BroadSoft Connections 2010, PHOENIX, October 25, 2010 — Responding to the need for quality instruction for BroadSoft® BroadWorks® operations and engineering teams, ECG’s School of VoIP now offers a new course to provide comprehensive training on BroadWorks Call Processing and Troubleshooting.  Students enrolled in any School of VoIP class gain new skills working with senior ECG engineers with years of experience in advanced VoIP network design and troubleshooting.  These same engineers are also actively providing consulting services to ECG’s clients, so the expertise they bring to the classroom is on the cutting edge of current VoIP technology.  ECG has provided BroadWorks network design and implementation since 2002 at dozens of carriers across the US, Canada, and Caribbean.

A carrier enlisting ECG’s School of VoIP to teach the BroadWorks Call Processing and Troubleshooting class can expect a comprehensive package that extends well beyond traditional classroom instruction.  ECG’s engineer performs an on-site network evaluation to tailor the class to fit the unique needs and products.  ECG’s courses emphasize practical objectives and hands-on lab exercises, so students walk away with skills that can be put into practice immediately.  A 275-page course book developed by ECG is also provided to each student.

The BroadWorks Call Processing and Troubleshooting class covers the following topics in depth: Server Interactions; SIP Call Control In Depth; Analyzing Logs including XSLogs; Packet Captures on BroadWorks Servers; Command-Line Diagnostics with the BroadWorks CLI (bwcli) and ttlsql.

ECG adds the Call Processing and Troubleshooting class to the School of VoIP’s already extensive course catalog.  These classes cover topics such as: Acme Packet SBC operation customized to your network; Broadworks installation and upgrades; IP Foundations for VoIP Carriers; and Advanced VoIP Engineering and Troubleshooting.  For more information on ECG’s School of VoIP visit http://www.e-c-group.com/school-of-voip.

About ECG

ECG, founded in 2001, provides innovative Network Design & Operations Services that address the operational and marketplace challenges faced by today’s telecom providers and large enterprises.  Our clients include Independent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs), Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs), Incumbent carriers, wireless carriers, and Internet service providers.  ECG offers Business Services Consulting that includes feasibility studies, interconnection agreements, regulatory reviews, web development, and professional training. We assist our client through every phase of a project from initial design to actual implementation and integration, to ongoing support and troubleshooting. ECG’s School of VoIP provides training by engineers to build skills and comprehension at VoIP Carriers. ECG, Inc. is a privately held company and has been profitable since its inception.  For more information, visit http://www.e-c-group.com/.

About BroadSoft

BroadSoft provides software that enables fixed-line, mobile and cable service providers to deliver voice and multimedia services over their IP-based networks. The Company’s software, BroadWorks^®, enables service providers to provide enterprises and consumers with a range of cloud-based, or hosted, IP multimedia communications, such as hosted IP private branch exchanges, video calling, unified communications, collaboration and converged mobile and fixed-line services.

ECG, a network and systems consulting firm, today announced completed integration of the NGTelsoft Call Rating platform with Metaswitch Call Detail Records. NGTelsoft gives telecom carriers a new choice for their mediation, rating, and billing platforms.

NGTelsoft is one of the first and only platforms available that supplements a carrier’s, utility’s, or ISP’s existing billing system with complete call-rating capability. Service providers can use the platform for virtually any billing system – including online services. Carriers are no longer fenced-in by telecom-specific billing platforms.

NGTelsoft cost-efficiently provides a precise calculation of the cost of calls while maintaining compatibility with existing billing platforms to provide line-item records, and move the complexity to a modern Microsoft SQL Server database. A standard NGTelsoft server can rate 50 million calls per month and runs on standard hardware.

