The IP revolution requires dual redundant SIP
Features
By: Ian Colville, Product Manager, Aculab for VON, April 2010
Achieving consensus among communications equipment vendors is rare, particularly when it comes to innovation. So when there is mutual agreement surrounding a particular concept, platform or protocol, its likely there’s something profound and compelling about the underlying technology.
That’s the case with hosted communications solutions today. Less expensive to deliver than hardware-based technology, and far easier and faster to integrate, these advanced cloud-based communications solutions – including hosted Voice over IP, conferencing and contact-center platforms – have the potential to substantially change the market.
According to the market research firm Ovum, hosted communications services are expected to quadruple by the year 2014, generating an estimated $9 billion in revenue. SIP-based services, like hosted communications, emergency services and business continuity solutions, will grow more than 30 percent during each of the next three years, Ovum predicts.
While the benefits of hosted solutions are clear, the reality of SIP-based services, and the supporting infrastructure, remains cloudy. Essentially, the IP infrastructure that serves as the foundation for these solutions and services lags, in terms of reliability and resilience, compared to traditional SS7-based telephony networks. Despite rapid technological progress in recent years, SIP-based services continue to suffer from a lack of network resilience and failover within the IP network. Concepts like 'five-nines' reliability and 'always on' availability are not the norm in an IP setting. Packet loss, along with the challenges of traversing disparate IP networks, remains a challenge.
This dynamic can be particularly problematic for hosted solutions providers as they look to migrate customers away from legacy technology to SIP-based solutions. New customers fully expect that the SIP-based services will offer performance equivalent to SS7 environments. Simply put, customers will not tolerate any degradation in quality or reliability in moving from their old systems to the new, nor should they. If their experiences are less than optimal, there’s every chance that the migration to next-generation solutions will be far more drawn-out than providers hope and expect.
Service providers are aware of the challenge. While the advantages of hosted services are broadly apparent, the reliability of the underlying technology must be improved in order to properly meet the expectations of customers.
While there are varying methods for improving the performance of IP-based solutions, one attracting growing interest is the deployment of a dual-redundant SIP service (DRSS) within the IP network. This capability, which employs advanced signaling gateways based on powerful digital signaling processor (DSP) platforms, brings the reliability of SIP-based solutions up to the level of legacy TDM-based technology.
DRSS-signalling gateways operate in a paired configuration, with an active server plus a standby server that mirrors the active server in real time (just as SS7 signaling nodes are configured).
Communications service providers measure their performance based on network resilience and service continuity. Resilience is addressed by 'prevention' and 'cure' strategies with respect to system failures. Service continuity is a logical product of a highly resilient network. In the event of a failure, the redundant operation of the DRSS signalling nodes ensures that the system intelligently fails-over to the standby. Calls that are connected at the time of such a failure remain connected just like in the SS7 world. This essentially creates a self-healing infrastructure that’s transparent to the user.
DRSS also enables network operators to maintain and upgrade network nodes without causing service interruptions. Forcing a switch-over to the standby signal node allows technicians access to live networks with little risk to service continuity, enabling improvements, enhancements and problem resolution without affecting customers.
Like the Ovum analysts, most industry experts believe that hosted communications services will continue to gain momentum in the marketplace. But the challenge lies squarely on the shoulders of providers, who must find a way to improve the reliability of the IP infrastructure in order to satisfy user expectations. Dual Redundant SIP Service is an effective and reliable means for hosted services vendors to improve network performance and ensure the seamless delivery of cloud-based voice, collaboration, contact centre and other high-demand communications services.
For more, in-depth reading: A dual redundant SIP service white paper.
For product details: IP boards and software and Session Initiation Protocol.
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