Enterprise Communications Broker

ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS BROKER IS PURPOSE-BUILT FOR ENTERPRISE CORE NETWORKS

The ECB sits in the core Enterprise network and is purpose-built to easily manage complex call flows — eg: for call centers — streamline dial plans, implement policy and allow seamless integration between multiple vendors.

As shown in the diagram, ECB connects the access layer to the applications layer, and connects applications with each other. It is the central traffic cop, directing call flows for all SIP sessions.

The ECB complements the E-SBCs at the edge of the network by providing routing, protocol and dial-plan normalization, and policy enforcement capabilities for intra-enterprise sessions — such as where you have complex call flows and/or a multi-vendor environment. The ECB simplifies routing, reducing Network Takeback and Transfer, keeping more traffic on your private network and reducing costs.

Not only is it designed for high availability, it is also highly scalable. it can process up to 32,000 simultaneous SIP sessions, 250,000 user registrations and roughly 170 calls per second.

So, to summarize:

Highly scalable.

• 32,000 sessions.
• 250,000 registrations.
• 170 calls per second.

Complements E-SBC’s at the network edge.

Embedded EOM Probe for visibility.

Meanwhile, the E-SBC focuses on security, QoS and interworking with service provider networks.

The ECB features an embedded probe that provides visibility to Oracle Enterprise Operations Monitor for troubleshooting and analysis.

USERS MAINTAIN DIALING HABITS WHEN TRAVELING

User DB associates users with a Home session agent context.

• Home context defines dialing habits for all on-net locations.
• No need for traveling users to learn local dialing conventions.

Another feature of the dialing engine is the ability to recognize when a user is dialing from a PBX other than their home PBX, and interpret their dialed strings using their home dialing convention.

The local PBXs should be configured to forward INVITEs with unrecognized dialed digits to the ECB, and the user’s soft client should register and authenticate with the local call control cluster, instead of its home cluster.

For example, a user based in New York travels to London and initiates a call using her New York dialing conventions. When the ECB does its user look-up, it identifies the home agent and context, and also detects that the INVITE was sent by a different agent. It looks up the London agent’s context and uses that to translate any requests for local services, such as emergency numbers or local trunk lines.

ROUTING CHALLENGES

HOW TO FIND THE BEST PATH TO THE USER’S PREFERRED END POINT(S) AND ENFORCE POLICIES?

Multiple networks may connect caller and callee.

• Cost for each path may vary.
• Optimizing costs can be difficult.

Callee may have multiple endpoints.

• Each endpoint may be connected to a different call-control platform and/or network. For example, PBX → Lync.

Conditional policies may be required.

Let’s start by describing the challenges enterprise managers typically face when routing SIP sessions. Simply stated, there are two issues:

1. How to find the best path to the callee’s preferred end-point, and
2. How to enforce policies appropriate for each call.

The challenges are complicated by the fact that there may be multiple paths that connect each caller and callee, and each path may have different costs and availability. In addition each callee may have multiple endpoints on which they would like to receive their calls. Finally, conditional policies may be required to prevent fraud, conserve bandwidth or ensure compliance.

ECB CENTRALIZES SESSION ROUTING

IMPROVES ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL AND ENABLES SIM RING

Routing Engine identifies least-cost available route.

• Reduce toll charges.

Explicit end-to-end routing reduces complexity.

• Consolidate routing into a single element.

Fork sessions to multiple end-points.

• Enables simultaneous/sequential ring.

Centralize policy enforcement.

• Global and conditional routing actions.

ECB contains a robust, enterprise-class SIP routing engine that addresses all these challenges. It centralizes session routing decisions from end-to-end, across the entire network. It can fork sessions to multiple destinations based on user preferences, and it can apply a range of policies.

ECB computes the least-cost route from source to destination across multiple hops in an enterprise network. It inserts route headers into SIP messages that specify the entire path. This centralizes control over the network and eliminates the possibility of a wrong turn somewhere downstream.

ECB forks sessions based on a user look-up and can simultaneously and/or sequentially ring multiple endpoints. Finally, ECB applies policies to sessions based on global or conditional parameters.