SIP trunking has attracted much attention over the past few years. According to Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research: “There is no denying the world is moving to IP, and SIP has become the de facto solution of choice for businesses for IP connections." Infonetics forecasts strong growth for SIP trunking and predicts that the global market will reach $8 billion in 2018.
To find out more, we spoke to Jean Sebastien Pegon, SIP Trunking product manager at Orange Business, who shared these 10 essential SIP trunking facts with us.
1. use SIP trunks to link sites together and break out to the PSTN
A SIP trunk is an IP connection between your enterprise unified communications and a SIP Trunking service provider (SP) beyond the Session Border Controller (SBC) – such as Orange Business. The trunks can either be terminated centrally, such as in your data center, or locally in smaller branch sites.
2. SIP trunks replace legacy TDM and H.323 trunks
SIP trunks allow you to completely replace legacy TDM trunks, consolidate your connections to the PSTN, and extend fully-featured unified communications (UC) across the organization. SIP trunks can be seen as the third stage in the evolution of voice-over-IP trunking following TDM and H.323 trunks.
3. realize cost savings of up to 40% from your voice budget
With SIP trunks you can save on both access and traffic costs. Depending on your existing set-up these savings range between 10-40% of your total voice spend. They are generated from eliminating PRI trunks, PSTN gateways, numerous service provider contracts, while reducing the UC total cost of ownership (TCO). Centralized billing and reporting provides accurate visibility on voice spend.
4. SIP trunks can turbocharge your UC strategy
SIP trunks allow you to deploy UC across the organization as they seamless integrate functionality such as presence and multi-channel communications. In fact, the saving generated by adopting SIP trunking is frequently used to justify the business case for complete UC transformation. SIP trunks allows users to access UC functionality from a unique identifier / number irrespective of which network they are on and what device they are using.
5. they make your communications more resilient
Deploying several SIP trunk allows you to can make your communications more resilient, because you can switch between trunks in case of any disruption. The trunks can also be used for load balancing traffic. Microsoft Lync allows you to set up a local and central SIP trunk at individual sites, so that if the local trunk is down, traffic can switch to the central one.
6. use SIP trunks to build virtual contact centers
SIP trunks are essential to build virtual contact centers by seamlessly joining together multiple contact centers. They allow you to load balance, reroute, overflow traffic between multiple sites while preserving all unified communications data. In addition, SIP trunks can consolidate the connection to and from the PSTN into centralized SIP trunks for all contact centers.
7. SIP trunking can support your cloud strategy
Most companies will adopt a centralized platform in their UC transformation using centralized dial plan management through SIP trunking . This private cloud is also enabled by using SIP trunks linking sites and the data center. In fact, according to Infonetics, SIP trunking is being deployed widely alongside hosted PBX and unified communications services.
8. improve flexibility & scalability
Unlike TDM trunking, SIP trunking can be run over a wide variety of access networks, including DSL and Internet connections for smaller sites. This variety in access methods also means that you can much more easily and cheaply scale up the number of users instead of having to buy additional 30-line PRI trunks. Capacity is adapted according to business needs.
9. make sure your network is voice-ready
Before deploying SIP trunking as part of a UC transformation strategy, you need to ensure your network is voice ready and supports Class of Service. Good voice quality is essential to smooth the transition to a new communications environment. Orange can support you with a mix of TDM and SIP trunks for a seamless transition.
10. remember to ensure interoperability
Although SIP is a standard, it is still vital to have interoperability testing for different UC vendor equipment to ensure that all communications works as expected. Orange has built an interoperability program jointly with the main UC vendors (including Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Mitel) to test both interworking with UC vendor equipment and third party services.
Orange SIP Trunking is fully certified with both Microsoft Lync Server 2013 and Cisco Unified Communications Manager 10.5
further information
- find out more about voice and telephony services at Orange Business: http://www.orange-business.com/en/voice-and-telephony
- read Microsoft’s guide to SIP trunking with Lync: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398619.aspx
- read Cisco’s guide to SIP trunking with a CUCM: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns340/ns414/ns728/networking_solutions_products_genericcontent0900aecd805bd13d.html