A new feature for caching authentication results allows service providers to double PortaSwitch's capacity in terms of registration attempts processed per second, and to protect the system from a “registration storm” (whether unintended or part of a denial-of-service attack).

Under normal circumstances, when an IP phone goes online it provides PortaSwitch with information about its current location on the Internet (in SIP terms, this is called registration). It then periodically repeats this so as to keep the contact information updated (this is called re-registration, although technically the information exchanged between the IP phone and PortaSwitch is not any different from that exchanged during initial registration). Subsequent registrations occur at the interval programmed into the IP phone, which is usually somewhere between 10 minutes and one hour.

Since the IP phone is the initiator of the registration, there is really nothing PortaSwitch can do to control the process and make re-registrations more or less frequent. (It can, however, advise the IP phone of a time to re-register again, but nothing prevents the IP phone from ignoring this and sending another registration request sooner).

When dealing with a network which contains a large number of IP phones whose re-registration interval is not automatically provisioned from PortaSwitch along with other configuration settings, the average rate of registration is a significant concern.

In order to prevent a situation where a few “rogue” IP phones create a significant load on PortaSwitch, the SIP proxy in PortaSIP performs caching of successful registration information.

During the initial registration, the credentials provided by an IP phone are validated in PortaBilling as usual, and this information is stored in the database following successful registration. Later, when a new registration request arrives from an IP phone, PortaSIP first checks its location database to see whether there is already a registration for that phone number, with the matching contact data (IP address and port on which it is accessible).

If a previous registration exists and occurred recently, then PortaSIP simply replies back to the IP phone confirming successful registration. This saves resources on the PortaSIP side (since this process is much shorter than the normal dialog for handling a SIP REGISTER request) and creates zero load on the billing engine (since no authentication request is sent).

This process is repeated upon subsequent re-registrations, until eventually the registration information becomes “too old” or the IP address and/or port provided in the request do not match the ones stored in the database (i.e. the IP phone is attempting to register from a new location). At that time the normal registration process will take place: the IP phone receives a challenge request, it sends back a reply calculated using its username and password, and an authentication request is then sent to the billing engine for verification.

In spite of how this may sound, simply confirming registration without verification by billing carries absolutely no security risks in this scenario. If an “evil hacker” sends a REGISTER request spoofing the real customer’s IP address and port, he will only accomplish a reconfirmation of the original customer’s location. If he uses a different IP address or port in an attempt to intercept the customer’s incoming call, the cached information will not be used, and thus he would have to provide valid password information.

The “caching interval” is set to one half of the “recommended registration” interval, so this does not really create more “stale” sessions (where a phone is considered to be online when it has actually already disconnected from the Internet) than the normal scenario. The performance increase is tremendous: on a system with a 5-minute caching time, the amount of registrations per second that a single PortaSIP instance can handle increases 100% (from 400 per second to 800).

The detailed description of this and other features incorporated in PortaSwitch MR22 can be reviewed in the PortaSwitch New Features Guide.

MR22 Brings Visible Call Forwarding, Registration Authentication Caching, MP3 Voicemail And More to VoIPCall Control/Billing Platform; Now Available for Staging System Deployment

PortaOne today announced PortaSwitch Maintenance Release 22 (MR22), a major new release of the company’s flagship VoIP call control and subscriber management platform. Featuring a number of important upgrades that add value and performance for customers and service providers alike, MR22 is now available to current PortaSwitch owners for field testing, with no additional license fee required.

Concurrent with today’s announcement, PortaOne is also unveiling a new “long-life” designation for sanctioned prior releases of PortaSwitch. “Long-Life” denotes the most stable version of PortaSwitch that will be supported with bug fixes, minor improvements and other software support for an extended period of time, enabling customers to better plan the evolution of their PortaSwitch systems.

“Long-life” status will be assigned to certain maintenance releases only after extensive field test in real commercial operations. A new maintenance release, such as MR22, may gain “long-life” status after going through several consecutive builds and providing its long-term stability. Effective immediately, the “long-life” designation is applied to Maintenance Release 20, the last version of PortaSwitch to run on the FreeBSD operating system.

PortaSwitch MR22 brings a number of new performance features to PortaOne’s innovative platform that is capable of handling the complete call control and converged VoIP billing functions of a diversified digital services company. The 64-bit Oracle Enterprise Linux product consists of a real-time billing system, class 4 and 5 SIP softswitch, and application servers that deliver converged VoIP billing and provisioning, SIP call control, unified messaging, IP Centrex and hosted IP PBX, callback management, IVRs, conferencing and more.

