SIP Trunk Changing the Enterprise Communication Landscape through Convergence A paradigm shift to facilitate Unified Communications to make Enterprises future ready
Omkar Malage Senior Research Analyst Digital Transformation Practice @Omalage OmkarM@frost.com 2
Cost issues? Scalability issues? Management issues? Flexibility issues? Hardware maintenance overheads? Bandwidth optimization concerns? 3
Introduction to SIP Trunk 4
Introduction to SIP Trunk Global Trend Global Trend Session Initiation protocol Trunk is a VOIP version Facilitates connection of PBX to the Internet Replacement to traditional phone system i.e. ISDN/PRI Lines Converges voice and data over a single network SIP Trunk Protocol for voice and video in a UC solution across a data network Uses data circuit to connect the phone system to the internet Connects telephone network to the internet and enables voice and data communication over a single converged trunk IP Network High concurrent calls 5 This denotes deployment witnessed globally and currently not prevalent in India due to regulatory restrictions. But with liberalization in regulatory policy; India is poised to witness a similar trend going ahead in future due to sheer demand dynamics.
SIP Trunk: A pivot for Unified Communications 6
SIP Trunk - Pivot for Unified Communications Current, SIP Trunk solution architecture deployment in India abiding by the regulatory framework 7
SIP Trunk - Pivot for Unified Communications Traditionally, Enterprises used to have a separate infrastructure for fulfilling their data & voice needs. A PBX was connected through trunks, these were connected to a PSTN Network which took it to other branches This traditional architecture hiked up the infrastructure cost of dedicated single PRI Lines with scalability and flexibility constraints. SIP trunking communication protocol can help in alleviating the problem related to cost as it connects internal IP-PBX to the PSTN and enables to carry out the communication over a IP network. SIP Trunking provides flexibility and scalability by creating and maintaining a user session only when required, thus helping in bandwidth optimization. SIP can be deployed by installing an IP-PBX or a mediation server and communication through the channels is facilitated by soft-switches. 8
Trends favouring adoption of SIP Trunk 9
Trends in India favouring SIP Trunk Adoption As enterprises in India are expanding rapidly overseas with branches and office at foreign locations. Enterprises would look for a centralized connectivity solution on IP background to connect remote work locations in a cost effective way. Configuring your users personal devices with a softphone registered to your enterprise SIP trunking account provides a voice connection dedicated for work purposes. SIP trunking is the key to connecting Unified Communications to the global telephone network, users will make more and better use of your existing UC platform. This trend would provide a strong network for Indian enterprises to integrate voice and data over an IP Network which would encourage them to adopt SIP based services and leverage benefits of a strong IP backbone. 10 Overseas Expansion Digital India Unified Communications BYOD Trend Indian SMB s and businesses are looking for a one stop solution to meet their enterprise communication needs i.e. data, voice, video conferencing, instant messaging etc. to be collaborated across a common platform
Long term Cost Evolution of SIP Trunk PRI ISDN Connection High cost Minimal flexibility Excess hardware Limited channel capacity SIP Trunking Cost benefits Highly scalable and flexible Channel expansion on the fly Minimal hardware Low cost long distance calls Future ready networks As we move from legacy ISDN Connection to UC Platform the converging capabilities of enterprises enhances providing multiple technology in a single platter for organizations to have a highly flexible communication infrastructure. Unified communications SIP further adds flexibility to UC to build an agile and effective communication infrastructure providing a one stop solution to enterprise communication needs through advanced collaboration across voice, data & video platform. SIP provides foundation base for UC. Low 11 Flexibility & Scalability (Scale) High
Global Market Overview Adoption of SIP Trunk North America : The service providers include AGN Networks, AT&T, BandTel, Global Crossing, Qwest, TelePacific and many others. Central American : SIP service providers in the region include Embratel, Telefonica and UNE EPM Telecommunications. Europe: EU has moved quickly to catch up in terms of regulations and is experiencing significant SIP trunking adoption and growth. APAC: KT (Korean Telecom), SingTel, TFN (Taiwan Fixed Network), and TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) are SIP service providers enabling convergence across platform. Australia: Macquaire telecom, MyNetFone, Engin, Simtex etc. are leading service providers in the region. 12
