Dummies Book Skype For Dummies

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Skype for
Business
Sonus Special Edition
By Brad Chapin and Kevin Isacks
These materials are © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Skype for Business For Dummies®, Sonus Special Edition
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Table of Contents
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book......................................................................... 2
Icons Used in This Book............................................................. 2
Chapter 1: What Is Unified Communications?. . . . . . . . . 3

Understanding UC....................................................................... 4
Taking a Closer Look at UC Applications................................. 5
Getting Started with UC.............................................................. 6
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Skype for Business . . . . . . . 9

Is “Skype for Business” an Oxymoron?.................................. 10
Skype for Business Server 2015 .............................................. 10
Skype for Business Client App................................................ 11
What’s Included with Skype for Business?............................ 12
How Do I Deploy Skype for Business?.................................... 14
Deploying Skype for Business
in your data center..................................................... 14
Skype for Business in Office 365................................... 15
as a hybrid solution.................................................... 15
Are Other Companies Really Betting Their
Communications on Skype for Business?.......................... 16
Chapter 3: Shining the Spotlight on

Skype for Business Enterprise Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
What Is Skype for Business Enterprise Voice?...................... 18
Looking into Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice Features....................................................................... 18
Making Skype for Business Enterprise Voice Work.............. 20
Planning for Deployment......................................................... 20
Different deployment models........................................ 21
Choosing a deployment model..................................... 22
Enterprise Voice in the Real World: A Case Study............... 23
iv Skype for Business For Dummies, Sonus Special Edition_________
Chapter 4: Getting the Most Out of

Skype for Business Enterprise Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
IP Gateways and IP PBXs......................................................... 25
Making Enterprise Voice More Robust
with Survivability.................................................................. 27
Understanding SBAs................................................................. 28
Chapter 5: Improving Enterprise Voice Quality,

Security, and Reliability with an SBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Introducing the SBC.................................................................. 32
Connecting to SIP Trunking Services..................................... 33
Integrating with Existing IP PBX Platforms............................ 34
Ensuring Quality of Service..................................................... 36
Supporting E911........................................................................ 36
Dealing with Interoperability between Vendors................... 37
Centralizing Control and Troubleshooting............................ 38
Chapter 6: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus. . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Microsoft Compatibility and Qualification............................ 39
Multivendor Interoperability................................................... 40
Maximum Resiliency and Protection against
DoS Attacks............................................................................ 40
Encrypted Communications.................................................... 40
Rapid Recovery......................................................................... 41
Survivability for Branch Sites.................................................. 41
Virtually Ready for the Cloud.................................................. 41
Centralized Policy Management............................................. 42
Exceptional Transcoding Performance.................................. 42
Wide‐Ranging Media Support.................................................. 42
Foreword
O ver the past few years, for many organizations the search
for the next technology that can deliver strategic advan-
tages is leading to Unified Communications (UC) and to
Microsoft Skype for Business (formerly Lync) as a critical
component. Analysis shows that in North America as many as
70 percent of enterprises are adopting this solution for at least
some of their users. Skype for Business (referred to here as
SkypeB) delivers a unique set of capabilities to integrate com-
munication modalities, presence, application integration, and
other services. With SkypeB, organizations can streamline
business processes and increase productivity by assuring that
the right communications happen at the right time, with the
right people, and the right tools to assure successful out-
comes. While most SkypeB deployments start as an internal
trial and then deployment, many organizations rapidly find
that extending SkypeB beyond the boundaries of the organiza-
tion can yield equal or even greater benefits than internal use
alone. By using SkypeB federation and integration to the con-
sumer version of Skype, the capabilities of SkypeB can be
extended to partners and customers, reducing costs and
increasing business success. Using SkypeB conferencing can
reduce conferencing costs and when combined with SkypeB
telephony services can deliver a truly unified user experience.
It also has the potential of reducing the cost of supporting tra-
ditional legacy telephony equipment. All of this leads to
SkypeB Enterprise Voice as a logical extension of any SkypeB
deployment.
Having a plan to support SkypeB Enterprise Voice should not
be left as a future activity; it should be planned for early and
with deliberation. One key element of a successful external
SkypeB deployment is a Session Border Controller (SBC) that
can manage and assure the security and integrity of the organi-
zation, so Sonus sponsoring this guide is a logical extension of
their SkypeB focus. With SkypeB externalization, doors are
opened to a new set of threats, both external and internal,
deliberate and unintentional, that can have significant impact.
Also, an SBC enables the organization to take full advantage of
the revolution in SIP trunking to reduce costs and manage
vi Skype for Business For Dummies, Sonus Special Edition_________
multiple service providers through a single platform. This

book is a guide to begin to understand the issues and complex-
ity of a SkypeB Enterprise Voice deployment. It gives the
reader the understanding to begin the process of making the
right decisions to assure both personal, and organizational
success with SkypeB Enterprise Voice.
Phil Edholm
PKE Consulting LLC & UCStrategies.com
pedholm@pkeconsulting.com
www.pkeconsulting.com
Introduction
T elecommunications is always evolving. And so it was
inevitable that the Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN) would eventually embrace elements of that other
big network, the Internet. Where the PSTN originally used a
protocol known as Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to
transport digitized voice traffic, the Internet required a
different protocol, and so Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
was created.
Because VoIP uses the same protocol as other Internet traffic,

it wasn’t long before enterprising companies began to com-
bine VoIP with IP‐based services such as instant messaging
(IM) and video to create richer communications services. If
you’ve ever clicked on a web page to launch a voice call or
viewed a webinar where someone was sharing his or her
desktop, you’ve used these services.
Adding VoIP to the digital conversation makes a lot of sense,

but the reality is that managing voice and video and email and
texting and the sundry other services out there can be a lot
of work. By some estimates, the average knowledge worker
spends up to 2.5 hours per day just managing all these con-
versations via email, voicemail, and so on. What businesses
really need is a way to unify all these communications in one
place so their employees don’t have to spend so much time
managing different services. And thus the concept for Unified
Communications (UC) was born.
UC platforms combine voice, video, email, instant messaging

(IM), and other communications services in a single applica-
tion, on a single screen that can be managed consistently
across multiple devices such as laptops, smartphones, and
tablets. Yes, it saves time and money, but more importantly, it
allows business users to collaborate more effectively.
2 Skype for Business For Dummies, Sonus Special Edition_________
About This Book

The most recent example of the evolution of telecommunica-
tions is the introduction of Microsoft’s Skype for Business.
Previously known as Microsoft Lync (and several other names
before that), Skype for Business inherits the role as the de
facto standard for UC at thousands of enterprises around the
world. For loyal Lync users, the transition will be a seamless
one — as it stands today, the name change is arguably the
most significant difference between the two products. Skype
for Business still includes all the functionality that made Lync
popular with enterprises, and it incorporates some new fea-
tures that showcase Skype’s reputation for simplicity and,
more importantly, connectivity to millions of Skype users
around the globe.
This book explains what’s new in Skype for Business, with

special attention paid to the Enterprise Voice component
of Skype for Business. You discover how it works, what it
requires in terms of integration and security, and how to get
the most value from it in your enterprise.
Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, you may notice four different types of
icons that appear in the left margin.
The Tip icon identifies time-savers (and the occasional life-

saver) for people planning to deploy Skype for Business in
their company.
The Remember icon alerts you to useful information that will

come in handy later.
Watch out! This icon warns you against potential pitfalls and
mistakes that, um, other companies learned the hard way
(okay, so maybe we learned some of them that way).
This icon indicates that you’re entering the weeds (we are,
after all, techies at heart), but you can skip over them if you
left your acronym decoder ring at home without missing
anything important.
Chapter 1
What Is Unified
Communications?
In This Chapter
▶▶Getting a handle on UC
▶▶Understanding the world of UC applications
▶▶Knowing what it takes to make a UC solution
U nified Communications (UC) has been called a “PBX

killer,” which begs the question: What exactly is a PBX?
It stands for Private Branch Exchange, and you can think of it
as the collective brain for your business phones. Desk phones
are, generally speaking, “dumb” devices. They don’t know
how to forward calls to your voicemail or handle a conference
call; in fact, they don’t even know when someone is calling
you. All those “intelligent” phone tasks are handled by a PBX,
usually for dozens or even hundreds of phones.
PBXs have been around for decades. They’re typically com-

plex machines to program, costly to maintain, and a large
enterprise may have to manage dozens (or more) of them.
Oh, and did we mention that PBXs from different vendors or
even different models from the same vendor often don’t com-
municate well with each other? No wonder enterprises want
to replace them.
UC applications such as Skype for Business provide that same

phone intelligence but in a software‐based solution. Instead
of dozens of expensive gray boxes, enterprises can provide
all the intelligent phone features they need (call forward-
ing, voicemail, direct inward dialing, and so on) through a
entralized server running the Skype for Business application.

