SIP it and see
Service providers can benefit from partnering SIP interconnect providers, says Martin Carberry
Upgrade of the existing telephony infrastructure to the next-generation network (NGN) is taking longer than anticipated. Carriers that delayed their own network upgrades to coincide are now struggling to cope.
Some carriers are looking for ways to meet demand for IP-based services. Naturally, they want to evolve their networks without investing a lot.
An ideal solution would let them use their own existing network infrastructure.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a dominant enabler of network upgrades. Because it is a transport-independent protocol, it facilitates efficient network interconnection.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) calls can be carried over IP and vice versa.
So SIP can kick-start true network convergence, transporting voice and data traffic over any network.
Moving to a SIP-based IP network only requires an incremental investment, as carriers can opt for wholesale models available today.
This allows carriers to keep using their existing services and operational infrastructure while taking advantage of SIP and NGN.
This lets carriers offer converged voice and data services, increasing revenue-producing opportunities.
There are other advantages of connecting to a SIP signalling protocol. For example, SIP interconnect is an efficient way to transport voice and other IP services compared with existing hierarchical Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) networks.
Traditional telephony interconnect switching services have only ever had access to up to 2Mbps of bandwidth.
However, with SIP services carriers can access circuit bandwidths of up to 1Gbps. This enhances quality of service as more customers’ voice over IP (VoIP), video and bandwidth hungry applications can be carried simultaneously.
SIP interconnect services can be underpinned by strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) mandating a certain level of performance for both the supporting data network and the SIP interconnect service.
Monitoring and reporting on SIP interconnect performance can also be provided as well as an option for resilient connectivity through the correct configuration.
As wholesale providers experience the roll-out of SIP, they may come to understand the challenges faced by carriers and alter their offering according to customer business objectives.
This allows the carrier to concentrate on other things such as retaining, winning or attracting new customers.
Martin Carberry is head of the carrier business at Thus