implementing sip trunking: keys to ensuring interoperability

Presenters:

Sorell Slaymaker, VP-IT Communications Architecture,

Unified IT Systems LLC

Steve Carter, Senior Product Manager, Enterprise SIP,

XO Communications

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SIP Trunk ImplementationKey Steps to Ensuring Interoperability

May 25th, 2011


SIP TRUNKING BEST PRACTICES

Sorell Slaymaker

Communications Architecture, Unified IT Systems LLC


SIP Trunking – Business Drivers

1. Lowering Telecom costs by 30-70%!

2. Improving stability – Moving all technology into centralized data centers

3. Affordable agility – Following the IT software as a service model

4. Quick transfers or conference calls – Getting rid of *8 tones

5. Business Continuity – Ability to close an office due to weather, flu outbreak, … and still be able to handle calls all calls normally

6. 24/7/365 – Answering all customer calls at any time

7. 100% call recording for industry compliance, quality monitoring, and speech analytics, and real time reporting on what people are asking

8. Improving productivity and the speed at which business operates by further integrating communication with people, processes, & information


1. Understand Current Environment – Business telephony feature requirements, call flow documentation, additional UC functionality

2. Develop an ROI – Aggregate & consolidate voice trunks, clean-up environment, get competitive rates through an RFP process

3. Create a Design – Centralized/Cloud model that is highly available across multiple data centers, decide if voice compression is required on SIP trunks

4. Select Partners – SIP Trunking provider(s), SBC vendor, Integrator

5. Think Big but Start Small – Test, pilot, and start with outbound LD, then inbound LD, then toll free, then DID/DOD local trunks

SIP Trunking - Best Practices


SIP Trunking - Best Practices (cont’d)

6. SBC is Critical – Security, interoperability, support, and reporting

7. Checklist – When testing SIP trunks from carrier(s) make sure all feature/functionality is there for all call flows.

8. Training – Engineers and operations staff

9. Troubleshooting – Must be able to identify and solve quality and other problems along with root cause – Guilty until proven innocent model

10. Video – SIP trunking is for voice today, but also for video in the future


All voice is VoIP, Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are used for voice application security, support, and reporting

The office has very little technology, all communication services reside in the “cloud”, a private cloud is within a companies data centers

Gateway

IXCs

Data Center #1

Data Center #2

MPLS

LECs

Gateway

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Provider

Internet

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SBC

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Office #1

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SIP

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Call Control

Call Control

PHONE/EXIT PAGELEFT

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SIP Trunking - Centralized Deployment Model


INTEROPERABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Steve Carter

Senior Product Manager, Enterprise SIP, XO Communications


8 Steps to Ensure a Smooth Implementation

1. Know your objectives and the key indicators that will tell you that you’ve met them

2. Ask telling questions of the service providers, CPE providers and key implementers

3. Coordinate closely with all parties

4. Know the challenges for your specific application, expect issues and be prepared to address them

5. Have a good test plan

6. Get good documentation – configuration guides are key

7. Take advantage of management tools and solutions from service providers– Managed SBC’s

– Reporting Tools

– Security Tools

8. Allow the Time You Need

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.viktor-kaemmerling.com/img/statements/satisfied_customer.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.viktor-kaemmerling.com/english/statements.htm&usg=__Jie3C1KPueRngBAr1LJW004gc5o=&h=286&w=200&sz=5&hl=en&start=7&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=53MiNQ5_wCUKHM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=80&prev=/search?q=satisfied+customer&hl=en&safe=active&biw=1660&bih=870&tbm=isch&ei=ZX_WTe6jL8aV0QG_pJCWBw


Top Concerns to Address for Call Handling

Ensure that Local, LD, Operator, E911, Directory, Toll Free inbound and Outbound call types are supported– Does the provider deliver proper E911 info to PSAP or require additional trunking

– Rate local calls properly that traverse the PSTN or bill LD rates

Purchased sessions need to carry local and LD

Make sure carrier provides required transcoding in its network to support your required codecs and RFC 2833 for DTMF Relay

Data should be allowed to share the ESIP access or provide separate access. Many Providers STILL charge additional fees for Data/Internet


Don’t Expect Your SIP Provider to Configure Your SBC/IP-PBX

Knowledge from the vendor is key to ensure your equipment is configured properly

Allow for a proper interop testing process

Coordinate with your hardware vendor and service provider

Get configuration guides from your service provider


Anticipate Problems and Test

Every Implementation is unique no matter what providers tell you

– Differences in SIP headers

– Differences in error codes

– DTMF Requirements

Incompatibilities with older hardware models

Software versions make a difference

Fax works differently for every service provider and hardware vendor

Consider an SBC to handle different devices in your network


Have a Test Plan

You NEED due diligence on YOUR test lab setup

Expect that you will need Increased time for interop testing

Review and agree on the test plan with the carrier (and vendor)


Configuration Guides

Sample Issues/Fixes

“*67 for Outgoing Calling Line ID Delivery Blocking per Call is not supported. See Configuration Guide for workaround.”

