roadblock for IP voice
or video calls. To overcome this challenge,
SBCs support a hosted NAT traversal
feature that does not require any new
premise-based hardware or software or
firewall configuration changes, thereby
preserving existing security policies. This
feature exploits periodic registrations by
IP phones or other endpoints to keep a
signaling port open in the firewall for
incoming signaling messages. As
registrations pass through the SBC, it
maps the firewall IP address to the phone
number/user name behind the firewall.
When an incoming signaling message is
received, the SBC sends it to the right
address on the firewall. A similar
technique is used for getting the media
through.
“Products like Acme Packet’s
provide a critical piece with firewalls and
service [assurance] when you are
connecting to other networks,” said Scott
Wharton, vice president of marketing at
Broadsoft, a hosted communications
platform developer and an Acme Packet
partner.
“They have a critical enabling
technology,” Wharton said. “We can’t sell
our [product] without it—they have critical
functionality required by providers.”
Service assurance: quality,
revenues, profits
SBC technology is very critical
because as providers move to the next
generation they must address not only
security but service assurance issues at
the borders, according to Christine
Hartman, research director for VoIP
markets at Probe Research.
With the use of SBCs, providers are
able to not only guarantee service quality
for Service Level Agreements (SLAs), but
also maximize revenues and profits by
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S5

extending service reach, delivering Using admission control policies

innovative new services, protecting implemented at the signaling level, the
against service theft and minimizing SBC can control and guarantee the total
expenses. number of sessions and bandwidth used,
One of the most significant SLA the number by type of session (voice vs.
assurance challenges involves converging video) and the ability to make pre-emptive
revenue-generating voice, video and calls such as 911 calls. And similar to the
multimedia with data traffic such as softswitch overload protection
Internet, email, instant messaging and functionality, if the access link is at
corporate data applications on capacity, new call set-up requests will be
oversubscribed access networks, denied, except in the case of 911 calls. A
according to Hourihan. provider may configure the policies based
on the bandwidth of
Peering VoIP trunking networks a particular access
link and a customer’s
specific requirements
so that a set amount
PSTN of data traffic will
always be allowed
GW through.
GW
USA GW Ensuring
SS SS session quality
SIP
IP GW requires guiding
GW
SBC routers on both ends
Europe 2 $.03
Europe 1 $.05 of the access
SIP H.323 network to correctly
SS GK
GW GW prioritize traffic. Any
GW accepted session
GW GW GW
must be given top
priority. Since the
Signaling SBC is the
Media destination for all
signaling and media
Revenue and
flows, access routers
Security SLA assurance profit assurance and the provider’s
■ Access control & ■ Call admission ■ SIP-T, H.323 or edge routers can
network topology control-transit link SIP-H.323 easily prioritize
hiding bandwidth and/or interworking
■ DoS protection observed quality ■ Routing - least authorized session
with signaling rate ■ QoS reporting cost, ToD, etc. traffic based upon
limiting ■ Accounting &
session timers the IP address of the
SBC.
In most access networks, These mechanisms also give the
oversubscription exists not only on the provider very valuable tools for delivering
link dedicated to a single customer but on new high-quality, revenue generating SIP-
aggregated links such as those between based services to Windows PCs such as
frame switches or DSL access instant calling and video conferencing. By
multiplexers (DSLAMs) and an edge router using an SBC as an intermediate
within a POP. The problem is that no source/destination, traffic classification
collection of today’s products can problems are eliminated.
understand link capacity and utilization, Similar admission control issues are
nor can they control admission—accept presented on transit links between
or reject sessions—based upon that providers. Since each transit link has a
intelligence. finite capacity, the SBC must actively
SBCs complement edge routers to manage the number of live sessions to
control traffic over these access networks. prevent additional calls from degrading

