At idaconcpts.com, we have discussed about VoIP smartphone apps quite a bit. While the use of these apps works quite well for personal use or even small business situations, they do not meet the necessary requirements of medium to large businesses. Larger scale businesses require communication solutions that are able to handle calls between locations with several extensions spread across large distances and power features such as negotiating capabilities and features among all session participants.
In this article we will discuss how you can get more out of your IP network through SIP trunking to save money and create opportunities for your communication channels today.
The Problem with Legacy Telephone Networks
Your business uses regular telephones. And telephones, unlike the world of computers, mobile phones and Internet, have changed very little. Many businesses today are still using traditional Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) telephone lines and systems for their voice communication needs. Legacy protocols such as this one are difficult and time consuming to build applications on, for example a popular feature, now taken for granted, such as call waiting took over a year to develop back in 1984.
The current standard for providing voice telecommunication services requires bundles of physical wires and costly rate interface equipment (e.g. ISDN BRIs and PRIs) to connect your phones to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Legacy networks keep your voice, data and Internet connections separate. Your computers have access to data through a LAN, most likely routed with a firewall, connecting them to the data network and Internet. This is very inefficient.
Moreover, these type of setups have to be repeated over and over with every new location that your business adds, further increasing the complexity and maintenance cost of the network. Now, the time has come to evolve your telephone connection to a new service that delivers more capabilities than ever before at a significantly lower cost. That service is SIP Trunking. SIP service is popular amongst many businesses and corporations.
The Development of SIP Trunking
Professor Henning Schulzrinne co-designed the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) along with Professor Mark Handley. Schulzrinne and Handley realized that they could leverage the power of the Internet Protocol to improve telecommunications and modernize telephone systems. First developed in 1999, SIP is an application-layer control protocol for creating, modifying and terminating sessions with one or more participants. These sessions include Internet multimedia conferences, Internet telephone calls and multimedia distribution. Members in a session can communicate via multicast or via a mesh of unicast relations, or a combination of these.
SIP trunking achieves four important objectives:
- Used in conjunction with an IP soft switch. provides flexible, scalable two-way access to the PSTN for call origination or termination
- Replaces high cost physical PRIs and voice gateway equipment
- Aggregates connections to different cities onto a single, scalable and reliable access
- Allows for greater interaction of voice services with other applications, platforms, and networks
Unleash the Power of your IP Network with SIP Trunking
Now, the key question becomes “how can I implement SIP trunking in my business?”
The answer is look for a partner that focuses in interoperability and certification.
First, interoperability is critical because of the different hardware and software required to create your network. You need a partner that does extensive testing of the interoperability of its PBX technologies, so it can ensure you a smooth implementation and help you avoid unforeseen integration costs due to incompatible technologies. Being the first matters in business communications and companies, such as Allstream in Canada, that are able to be the first to offer SIP trunking, have an important advantage over competitors in interoperability.
Second, by being able to test interoperability throughly, your business partner will be able to achieve the necessary industry certifications to guarantee you a reliable, secure and stable infrastructure. When evaluating a SIP trunking provider, take a look at their IP network. You are looking for a fibre-optic network that provides advanced IP connectivity, digital switching, Ethernet-featured services and the latest security technologies.
Takeaways
- SIP trunking modernizes your voice communications network by moving away from a costly legacy protocol.
- SIP trunking leverages your existing IP network by eliminating the need for separate voice and data networks.
- SIP trunking reduces costs by reducing the number of voice gateway units and eliminating long distance fees when calling corporate sites, because everything is handled through the Internet.
- Look for a SIP trunking service provider that focuses on interoperability and certification. A first-to-market leader is often your best bet.