c
Of course, you also need a few other components, including
a SIP trunk connection and a Session Border Controller (SBC)
to enable and secure VoIP using Skype for Business, but the
cost and complexity is much lower than with a traditional PBX
system. Figure 1-1 shows how this all fits together.
Figure 1-1: The Microsoft Skype for Business solution.
Understanding UC
UC represents the next generation of enterprise communica-
tions and collaboration technologies, bringing multiple com-
munications applications under a single architecture. This
allows for seamless communications across applications, no
matter where you are or what device you use. These com-
munications can be delivered over an Internet Protocol (IP)
network through the following mechanisms:
✓✓Voice applications, including person‐to‐person calls,

voicemails, and multiparty conference calls
✓✓Video applications, including videoconferencing and on‐
demand video learning
✓✓Data applications, including text messaging, email, and
document sharing
The unified part of UC refers to the fact that the UC hard-

ware and software take all these applications and put them
under the management of a common control system, instead
of using different hardware and software solutions for each
��Chapter 1: What Is Unified Communications? 5
individual application. This provides two big benefits to
enterprises:
✓✓It allows communications to be delivered across different

media. For example, a voicemail could be retrieved as an
email attachment or even as a speech‐to‐text translated
message.
✓✓It applies presence and location information to communi-
cations so they can be routed and delivered more intelli-
gently. For example, a voice call might go directly to your
mobile phone if you’re out of the office.
Presence refers to an individual’s current communications

status (for example, available, busy, do not disturb). This will
be familiar to IM users as well as commercial Skype users
because both have made use of presence features in their
communications for some time. In UC, presence is a richer bit
of data that, when combined with location information, helps
the UC system figure out how and when to deliver your com-
munications to you. For example, if your status shows that
you’re in a meeting, a UC system may route calls directly to
your mobile device without trying to ring the phone.
This combination of multiple platforms, clients, and com-

munications methods with presence and location data is a
powerful tool. It can greatly streamline and improve the ways
that enterprise employees communicate, coordinate, and col-
laborate with each other — whether they’re in the same office
building or in different hemispheres!
Taking a Closer Look

at UC Applications
We briefly touch on the basic kinds of UC applications
(voice, video, data) in the preceding section, but in this
section, you take a closer look at what UC platforms typically
have to offer:
✓✓Voice calls: UC systems provide VoIP‐based person‐to‐

person or multiparty voice calls using a standard phone,
PC, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. With UC, users no
longer need a PBX system (or the PSTN) to make voice
calls, which can save businesses a lot of money.
✓✓Instant messaging (IM): UC systems provide person‐

to‐person and multiparty IM sessions, often with the
addition of features such as persistent chat sessions,
continuous sessions across multiple devices, and the
capability to resume sessions at a later time.
✓✓Videoconferencing: UC supports high‐quality (often
high‐definition) videoconferencing. These calls can be
person‐to‐person or, depending on the system, between
groups of people.
✓✓Collaboration and meetings: Conferencing and collabo-
ration are key parts of a UC enterprise solution. There
are a number of aspects to conferencing, including
IM/chat, voice, and video.
Don’t limit your UC apps to the desktop. UC platforms can

support mobile devices as fully integrated clients. To do this,
you need a working data connection on the mobile device
and a UC app installed on the device (your IT department can
install the app or you can do it directly through an app store).
Getting Started with UC

Beyond the UC solution itself, you need several pieces to com-
plete the UC picture. These include
✓✓Connectivity to an IP network, typically via a SIP trunk

✓✓A server (or servers) to run the UC applications and
provide back‐end functionality, such as directory or
contact servers, presence data, and so on
✓✓UC clients on the end‐user devices (either desktop or
mobile devices)
✓✓Edge devices deployed at the network border (such as
an SBC) to control, secure, and optimize communications
to/from your network
UC can be deployed in a variety of ways:
✓✓Enterprise deployments in which the servers and soft-

ware reside on premise (typically in a data center or
server room), which are owned and operated by the
enterprise
��Chapter 1: What Is Unified Communications? 7
✓✓Hosted deployments offered by a third‐party service
provider
(In this case, the third‐party service provider typically
manages the servers and operations for a fixed
monthly fee.)
✓✓Hybrid deployments featuring a mix of premise‐based
and hosted functionality, such as instances where an
enterprise may want to keep its videoconferencing ser-
vices on a secure but external server
Whether an enterprise deploys UC on its own or through a
hosted service, it still requires connectivity through a SIP
trunking service provider or Internet Telephony Service
Provider (ITSP). The ITSP provides the IP bandwidth for
voice, video, and data communications and, in most cases,
connectivity to the PSTN as well.
Chapter 2
Getting to Know Skype

for Business
In This Chapter
▶▶Introducing Skype for Business
▶▶Looking at Skype for Business Server 2015 and Client App
▶▶Knowing what’s included in Skype for Business
▶▶Understanding different deployment options
▶▶Taking a look at what’s driving the adoption of Skype for Business
I n 2014, Microsoft announced that Lync 2013 would be

rebranded as Skype for Business, causing millions of
Lync users to wonder what the change would mean for
them. Would Skype for Business still deliver the same robust,
enterprise‐class capabilities? Would it be more open, less
secure, cheaper, or more expensive? Would it even be
compatible with Lync 2013?
The answer out of Redmond, Washington, has been reassuring:

Skype for Business still delivers all the great things users
love about Lync, plus a few new tricks learned from millions
of Skype users (such as a simpler user interface). And, yes,
Skype for Business will integrate with and upgrade seam-
lessly with Lync 2013, so you don’t need to trade in your Lync
licenses just yet.
In this chapter, we introduce you to Skype for Business,

discuss the different deployment scenarios, and highlight the
applications that Skype for Business supports.
Is “Skype for Business”

an Oxymoron?
Skype is one of the most popular consumer apps in the world,
but it has never been synonymous with business. Originally,
people “Skyped” to save money, enjoy rich voice and video
calls, and connect to friends simply and easily from any
device. Which, when you think about, is exactly what enter-
prise users are doing with Lync.
In fact, the rebranding makes a lot of sense when you factor

in the power of the Skype brand. Skype is simple, it’s cost‐
effective, and it’s robust. It’s a lot of the things that you’d
want in a Unified Communications (UC) experience. Lync
fills in the gaps: It’s secure, it supports all kinds of different
platforms and devices, and it has enterprise‐class features
such as desktop sharing and unified messaging. With that
in mind, Skype for Business promises to be the best of both
worlds: simple enough for consumers but strong enough for
enterprises.
Sounds cool, right? So what do you need to get started? Skype

for Business remains a UC platform, and UC platforms require
two key components:
✓✓A server to run the UC software and host UC services

✓✓A client app on the device that plans to use these UC
services
Skype for Business includes both the server software (called

Skype for Business Server 2015) and the client software
(the Skype for Business App). Like Lync before it, Skype for
Business can run on a single server instance, support dozens
of different devices (PCs, laptops, IP phones, smartphones,
and tablets), and be deployed on premise or hosted in the
Cloud through a service provider.
Skype for Business Server 2015

