The North American VoIP access and SIP trunking services market
User base from 3.8 million users to 46 million users in 2016.
Data from
Frost & Sullivan
Unified ClientsUnified Clients
Unified Server
Inc.
Registrar and
Location services
Unified Server
Inc.
Registrar and
Location services
SIP IP PhonesSIP IP Phones
DirectoryDirectory DNSDNS
Messaging ServerMessaging Server
GatewayGateway
PBXPBX
Firewall / NATFirewall / NAT
ITSPITSP
• Voice and Data on Same Network
• VLANS Implemented
• TOS for Quality across the LAN
• Ongoing Monitoring
• Bandwidth and Codecs
• All about ‘The Edge’
• Multiple Sites
• Which ITSP?
• Stay ‘On-Net’
• SIP Connect
Doing the Math, Sizing
• History of trunk requirements / Measure
• 10 Trunks
• G.711 Codec = 64Kbps ~ 90Kbps
• 10 x 90Kbps = 900Kbps
Sharing connection with Data?
QoS to allow 70% of link for Voice = 1285Kbps
• ITSP Supply that kind of DSL line?
• Degradation further from Exchange
• Multiple lines
• Cable or Ethernet Services
PBX
Router
PSTN
We need some more DDI’s
Can I have a ‘London’ number?
No problem
Can we have our ‘old’ numbers please?
Of course!That’s us
PSTN
ITSP Offerings
PSTN
ITSP Offerings
PBX
Router
SHA / TLS / SRTPSHA / TLS / SRTP
Thwarted
We need more lines more our marketing push!
I can do that via our Web Interface
I’ll do that!
PSTN
2211
PBX 2PBX 2
PBX 1PBX 1
Primary IP 55.43.123.11Primary IP 55.43.123.11 Alternate IP 55.43.123.12Alternate IP 55.43.123.12
CEO
HQ
PSTN
DISASTER RECOVERY
The All England Lawn Tennis
and Croquet Club
300 – 400 Calls / Day
Wimbledon
1000’s of people want tickets
and information
Increase Bandwidth and SIP Trunks
Also add more SIP phones quickly
Decrease after the tournament
AT&T
BBC
Cable and Wireless
Carousel Industries
Cedarpoint
CenturyLink
Cisco
Deloitte
Ingate
IPC
Level3
Microsoft
Mitel
Mtsallstream
Nacr
Nec America
Polycom
Shared Technologies
Telematrix
Telquest
Verizon
Virtualhold
West
Windstream
Xeta
The Telecommunications Industry
Association (TIA), the leader in advocacy,
standards development, business
development and intelligence for the
information and communications technology
industry, has officially endorsed the The SIP
School as the provider of choice for training
and certification for Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP).
12 CECs Credits
AT&T
BBC
Cable and Wireless
Carousel Industries
Cedarpoint
CenturyLink
Cisco
Deloitte
Ingate
IPC
Level3
Microsoft
Mitel
Mtsallstream
Nacr
Nec America
Polycom
Shared Technologies
Telematrix
Telquest
Verizon
Virtualhold
West
Windstream
Xeta
1. Measure Calling patterns, in / out / busy
times to measure requirements
2. Internal = G.729 – customer = G.711
3. Multiple sites and Redundancy
4. Select your SBC device or work with ITSP to
decide
5. QoS on the Edge if voice / Data on same
connection
6. Select ITSP and find out
what is the
interoperability of your
equipment with them
7. Does ITSP have a lab to test re: PBX upgrades?
8. Do you have adequate security in place?
9. Take time to make change – it’s never smooth and
business will get interrupted
10. Do/will ITSP offer advanced features such as
Video, HD, Unified Comms etc.
11.Do you have an SLA or
just a basic contract for
service?
12. 90 day trial – test them
out? Try all features
– test their support team
AT&T ask the Federal Communications
Commission to create a timetable to
shutdown the analog PSTN phone system in
the United States.
AT&T explains that “maintaining
two networks - IP and PSTN is
retarding the deployment of
the newer broadband IP
network”.
[December 2009]
Welcome, my name is Graham Francis – I’m from The SIP School and thanks for coming along today
“Understanding SIP because you’ll need to” is all about looking at what we’ve been used to such as analog / digital telephone systems and what we’re migrating to ~ VoIP and SIP networks … Why do you need to understand SIP? Well. It’s the foundation for all solutions but it may never be finished as a protocol so the ground is always moving under your feet so you’ve got to be ready
But let’s start with the basics
Now you are probably all aware of SIP and the fact that’s it’s pretty much everywhere now.
it’s in the majority of VoIP products and services and it’s not going to go away, Game over – SIP has won!
It’s in Phones
Software
Links
UC
Future – Smart Grids etc. etc.
Future examples re: SIP forum new Smart Grid
Surveillance cameras using SIP
SIP on the Smart Grid
But what about now, you want to implement SIP and see some benefits re: features and price
Let’s focus on the most popular SIP service at the moment
SIP Trunking
What can you do to make sure it’s the best possible? What can you do in the situation of connecting your company to the rest of the world using SIP trunks? What questions do you need to ask of a Service provider?
Now why the obsession with SIP?
