What is SIP Trunking?

A SIP trunk is a service offered by a supplier such as Supanet that permits busi
nesses that have a Telephone PBX to use Voice-over-IP (VoIP), outside the enterp
rise network by using the Internet connection. The SIP Trunk enables connection
to the standard PSTN and Mobile telephone networks via Supanet or our partner Tp
ad, thus eliminating the need for expensive multiple ISDN lines and also benefit
ing from lower cost calls. A business would keep their existing phone system but
look to gain benefit from a SIP Trunk, especially if they were making a large a
mount of phone calls on a month by month basis and/or their call spend was high.
SIP trunks can offer additional significant cost-savings for enterprises, elimin
ating the need for local PSTN gateways, costly ISDN BRIs (Basic Rate Interfaces)
or PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces).
Free Supanet Offer
Supanet in partnership with Tpad are able to offer customers FREE SIP Trunking w
ith some of our connectivity solutions. Thus if you are currently paying for a l
arge number of lines e.g. using ISDN 30 you can switch to supanet and make great
savings. Please ask our staff for details of this amazing offer.
Elements of SIP Trunk
There are three components necessary to successfully deploy SIP trunks: a PBX wi
th a SIP-enabled trunk side, an enterprise edge device understanding SIP and an
Internet telephony or SIP trunking service provider (such as Supanet with its pa
rtner Tpad).
The PBX
In most cases the PBX is an IP-based PBX, communicating with all endpoints over
IP, but it may just as well be a traditional digital or analog PBX. The sole req
uirement is that an interface for SIP trunking connectivity is available.
The enterprise border element
The PBX on the LAN connects to the Service Provider via the enterprise border el
ement. The enterprise edge component can either be a firewall with complete supp
ort for SIP or an edge device connected to the firewall, handling the traversal
of the SIP traffic.
The Service Provider
On the Internet, Service Provider provides connectivity to the PSTN (Public Swit
ched Telephone Network) for communication with mobile and fixed phones.
Call Handling via SIP Trunk
Once you get this service, your private telephone system (called PBX) will no lo
nger be directly linked to the public telephone system (called PSTN). Instead, y
our PBX will be connected to a SIP softswitch which is also connected to the int
ernet.
When you make a phone call, this softswitch will determine whether your call is
for a PSTN number or another SIP enabled telephone system. After that, the softs
witch will then route your call to wherever it is directed. The advantage here i
s that your phone call will not travel through the typical telephone lines used
by the public telephone system - thus you will not need them and can save money.
A SIP Trunk can actually handle more than just one phone call at a given time. B
ecause it uses the internet, it can handle as many phone calls as the bandwidth
capacity allows. So if your company conducts a lot of phone calls every day, the
n getting a SIP trunk will surely lessen your bills.
Also, SIP trunking removes the complicated abundance of hardware and wirings jus
t to support the flow of calls, because the only thing needed is to use the serv
ers of the chosen Service Provider.
Features and benefits
* Cost Reduction - costs can be dramatically reduced through the reduction o
f the number of lines required; and calls are free when they are made across the
SIP Trunking links.
* Business Continuity - in the event that you can't access your telephone, a
utomatic failover means that calls are automatically re-routed to an alternative
location.
* Not Geographically tied - you can retain your existing number range and ad
d other area code numbers as required.
* Flexibility - SIP Trunking can be quickly scaled up or down on a per line
basis so you can easily meet peaks and troughs in demand.
* Central Management - you will no longer need a separate line to each of yo
ur locations using this virtualised technology, which means network infrastructu
re management will be simpler.
Supanet's SIP Trunking Solution
Most of our customers obtain two main benefits when using SIP Trunks.
1.The lines (channels) are virtual and can expand / contract as your business re
quirements demand. Your inbound numbers can be directed to a SIP Trunk away from
an ISDN 2/ISDN 30 connection for which you are paying for each line irrelevant
if the line is in use or not. Our SIP channel carries no recurring charge, only
the cost of the call being routed over it. As long as you stay with Supanet ther
e is no charge for these channels (lines).
2. Low cost IP call rates, due to the ability of our Group to negotiate the best
rate card possible for your business we can deliver significant savings when co
mpared to standard business rates from the more traditional providers.
Supanet currently has a special offer with FREE SIP Trunking with selected Conne
ctivity Solutions. Call our staff for details.
Supanet & Tpad - Working Together
Supanet works with Tpad.com (www.tpad.com/business) when designing a communicati
ons platform for our clients. The linkages between the capabilities of a clients
data infrastructure and being able to utilise this for Voice use is also where
Tpad, as a specialist in this area, really make the difference for the benefit o
f your business.
Traditionally there has been a split between an organisations data and voice inf
rastructure. ISDN lines have been used for voice and separate data circuits (ADS
L to Private Circuits) have been used solely for data use. These walls are now b
eing broken down and more and more business are moving to what is called a 'conv
erged' or 'shared' infrastructure
The benefits of this being reduced price (1 network instead of 2) and moving to
an IP based voice platform that both saves money on calls and delivers increased
functionality like video, call recording and remote user inclusion.
For more information on how SIP Trunking can help your business visit http://www
.supanetbusiness.com/sip_trunking.php