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acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S6

the quality of all calls active on the link. Real-time QoS reporting capabilities
For optimal routing across the are required for SLA reporting, problem
backbone network, SBCs can explicitly alerting and isolation, and session
assign QoS markings—ToS bits, DiffServ admission control and routing. SBCs can
code points or MPLS labels—off-loading measure end-to-end jitter, latency and
this task from over-worked edge routers. packet loss as well as measure quality
and isolate problems by network domain
Hosted IP interactive communications services —the origination network, the network
business & residential using SBCs, or the termination network.
In any network where there are two
IP O&T PSTN
or Transit Termination paths to a destination or two resources
available such as an application server,
Internet
PSTN
SBCs support constraint and cost-based
SBC AS MS
routing to assure SLA performance and
AS MS
profits. If one network is providing poor
GW
SIP quality or a resource is overloaded, the
GW
SS
MGCP session must be routed to the other
SBC network or resource. Similarly, if two
SBC networks provide acceptable QoS but
have different costs for transit or
SBC
T1
DSL
termination, the less expensive network
should be selected. And if all are
MGCP SIP
Frame unacceptable, the session can be
IAD
H.323
gracefully rejected or sent to the PSTN.
SIP For maximizing network reach and
SIP & MGCP PBX
revenues while minimizing costs, SBCs
IAD
simultaneously support multiple signaling
protocols and interworking between
Revenue and Law protocols, protocol versions or
Security SLA assurance profit assurance enforcement configurations. By supporting SIP-H.323
■ Access control & ■ Session admission ■ SIP, MGCP/NCS & ■ Legal intercept for interworking, for example, a provider can
network topology control - dedicated SIP-H.323 signaling and
hiding & aggregated interworking media build one SIP service backbone yet
■ DoS protection access link ■ Bandwidth & QoS support both SIP and H.323 customers.
with signaling rate bandwidth theft protection
limiting ■ QoS marking - L2
Lastly, session accounting for
■ Off-net cost &
■ Hosted NAT & L3 quality-based capacity planning or billing purposes is
traversal ■ QoS reporting routing often required for all or only selected
■ CPE address ■ Accounting & session types (e.g., video only). SBCs
preservation session timers
produce Call Detail Records (CDRs) which
Alternatively, the router can do this since identify the caller, callee, call duration,
all signaling and media traffic is going time of day, and QoS metrics for the call.
to/coming from the SBC. Session timers within the SBC will
The explicit QoS marking also terminate sessions that do not start-up or
A insulates networks from QoS theft by end correctly, eliminating the huge costs
removing the need to trust any packet associated with reconciling accounting
2003 markings coming from another network. records for open calls.
Hottest With the use of an SBC, the only media Service providers have to establish
packets transported with high quality call routing and QoS parameters and
Technology across the backbone are those authorized share call records between network
by a provider’s signaling infrastructure. boundaries, according to the Yankee
SBCs also protect against bandwidth Group’s Bieberich. If those capabilities
theft by policing bandwidth, ensuring, for don’t exist, providers can’t monitor SLAs
example, that a low bandwidth voice call or protect their revenue in a pure IP
between two SIP endpoints could not turn domain.
into a high-bandwidth video call without
explicit authorization.

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Law enforcement: tap, tap, tap product management at Sonus Networks.