One of the most popular applications of SIP is SIP trunking where existing Basic rate and Primary lines can be replaced by SIP lines to bring about tremendous cost savings and you are going to see more and more of these services appear this year.
And with people talking about 40 to 80% savings when using SIP trunks it’s easy to see the obsession.
And here’s some more benefits of SIP Trunking, just to add to the obsession….
Buy SIP lines in any quantity you like. If you only need 10 lines that’s ok, you can always add more later
If disaster strikes, your Main business numbers can be re-directed to an alternate location within minutes – maybe even sooner
Direct Inward Dial DID numbers can be made available to all users in your company
Call charges will be cheaper and maybe even no cost!
SIP Trunks can backup existing E1/T1 lines until you are ready to switch permanently
And just to highlight that point , have a look at this example…
You can see clients using SIP to talk to their UC server for Presence status, this may send requests to the DNS to resolve SIP addresses to find SIP services. The UC server may then use SIP trunking to connect to some kind of gateway – maybe for Codec/Media translation to then allow trunking to a SIP based PBX from whoever. Don’t forget the SIP based IP phones and potential SIP trunking to messaging servers for Voicemail etc. And then the PBX uses SIP to connect to or traverse a SIP aware Firewall/NAT device that allows the SIP trunking to the ITSP
Hey, I know there are other protocols in play on some networks but this is a SIP seminar so run with me here…
You can see that SIP has become critical to a Unified Comms solution.
But can you be sure it will all work?
Regardless, you’ll need to look at the edge of your network
Well, your selected ITSP should be able to provide you with Number Ranges, Move your existing numbers to their network, provide Emergency services support and Also have a good technical support team just in case you need help
Features all there?
Also, they need a good network infrastructure to ensure continuity of service… Give you a choice of Codecs to use and be able to provide a Secure connection to their network. And when you need more Trunks, can you manage your settings or do they do it for you?
Security
ITSP implement SIP security? RTP Security? SBC
Decrypt after SBC?
New Stack on PBX / IP Phones
Firewalls etc.
Flexibility in provisioning SIP trunks when demand grows is also a major advantage over traditional technologies.
Take the example of the AELTAC club where they can manage 300 to 400 calls a day most of the year but during their Wimbledon tournament these rise to 1000's every day.
By increasing Bandwidth and adding more SIP trunks during this period they can easily manage to provide service to their customers and once the tournament is over, they can reduce their Bandwidth, SIP trunk count AND their bill.
How easy is it to do that with Analog or Digital lines?
To read the case study kindly provided by Gamma Telecom in the UK in detail, please click on the logo
Example – Level3’s network? For multiple offices and international presence
Or small ITSP as one branch and local presence?
Examples of what’s
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks which directs and carries data from one network node to the next. MPLS makes it easy to create "virtual links" between distant nodes. It can encapsulate packets of various network protocols.
Allows for full port speed
No Committed Information Rate (CIR) = No discard-eligible traffic
No Committed Access Rate (CAR) (i.e. MPLS over ATM/Frame)
No need to manage PVCs & CIRs
Automatically meshes the network
Automatic re-routing via IP
Ability to prioritize data applications
Traverses over a Private-IP, not a cell-based network
Access the corporate network remotely
Reduces monthly network costs
To build on the promise of cheap or free site to site calling it’s possible that you’d use an ITSP that has an MPLS network allowing you to have your own Private, Virtual Layer 2 network that gives you great connectivity and the opportunity to apply QoS rules to your Voice traffic. This is great but what you’ll find is that if you make calls to companies that are not part of this ITSPs MPLS network sooner or later you’ll have to connect to the PSTN.
To build on the promise of cheap or free site to site calling it’s possible that you’d use an ITSP that has an MPLS network allowing you to have your own Private, Virtual Layer 2 network that gives you great connectivity and the opportunity to apply QoS rules to your Voice traffic. This is great but what you’ll find is that if you make calls to companies that are not part of this ITSPs MPLS network sooner or later you’ll have to connect to the PSTN.
Xconnect – Neustar (SIPIX) Telcodrdia - Verisign
Another organisation called The SIP forum are working hard to ensure (amongst other initiatives) that widespread adoption of their SIPconnect recommendation means that SIP Compliant products and services work when connected as most of the hard work has been done during the ratification process by the manufacturer and provider. So why not ask the people you’re working with if they are SIPconnect compliant or working towards it?
Oh, but there’s a problem, that’s just version 1.0
Features like security, network call transfers, voice messaging, fax, hosted PBX functions, dealing with NAT and other areas were in many cases outside the 1.0 specification and thus not supported …
Version 1.1 is in development so maybe the elusive ‘plug and play’ trunk is still some time away
And as great as 1.1 sounds we really want 1.2 – now today…!
The overriding goal of SIPconnect 1.1 is to correct errors and update protocol references in the ratified 1.0 specification.
The principal focus of SIPconnect 1.1 continues to be the deployment of voice applications and the elimination of PRI interfaces between PBX systems and service provider networks.
