A Session Border Controller (SBC) is a device that is placed at the border of an enterprise IP network to provide security, management, and routing functionality for voice and video communications. Enterprise networks need an SBC to provide the requisite security, control and interoperability required for modern, IP-based communications. As communications move to the cloud there are more ways for bad actors to attack an organization and greater requirements for interoperability with legacy products that must remain on-site.
What are the benefits of Enterprise Session Border Controller (eSBC)?
An SBC acts a firewall for you Voice over IP (VoIP) network, protecting your network from various vulnerabilities. An SBC provides vital functions for your networking including:
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Security: An SBC helps to secure the enterprise's VoIP network by protecting it from various types of attacks including toll fraud, Denial of Service attacks (DoS), service theft, and eavesdropping. An SBC provides media and signaling encryption to protect againist impersonation. In essense, an SBC It acts as a firewall for the VoIP network to prevents unauthorized access to the system.
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Quality of Service (QoS): An SBC helps to maintain the quality of voice calls by providing QoS features such as call admission control (CAC) policies, type of service (ToS) marking, and rate limiting for service quality assurance. It prioritizes voice traffic over other data traffic and ensures that voice packets are delivered with low latency, jitter, with limited packet loss.
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Interoperability: An SBC helps to interconnect different VoIP networks, which can have different protocols and configurations. It acts as a gateway and translates the signaling and media protocols used by different networks to ensure that the communication is seamless and uninterrupted. Check our our Interoperability guides to learn more.
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Regulatory compliance: An SBC helps to comply with various regulations such as Emergency Services (E911), lawful interception, and encryption requirements.
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Cost savings: An SBC can help to reduce the cost of communication by using the internet instead of traditional phone lines. It can also help to optimize the bandwidth usage and reduce the overall network infrastructure cost.
Do I need an Enterprise Session Border Controller in my network?
Overall, a SBC is a critical component in an enterprise IP network that provides a wide range of benefits to businesses. By providing security, management, and routing functionality for voice and video communications, SBCs help to ensure that communication traffic is secure, reliable, and of high quality. With the increasing adoption of VoIP and other real-time communication technologies in the business world, SBCs are becoming increasingly important to ensure that these technologies are used effectively and securely. Find out why Ribbon has one of the most popular session border controllers. Our extensive portfolio to secure unified communications, contact centers, Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, Zoom Phone, and more. Ribbon SBCs are ready for the public cloud including Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. In addition to virtualized software, Ribbon offers the latest cloud-native technology leveraging Docker containers and Kubernetes service orchestration. That enables Ribbon to deliver elastic scaling, lower compute costs, and greater resiliency than our competition.