The Skype for Business Server 2015 software is designed to
provide the following services to an enterprise:
�� Chapter 2: Getting to Know Skype for Business 11
✓✓Instant messaging (IM) and presence applications:
This works both for internal employees and external
customers/partners. Skype for Business supports most
standard Internet IM systems, including Lync, Windows
Live, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL IM, and Google Talk.
✓✓Videoconferencing: This application allows users to
share screens and files, enjoy collaboration, manage
voice and chat (IM) meetings, and conduct virtual
meetings anytime, anywhere, on any device.
✓✓Enterprise VoIP: This application supports both person‐
to‐person and multiparty (such as conference) calls. As
with Lync before it, Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
delivers a rich set of PBX‐styled services, including voice-
mail, call holding, call forwarding, and many more.
✓✓Connectivity via SIP trunks or the PSTN: This enables
enterprises to purchase voice services from an ISP and
ITSP via SIP trunks or through a traditional telephony
provider via PRI trunks (for example, the PSTN).
✓✓Seamless support for remote and mobile users: This
service includes branch offices, telecommuters, and
at‐home workers.
Many others services exist, too. This list is way too long to
include here, so for a complete list, which includes support
for dozens of additional apps and services, you can visit
Microsoft’s website.
Skype for Business uses the industry‐standard protocol for high‐

quality, real‐time communications over the Internet, Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP not only helps ensure that real‐time
media such as voice and video have the requisite quality and
security but also enables applications to mix and match differ-
ent kinds of communications (for example, voice, video, IM) in
the same session, so users can switch from an IM chat to a voice
call without ending the session. SIP also ensures that devices
and applications speak the same language (refer to Chapter 1’s
discussion of PBXs to see why that’s a good idea).
Skype for Business Client App

In addition to a server, most UC platforms (including Skype
for Business) require a client‐side app on the end‐user’s
device that interfaces with the server. Several different kinds
of client apps are available (do an online search) with Skype

for Business, based on the type of device:
✓✓PC/laptop software client: This is the primary way

that most people use Skype for Business. The Skype
for Business client software enables PCs and laptops to
support and manage multiple types of communications,
including IM, presence, video, collaborative tools, and
even voice calls.
✓✓Mobile app: Skype for Business can be downloaded as an
app on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Skype for Business supports most major mobile operat-
ing systems, including Windows Mobile, Android, and
Apple’s iOS.
✓✓Web‐based client: Users aren’t required to load a client
app on their devices to use Skype for Business. Skype
for Business supports full‐featured client access via a
web browser interface. All that’s needed is an HTML
5‐compliant browser such as the ones you find in the
latest versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and
Mozilla.
✓✓Skype‐enabled phones: Not everyone wants to talk
through a PC or tablet (or even a mobile device) all the
time. With that in mind, Microsoft has certified a number
of phones and related devices that can also be used with
the Skype for Business platform.
What’s Included with

Skype for Business?
Skype for Business is a complete UC platform that includes
the following components:
✓✓Telephony: Skype for Business Enterprise Voice is

designed to replace your existing PBX system. It allows
business users to make VoIP and standard PSTN calls and
includes audioconferencing, call forwarding and transfer,
voicemail, and much more. Deployed in conjunction with
SIP trunks, Skype for Business Enterprise Voice can also
save you a lot of money versus traditional PBX/PSTN
telephony.
✓✓IM and presence: Using their Skype for Business clients
on a PC or mobile device, business users can set their
presence and engage in real‐time and persistent IM chat
sessions with one or many users at a time. Clients can
also be configured to chat with other Skype users outside
the business or use standard Internet IM protocols to
chat with users anywhere on the web.
✓✓Videoconferencing: Users can conduct HD‐quality video-
conferences with up to five users at a time to conduct vir-
tual meetings anytime and anywhere and on any device
(including mobile).
✓✓Meetings: Beyond video, Skype for Business users can
quickly (with one click in most cases) conduct collab-
orative meetings, including screen sharing, PowerPoint
sharing, and other application sharing. Users outside
of the enterprise (clients and partners) can be included
by using a simple URL and the Skype for Business web
client.
What’s new in Skype for Business?

Skype for Business is the next iteration plus IM and presence compat-
of Microsoft Lync 2013. As such, it fea- ibility between Skype and Skype
tures all the functionality announced for Business users
with Lync 2013 plus some new fea-
✓✓ The capability to directly add
tures designed to make the solution
Skype buddy lists to Skype for
easier to use and more robust:
Business clients
✓✓ A Skype‐inspired user interface
✓✓ Video interoperability with more
that promises to be more intui-
devices
tive and easy to use
✓✓ Simple upgrade options that
✓✓ Broader interoperability with
allow Lync 2013 users to seam-
millions of existing Skype users,
lessly transition to Skype for
including Skype‐to‐Skype‐for‐
Business
Business voice and video calls,
How Do I Deploy Skype

for Business?
Businesses can choose to deploy Skype for Business in three
ways: They can opt to buy it and install it in their own data
center, they can purchase it as a hosted service (sometimes
known as UC as a Service or UCaaS), or they can combine
premise‐based and hosted services in a hybrid solution.

in your data center
The first and perhaps most familiar option for enterprises
is to install and manage the UC platform in their own data
center. Deploying Skype for Business in your data center may
require several different types of servers, depending on the
size and complexity of your network.
The following server functions can be deployed on a single,

shared server or distributed across distinct servers for
greater redundancy, reliability, and capacity:
✓✓Front-end and back-end servers: These are the basic,

must‐have servers for any Skype for Business deploy-
ment. The front‐end server (or servers, in a larger
deployment) handles user authentication, presence infor-
mation, contact and address book functionality, and the
delivery of applications. The back‐end server hosts the
data that drives the front‐end servers.

For Lync 2013, Microsoft also offered a Lync Standard
Edition Server designed for smaller deployments. This
version combined the front‐ and back‐end servers within
a single device, but it lacked the redundancy and high
availability of a distributed server solution, making it less
than ideal for larger, mission‐critical UC deployments. It’s
unclear at this juncture if a similar product is planned as
part of Skype for Business.
✓✓Edge servers: For enterprises offering UC services to
mobile or remote users (for example, branch offices,
telecommuters, road warriors), an edge server is needed.
This would be located in the demilitarized zone (DMZ)
outside of the corporate firewall.
✓✓Mediation server: Businesses that are replacing a tra-
ditional PBX service with Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice may need a mediation server to handle the signal-
ing interworking, media translation, routing, and other
roles. This server can be co‐located on the front‐end
server or reside on a dedicated server.
✓✓Other servers: Optionally, additional server types may
be required, based on the range of services, scale, and
complexity of a given deployment.
Skype for Business in Office 365

Not every enterprise will have the interest or the expertise to
install, manage, and maintain its UC platform on its premises.
For these enterprises, Microsoft offers Skype for Business as a
hosted, Cloud‐based service.
Skype for Business in Office 365 provides the same robust UC

experience but as a managed service delivered over a secure
Internet connection. In this scenario, a third‐party host (typi-
cally a hosted VoIP provider or even Microsoft itself) owns and
manages the Skype for Business Server 2015 environment, and
enterprise users simply access their applications through their
standard Skype for Business clients as they would normally do.
While the experience is largely the same to users, it’s worth

noting that this Cloud‐based version of Skype for Business
currently doesn’t offer an Enterprise Voice option, so it’s not
designed to replace your existing PBX system. (See Chapter 3
for more on Skype for Business Enterprise Voice features.)