Though it is understood that Unified Communications will clearly be important in the future of SIP and enterprise communications, issues surrounding the introduction of presence, video, IM et al. into SIPconnect 1.1 are out of scope with the exception that service providers not interfere with end-to-end deployments of those applications.
Now in order to do all of this testing you need to have an understanding of SIP and this is where education comes in……..
But it’s still going to take some hard work – it’s still ‘early’ days for SIP!
If you are a Manufacturer of SIP products, you’ve got to make SIP work as all your competitors are and if you leave it out you’ll be left behind.
If you are a Reseller, you are the ones that clients will look to for intelligent solutions to meet their needs and run on their networks today AND tomorrow. Maybe you should look at your portfolio and see if the SIP products you sell will actually work with each other. Even put together bundles of tested solutions for clients to review… A PBX, A Firewall, A SIP Trunking service… etc.
If you are a Client you have to balance the promise of all that SIP brings to the realities of making a solution work on your existing network…It should go without saying but, do not rush and please do your homework.
Now we all hear that SIP has it’s problems and implementations may not meet the standard.
The basic standard RFC 3261 is just to big and feature rich. I doubt that there is a single implementation out there which is 100% compliant to everything in 3261
The size of 3261 leads to the fact that every vendor implements only parts of the basic standard
Thus the common feature set of all SIP implementations is very small, compared to the feature set of 3261.
But on the other hand every customer obviously expects that the SIP implementation which he bought is 100% compliant to the standard … But whilst 100% Compliant to the standard may not be 100% compatible with other systems.
SIP interoperability is VERY tricky because of the way that IETF Requests For Comments (RFCs) are developed. IETF RFCs and Drafts are developed in an open and communal environment, using committees and consensus to craft the specification. This has very many positive benefits, but also a few predictable negative side effects. The problem is that RFC 3261 that defines SIP has become "everything to everyone" and bloated in both size and in flexibility.
Performing a simple word count on RFC 3261 yields some interesting insight into the problem:Weak Terms May = 381 Should = 344 Option = 144Can = 475
Strong TermsShall = 4Must = 631
As you can see, the number of weak terms "May," "Should," "Option" and "Can" outnumber the stronger "Shall" and "Must," which results in a very loose specification that allows the developers of SIP-based systems to make plenty of decisions on features of functions. The byproduct of this is that two systems can be completely RFC 3261 compliant and completely incompatible.
So, how are you going to cope with the way SIP is and the problems and challenges that you may face?
We believe that Education and understanding is the key for all….
Everyone in the industry needs to understand that true SIP interoperability is so far away that it may never be reached, so how do we all cope
1: Realise the facts in front of you
2: Education
2: Tell the Truth
3: Test until it all works and Client happy with all features. This sometimes means development along the way i.e. no Message waiting light in phones, No support for SIP Refer.
Of course you could go to Google and type in “what is sip?” You’ll get around 15 million hits! So Happy learning there.
You could check out the Request for Comment documents that define the protocol – over 150 documents with 1000s of pages – More fun!
Or you could come and visit us at The SIP School
The SIP School is the one place on the web to learn everything you need to get confident working with SIP
What’s great about The SIP School is that it covers all the good stuff like the
Basics
SIP messaging
The Servers
Security – Firewalls – Nat –
SIP Trunking
Connecting to the PSTN
Troubleshooting
Enum services
SIP and Unified Comms and so on.
What’s really great about The SIP School is that it is updated as SIP evolves so people can keep their skills up to date – that’s a great benefit!
And it doesn’t stop here – there’s more to come in the future…
Ok, we’ve just added the module on SIP and Unified Communications …. Next up SIP and Mobile Technologies, SIP and the IMS, SIP and Cable, SIP and IPv6 etc. etc. etc.
So one place is all you need and that’s the good news for anyone who needs to work with SIP.
Now we have a lot of friends using our system already, including some pretty good endorsements of our training and SSCA Certification.
And today I can tell you about our new endorsements which in effect make us the leading SIP training and certification company – worldwide.
Now we have a lot of friends using our system already, including some pretty good endorsements of our training and SSCA Certification.
And today I can tell you about our new endorsements which in effect make us the leading SIP training and certification company – worldwide.
(Call Centre retaining user info?)
Internal transfer doesn’t go back to ITSP and use another trunk + lose caller information
centrex line is feature rich POTS line. Centrex lines offer customers numerous services including caller id, call transfer, three party conferencing, ring back, call group hunting, call pickup,
Costs: Carriers appear to be charging the same per minute for both solutions. The potential cost savings are in the access, lower power consumption, and equipment. The business case for SIP Toll Free Trunking will most likely need to be business value driven vs. cost savings driven.
Now SIP trunks are aiming to replace the PSTN, but the thing is, it’s going to take a long time and it’s usually the PSTN that bridges all of these Voice over IP based islands that are popping up now. I think it will take a very long time for the PSTN to become useless and in fact it’s going to stick around as a pretty good backup if the SIP Trunks go down.
The road to successful deployment of SIP trunking across a company can be long hard and fraught with difficulties. But the more you know about SIP and SIP trunking and the more direct you are with ITSPs with your requirements, you can take some of the bumps out of the ride.
Thanks for your time
Now if you have any questions let’s see if I can help out…