MWC: Acme aims to simplify IMS, scale SIP

Acme Packet, whose session border controllers sit at the edge of many carrier voice-over-IP implementations, is aiming to help those service providers jump both jump-start IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) deployments as well as more affordably scale them once traffic and user sessions begin to grow.

Moving to IP and SIP networking while wrestling with the cost and complexity of IMS has been a major challenge for many operators. That includes both landline providers supplying VoIP services but increasingly mobile operators deploying SIP services and Rich Communications Suite (RCS) applications as well.

To address those issues, Acme Packet this week introduced the Net-Net SIP Multimedia-Xpress platform, which aims to simplify the delivery of what it calls RCS and IMS-equivalent services, essentially “enabling a quick start to IMS,” said Kevin Mitchell, director of solutions marketing for Acme Packet. The platform is especially suited for initial SIP service roll-outs or for deployments to small subscriber populations, Mitchell said, enabling carriers to deliver IP multimedia services at a cost of about $2 to $3 per subscriber for as few as 100,000 subscribers, gaining the advantages of an IMS-style architecture at a reduced cost.

Acme delivers those cost savings by consolidating a “fully decomposed IMS infrastructure” – ie, one with distinct boxes for each different IMS element – into a more integrated solution that simplifies hardware and virtualizes key IMS interfaces, Mitchell said. The Net-Net SMX is based on Acme Packet’s Net-Net 4500 SD access SBC, which already incorporates the IMS P-CSCF, E-CSCF and C-BGF functions, as well as adding a SIP signaling firewall function that Acme says is missing from IMS standards but required for real-world deployment. It also includes SIP Registrar and IMS-equivalent I-CSCF and S-CSCF capabilities and interfaces.

The product makes sense in both fixed and wireline deployments – though Acme Packet is formally announcing it at next week’s Mobile World Congress show, making the mobile angle particularly pertinent. While wireline carriers are typically driven to IMS and SIP to support voice applications, mobile operators are looking at a wider range of applications, including SIP-based fixed mobile convergence, femtocell access, RCS multimedia apps and IM presence, said Acme Packet’s Mitchell. “There’s been very little SIP adoption yet on mobile,” he said, adding that Acme’s jump-start approach may especially appeal to “mobile service providers that don’t have the stomach or budget for IMS.”

While Net-Net Xpress is focused on getting IMS and SIP off the ground on a small, affordable basis, a second new product focuses on adding scale to IP-based networks. Acme’s new Net-Net 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer (SLB) and Net-Net SBC Cluster lets service providers – some of whom may have 400 or 500 session border controllers already deployed in hot spots on their networks – make more efficient use of those resources.

Commercial load balancers typically focus on spreading non-session-based Web applications across multiple servers, something that won’t work in the SIP world. Acme’s solution solves that problem by maintaining those sessions while also improving the scale of SBC deployments by consolidating and automating the management and distribution of up to 2 million routes per single Acme Packet session border controller, Mitchell explained. A Net-Net SBC cluster can be virtualized to physically support multiple services, applications and access networks, he said.

Because mobile operators are just getting started with installing SBCs to support SIP, the load balancer and cluster platform is perhaps best suited for wireline carriers supporting larger SIP-based network deployments.
Finally, Acme also debuted the Net-Net Route Manager Central an integral component of its overall platform architecture and which helps manage and maintain the more complex routing schemes supported in more complex and large-scale network scenarios.