Ribbon’s Session Border Controller offers Industry-Leading Media Transcoding in the Cloud

WESTFORD, Mass. – Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications, today announced the general availability of its Session Border Controller (SBC) Release 7.0. The new release provides disruptive, market-leading support of graphics processing units (GPUs) for media transcoding in cloud and virtualized environments. Ribbon’s Session Border Controller Software Edition's (SBC SWe), which is accelerated by NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core GPUs, offers up to 9 times higher capacity and up to 5 times greater power efficiency for media transcoding compared to CPU-only servers.

The company also announced the general availability of software Release 11.0 for Centralized Policy and Routing  (PSX), Insight Element Management System (EMS) and GSX Media Gateway (GSX).  These releases collectively deliver numerous benefits to communications service providers (CSPs) and enterprises, including the ability to deploy new services in virtual and cloud environments, enhance call-handling capabilities, increase operational efficiencies and improve security.

“Our latest software releases demonstrate our continued commitment to cloud, security and innovation,” said Mykola Konrad, Vice President of Product Management for Ribbon Communications. “We are extremely excited about bringing disruptive technologies to the marketplace such as our SBC SWe’s use of GPUs for media transcoding in the cloud, which will allow our customers to experience superior real-time communications quality and reliability.”

Konrad added, “Our goal is to continuously lead the market in offering our service provider and enterprise customers increased deployment flexibility and enhanced security for session and policy management of their cloud-based real-time communications offerings.”

“GPU-based transcoding is a forward-thinking approach that offers service providers immediate CAPEX and OPEX benefits and Ribbon is staking out a leadership position in this area,” said Chris DePuy, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group. “Offering service providers significant additional transcoding capacity, while lowering power, space and operational costs significantly differentiates Ribbon’s GPU-based approach from traditional CPU-based transcoding offerings in the marketplace.”

Solutions Benefits:

• Industry-leading SBC media transcoding scaling capabilities in virtual and cloud deployments using NVIDIA GPUs to increase performance and decrease cost per transcoded session.
• Expanded SBC and PSX support for SIP Recording (SIPRec) allows enterprises and call centers to conduct up to four (4) simultaneous recordings of sessions via secure, encrypted technology.
• Expanded capabilities for Virtual Network Functions (VNF) instantiation with the ability to instantiate Ribbon’s PSX VNF aligned with the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) framework.
• Enhancements for operational efficiencies that allow CSPs to reduce configuration complexity and improve ease of use.
• Enhanced security across all products to deliver more restrictive access, reduction in possible network exposure and additional encryption.

Key Takeaways:

• Ribbon’s Session Border Controller Release 7.0 now supports GPUs enabling greater performance and scale for media transcoding, at cost-effective price points, in cloud and virtualized environments. 
• Ribbon’s Centralized Policy and Routing  (PSX) can be instantiated as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) aligned with the ONAP architecture.
• Enterprises now have  increased capacity for up to four (4) concurrent SIP Recording (SIPRec) sessions, enabling recorded data to be used for multiple purposes simultaneously such as real-time analytics for call center agents, recordings for corporate compliance and back-up, and lawful intercept.
• The Insight Element Management System (EMS) has an improved user interface for ease of use and offers improved provisioning and management processes.

About Ribbon Communications

Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN) is a company with two decades of market leadership experience in providing secure real-time communications solutions to the top service providers and enterprises around the globe. Built on world-class technology and intellectual property, Ribbon delivers highly reliable, unified and embedded real-time communications capabilities to customers in more than 25 countries and on 6 continents. The company transforms fixed, mobile and enterprise networks from legacy environments to all IP and fully virtualized, secure, cloud-based architectures, enabling highly productive communications for consumers and businesses. Ribbon’s market-leading communications security solutions are based on a big data behavioral analytics platform and offer customers enhanced network intelligence and security. The company’s Kandy Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) enables rapid service creation and digital transformation by delivering customers a comprehensive set of advanced embedded and unified communications capabilities. To learn more, visit ribboncommunications.com.

Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding delivering value to customers. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Ribbon Communications' business, please refer to the "Risk Factors" section of Ribbon Communications' most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements represent Ribbon Communications' views only as of the date on which such statement is made and should not be relied upon as representing Ribbon Communications' views as of any subsequent date. While Ribbon Communications may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Ribbon Communications specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.