By simplifying provisioning, NGTelesoft’s web interface supports local, long distance, toll-free and services calls plus trunk-group billing and post-paid calling cards. The NGTelsoft does complete digit-analysis of phone calls, and provides the option for sophisticated local calling areas to be assigned to each rate plan. The platform also makes LATA-wide or state-wide local calling easier. The NGTelsoft database has information about all rate centers, LATAs, states and territories in the NANPA region and the complete local calling area for a service provider’s calling area.

Customers can bundle a pool of minutes onto plans with free minutes plans. For example, a plan may provide 500 minutes of free local and long-distance usage every month, then charge normally after that.

NGTelsoft also handles tandem trunk-group billing where the customer’s telephone number cannot be known in advance. Each trunk group can have a different rate plan, and all rate plan changes can be scheduled to occur in advance.

Carriers may run their own NGTelsoft server, or use ECG’s hosting services to operate a dedicated installation. Normal support includes rate-plan updates and maintenance at no additional charge. The NGTelsoft API allows for extension and modification by a carrier’s IT staff.

Three obstacles plague VoIP Carriers. First, the flexibility and complexity of network design options can make network development take many months or years. Second, support for the complex features of SIP Trunking and Hosted PBX create a huge burden on staff. Finally, experienced VoIP engineers and technicians are hard to find, but there are few options for in-depth training.

ECG, a network and systems consulting firm, is changing that. ECG’s experience and speed radically changes the prospects for many VoIP carriers by lowering the costs and delays to deployment, providing access to experts, and enabling staff development.

VoIP networks not only bring amazing flexibility, but also provide unparalleled complexity in network design, quality-of-service, VoIP phone management, Session Border Controller deployments, and reliability. A typical five-person team with a modest VoIP capital expenditure can cost $40,000 per month while they learn and build the system. That home-grown education is tremendously expensive.

ECG shrinks those costs and delays by applying proven best practices for VoIP carriers. Instead of months to deployment, ECG VoIP network design and deployment can take only weeks. One VoIP carrier with services from Michigan to Florida used ECG for just this purpose. ECG analyzed their network and provided detailed assistance improving performance and security.

Once the network is operational, carriers struggle to staff and maintain the network while servicing existing customers. ECG’s solution is to provide on-demand expertise and routine network maintenance. A carrier’s staff can serve existing customers and win new customers, while using ECG for routine maintenance and troubleshooting tasks. A Hosted PBX VoIP carrier based in New York uses ECG for engineering support and technical customer support on a daily basis to free up their staff for hands-on interactions with clients.

VoIP carriers also learn that the skillset for VoIP networks – SBCs, application servers, SIP signaling, QoS Engineering – are not easily found in the job market. Technical staff must be groomed from within. ECG has the only training on industry-standards technology like SIP, MGCP, RTP and session border controllers. A VoIP carrier in Puerto Rico has used ECG’s training to educate Engineering and Operations teams across the company on Network Fundamentals and VoIP Engineering and Troubleshooting.

One of ECG’s long-time clients is Akabis, a nationwide wholesale VoIP provider based in North Carolina. According to Mark Wiles, vice president of engineering, Akabis, “ECG knows their stuff. They are the solution to making all the pieces come together to make VoIP work.”

We responded today to an attack on a nationwide Service Provider. They reported up to 69 REGISTERs per second originating from an IP address in Anhui province, China. 69 REGISTERs per second is roughly the equivalent load of 5,000 users.

Unfortunately for the victims, the “friendly scanner”, SIPVicious runs very hot and fast, apparently blasting out lots of requests without even waiting for earlier attempts to fail. The SIPVicious tool is focused on cracking SIP PBXs, and will be only so slightly less effective on Carrier VoIP systems.

The main reports of problems due to SIP Registration scanning are server overloads. But if the registration scanner users are smart, they’ll slow down their rates so they don’t alarm the parties being probed.

How do you defend against SIP Registration storms?