New to PortaSwitch via Maintenance Release 22 are the following:

Users can now see where a forwarded call comes from

Going far beyond the typical Caller ID readout, Visible Call Forwarding allows hosted IP PBX users to see the source of forwarded calls. Operators and receptionists who receive calls for multiple companies, for example, are now able to greet callers with the correct information based on the intended corporate destination of the call; employees who are substituting for colleagues can answer a call from a sales queue differently from calls forwarded from a technical support queue.

PortaSwitch capacity to process registration attempts doubles

A new capability in the SIP proxy for PortaSIP, PortaSwitch’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) softswitch, enables caching of successful registration information. Under normal circumstances, when an IP phone goes online it provides PortaSwitch with information about its current location on the Internet; the new capability doubles PortaSwitch’s ability to process registration attempts on a per-second basis, thus better protecting the system from a “registration storm” that is either unintended or part of a denial-of-service attack. Please read more on caching authentication during IP phone registration in the dedicated article.

iPhone users can playback their voicemails

A convenient new feature for businesspeople, MP3 voicemail is an addition to traditional WAV recording that allows voicemails attached to outgoing email to be played on new MP3-compliant platforms such as iPhones. A license for three “ports” will be provided by PortaOne free of charge to all customers upgrading to MR22, enabling up to three voicemails to be converted to the MP3 format simultaneously (licenses for additional ports can be obtained by contacting the PortaOne sales team).

PIN-less customers will enjoy higher level of security

A new layer of protection for residential VoIP users, password protection ensures that popular PIN-less dialing services based on outgoing ANI or CLI are not spoofed. Part of the PortaUM prepaid calling component of PortaSwitch, the new feature prompts customers for their password before allowing access to such services. The improvement allows service providers to gain a competitive advantage when rolling out dialing services and to offer these services to a larger customer group.

User reports improve

This new feature enables users to quickly see desired subtotals in the system’s custom reports. It is very useful for situations including cost/revenue summaries where providers wish to see breakouts for each customer.

Service providers can share revenue with their customers

Payback rates enable service providers to attract customers by allowing them to receive credits for incoming calls from other PSTN networks. In the payback scenario, service providers receive revenue from other telcos for terminating a call to the provider’s network, thus allowing them to share revenue with the end-user.

Clients can call through PortaSwitch directly from their mobile phones

Thanks to a new partnership with WLCom, PortaSwitch now interoperates with the WLCom Mobile Communication Client, enabling calls to be made from the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms. The addition lets end users employ a single phone and unified list of contacts while still saving on long distance and international calls.

The detailed description of all new features incorporated in PortaSwitch MR22 can be reviewed in the PortaSwitch New Features Guide.

“PortaOne’s service goal has always been to keep our customers at the very forefront of the fast-changing VoIP industry. We believe the debut of MR22, as well as our new ‘long-term’ designation, will provide a comprehensive and powerful development path for any PortaSwitch user,” said Andriy Zhylenko, chief technical officer for PortaOne.

All current PortaSwitch owners whose staging platforms are covered by PortaOne’s PortaCare technical support program are eligible to obtain MR22 for testing purposes. Minimum hardware requirements, listed at http://portaone.com/hw , are the same as for full commercial installations.

Users who already have a staging license can simply contact their PortaOne support team; to order a new staging license, interested users should write to sales@portaone.com.

Partitioned Hosting On Australia-Based Equipment Lowers Acquisition Cost, Minimizes Call Latency; Codatel Networks’ Industry-Leading PortaSwitch Platform Delivers Optimal Performance.

Codatel Networks, an Australian IP telephony and converged communications systems provider, today announced the immediate availability of regionally-hosted wholesale and retail billing partitioning services to VoIP carriers and service providers. The capability, driven by the advanced and proven PortaSwitch VoIP call control/billing platform and hosted on Australian infrastructure, assures carriers in the Asia-Pacific region access to one of the best telecom systems on the market with no upfront capital investment.

Codatel develops, markets and supports innovative IP telephony and multi-platform converged communications systems to the full range of carriers, from Tier One to small and midsized companies. The privately-owned company, which also serves a range of retail customers, is well situated for helping IP-focused telecoms compete effectively in the Asia-Pacific region at minimal cost.

“For virtually all new or existing telecoms in this part of the world, tapping into next-generation IP infrastructure meant going to wholesale providers in Europe or North America. Such distant solutions often introduce voice latency into customer calls—not a preferable situation by any means,” said Zafer Khodr, General Manager of Codatel Networks. “Our PortaSwitch system, positioned much closer to our carriers’ intended client base, minimizes or eliminates this problem altogether.”