Architecture Models in SIP Trunk Distributed SIP Trunk Model Centralized SIP Trunk Model Hybrid SIP Trunk Model No risk of single point of failure as each site has its own dedicated access circuit. Latency issues can be negated Distributed SIP Trunking loses on the financial benefit Traffic is directed from remote sites to centralized data centers. Eliminates duplication enhances economies of scale. Consolidates traffic Capacity management and traffic latency are few downsides Requires up-front analysis and network engineering. Best of both Centralized and Distributed architecture. In this model, each site has a direct SIP connectivity to IP PSTN and other sites conform to a centralized architecture through a central hub. If deployed rapidly with unique service offerings, hybrid model can control the market. 13
SIP Trunk v/s ISDN Lines Savings Flexibility Control Future Contingency ISDN It is comparatively expensive as investments need to be poured in for every line. The ISDN links are dedicated and are not flexible in nature The control spectrum is less, changes take a lot of time & dependency on suppliers is quite high The adoption and usage of ISDN links is on a decline due to rising popularity of IP-based communications. The back up routing ability of ISDN lines is quite poor compared to SIP Trunks. SIP Trunking Enables significant savings on the cost compared to traditional ISDN connections It enables to upscale and downscale the channel capacity on the fly, thus enhancing flexibility. The control of diverting the calls to the desired destination can be done easily Future is promising and well laid down, would enable data and voice convergence going ahead. Disaster recovery and emergency handling is quite easy and routes calls to back up sites immediately. 14
Benefits of SIP Trunk 15
Benefits of SIP Trunk Cost Benefit Scalability & Flexibility SIP Rich User Experience SIP Disaster Recovery and Business Recovery 16 Move to a single up-to-date IP network that is faster, more scalable, and Easy easier to manage with fewer connection points and delays thus reduces the management challenges Management and costs associated with maintaining separate voice and data networks.
Biggest SIP Trunk Implementation mistakes 1 2 3 4 5 Not gaining holistic view of Telecom environment Failing to ask what the users want Failing to think through troubleshooting process Not giving voice traffic the priority Failing to consider the administration and billing 17
How to get started? SIP Trunk connection from service provider Reliable Scalable PBX Compatibility Easy transition Value Security Interoperability A Session Border Controller (SBC)/IP- PBX Security Interoperability Intelligence A SIP Session manager Brings different SIP session elements together. 18
How viable is SIP Trunk for your organization s communication setup? POLL QUESTION 1 19
Implementation of SIP Trunk SIP Trunk with Legacy PBX When an enterprise has invested and deployed a traditional PBX system (which is typically SIP un-aware) with legacy handsets, there is little incentive to rip it all out and replace it with a completely SIPbased solution. However, to realize the cost savings of IP telephony, a VoIP gateway is required to convert the PBX interfaces to Ethernet while packetizing the voice traffic for transport over the IP-based trunk to the SIP service provider network. A multiport gateway is deployed between the legacy system and the service provider. Advantages Disadvantages Low cost voice communications with intra-office toll bypass. Investment in existing telephony equipment is preserved No new voice hardware expense is required. The end customer experience stays unchanged. No re-training of staff on new processes. ₓ Maintaining old PBX may be expensive and cumbersome. ₓ Rich new features that all-ip Telephony enables remain unavailable. 20
Implementation of SIP Trunk SIP Trunking with an IP-PBX For new offices where infrastructure is just being setup this might be the perfect way to go. The scenario involves providing a SIP trunk for IP devices that are already SIP enabled. These devices could typically interact with the trunk directly. However, to provide certain advanced features such as call admission control, billing, QoS, security, and others intermediate devices must be deployed. These may include an IP PBX and a session border controller. Advantages Disadvantages Advanced features like call parking, voice enabled IVR, integration with other business subsystems can be enabled. The cost of maintaining an IP PBX is much less than that of maintaining legacy PBXs. ₓ Must invest completely in new hardware. ₓ End users must go through a learning process to master the newer features. 21
What are the challenges that you face/ foresee in implementation of SIP Trunk at your enterprise? POLL QUESTION 2 22