“The need is well felt.”
In addition to overcoming security
For providers such as the Tier 1
and service assurance problems, SBCs
carrier Acme Packet is working with, as
also help providers meet legal intercept
soon as the word VoIP is mentioned,
requirements for IP networks just as
customers have a tendency to want no
required by governments for the PSTN.
part of it, but products like SBCs have the
The U.S. Communications Assistance for
capability to change that reputation and
Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) demands
will catch on quickly within the service
that it must be possible to replicate and
provider community as more and more
route specific calls to multiple law
providers equip their networks with SBCs
enforcement agencies.
and see their value.
“Governments worldwide are
increasingly demanding support of packet Voice ASP services
taps,” Hourihan said. “And it must be calling card, directory services, etc.
done in real time and be transparent to
those under surveillance and between all
law enforcement agencies.” Database(s)
SBCs are able to accomplish the Signaling
real-time transparency because they Media
Accounting
actively control both the signaling
messages and media flows. RADIUS AS AS MS MS
SIP Data
The ultimate dream: IP ubiquity Center
Call 2
By the sheer nature of the control SBC
GW
capabilities enabled by SBCs, the
products present strong business
opportunities in areas such as peering
between service providers and the SIP H.323 PSTN
SBC
delivery of services to enterprise and
IAD
residential customers by facilities-based Call 1
providers or voice application service
providers.
“[Companies like Acme Packet] can
get into service provider networks and Revenue and Law
Security SLA assurance profit assurance enforcement
make an immediate impact,” said
■ Access control & ■ Application/ ■ SIP, H.323 & ■ Legal intercept for
Bieberich. “It’s a natural for providers with data center media server SIP-H.323 signaling and
a firm commitment to IP.” topology hiding load balancing interworking media
■ DoS protection ■ Session admission ■ Remote SBCs
And as far as getting money out of with signaling rate control - access eliminate media
VoIP, native IP peering is turning heads limiting link bandwidth backhaul costs
■ Hosted NAT ■ QoS marking - L2 ■ Accounting &
among providers. traversal ■ QoS reporting session timers
By minimizing packet-to-TDM
conversions, providers will be able to
Providers should expect to see a
sharply reduce costs associated with
pretty fast return on investment with the
traffic connections while they maintain
SBC equipment.
quality and boost SLAs.
“It will pay for itself in a few
Acme Packet partner Sonus
months,” Hourihan said.
Networks has definitely noticed interest in
“[Using SBCs] in IP peering is a cost
the carrier handoff space. “We have been
for us now, but next year as more
deploying VoIP in [service provider]
peering partners become available and
networks for four years and [our
we expand the use of compression on our
customers] are at the point where they
network [it won’t be],” said Rob
have realized a lot of benefits [to having
Nance, Director of VOIP Engineering
pure IP] and they want to go to the next
at a major service provider Acme Packet
step,” said Michael Rubin, director of
is working with.

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acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S8

“This was It is the rapid growth in IP PBX

deployments and introduction of IP PBX
revenue-generating, lower-cost interactive
communication services.
the last transport and IP Centrex services that The Yankee Group predicts the SBC
major piece may help further inspire the Bell
companies and inter-exchange carriers to
market will explode in 2004, as adoption
of VoIP VPNs, managed IP PBX, and IP
that was roll out SBCs, according to Bieberich. By Centrex services drive Tier 1 and smaller
needed [for doing so, those providers are trying to carriers to take advantage of the lower
ensure they aren’t just providing dumb costs and operational efficiencies of
VoIP].” pipes. native IP peering. By 2007, the market will
“I wouldn’t want to develop a grow to $624 million, a compounded 124
Scott Wharton, network without a product like Acme percent growth rate between 2003 and
VP of Marketing at Packet’s,” said Randall Walrond, product 2007.
Acme Packet partner manager at IVR Technologies, which The movement to SBC deployments
Broadsoft develops SIP software for voice is especially strong in Asia where there
applications and real-time billing. IVR is are many more “greenfield” VoIP networks
also an Acme Packet partner. Together delivering business and residential
with the IVR equipment, Acme Packet’s services. Throughout the world peering by
equipment addresses the need for all tiers of providers is taking place or
security, scalability and fault tolerance being actively planned. As Tier 1
while it handles load-balancing functions providers, with their typically strong
across multiple servers. installed base of enterprise customers,
And with the signaling interworking begin to realize the capabilities of SBCs
features found in SBCs, networks and seek to further minimize the amount
designed around a single signaling or of circuit switching in their networks, it is
media protocol will be able to start likely that they too will begin
working with other networks or services deployments.
designed around a different protocol, Companies like Acme Packet have
according to Aglietti. “Until now there has already gained traction with many service
been no good way to get protocol A to providers and as the interest in SBCs
talk to protocol B,” Aglietti said, adding continues to grow and deployments
that you are limited to only working with mount, the perceptions will soon change
others that use the same protocols that that generating revenue out of IP
you do. “An SBC performing protocol networks is a dream. On the contrary,
mediation will let customers get the SBCs are making it a reality.
biggest bang out of their VoIP buck.”
“Now you can negotiate connections
between any type of IP network, which
takes us very close to the goal of
ubiquitous IP [networks],” said Bieberich.
Others agree. “SBCs are the last
major piece that was needed,” said
Wharton from Broadsoft. Sonus’ Rubin
A declared, “This really is a new way of
doing things.”
2003
Hottest Dream becomes reality
As networks gradually change their
Technology look and feel, growing pains always arise.
But with the help of new products such as
SBCs neither the pains nor the associated
costs need be near as great for IP
networks. SBCs do a skillful job of
soothing the security, service assurance
and law enforcement woes, while
simultaneously creating opportunities for