as a hybrid solution
Enterprises are increasingly interested in hybrid Cloud
deployments as a way to reduce costs and increase capacity.
Skype for Business can be deployed in a hybrid environment;
for example, enterprises may decide to keep core communi-
cations capabilities on a premise‐based Skype for Business
Server 2015 in their data center, while moving other function-
ality into a Skype for Business in Office 365 implementation.
This arrangement can be especially useful for enterprises that
need to scale out capacity for certain applications quickly,
such as company‐wide conference calls where everyone is

using the same service at the same time.
A hybrid deployment can also be advantageous for enter-

prises that wish to maintain existing PBX voice services while
utilizing Skype for Business in Office 365 for other UC services
such as IM and conferencing, or gradually migrate from an on‐
premise system to a hosted Skype for Business deployment.
So which deployment is right for you? It depends largely on

what you need Skype for Business to do. If you’re looking
to replace your current PBX/voice capabilities, you need to
go with a premise‐based or hybrid deployment. If, however,
you’re just looking to augment your current voice capabilities
with IM and conferencing capabilities, Skype for Business in
Office 365 could be the answer.
Are Other Companies Really

Betting Their Communications
on Skype for Business?
In a word, yes. Millions of people are already Lync’d into UC and,
frankly, loving it. Industry research shows that more than half
of all Lync deployments include Lync Enterprise Voice, showing
that companies aren’t afraid to replace their PBXs with a simpli-
fied UC solution. As Skype for Business brings the Lync product
into the future and into the public Cloud, millions more will
likely make the leap as well, and for some very good reasons:
✓✓Skype for Business offers integration with existing,

incumbent Microsoft services, such as Lync, Outlook,
and Active Directory, and uses familiar server platforms
(Microsoft Server and SQL).
✓✓Skype for Business supports a wide range of compatible
clients — across PCs, Macs (with web client), and all the
most popular smartphone and tablet platforms.
✓✓Skype for Business’ focus on security is a major plus for
many enterprises (we talk more about that in Chapters 4,
5, and 6).
✓✓Skype for Business offers broad compatibility, such as
support for third‐party network hardware and third‐party
IM and conferencing applications.
Chapter 3
Shining the Spotlight on

Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice
In This Chapter
▶▶Getting to know Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
▶▶Learning how to effectively deploy Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice
▶▶Studying a real‐world case study of Enterprise Voice in action
E nterprise voice systems traditionally rely on a Private

Branch Exchange (PBX) to provide essential voice func
tions such as conference calling, extension dialing (for exam
ple, desk‐to‐desk calling), music on hold, auto attendants,
and so on. Skype for Business Enterprise Voice provides those
same PBX features and many others, enabling enterprises
to seamlessly and easily transition from a legacy PBX system
to a Unified Communications (UC) system.
In its most basic implementation, Skype for Business provides

enterprise users with instant messaging (IM), presence, and
the capability to conduct meetings via voice, video, and col
laboration software. The basic Skype for Business implemen
tation, however, doesn’t provide all the voice communication
capabilities that a PBX system can provide. As a result,
communications remain siloed in two distinct systems: one
for users who use Skype for Business and another for those
who use the PBX (most often through their desk phones).
Skype for Business Enterprise Voice augments these basic

Skype for Business capabilities with full PBX‐like functional
ity, creating a single, unified platform for all of an enterprise’s
communications needs.
What Is Skype for Business

Enterprise Voice?
The basic Skype for Business implementation does feature
basic voice capabilities, which includes making internal and
external voice calls to Skype/Lync users or other web‐based
clients. But that’s only a small subset of an enterprise’s voice
communications needs.
Think of the differences between a VoIP‐enabled IM client run

ning on your home PC and a monthly phone service offered
by your telco or cable provider. Both let you talk to someone,
but only the latter is set up to provide 911 calls (with location
data) and to allow more sophisticated calling features such
as call forwarding, hold, and transfer. That’s kind of the differ
ence between Skype for Business in its basic form and Skype
for Business Enterprise Voice.
What Skype for Business Enterprise Voice does, in a nutshell,

is bring the full‐fledged enterprise PBX experience under the
umbrella of the Skype for Business platform. An enterprise
can use Skype for Business Enterprise Voice to supplement
its PBX or completely replace it.
Looking into Skype for Business

Enterprise Voice Features
Whether you’re currently using an older analog or digital
PBX or a newer IP PBX system, Skype for Business Enter
prise Voice delivers the same PBX features and brings them
��Chapter 3: Shining the Spotlight on Skype for Business 19
into the UC environment for simpler control and ease of use,
including:
✓✓Connectivity to the PSTN: Enterprise users can call any

number, anywhere (within the policy limits of the enter
prise, of course — no calls to Antarctica!) when they
connect their UC platform to the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN) via a gateway or a SIP
trunking connection. (We talk more about this in
Chapter 4, “Getting the Most Out of Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice.”)
✓✓Voice calls from anywhere: Users can place and receive
calls from any device, in any location, through the Skype
for Business client application.
✓✓Device switching: With Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice, users can switch devices (for example, from a
headset on your PC to a conference room phone) with
no interruption. This feature is also referred to as call
parking.
✓✓Call handling: Users can forward calls to a different
number, send them to voicemail, or route them to their
mobile phone.
✓✓Simultaneous ring: Incoming calls can ring on any or all
your devices, so calls are never missed.
✓✓Team calling and delegation: Users can configure calls
to ring on team members’ phones/devices or forward
them to an assistant.
✓✓Common area phones/hot‐desking: Users can forward
calls to specific phones/devices located in shared areas,
such as conference rooms or shared work spaces.
✓✓Caller ID manipulation: Users can have a different
outbound caller ID — for example, showing the main
number for an enterprise location rather than an indi
vidual phone number.
✓✓E911: Skype for Business Enterprise Voice provides
location information on calls to emergency services
(such as 911) over the PSTN.
Making Skype for Business

Enterprise Voice Work
In order to enable all the PBX‐like functionality offered by
Skype for Business Enterprise Voice, you need a few addi
tional components in your network:
✓✓A Skype for Business Enterprise Voice Mediation Server,

which we introduce briefly in Chapter 2
✓✓A device or service to connect your Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice solution to the PSTN, which we cover in
more detail later in this chapter under “Different
deployment models”
✓✓Additional servers to support various applications,
users, redundancy, and disaster recovery as needed
Planning for Deployment

In order to successfully deploy Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice, your technical team first needs to plan the deployment,
which includes identifying the policies and configurations for
your deployment as well as the underlying network facilities
that your deployment requires.
The Skype for Business Enterprise Voice server software

includes a Topology Builder module that you can use to vali
date the network deployment when you’re ready to install
Skype for Business Enterprise Voice.
As part of the deployment planning phase, you should con

sider the following:
✓✓Figure out the number and types of sites you want to

deploy. Skype for Business Enterprise Voice supports two
kinds of sites:
•• Central sites: Major offices where you deploy a
front‐end server (see Chapter 2 for more on this)
•• Branch sites: Smaller branch offices and satellite
sites that rely on a central site’s servers to deliver
most of their UC services
✓✓Determine the number of users per site and how many
calls they typically make during a day.
✓✓Estimate how much bandwidth you’ll need between
sites from your enterprise’s data wide area network
(WAN).
✓✓Understand your requirements for survivability, high
availability, and disaster recovery because these will
drive both bandwidth and server requirements.
Different deployment models

Perhaps the biggest decision you need to make when plan
ning a Skype for Business Enterprise Voice deployment is
how you’re going to handle the offload of voice calls from
your network to the PSTN. Skype for Business gives you
several options for PSTN interconnection — via Time Division
Multiplexing (TDM) or SIP trunking — and your choice affects
how you’re going to build out the rest of your network.
The Cloud version of Skype for Business doesn’t provide the

full Enterprise Voice functionality you need to replace your
PBX systems.
Because Skype for Business Enterprise Voice is a VoIP system

that utilizes the SIP protocol for session management and
routing, you can’t simply “plug it in” to a traditional phone
service like a T1 voice line from the phone company without
first translating the SIP signaling and call data.
The basic distinction between SIP and TDM trunking deploy

ments lies in how you connect your enterprise to the rest of
the world (for example, the PSTN). Your two choices are
✓✓Connect to standard TDM telephone services: Using

