Radware Readies SIP for the IMS Core

As Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gets implemented closer to the network core, carrier-grade SIP-based products will be required. Radware answered the call last week by introducing what it calls the first fully SIP-aware application delivery controller: the SIP Director.

SIP Director is based on the company’s AppDirector product and designed specifically for SIP-based applications.

“With SIP Director we move into core of IMS. This is our aim so that we can provide solutions for all three planes [of the network], applications, controls plane and access plane,” said David Aviv, vice president of advanced services at Radware.

The protocol already is widely deployed in enterprise and edge applications such as voice mail, integrated voice response systems, messaging servers, conference applications, media servers, call center applications and 911 services. However, Aviv said SIP is becoming more mission critical in the network and requires an end-to-end guarantee of application delivery. “We see SIP as being at the same stage as the HTTP revolution in the early 1990s,” he said.

Elisabeth Rainge, program director of VoIP Infrastructure at IDC, said in a statement that by leveraging advanced layer 4-7 policies, SIP Director enables service providers to optimize VoIP and other multimedia traffic flows through granular classification and control.

Aviv said it also addresses some of the security issues around SIP. Radware has the ability to harden the cluster and recognize the footprint of denial-of-service attacks and SIP exploits in less than 18 seconds.

As for performance, the SIP Director provides intelligent SIP ADC performing health monitoring, fail-over and disaster recovery as well as in-depth SIP message analysis that routes traffic based on service fulfillment and availability. It has an integrated SIP Proxy that supports UDP, TCP and TLS protocols to guarantee interoperability and service availability.

Designed with network equipment providers, system integrators and carriers in mind, SIP Director is currently a standalone solution. However, Aviv said that depending on how the market grows, the product in the coming years could be largely dominated by an OEM model.

Radware www.radware.com   
IDC  www.idc.com