1. For registering endpoints like SIP phones and IADs always use SIP authentication! use quality passwords.
2. If you have a competent Session Border Controller like the Acme Packet OS-C system, you can blacklist devices after they fail a few REGISTER attempts.
3. If you’re using non-registering SIP (such as SIP peerings for SIP Trunking), you should have a small number of SIP signaling IP addresses. Use firewall rules / or ACLs to block all SIP except for what comes from that small list.
4. Use heavy-hitter detectors to spot SIP devices that are sending more-than-normal traffic loads, and alarm your staff.

The new CPE Management System is integrated with BroadSoft’s BroadWorks system, the industry-leading softswitch for Commercial VoIP Carriers. Features of the new system include:

• Zero-Touch Maintenance: Centennial’s Customers and Provisioning Team can enjoy new features, line moves, adds, and deletes that are automatically propagated to the CPE.
• BroadWorks Integration: The CPE Management system is fully integrated with BroadSoft BroadWorks, supporting all advanced hosted IP PBX features.
• SSL Verification: Centennial’s Cisco/Linksys SPA phones will refuse to communicate with unsigned CPE Management Servers. This provides defense for Centennial’s customers against man-in-the-middle and DNS hijacking attacks.
• Configuration Signing/Encryption: Centennial’s Cisco/Linksys SPA phones are pre-programmed with Centennial credentials. This prevents a customer or Man-In-The-Middle from recovering key system signaling and management details. Attackers cannot redirect Centennial’s phones to another system.
• Fault Tolerance: Centennial’s system maintains multiple copies of each configuration, on separate servers, to protect against server or network fault.
• Traffic Engineering: The new system supports traffic engineering, allowing Centennial to intelligently route customer SIP traffic to backup data centers.
• VLAN Management: Customer devices can be configured to use a Voice VLAN using 802.1q tagging. This can be managed through BroadWorks directly.
• Advanced Troubleshooting: Centennial’s customer devices report on network issues before they become problems. These data are transmitted to a central logging server, where they can be analyzed by Centennial operations staff.

Centennial PR Customer Technology Integration (CTI) Engineers Fernando Jorge and Alberto Leo were principle technicians on the project.

ECG, Inc. developed and implemented the system for Centennial PR. ECG Engineers Mark Lindsey and Jonathan Stanley worked with Centennial through the design and specification process, then implemented custom software and systems.

The tested design allows customers of each service provider to take full advantage of the breadth of CODECs and services the SIP feature servers and endpoints provide including HD voice and SIP-based video.

Centennial PR upgraded from BroadWorks Release 14sp3 to Release 14sp9. The coordination of the upgrade is complex with numerous interconnected components:

• The Nortel Communication Server 2000 provides SS7 PSTN access for BroadWorks.
• The Convergy’s Ceon platform is integrated with BroadWorks for provisioning.
• The Acme Packet SD provides security and session management features both for Hosted PBX VoIP and for IP Trunking to several carriers.
• Centennial’s CONUS-based Billing Department receives CDRs from six different BroadWorks application servers.
• Many tens-of-thousands Scientific Atlanta MGCP/NCS eMTAs are integrated with BroadWorks
• The mPathix voicemail system is integrated with BroadWorks.
• VoIP Customer Premise equipment from Cisco, Adtran, Linksys, Polycom, and Digium/Asterisk are used in numerous configurations.

“The BroadWorks software activation is the simple part,” according to project engineer Mark Lindsey. “The complexity comes in verifying the software will work with all of the integrated components.” The upgrade from BroadWorks R14sp3 to R14sp9 involves several hundred individual changes. ECG analyzed each change to ensure it would not create a problem in Centennial’s specific network, and designed and conducted regression tests to be used in the system upgrade.

ECG has extensive software integration experience with the BroadSoft BroadWorks platform, including integration with OCI-P for provisioning and feature management, as well as OCI-C for call control. The Attaché Call Control tool for Mac OS X is a working example of both of these interfaces.

The project is managed and executed by ECG’s founders, James G. Puckett and W. Joe  Demmons.