TDM telephone services can be expensive and isn’t the
recommended model.
✓✓Connect directly to an Internet Service Provider (ISP)

via SIP trunking and let the ISP handle any connec-
tions to TDM phone networks within its own network
infrastructure: You also need a Session Border Controller
(SBC) to help secure and control this connection.
Additional options do exist for connecting remote branches:

a Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) or Survivable Branch
Server (SBS). The difference is in scale — the server is for
larger branches. An SBA or SBS provides direct connectivity
to the PSTN in case the WAN link between that branch and the
main office suffers an outage. (SBCs, SBAs, and SBSs are cov
ered in more detail in Chapter 4.)
Choosing a deployment model

So which deployment model — traditional TDM telephone
service or SIP trunking — is best for an enterprise? For many,
SIP trunking will be the winner because it provides some
clear‐cut benefits:
✓✓Consolidation of PSTN connectivity into a single,

central site
✓✓A simpler deployment, with less equipment to buy,
manage, and maintain
✓✓Lower cost per call than TDM‐based services and — in
the case of ITSPs that charge by bandwidth only — a
complete elimination of per‐minute charges
This may seem like a slam‐dunk case for deploying a SIP

trunking model, but some enterprises may still opt to main
tain TDM telephone service, often due to either a large exist
ing investment in IP gateways or the unavailability of SIP
trunking in their office locations. In such cases, enterprises
may wish to get more value from their gateway investments
and move to SIP trunking in a slower and incremental fashion.
Industry estimates vary widely on the cost savings realized

by using SIP trunking for connection to external networks.
Figure 3-1 shows how much money can be saved as a
percentage of costs, based on research from a recent
Sonus‐sponsored study.
Figure 3-1: Typical SIP trunking savings.
Enterprise Voice in the Real

World: A Case Study
In 2012, Sonus embarked on its own enterprise voice journey,
implementing Lync Enterprise Voice (which is being evolved
to Skype for Business Enterprise Voice) across its world
wide, multi‐office enterprise. The move was preceded by the
acquisition of a new company in 2012 located on the West
Coast, creating a bi‐coastal core of operations for Sonus and
its employees. Sonus faced many of the common post‐merger
challenges, including a new influx of employees and added
complexity to the company’s communications infrastructure.
Fortunately, the West Coast division had recently moved

to a Microsoft UC platform prior to the acquisition, which
provided a UC foundation on which Sonus could build. Within
eight weeks, Sonus moved all its messaging, voice, video, and
collaboration and completely migrated its entire Enterprise
Voice platform to Lync Enterprise Voice a few months later.
In order to support the migration to Microsoft Lync and Lync

Enterprise Voice, Sonus replaced numerous IP gateways
with a single Sonus SBC with SBA capabilities in each office.
Functionally, the migration to Lync and Lync Enterprise
Voice provided a new set of productivity advantages for the
company:
✓✓Each employee could now click‐to‐call colleagues from IM

or email instantly.
✓✓Global interactive whiteboarding sessions supported by
Lync allowed coworkers across the country and around
the world to collaborate in real time.
✓✓Audio conferences for up to 250 people could be set up
on the fly in less than 60 seconds.
✓✓Remote and telework employees were able to connect
and collaborate with coworkers no matter where they
were located.
✓✓Employee productivity rose measurably after the Lync
and Lync Enterprise Voice deployments.
In addition to added productivity, the company has already

seen a nearly 200 percent return on investment (ROI) from the
following cost reductions:
✓✓Approximately $40,000 per office/per year savings by

replacing multiple voice gateways with a single SBC in
each branch office
✓✓A savings of $150,000 per year in operational expenses
(OpEx) due to the simplified management of a unified
Lync platform versus managing disparate, multivendor
systems
✓✓Over $200,000 per year saved by internally hosting tele
com services on Lync and using the SIP‐based WAN to
route long‐distance calls
✓✓An estimated $250,000 reduction in capital expenditures
(CapEx) from the existing telecom network over the next
several years
One additional point worth noting: These savings occurred

while the enterprise saw a substantial increase (over
50 percent) in conferencing minutes after the Lync solution
was deployed.
Chapter 4
Getting the Most Out

of Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice
In This Chapter
▶▶Seeing the role of IP PBXs and IP Gateways
▶▶Understanding Enterprise Voice Survivability
▶▶Introducing the Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA)
I n Chapter 3, we discuss which elements are needed to

incorporate enterprise voice functionality in a Skype for
Business deployment. In this chapter, you discover the network
devices that enable the internal Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice system to connect with and make calls on the PSTN.
These devices include Internet Protocol (IP) Gateways and IP
PBX devices specifically designed to translate between the SIP
VoIP system used by Skype for Business and the Time Division
Multiplexing (TDM) system used by the PSTN. We also cover
the concept of “survivability” in enterprise voice — that is, how
to keep the phone service up even when the network goes out.
IP Gateways and IP PBXs

In order to connect Skype for Business Enterprise Voice to the
PSTN, you need to first connect to an IP Gateway or IP PBX
with integrated IP Gateway functionality that connects to
a TDM‐based service provider. An IP Gateway can be a
stand-alone, single‐purpose device, or it may be part of a
multi‐purpose device that includes IP Gateway functionality.
In some cases, it may be combined with a Session Border

Controller (SBC) that also delivers security and media han-
dling functionality.
You may also see IP Gateways referred to as Media Gateways,

VoIP Gateways, or PSTN Gateways.
In an enterprise environment, an IP Gateway is typically con-

nected between an IP PBX and a TDM‐based service provider
network; this connection is referred to as a trunk line. The
IP Gateway functionality may also be integrated directly into
the IP PBX; in this case, the IP PBX would connect directly to
the trunk line.
IP Gateways may also be used with legacy TDM‐based PBXs,

in order to connect them to SIP trunking service provider
connections.
Not every IP Gateway or IP PBX is compatible with Skype for

Business Enterprise Voice. For a list of certified compatible
gear, visit Microsoft’s website.
In order to send and receive calls over the PSTN using Skype for
Business, you need a device that “translates” between the differ-
ent signaling and media languages used by SIP and TDM. The IP
Gateway and, in some cases, the IP PBX can fulfill this role. (An
SBC, as we cover in Chapter 5, can also be used for this role.)
IP Gateways have one primary function: to support connec-

tivity and conversion between VoIP and PSTN protocols and
signaling. In combination with an SBC, the IP Gateway can also
help with the following:
✓✓Converting transmission and encoding techniques, a

process known as transcoding
✓✓Supporting signaling protocols for both sides of the
conversion (SIP on the IP side, TDM on the PSTN side)
✓✓Supporting the networking protocols on both sides of the
gateway — typically this will be Ethernet on the IP side
and standard TDM networking protocols such as T1 or E1
on the PSTN side
✓✓Maintaining “toll‐quality” voice calls by supporting fea-
tures such as echo cancellation, silence suppression, and
low latency (delay) during calls
�� Chapter 4: Getting the Most Out of Skype for Business 27
Making Enterprise Voice More

Robust with Survivability
For enterprises with more than one location — pretty much
every medium and large enterprise — it’s common to use a
centralized site to manage call control and PSTN connectivity
services.
While this approach increases efficiency and reduces costs,

it also exposes vulnerabilities in the network because key
devices such as the front‐ and back‐end servers and media-
tion servers all reside in the same location (usually the main
office). As a result, enterprise voice services are vulnerable:
✓✓If there’s a disruption in service to the enterprise wide

area network (WAN) connection between the branch and
central site, the branch site will lose all communications
connectivity both within and outside of the enterprise.
✓✓If there’s a server outage in the central site, the branch
office will have network connectivity, but users there will
be unable to communicate.
In both cases, you can see that it’s imperative to design the
Enterprise Voice network in such a way that branch sites
aren’t left out in the cold.
The main safeguard against these types of outages is the

installation of “survivable” equipment in branch sites. This
equipment includes certified Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice network gear that can pick up some of the processing
and connectivity slack when problems occur. In order to pre-
vent outages from disrupting enterprise voice services, you
need to plan for network resiliency and survivability in three
key areas:
✓✓Central sites: This area involves building sufficient

redundancy into the network. For example, an Enter
prise Voice deployment can be made more redundant
and resilient by installing backup server pools in other
locations and then defining failover routes within the
network, so services can be seamlessly delivered after
failures.
✓✓Branch sites: The installation of a Survivable Branch

