12/12/2005 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week enhanced its Service Exchange Framework (SEF) architecture with the introduction of a new Session Border Control (SBC) integrated services card for its Cisco XR 12000 Series routers.

Analysts said the new offering provides Cisco with a competitive product offering in a still emerging SBC market. “Although the company has yet to disclose performance metrics, it is likely that the new product, which takes the form of a service card for XR 12000 Series Routers, will compete with standalone products from Acme Packet, Juniper, Netrake, Newport Networks, NexTone and other SBC makers,” said Joe McGarvey, a senior analyst for carrier IP telephony with consultancy Current Analysis.

The SBC services card should plug right into Cisco’s enormous installed base of more than 30,000 12000 Series routers, McGarvey said. It’s Cisco’s first carrier-oriented SBC offering -– although the networking giant did market a product (its IP-to-IP Gateway) at the low-end of the market. The new SBC services card gives Cisco a solution that addresses the requirements of Tier 1 service providers and is flexible enough to be deployed at both the access portion (for end user to network communications) and core (for VoIP peering) of carrier networks, McGarvey noted. “By offering its high-performance SBC technology as an integrated service card for its XR 12000 Series Routers, Cisco is the first SBC vendor to deliver a solution that is tightly integrated with existing network equipment, rather than requiring deployment as a standalone device.”

SBC as a technology remedy could be a big hit among Cisco’s enormous installed base. “Integrated session border control technology, at least on a theoretical level, offers service providers several advantages over a standalone system. For starters, an integrated solution simplifies network management, eliminating the need for the introduction of a new element management system, as well as helping to conserve rack space and power consumption,” McGarvey explained. “In addition, an integrated SBC does not eat up valuable interfaces in and out of IP routers and at the same time offers unprecedented coordination between SBCs and IP routers. An important function of SBCs is to reserve adequate bandwidth and assure sufficient QoS for real-time traffic. A tight coupling between the control planes of an SBC and an IP router, which regulates bandwidth management in the core of the network through MPLS, will result in fine-grained bandwidth management capabilities.”

Cisco’s SBC play is noteworthy in other respects, McGarvey argues. “Cisco is introducing the first product that combines SBC functionality with IP routing. This combination has stood as a potential market killer for standalone SBC makers since the product category was first introduced several years ago. Cisco’s entrance in the space will either provide an opportunity for standalone SBCs to prove their validity or initiate the demise of the product category,” he speculates. -Stephen Swoyer