Telefónica O2 Germany has selected Acme Packet’s session border controllers to provide key IP Multimedia Subsystem functionality at its access and interconnect borders. The Acme Packet Net-Net Session Director enables Telefónica O2 Germany to deploy a secure and interoperable IMS network supporting residential retail and wholesale VoIP services and IP interconnects with other service providers.

Directly, and through its wholesale partners, Telefónica O2 Germany currently provides fixed telephony and DSL services to approximately 1.4 million customers. The Net-Net SBCs are part of an IMS next-generation network that will replace an older VoIP platform and enable Telefónica O2 Germany to offer VoIP services to its residential customers and wholesale hosted residential VoIP services—Telefónica Voice4Carrier and Telefónica Voice4SIPOwner—to other service providers. Telefónica O2 Germany also uses the Net-Net SBCs to securely interconnect with other tier 1 service providers for off-net call origination and termination.

Telefónica O2 Germany selected Acme Packet’s Net-Net 4500 SD to meet critical 3GPP IMS functional requirements at the access and interconnect borders of its network. At the subscriber access border, the Net-Net 4500 SD integrates the Proxy-Call Session Control Function, the initial SIP signaling contact point for subscriber endpoints, and the Access Gateway Function for controlling subscriber media flows. At the interconnect border to other service provider networks, the Net-Net 4500 SD integrates the Interconnect Border Control Function, the SIP signaling point for sessions leaving or coming into the network, and the Transition Gateway for controlling associated media flows. Both the access and interconnect SBCs include a Signaling Firewall, a vital function that protects the SBC itself and core IMS service elements, which is missing from the IMS architecture.

Net-SAFE, Acme Packet’s security framework, provides denial of service attack prevention, topology hiding and access control to protect Telefónica O2 Germany’s IMS network and ensure service availability. In addition, the Net-Net 4500 SD also provides multiple encryption capabilities, including IPsec using IMS-AKA and Transport Layer Security, for secured sessions between subscriber endpoints and Telefónica O2 Germany’s IMS services network. Acme Packet SBCs maximize the service reach of Telefónica O2 Germany using hosted NAT traversal, SIP signaling normalization as well as interworking between its next-generation IMS and older VoIP platforms. Telefónica O2 Germany uses Acme Packet’s flexible session admission control policies to prevent core network overloads and assure customer SLAs. To help ensure regulatory compliance, the Net-Net SD provides signaling and media replication for lawful intercept and a location server interface to obtain and append location information for emergency calls.