Acme Packet and BroadSoft announce new enhancements to their joint SIP trunking solution that enables service providers to ensure business continuity for large enterprise customers. The solution, which integrates BroadSoft's BroadWorks VoIP application platform with Acme Packet’s Net-Net session border controller, delivers advanced IP-based communications services that were previously not available with premise-based PBX solutions. These services include Microsoft’s Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 4.5, video-enabled SIP trunking and fixed-mobile convergence.

IP-based Services Increase Collaboration and Productivity for PBX/IP-PBX Customers

While cost savings continue to be a major driver, the demand for unified communicationsand other value-added services is perpetuating the rise in SIP trunking. The BroadSoft/Acme Packet solution enables service providers to increase average revenue per user and reduce churn by bundling applications with their connectivity offers. The solution allows an enterprise with an on-premise PBX or IP PBX to take advantage of innovative IP-enabled communications tools from the service provider “cloud” including:

• Microsoft’s Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 4.5 — integrates premise-based PBX phones with IT tools such as e-mail, presence and instant messaging;
• Video-enabled SIP Trunking — delivers “personal telepresence” to PBX customers by adding video stations to selected employees and meeting rooms; and
• FMC — extends PBX features to mobile devices independent of the network, using BroadSoft’s award-winning BroadWorks Anywhere functionality.

New Enhancements Increase Security and Resiliency of SIP Trunking Connection

New features and functionality in BroadSoft’s latest release of BroadWorks, 14.sp9, further strengthen the BroadSoft/Acme Packet SIP trunking solution, enabling service providers to meet the stringent business continuity requirements of global enterprises with large IP PBX deployments. New trunking features support:

• Fully Redundant IP Networks — eliminates any single point of failure for an enterprise;
• Multiple Trunk Groups per IP PBX — enables an enterprise to apply sophisticated routing policies for delivery of calls across the trunk groups; and
• Dynamic Multi-site Enterprise Support — allows an enterprise to purchase a fixed amount of call capacity and apply that across any number of locations. This is particularly useful for multi-site call center deployments where capacity moves between sites based on the time of day.

In this solution with BroadSoft, Acme Packet’s Net-Net family of session border controllers enhances both the service providers’ and enterprises’ SIP trunking functionality. For service providers, it provides controls for session admission and overload controls for the IP network transport to assure SLAs, maximize revenues and minimize costs. For enterprises, Acme Packet Net-Net SBCs provide similar control functions relative to its IP PBX, Unified Communications platform and network.

End-to-End Interoperability Testing Improves SIP Trunking Go-to-Market

SIP trunking presents a new set of go-to-market challenges relating to IP PBX interoperability for service providers. IP PBX vendors have different degrees of maturity in their SIP trunking implementations and may not be SIPconnect compliant. Unlike competitive offerings, Acme Packet and BroadSoft have addressed these challenges by ensuring end-to-end interoperability testing with over 40 different IP PBX vendors and variants, including Avaya, Cisco, Siemens and Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 R2. In addition, the BroadSoft/Acme Packet solution has attained SIPconnect compliance and supports current 3GPP specification for deployment of SIP trunking in IP Multimedia Subsystem networks.