Virtual SBC
What is a virtual session border controller or virtualized SBC? Traditionally, a session border controller (SBC) is a device positioned between carrier networks or between an enterprise LAN and a service-provider WAN. In the latter case, the border controller is called an enterprise session border controller or eSBC. Whether it is delivered as a dedicated hardware session border controller or a virtualized network function, (a.k.a. software SBC) the border controller manages call (session) setup and teardown. The SBC also provides network demarcation (demarc), or separation (border) between network domains, as well as other types of management (control) over the data streams that pass between networks. With the growing popularity of software defined networking (SDN) and the burgeoning market development and adoption of network function virtualization (NFV), eSBC functionality is more and more often de-coupled from a dedicated hardware device and delivered as a virtual instance running as a virtual machine (VM) on top of a hypervisor. It is generally not well understood in the market why an eSBC is such a critical network element for a secure and reliable SIP-based enterprise phone system. The following publication will help close that knowledge gap.
