Session border control:

Architecture Comparison
Under the hood
- three technology architectures

Back-to-Back Session Agent (B2BSA)

Application Layer Gateway (ALG)

MIDCOM
Back-to-Back Session Agent
(B2BSA) architecture

SIP B2BUA, H.323 B2BGK/GW, MGCP B2B GW/CA

Breaks session into two segments for complete control
Terminates and reinitiates signaling message & SDP with
unique session IDs
CAN respond to and initiate signaling messages
e.g. REDIRECTs, reINVITEs, BYEs

Segment 1 B2BSA Segment 2

Application Layer Gateway
(ALG) architecture

Maintains single session through system

Modifies addresses in signaling messages & SDP as they
pass thru system
CAN NOT respond to or initiate signaling messages
e.g. REDIRECTs, reINVITEs, BYEs

ALG
MIDCOM architecture
“Softswitch” for signaling – intelligent master
Middlebox for media control – dumb slave
MIDCOM protocol between for communication
Middlebox support for signaling requires complex
configuration
Softswitch can be B2BSA or proxy
Signaling arrives with L3 NAT completed by Middlebox, but
L5 NAT incomplete

Segment 1 MIDCOM Segment 2

MB
Comparing advanced features & benefits
- B2BSA vs. ALG vs. MIDCOM
B2BSA ALG MIDCOM
(w/ B2B signaling)
Bandwidth and QoS optimization
Hosted NAT traversal w/media release Y N N
Session admission control – generate “busy” signal if no Y N N
bandwidth & media prioritization
CODEC stripping Y N Y
Bandwidth policing Y N Y

Service reach – endpoints, PBXs, other networks

VLANS/overlapping addresses/VPN bridging Y N N
Interworking SIP-H.323, H.323-H.323, MGCP-MGCP Y N Y
DTMF H.323 in-band to SIP out-of-band (RFC2833) Y N N
interworking (for H.323 PBX integration)
Error message/cause code translations Y N N

Softswitch scalability & availability

Redirect support Y N N
Softswitch failover & load balancing Y N N
UDP-TCP signaling interworking Y N N
TCP/TLS off-load Y N N
Encrypted access-unencrypted backbone (signaling) Y N N

Other
Simultaneous L5 & L3 NAPT by same system (security) Y Y N
Route stripping in VIA or RECORD ROUTE (security) Y N Y
Session timers (generate BYE for accounting) Y N N
Legal intercept - signaling & media Y N Y
Delivering
peak performance for
premium interactive communications
across IP network borders

Acme Packet Net-Net™

session border controllers