Designed for fast-growing businesses

Gphone is pleased to support the newly released Edgewater Networks EdgeMarc 2900a and 2900e session border controllers (eSBCs). These new SBC models have the traditional Edgemarc capabilities, but what we like most about them is the new failover features and scalability.  The routers now have two GigE WAN ports to support redundant internet providers. The 2900a model also has failover FXO ports, meaning that in case the internet fails, all calls can be routed out traditional POTs lines. This is extremely important for large sites like schools and assisted living facilities.  

Furthermore, the devices can scale up to 300 concurrent calls with a  simple license upgrade, meaning the hardware can support thousands of phones without a hardware upgrade.   

Key Features

The key features of these devices include:

Interfaces

Up to 1 Gbps data rates on the WAN interface
Two copper (RJ-45) and two optical (SFP) WAN ports
Six FXS and two FXO ports (2900a only)
SIP and voice Features

Support for SIP transparent and multi-homed proxy modes
Signaling and media protocols include UDP, TCP, TLS, RTP and SRTP
Support of major ITU-T VoIP codecs including G.711, G.722, G.726 and G.729 and T.38 for fax
Network Features

Support for NAT/PAT
1Q VLANs supported
IPv4 and IPv6 supported
Routing protocol support includes BGP, RIP and OSPF
Security

Stateful VoIP aware firewall
DoS Protection
Encryption and authentication supported include: TLS, SRTP, HTTPS, SSH, 3DES and AES
IPsec VPN and Proxy ARP supported
QoS
Full MOS support including Jitter and packet loss
Diffserv (DSCP)
IP Precedence
Policing

Compatibility with other services

Both devices are compatible with Edgewater’s Cloud2Edge Complete service, EdgeView Service Control Center and EdgeMarc Intelligent Edge, all of which reduce operational expenses and ease maintenance and administration tasks by integrating the control of the devices with the cloud.

An additional convenient feature of the EdgeMarc 2900 series SBCs is the fact that they can be deployed as a VMs for KVM, VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines. In such an implementation, no additional hardware is actually required for deployment. This is especially handy if the enterprise network already has available an established and robust VM infrastructure.


Why use an SBC?

Data communications infrastructures based on the TCP/IP model were originally developed several decades ago. As such, they were designed to specifically handle traditional data communications needs. With the advent of network convergence, where voice and data now share one infrastructure, it has been necessary to modify the functionality of TCP/IP-based networks to accommodate the specific needs of packetized voice services.

Because of this, one area that often causes problems when attempting to transmit VoIP packets is the network edge – that is, the border between the enterprise network and the ISP. Because of features such as Network Address Translation (NAT), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), firewall implementations, as well as the employment of quality of service (QoS) mechanisms that exist at the network edge, VoIP can often be difficult to transmit over such borders. This can often result in one-way or no-way voice, a degradation of sound quality, a potential security breach, or VoIP calls failing completely.
The solution to these and other issues of transmitting VoIP packets over the network edge is the employment of a Session Border Controller (SBC). This device has become an important part of the VoIP service arsenal. For more information, refer to our article on the Five reasons you should add an SBC to your IP network.


Conclusion

It is necessary to employ specialized devices to accommodate VoIP services on an IP network, especially at critical  locations such as the network edge. The EdgeMarc 2900 series eSBCs make this easy while providing high availability, resiliency, and flexibility to accommodate the needs of fast-growing businesses.