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acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S9

Net-Net Session Director (SD)

Acme Packet Net-Net SD is a high-performance,
high-capacity, signaling and media control
engine that performs required security, service
assurance, and law enforcement functions at
network borders. It supports service provider
SIP, MGCP and H.323 networks; complements
IP edge and border routers and offers the
following features:
■ Security - access control, network topology hiding at layer 3 & 5, DoS
protection with signaling rate limiting, hosted NAT traversal, CPE address
preservation
■ SLA assurance - session admission control based upon available bandwidth
and/or observed QoS; L2 & L3 QoS marking - 802.1p & q (VLAN), ToS, DiffServ,
MPLS; QoS reporting
■ Revenue and profit assurance - SIP-H.323 interworking, H.323 version and
configuration interworking, bandwidth policing, QoS theft protection,
accounting with session timers
■ Law enforcement - session replication and routing for lawful intercept (e.g.
CALEA)
■ High performance, high capacity - 5Gbps packet filtering, 3 microseconds
media latency, 32,000 concurrent sessions, 10/100 and 1000 Mbps Ethernet
interfaces
■ High availability configurations
■ Net-Net SD is also available in a configuration that supports the SIP routing
functionality of the Net-Net Session Router.

Net-Net Session Router (SR)

Acme Packet Net-Net SR is a high-performance
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing engine
that optimally routes interactive communication
sessions and performs admission control. It
offers the following features:
■ Rich policy & network constraint-based
routing and admission control - Quality of Service requirements; softswitch,
gateway or application server load; cost; time; service provider preference,
source/destination URI/telephone number and other parameters
■ Dynamic policy exchange among Acme Packet and third-party routers using
Telephone Routing over IP (TRIP) protocol - RFC 3219
■ ENUM service for telephone number:SIP URI resolution
■ Comprehensive, per-session accounting
■ Simultaneous stateful record route SIP proxy and/or stateless SIP
proxy/redirect server operation
■ Unrivaled capacity and price/performance
■ High availability configurations
The patents-pending Net-Net products are carrier-class in all respects - performance,
capacity, reliability, high availability, packaging, management, accounting and scalability
- and are 100% complementary to existing service provider infrastructure.
130 New Boston Street
Woburn, MA 01801 USA
©2003 Acme Packet, Inc. All rights reserved. Acme Packet, Session-
t 781 756 6800
aware Networking, Net-Net and related marks are trademarks of Acme
f 781 756 6880
Packet. all other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective companies. www.acmepacket.com
acme12pgSO.fin 4/17/03 3:20 PM Page S10

Delivering peak performance for premium, interactive communications – voice, video

and multimedia sessions – across IP network borders.

Acme Packet Net-Net session border controllers satisfy critical security, service
assurance and law enforcement requirements in service provider wireline, wireless and
cable networks.

Session Aware Networking

Session Aware Networking is our architectural model for enabling high quality, end-to-
end interactive communications across multiple IP networks. It overcomes the session
signaling and media control deficiencies of today’s IP networks by integrating four
functional elements that interact and share information dynamically to make the
network session-aware:
■ Routing policy & real-time network constraints – Define, collect and propagate
parameters for routing and admission control decisions including Quality of
Service (QoS) and cost requirements
■ Session routing & signaling – Select and set-up the best route for each session
based on policy and current network constraints
■ Media directing & control – Steer media over selected route and satisfy critical
security and service assurance requirements
■ Accounting & QoS reporting – Report how selected route actually performed for
problem alerting and isolation, real-time admission control and SLA reporting.
Together, these elements create the comprehensive solution required to deliver high
quality, moneymaking, voice, video and multimedia communications across IP network
borders.

www.acmepacket.com