PortaSwitch is capable of handling the complete call control and converged VoIP billing functions of a diversified digital services company, enabling wholesale VoIP carriers to deliver a wide variety of business models quickly and efficiently.

The comprehensive product consists of a real-time billing system, class 4 and 5 SIP softswitch, and application servers that deliver converged VoIP billing and provisioning, SIP call control, unified messaging, IP Centrex and hosted IP PBX, callback management, IVRs, conferencing and more.

Codatel Network’s implementation of PortaSwitch is further enhanced with the inclusion of PortaOne’s PortaBilling100 Advanced application. PortaBilling100 Advanced features simultaneous multiprocessing and a dedicated database architecture to improve performance within the core billing server.

“Choosing PortaSwitch for this service offering was not a hard decision. It will clearly provide optimum value to our wholesale customers, and top quality to their end users,” Zafer continued. “PortaSwitch has the reliability and robustness of very high-end systems that can cost millions to deploy—yet it is very competitively priced. For a telco to be competitive today, it must be able to adapt to market changes very quickly. PortaSwitch will allow us, and our customers, to deliver any kind of new service—simple or complex—with very little fuss or ongoing maintenance.”

London-Based Telecommunications Company Relies On PortaOne’s Flagship Product To Deliver Suite of Hosted IPPBX Services Across South Africa, Middle East, Australia and Europe.

When Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Spring 2010, grounded planes were only the beginning of the headaches. Many business functions were brought to a complete halt, including product deliveries and professional conferences. Key employees, stranded far from home, were forced into disaster recovery mode to maintain critical services.

With such scenarios straining vital communications links throughout Europe, one company—Pure IP—kept its customers in business. And at its core was PortaOne’s PortaSwitch VoIP services platform.

“Both our resellers and corporate customers benefitted from PortaSwitch’s ability to run diverse services during disaster recovery situations like the volcanic eruption and the snowstorms earlier this year,” said Gary Forrest, Pure IP managing director. “PortaSwitch allows us to build our network on the premise of redundancy at multiple points.”

Pure IP, headquartered in London, is part of a new breed of VoIP telecommunications providers that outperform global giants by nimbly servicing wholesale and retail business customers wherever they may be, using next generation solutions. Using telehouse network facilities in London, Johannesburg and Auckland, Pure IP provides 24/7 service and support to customers in 17 countries via a system that extends from New York City to Sydney, Australia.

“We operate a state-of-the-art network powered by Cisco and Quintum to ensure maximum redundancy and quality of service provisioning,” stated Forrest. “But our billing, customer management and softswitching functions rest exclusively with PortaSwitch.”

PortaSwitch is capable of handling the complete call control and converged VoIP billing functions of a diversified digital services company, enabling wholesale VoIP carriers and ITSPs to deliver a wide variety of business models quickly and flexibly. The comprehensive product consists of a real-time billing system, class 4 and 5 SIP softswitch, and application servers that deliver converged VoIP billing and provisioning, SIP call control, unified messaging, IP Centrex and hosted IP PBX, callback management, IVRs, conferencing and more.

“PortaSwitch allows us to give our customers a full suite of hosted VoIP services including SIP trunking, international numbering, conference bridges and MPLS connectivity,” Forrest explained. “We’ve been very impressed with the flexibility PortaSwitch provides, as well as its scalability—particularly in respect of new services such as callback, conferencing and the like.”

Pure IP had looked at Digitalk and other billing and call management platforms before selecting PortaSwitch. As Forrest noted, however, PortaSwitch offered a totally different level of flexibility. “We were also pleased with the sales process, which was managed in an honest, direct and attentive way,” he stated, adding that PortaOne’s Premium PortaCare has been an excellent technical support and maintenance service. “The quality of technical support is very good, particularly when looking at more complex issues or new services,” he commented.

Since adopting PortaOne’s VoIP product nearly two years ago, Pure IP has seen its business volume grow each month. Forrest attributes a large share of his company’s success to the stability and strong feature set PortaSwitch provides.

“At Pure IP, we take pride in differentiating our services through speed of implementation, stability and excellent aftercare support,” he said. “PortaSwitch is a feature-rich solution that services customers well—in Gibraltar, New Zealand, Iraq, South Africa, or anywhere else we choose to compete.”

Yesterday was the last of three busy days at Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC where PortaOne exhibited participating in the International Telecommunication Week 2010.

Please meet PortaOne team in three weeks at CommunicAsia 2010 in Singapore. For four days, on June 15-18, we will be at our booth 3H1-10 located at Hall 3 of Singapore Expo within the Canadian Pavilion.