Appliance (SBA) provides the backup processing and
PSTN connectivity to keep a branch online during a fail-
ure situation. (Read the section “Understanding SBAs”
for more information.)
✓✓All sites: The installation of an SBC provides additional
security and intelligent routing of calls regardless of the
network’s status.
Understanding SBAs
It’s the role of the SBA — and its larger cousin, the Survivable
Branch Server (SBS) — to provide resiliency and survivability
(hey, it’s right in the name!) for Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice branch sites. When a branch’s communications are pro-
vided through Skype for Business Server 2015 in the central
site, the loss of WAN connectivity can leave branch offices
without internal (for example, desk to desk) or external com-
munications capabilities.
Deploying an SBA at each branch office makes it possible for

those offices to continue to provide basic voice telephony
services to employees when network connectivity to the main
office is lost. Specifically, an SBA does this by acting as a local
PSTN gateway and providing basic voice telephony services to
employees in the branch office. When the connectivity to the
main office is restored, the branch office reverts back to the orig-
inal configuration and telephony calls are once again processed
by the main office telephony system. Pretty neat trick, huh?
Resiliency and survivability don’t mean that every single

Enterprise Voice service works without a hitch during a cen-
tral site or WAN outage. Instead, they mean that the most
essential services stay on until the network is fully restored.
By essential services, we’re referring to
✓✓Inbound and outbound PSTN calls

✓✓Internal enterprise calling — both within the site and
between sites
✓✓Basic IM capabilities
✓✓Dial‐in (PSTN) conferencing
✓✓Voicemail
�� Chapter 4: Getting the Most Out of Skype for Business 29
Other services — such as E911, web conferencing, videocon-
ferencing, and other advanced Skype for Business features —
may not be available until the network is fully restored. But,
with an SBA, enterprise employees can keep communicating
and working right through the outage — which, for many busi-
nesses, is downright essential.
The SBA is designed for smaller (but not necessarily small!)

branches. For deploying an SBA/SBS in branch offices,
Microsoft recommends the following guidelines:
✓✓Branch sites between 25 and 1,000 users should deploy

an SBA.
✓✓Branch sites between 1,000 and 2,000 users should
deploy either two SBAs or an SBS.
✓✓Sites that support up to 5,000 users or require local pres-
ence and conferencing features should be bumped up to
the central site level and deploy a dedicated Skype for
Business Enterprise Voice server.
Regardless of which approach is taken, a key to resilient

branch deployments is the addition of connectivity to exter-
nal phone services. To provide this, a branch site can use one
of two options:
✓✓Connect the SBA or SBS to an IP Gateway

✓✓Connect the SBA or SBS directly to the Internet
Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) via a SIP trunk
connection
This connectivity allows users within the branch site environ-

ment to bypass the usual SIP connection to the central site
and to instead route calls through a different communications
channel, while the SBA or SBS takes over the call‐handling
duties usually performed in the central site.
In Chapter 5, we introduce SBCs. Some SBCs may include SBA

functionality and Skype for Business certification. In this case,
a single device could handle three key functions:
✓✓UC network security and intelligent routing

✓✓SBA functionality in case of a network or central site
server outage
✓✓Connectivity via SIP trunking to an ITSP (if the branch

uses SIP trunking instead of an IP Gateway)
Figure 4-1 shows a typical branch office SBA with an SBC

(acronyms galore!).
Figure 4-1: A branch office SBA with an SBC.
Chapter 5
Improving Enterprise Voice

Quality, Security, and
Reliability with an SBC
In This Chapter
▶▶Introducing the SBC
▶▶Making the SIP trunking connection
▶▶Making IP PBXs work well
▶▶Ensuring service quality
▶▶Supporting E911
▶▶Helping different PBX vendors play together nicely
▶▶Centralizing control and troubleshooting
T he Session Border Controller (SBC) plays an important

role in an Enterprise Voice deployment and provides
a host of security, service enablement, and control func-
tions. Enterprises need them and so do service providers.
And Microsoft recommends them for Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice deployments to ensure interoperability
and functionality.
In this chapter, we introduce the SBC and discuss how it

enhances the SIP trunking connection, integrates with IP
PBXs, improves Quality of Service (QoS), and even enables
emergency voice services. You also see how SBCs help differ-
ent network elements — even those from different vendors —
get along. Finally, we explain how SBCs can help simplify the
control and troubleshooting of Enterprise Voice networks.
Introducing the SBC

The SBC is crucial in a Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
deployment. It gets its name because of what it does (controls
SIP sessions) and where it sits in the network (at the edge, or
border, between your network and the outside world). An SBC
provides all sorts of security and mediation services to keep
things running smoothly.
An SBC communicates between two network end devices, such

as a SIP VoIP call between two phones (an example of a SIP
session). The SBC does this session controlling at the point
where traffic is handed off from one network to another (the
border), such as when a voice call leaves the enterprise and
goes onto a service provider’s SIP trunks. Because of where
the SBC fits in the network, it can be usefully implemented by
both service providers and the enterprises they serve.
Why do networks need an SBC? To counter IP‐based network

attacks, for one thing (remember: VoIP networks are still
essentially IP networks and are subject to the same kinds of
attacks as other IP‐based data networks). Also, VoIP networks
are composed of different elements that require significant
interworking and mediation to work properly.
Some of the main roles of an SBC in a network include
✓✓Protecting the network from attacks and fraud:

•• Denial of Service (DoS) attacks where bad guys
attempt to overwhelm the network by bombarding it
with thousands of fake login attempts (or VoIP calls)
•• Spoofing attacks where nefarious users attempt
to gain access to the network deceptively using
false IDs
•• Toll fraud attacks from hackers who can make
thousands of long‐distance calls over your network
at your expense
✓✓Enabling SIP trunking, which allows enterprises to save
money and operate more efficiently by connecting
directly to an ITSP via SIP trunks
✓✓Supporting better communications in varied network
environments
��Chapter 5: Improving Enterprise Voice with an SBC 33
An SBC can help in a deployment where existing IP PBXs
and other legacy telephony elements are integrated with
the Enterprise Voice deployment. In this case, the SBC can
smoothly translate between varying network protocols,
codecs (encoders/decoders for digitizing media), bandwidths,
and more.
Connecting to SIP
Trunking Services
While some enterprises may use TDM voice services with
their Enterprise Voice deployment, a growing number of
enterprises are taking the VoIP revolution to its logical
conclusion and partnering with SIP trunking Internet
Service Providers (ISPs). In a SIP trunking deployment, all
calls entering and leaving the enterprise are carried as SIP
packets across a data connection — there are no “phone
lines” like there are in a TDM deployment (where an
enterprise may lease access to a T1 or E1 line with a fixed
number of “lines” associated with that transmission
facility).
Instead, SIP trunking uses a standard service provider

data connection, which may be shared with other data/
Internet services or dedicated to the purpose of SIP
trunking. Any VoIP‐to‐PSTN translation that’s required in a
SIP trunking deployment (for connection to “regular phones”
outside of the enterprise network) is handled by the ISP.
Everything that enters and leaves the enterprise network is
pure IP.
PSTN connections may still exist for disaster recovery pur-

poses, as discussed in Chapter 4.
The SBC performs several essential roles in a SIP trunking

deployment:
✓✓A gatekeeper role: The SBC looks at each SIP packet

crossing between the Enterprise Voice network and the
external ISP network, determining which packets should
be allowed through and how they should be routed.
✓✓An interworking role: The SBC allows SIP systems to

