© 2004, SS8 Networks, Inc.

Remote Office/Branch Office IP Telephony Solutions

Sean Kent – Director Architecture/Technology Sean.Kent@SS8.com

V18

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Communication Needs

• Basic

– Secure Internet access to corporate Intranet

– Voice services

• Advanced

– Mobile voice services

– Mobile Internet access

– Contact Management

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Inexpensive Voice Services

• Solution, a business decision

– Remote IP-PBX station

– IP Centrex

• Value propositions

– Fixed cost, nationwide calling & bundled features

– On-net toll bypass, selectable area codes

– Personalization, flexible contact management for both business and social purposes

– Mobility, physical access decoupled from services

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Contact Management

• Prevents missed business opportunities

• Improves productivity & reduces telecom costs

• Find-Me/Follow-Me/Hide-Me

– Intelligent call forwarding services

• Voicemail

– Busy/No-Answer/Do Not Disturb

• Notification

– Message Waiting Indictor

– Cross notification, office voicemail -> mobile SMS

– Visual voicemail, web portal or fwd to email account

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Unified Communications (late-1990s)

• Lack of devices

– SoftPhone, use of PC as telephone, low adoption rate

• Complicated service management

– Ease of use scored poorly with market

Mobile Phone Office PhoneDesktop

Networks

ServicesMobile Voice Services (Roaming, …)

Public Mobile Network

IP Network (Internet)

PDA

Unified Messaging, Find-Me, Follow-Me

Public Telephone Network

Local and Long Distance Voice

Services

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Unified Communications (Today)

• Network convergence

• Device consolidation

DSLGSM

Wi-FiGPRS

Smartphone (Cell Phone/PDA) Office Phone (VoIP Phone)Laptop

Access

Transport

ServicesCorporate Data Services (Email, …)

Mobile Voice Services (Roaming, …)

IP Voice Services (Flat-rate PSTN

access, …)

Public Mobile Network IP Network (Internet)

Web Services (Email, IM, Presence, …)

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What’s Next

• Wi-Fi Access (SoftPhone VoWLAN)

– Access to flat-rate calling & bundled features

– Least-cost-routing, factors incl. cost, QoS, and coverage

GSMWi-FiGPRS

Smartphone (Cell Phone/PDA)

• Mobile Internet (Email, Web, …)

• Mobile Voice Services (Cellular and VoWLAN)

Corporate Data Services (Email, …)

Mobile Voice Services (Roaming, …)

IP Voice Services (Flat-rate PSTN

access, …)

Web Services (Email, IM, Presence, …)

Public Mobile Network

Public Data Network

                       

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Problem: Access Dependent Apps

• Historically apps deployed as Service Islands

– Closed vertically integrated systems

– Access technology tightly coupled with application

– Replicated resources, storage, databases, directories...

– Overlapping user data, maintained by several apps

• Distributed or centralized deployment

Media Processing

Call Control

Eth

ern

et

Database/Directory

Application

Storage

Conferencing

Media Processing

Call Control

Eth

ern

et

Database/Directory

Application

Storage

Voicemail

Access Network

Media Processing

Call Control

Eth

ern

et

Database/Directory

Application

Storage

IVR

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Distribution: Positives and Negatives

• Distributed Model: Many services platforms distributed as close to the switch as possible

– Benefits• Low backhaul costs

• Network downtime effects only small numbers of subscribers

– Drawbacks• Very expensive to maintain

• Need to employ trained maintenance personnel in every geographic region

• System upgrades are very time consuming and costly – new software needed to be installed on hundreds of systems

• Provisioning costs very high

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Centralization: Positives and Negatives

• Centralized Model: Large platforms handling multiple markets (extreme case: one nationwide platform at a central location)

– Benefits

• Low maintenance costs – one set of operations personnel for the entire network

• Single point provisioning

• Single database

– Drawbacks

• High backhaul costs

• Need for long-haul facilities from every access POP back to the hub

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The New Ingredient: VoIP

• Access, Call Control, Application, and Network Resources decoupled, standard interfaces

• Normalize access protocols

• Applications share network resources

• Benefits:

– Lower equipment costs

– Lower operating costs

– Enables best-of-breed Signaling (ISUP, PRI, SIP, H.323, …)Call Control Layer

Access Networks

Application Layer

Service Logic

Network Resources

Mail Servers, Web Servers, Media Servers, ...

Network-Hosted Services

Voicemail Conferencing IP Centrex IVR

Access Technologies(DSL, Cable, Wi-Fi, CDMA, GSM, GPRS,

…)

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The New Ingredient: VoIP

• Development of VoIP infrastructure will have huge impact on the centralization debate

• Even pure TDM networks can use VoIP components to reduce operating expenses

• Centralization AND distribution can be achieved at the same time

• Media processing is fully distributed

• Signaling is partially distributed

• Databases, directories and service logic is centralized

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Example

c

IPBackbone

IPBackbone

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

AccessPOP

Media Server Media Server Media Server Media Server Media Server Media Server Media ServerMedia Server Media Server

IPBackbone

IPBackbone IP

Backbone

IPBackbone

Call Control Call Control Call ControlSS7/SMDI

Region 1 Region 2 Region 3

Data Centers

Application(Service Logic)

Application(Service Logic)

Storage, Databases, Directories, …

IPBackbone

IPBackbone IP

Backbone

IPBackbone

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Conclusions

• VoIP is important as an enabling technology normalizing the access infrastructure, decoupling access for applications

• Access independent applications enables carriers to meet todays opex cost reduction goals while also preparing for future IP rollouts

• Decoupled components reduce cost of operation and improved time to market

• Shared components rather than “black boxes”

© 2004, SS8 Networks, Inc.

Thank You