Challenges in SIP Implementation 23
Challenges in SIP Implementation between the current PBX s and SIP Trunking provider is a major concern experienced while implementing SIP services becomes a major concern and it gets vulnerable to viral attacks, as traffic flows over an IP network. Enterprises wanting to take advantage of SIP Trunking services in real sense wont replace their existing PTSN infrastructure at all their site location on a 1:1 basis with SIP Trunks Selecting a right service provider who is well versed with SIP technology and is well equipped to manage and trouble-shoot performance of SIP Trunking services. IT service providers are finding it a challenge to train their own staff or find qualifies consultants who are well versed with SIP Technology and its trouble shooting & management. IT Managers always are sceptical about their investments in legacy infrastructure and wants to have a smooth transition to SIP Trunk services keeping the legacy investment preserved. Ability to support legacy applications is also a challenge. 24
Future Trends 25
Future Trends : Unified Communication services Short Term WebRTC promises a future of instant, point-to-point communication and collaboration. Long Term As the trend is shifting towards IP Telephony, enterprises are looking out for mobility solutions to ensure flexibility in communication Mobile VOIP 26 VOIP is an entry point for SIP Trunking WebRTC SIP Trunking SIP Trunking is proving to be next wave of development in the Unified communication platform. Medium Term Channel Convergence Communication industry is anticipated to shift to towards an omni-channel approach. Enterprises might also start using apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Chat to support their businesses communications.
India s largest FMCG company Case Study 27
Case Study SIP Trunk Deployment The country s largest FMCG company wanted to enhance their penetration in the remote areas. The goal was to create an innovative platform to reach out to general public where television and media reach is low and mobile penetration is high. As a result, Kan Khajura Tesan (KKT), a free radio-on-demand service providing entertainment to general public in remote areas, was created. The call flow starts with any mobile phone user in Bihar giving a missed call to a number and getting an immediate response with a return call from FMCG company s platform via PSTN, which then plays Kan Khajura Tesan for 15 minutes. The Requirement PSTN solution with capacity of 7500 channels. SMS Gateway integration. High availability and SLA with scalability to meet new project requirements on the fly. The Solution Solution comprising SIP Trunk and an SMS Gateway was offered. 7500 channels distributed across 25 SIP Trunks with 300 channels each. These 25 SIP Trunks were further delivered to the company s technology partner s data centres in Bangalore. Solution highlights Dedicated SBCs at different TTL MSC locations were deployed to deliver the SIP Trunks, ensuring device and geography level redundancy. Additional protection was also provided at data centre locations till last mile MUXs ensuring high SLA at access media. Integration testing was done before production movement and SMS gateway as separate service was also provided. 28
Key Takeaways & Conclusion 29
Key Take-away and Conclusion SIP Trunking adoption is at a growing phase and would lay a strong foundation to unified communications encouraging collaboration. However currently due to India s regulatory landscape; the integration of Internet with PSTN and centralized SIP architecture is not possible. But this is expected to change with liberalization of government regulations going ahead in future. Growth in mobility, network developments and foreign expansion of enterprises would encourage them to migrate towards SIP solution moving away from the more costlier and less flexible traditional voice ISDN circuits. A major reason for the low adoption intention, is that carriers have been reluctant, to market the value proposition of SIP Trunking Key Takeaways Selecting a right service provider with servicing capabilities and deploying a secure system that collaborates well with the enterprises legacy system is the key to successful implementation of SIP Trunking of an organization. Trends like BYOD, Digital India dream of government, spectrum advancements, unified communications goal & overseas expansion of Indian enterprises would be the main driving force of VOIP & SIP Trunking services in India. SIP Trunking services also open doors for future technologies like WebRTC, Omni-channel approach & wearable technology. SIP Trunking services with their gamut of benefits can change the face of enterprise communication and evolve in a platform to enable unified communications to support high value applications and result in cost savings of up to 35% 30
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