“talk” to each other even if they speak different “dialects”
of SIP. An SBC can perform the following translations:
•• SIP normalization: SIP is a standard, but there are
subtle variants in the way SIP is implemented — the
SBC can understand all of them and modify the SIP
packets to ensure both ends of the call can get the
full picture and understand each other.
•• Transrating: SBCs can modify the bit rate of voice
calls, video, and other SIP sessions crossing the
network to accommodate different devices and dif-
ferent network segment capabilities. For example,
a video call may be transrated to a lower bit rate to
accommodate an endpoint on a mobile network.
•• Transcoding: SBCs can perform real‐time transla-
tion of the codecs (encoding and decoding proto-
cols) used for digitizing and transmitting calls, a
process known as media transcoding. This can be
essential when the endpoint devices involved in a
call support different codecs.
•• Comfort noise generation: Believe it or not, some
of your users may think that there are problems
with a call because it’s too quiet! If you have users
who expect to hear a bit of white noise on the call,
the SBC can add comfort noise to the call to let
them know that the call is working as they expect.
•• Network security: The SBC controls the admission
of calls in and out of the enterprise and protects the
network against Denial of Service attacks, toll fraud,
and other attacks against the Enterprise Voice net-
work. Additionally, the SBC can “hide” the topology
of the Skype for Business Enterprise Voice network
within the enterprise, so external parties aren’t able
to detect the devices or servers within.
Integrating with Existing

IP PBX Platforms
Many enterprises migrating to Skype for Business have an
existing base of IP PBXs already in place that perform the
same sort of call capabilities provided by Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice. In these cases, most enterprises won’t
choose to perform a “rip and replace” of their existing infra-
structure in favor of a Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
infrastructure. Instead, many choose to gradually implement
Enterprise Voice while retaining some or all of their existing IP
PBX infrastructure. In some cases, this will be done in order
to leverage the TDM telephony interfaces offered by the IP
PBX. In other cases, the IP PBX stays in service to provide
specific services or to serve some segments of the network
while others are transitioned to Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice.
The SBC plays a vital intermediation role and can provide

SIP normalization, transcoding, and transrating to allow a
smooth integration between Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice and the IP PBX. Additionally, dial-plan routing can
get really complex as users are moved from existing IP
PBXs to Skype for Business Enterprise Voice. Instead of
having to manually update dial plans in every IP PBX, a
centralized SBC can look into the Microsoft Active Directory
and, if the user is a Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
user, route calls to the appropriate server or otherwise
route it to the legacy IP PBX. This makes for a smooth
migration without having to deal with the complexity of a
workgroup‐by‐workgroup migration to Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice.
Most large enterprises have a disparate IP PBX base — that

is, more than one vendor serving the company with different
IP PBXs in different locations. In these cases, an SBC is even
more vital to a smooth integration because it’s likely that each
of these different IP PBXs will have its own SIP variations and
transcoding requirements.
In addition to its SIP normalization, transcoding, and transrat-

ing functions, SBCs can also provide centralized call routing
intelligence in the voice network, located logically “above”
both the IP PBXs and the Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
servers. In this way, the SBC can serve as the “brains” of the
Enterprise Voice network, helping to ensure that calls are
routed correctly through the most efficient use of network
resources.
Ensuring Quality of Service

Quality of Service (QoS) is important in all communications —
voice, video, or data — but it’s particularly important for
voice communications, where any degradation of sound
quality, introduction of delay, or jitter (essentially, a change
in delay that can cause audible artifacts in a call) can make
the call annoying or even unintelligible.
In Skype for Business Enterprise Voice, the SBC monitors,

controls, and actively improves call quality through
✓✓Call Admission Control (CAC): The SBC decides which

calls can be allowed on the Enterprise Voice network based
on customizable policies set up by the enterprise to keep
the network running smoothly during busy call periods.
✓✓Transcoding/Transrating: The SBC uses more efficient
codecs when the network’s bandwidth is near capacity.
✓✓VoIP prioritization: The SBC places voice calls higher in
the pecking order (over, say, video or web conferencing)
as network capacity is reached.
✓✓Media Bypass: Skype for Business supports a process
known as Media Bypass in which the Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice Mediation Server can be bypassed. This
can greatly reduce the load on the Mediation Server,
ensuring proper capacity for calls that can’t be bypassed.
✓✓Monitoring the network’s health: The SBC monitors
bandwidth usage, latency, jitter, and other metrics and
then feeds that data back into CAC and other functions.
Supporting E911
E911 stands for Enhanced 911, and having it can literally mean
the difference between life and death. E911 is an emergency
service that adds location information to calls so emergency
responders can automatically pinpoint the location of those
calling for services.
Skype for Business supports E911, but it can’t do everything

alone. In certain scenarios, you also need an SBC to facilitate
the E911 functionality:
✓✓For Enterprise Voice deployments connecting via TDM
and an IP Gateway, the SBC can support the connection
to an appropriate local Emergency Response Location
(ERL) and pass along standards‐compliant location
data — something that Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice can’t do on its own (over a TDM connection).
✓✓In a SIP trunking environment, the SBC supports E911 in
two ways:
•• In some cases, the ISP may not carry the location
components of the SIP signal, in which case a TDM
line can be connected to the SBC, enabling E911 to
operate as discussed in the previous bullet point.
•• In other cases, the ISP will carry the E911 informa-
tion but requires a direct SIP trunk connection
to the Skype for Business Enterprise Voice Media
tion Server from the 911 service provider —
something not all enterprises wish to do for secu-
rity reasons — requiring an SBC to serve as a
proxy between the 911 network and the Skype for
Business network, passing all necessary location
data while maintaining network separation and
security.
Dealing with Interoperability

between Vendors
SBCs are really good at playing the role of intermediary
between Skype for Business Server 2015 and a SIP trunk-
ing provider. The SBC’s capability to normalize SIP (that is,
smooth out the differences in SIP variants) and to both trans-
code and transrate media makes it a great go‐between in any
sort of VoIP network deployment.
SIP equipment vendors — whether they’re making IP

Gateways, SIP VoIP client devices, or whatever — tend to
have their own slightly distinct variations of the SIP protocol
standard. It’s not like one is speaking English and the other is
speaking Mandarin; it’s more like one is speaking Australian
English while the other grew up in Boston. The words and
constructs are the same, but occasionally they can’t quite
understand each other.
It’s safe to say that the vast majority of Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice implementations will involve equipment
from more than a single vendor. This is especially likely in
larger enterprises or enterprises that are transitioning their
existing deployments to Skype for Business.
Chances are good that there are some subtle but impactful
incompatibilities and differences in the way these differ-
ent devices use SIP. The impact may be seen in missed or
dropped calls or just a plain “the network is not working” type
of scenario. Putting the SBC between these different network
elements and letting it do what it does best (mediating) will
solve the problem.
Centralizing Control and

Troubleshooting
Because SBCs sit in a unique place in the Enterprise Voice
network — at the edge of the network where voice and other
UC traffic transitions between locations and between network
borders — they can also play a unique role as a central con-
trol point in the network.
The SBC can control the network through its role as call
admission control point and through its intelligent call‐routing
capabilities. These functions are governed by robust policy
capabilities that let the enterprise or service provider deter-
mine and enforce centrally established rules about call per-
missions and behaviors.
In other words, the SBC can provide an overarching, policy‐

based control layer on top of the UC network, determining
(on a call‐by‐call, person‐by‐person, or group‐by‐group basis)
how — or even if — calls should be routed across the network
and what network resources they should be assigned.
As part of this process, the SBC tracks the performance and

utilization of each UC network element. That means when it
comes time to track down a problem or to optimize policies
and network topologies, the SBC can help pinpoint the areas
that need attention.
Chapter 6
Ten Reasons to
Choose Sonus
In This Chapter
▶▶Supporting a wide range of compatibility and interoperability
▶▶Providing resiliency and protection from attacks
▶▶Getting centralized management
N ot all Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are created

equal. The choice you make determines the level of secu-
rity, quality, control, and the types of services (for example, SIP
trunking, E911) that your Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
implementation will have. Sonus is a leading seller of SBCs and
VoIP equipment. In fact, banks, retailers, airlines, and both
global and regional communications service providers trust
Sonus SBCs to deliver first-rate price/performance and market‐
leading innovation in their networks. In this chapter, you dis-
cover the ten reasons to choose Sonus SBCs when deploying
Skype for Business Enterprise Voice.
Microsoft Compatibility
and Qualification
As a qualified Skype for Business partner and a company that
has secured real‐time communications since 1997, Sonus offers
more Microsoft‐qualified SBCs than any other vendor in the
marketplace today, from virtual SBCs that start at dozens of SIP
sessions to world‐class appliances that support up to 150,000
concurrent SIP sessions. With Sonus, you can trust that your
voice network will be compatible with Skype for Business.
Multivendor Interoperability
Sonus SBCs provide smooth interoperability with a vast range of
legacy PBXs, IP PBXs, gateways, and much more. Whether you’re
transitioning from a legacy PBX solution or simply upgrading
from the latest version of Lync, Sonus has you covered.
Maximum Resiliency and