“Did not test Fax”

“When incoming PSTN calls are delivered to desk phone with Call Forwarding enabled to an off-net PSTN phone, the calls will fail unless one of the workarounds outlined in the Configuration Guide is implemented.”

“Music on Hold Server codec must be set for G.729 as shown in the Configuration Guide.”

“Hardware may be necessary to support transcoding, conferencing and call volume requirements.”

What They Tell You and How They Can Help


Effective Use of Tools Help Manage the SIP Solution

Enhanced Reporting Capabilities Exist for Enterprise SIP and MPLS IP-VPN Services

– XO Communications provides live intelligence about the performance of the customer’s XO provided MPLS IP-VPN network as well as applications that run over the network, including VoIP, with XO Applications Performance Management

Highlighted Features

– MOS scoring

– Network Performance Analysis

– SLAs monitoring, including Delay

– Bandwidth use

– Class of Service monitoring

– Applications and VoIP Performance Analysis

– VoIP deployment assessment


Encryption Solutions for Security Concerns

Just as most enterprise organizations encrypt the data that transverses their network, they are requesting that VoIP providers encrypt voice and data packets transmitted over their VoIP networks

A number of Encryption options Exist for SIP signaling

– Encryption (TLS)

– RTP encryption (sRTP) options

– Enterprises can have options to choose either feature individually or both


Consider Using a Session Border Controller (SBC)

Some Service Providers offer a Managed Session Border Controller

– Enables customers buying Enterprise SIP to have a “managed device” instead of procuring their own for the Enterprise SIP trunk connection(s)

Considerable CAPEX savings

Ease of Implementation

Knowledge Transfer

Management and Monitoring

– The SBC provides the following benefits:

Security – protects the network and other devices

Connectivity – allows different parts of the network to communicate more effectively

Quality of service – the QoS policy of a network and prioritization of flows is usually implemented by the SBC

Statistics and Billing information – since all sessions that pass through the edge of the network pass through the SBC, it is a natural point to gather statistics and usage based information on these sessions


Consider Business Continuity Options

Connect your network to hand-off sites at edge of the Service Provider network in different POPs

– Multiple hand-off sites should be distributed on different SBCs

– Failover: Service provider should provision network sessions capacity to support failover of traffic between designated sites

• The network should automatically route inbound traffic normally delivered to the first site to the second site

• Outbound calls from customer should accepted on any of the SIP Trunks

Beyond your premise, the Enterprise SIP architecture of the carrier should have redundancy in the network

– Enterprise SIP failovers from a given region or from a given city should be “homed” on geographically diverse SBCs


Best Case Scenario for The Service Provider and Hardware Vendor is the BEST CASE for YOU!

Understand Your Requirements – Business telephony feature requirements, call flow documentation, additional UC functionality

Have a Plan – Test, pilot, and start with outbound LD, then inbound LD, then toll free, then DID/DOD local trunks

Select Partners That Work Together – SIP Trunking provider(s), IP-PBX Vendor, SBC vendor, Integrator

Have a Checklist – When testing SIP trunks from carrier(s) make sure all feature/functionality is there for all call flows

Expect Challenges – Must be able to identify and solve quality and other problems along with root cause


SIP Resources Links

• Video - Implementing SIP Trunking: Learn the Steps to a Smooth Enterprise SIP Trunk Implementation

• White Paper - E911 VoIP Essentials for Enterprise Deployments – A Guide for Distributed VoIP Environments

http://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Whitepapers/E911_VoIP_Essentials_WP.pdf

• White Paper - SIP for the Enterprise: Key Advantages & Benefitshttp://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Whitepapers/SIP_for_the_Enterprise_Whitepaper.pdf

• Video - XO Enterprise SIP Trunking- How Distributed Enterprises Can Control Costs http://youtu.be/niYj9EaALIM

• Enterprise SIP Savings Estimatorhttp://www.xo.com/forms/campaign/ExternalSales/EntSIP/Estimator.aspx

• XO Enterprise SIP Service Overviewhttp://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/DataSheets/Enterprise_SIP_DS.pdf

• IP PBXs XO Lab-Certified for Interoperability with XO SIPhttp://www.xo.com/services/voip/sip/Pages/PBX.aspx

http://youtu.be/YH26_r5TbyU






http://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Whitepapers/E911_VoIP_Essentials_WP.pdf

http://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Whitepapers/SIP_for_the_Enterprise_Whitepaper.pdf

http://youtu.be/niYj9EaALIM

http://www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/DataSheets/Enterprise_SIP_DS.pdf

http://www.xo.com/services/voip/sip/Pages/PBX.aspx

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