Protection against
DoS Attacks
Keeping the lights on is important in any network environ-
ment; in an Enterprise Voice environment, it’s critical. Sonus
SBCs provide high availability, enabling calls to be com-
pleted even under the most adverse conditions. To provide
maximum resiliency, Sonus SBCs can be deployed in pairs
(in what’s called Active‐Active mode) for load balancing and
high‐availability requirements. They also balance the call
load across multiple Skype for Business Enterprise Voice
Mediation Servers to keep the network up no matter what.
When a network is compromised by a Denial of Service (DoS)

attack, it can be crippled by a flood of SIP requests. Sonus
SBCs offer sophisticated, real‐time firewall capabilities and
techniques so your network stays online and productive.
Encrypted Communications
Encryption keeps prying eyes (and ears) from eavesdrop-
ping on your business conversations and communications.
The SIP standard uses only plain text signaling, which can be
intercepted and understood by nefarious parties along the
Internet highway. Sonus SBCs deliver 128‐bit AES encryption,
so potential eavesdroppers can’t make heads or tails of your
conversations. Additionally, the unique SBC architecture
from Sonus performs real‐time encryption on a dedicated
processor, so higher security never comes at the cost of
lower performance.
�� Chapter 6: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus 41
Rapid Recovery
Should a network outage occur, Sonus SBCs are designed
to minimize the impact, so what you experience is a hiccup
rather than a meltdown. For example, Sonus SBCs typically
include redundant power supplies; in the rare event of a
power failure, the SBCs seamlessly switch over to the backup
power supply. And if something external to the SBC causes
the outage (like an outage of the enterprise WAN connection),
Sonus SBCs still keep running through built‐in survivability.
Sonus SBCs continually monitor the health of the network,

“pinging” other nodes in the network to ensure that links are
up and running. If a failure occurs, the Sonus SBC automati-
cally looks for alternate routes to complete calls — without
end‐users being any the wiser to the problem. In branch sites,
the Sonus SBC can automatically reroute calls to the PSTN
(or even to a mobile network) when the IP network goes
down, which gives the user uninterrupted service.
Survivability for Branch Sites

Sonus SBCs include full support for Skype for Business
Enterprise Voice Survivable Branch Appliances (SBAs) and
3G/4G failover capability. With Sonus SBCs, branch sites get
high‐quality voice services, ready‐to‐go survivability, and
require one less device in the network, which makes the net-
work simpler to manage and less costly to operate.
Virtually Ready for the Cloud

Sonus SBCs are now available as a software‐only product for
virtualized environments. The Sonus SBC SWe (Software edi-
tion) is built for architectures that support Network Functions
Virtualization (NFV) and allows service providers and enter-
prises to deploy an SBC on standard, commercial‐off‐the‐shelf
(COTS) hardware in a virtualized environment or in their pri-
vate Cloud. The Sonus SBC SWe also supports a wide range of
hypervisors, including VMware, KVM (Linux), and Microsoft
Hyper‐V, as well as Cloud infrastructures such as Amazon
Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
Centralized Policy Management

Sonus SBCs can be centrally managed, so whether you’re
deploying 2 SBCs or 20, policy configuration and provisioning
never grows in complexity, giving you lower expenses for
IT and better/faster results for users. Centralized SBC manage-
ment also eliminates the need to hire or send expensive IT
technologists to each location in the network to maintain and
update policies.
Exceptional Transcoding
Performance
Voice calls frequently use multiple codecs, requiring media
transcoding. The Sonus SBC platform features a separate pro-
cessing architecture for media transcoding and transrating, so
the overall performance of the SBC doesn’t take a “hit” when
processor‐intensive transcoding is taking place. Whatever
the transcoding load, the encryption/security and the routing
modules are unaffected.
An independent third‐party test showed that the enterprise/

branch office SBC from Sonus had twice the concurrent call
capacity of the nearest competitor for transcoded sessions.
This functionally separated architecture also makes it easier
and less expensive to add more processing power for a spe-
cific function without the need to upgrade other parts of the
SBC as well.
Wide‐Ranging Media Support

Sonus builds its own digital signal processing (DSP) firmware
instead of relying 100 percent on third‐party technology.
As a result, it has the freedom and the capabilities to add
new media processing features as needed on its customer’s
timetable — not on someone else’s timetable.

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Sonus Special Edition

By Brad Chapin and Kevin Isacks

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE

Project Editor: Carrie A. Johnson Business Development Representative:

Chapter 1: What Is Unified Communications?. . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2: Getting to Know Skype for Business . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 3: Shining the Spotlight on

Chapter 4: Getting the Most Out of

Chapter 5: Improving Enterprise Voice Quality,

Chapter 6: Ten Reasons to Choose Sonus. . . . . . . . . . . . 39

multiple service providers through a single platform. This

Because VoIP uses the same protocol as other Internet traffic,

Adding VoIP to the digital conversation makes a lot of sense,

UC platforms combine voice, video, email, instant messaging

About This Book

This book explains what’s new in Skype for Business, with

Icons Used in This Book

The Tip icon identifies time-savers (and the occasional life-

The Remember icon alerts you to useful information that will

U nified Communications (UC) has been called a “PBX

PBXs have been around for decades. They’re typically com-

UC applications such as Skype for Business provide that same

­ entralized server running the Skype for Business application.

Figure 1-1: The Microsoft Skype for Business solution.

✓✓Voice applications, including person‐to‐person calls,

The unified part of UC refers to the fact that the UC hard-

✓✓It allows communications to be delivered across different

Presence refers to an individual’s current communications

This combination of multiple platforms, clients, and com-

Taking a Closer Look

✓✓Voice calls: UC systems provide VoIP‐based person‐to‐

✓✓Instant messaging (IM): UC systems provide person‐

Don’t limit your UC apps to the desktop. UC platforms can

Getting Started with UC

✓✓Connectivity to an IP network, typically via a SIP trunk

UC can be deployed in a variety of ways:

✓✓Enterprise deployments in which the servers and soft-

Getting to Know Skype

I n 2014, Microsoft announced that Lync 2013 would be

The answer out of Redmond, Washington, has been reassuring:

In this chapter, we introduce you to Skype for Business,

Is “Skype for Business”

In fact, the rebranding makes a lot of sense when you factor

Sounds cool, right? So what do you need to get started? Skype

✓✓A server to run the UC software and host UC services

Skype for Business includes both the server software (called

Skype for Business Server 2015

Skype for Business uses the industry‐standard protocol for high‐

Skype for Business Client App

of client apps are available (do an online search) with Skype

✓✓PC/laptop software client: This is the primary way

What’s Included with

✓✓Telephony: Skype for Business Enterprise Voice is

What’s new in Skype for Business?

How Do I Deploy Skype

Deploying Skype for Business

The following server functions can be deployed on a single,

✓✓Front-end and back-end servers: These are the basic,

Skype for Business in Office 365

Skype for Business in Office 365 provides the same robust UC

While the experience is largely the same to users, it’s worth

entralized server running the Skype for Business application.

Think of the differences between a VoIP‐enabled IM client run

As part of the deployment planning phase, you should con

The basic distinction between SIP and TDM trunking deploy