Wholesale VoIP / SMS with PortaBilling

PortaSwitch architecture

PortaSwitch is a unified service delivery platform which includes the following components:

Session border controller (SBC)

Provides a high-availability control point for all network communications. It hides the internal network topology; protects from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks; limits call initiation ratio per endpoint; automatically distributes traffic between available softswitch nodes; and enables multiple transport protocols (e.g. SIP over TLS).

Softswitch cluster

Is a highly scalable class 4 and 5 SIP Softswitch that delivers call control and media processing functions. It supports real-time call authorization and charging, dynamic call routing, advanced call control, fax-over-IP, and processing of both person-to-person (P2P) and application-to-person (A2P) SMS. Media traffic can be proxied through PortaSwitch as well, thus totally separating customers from route suppliers. BSS is used to provision new carriers, adjust routing parameters, perform rate management, activate customers, perform monitoring & troubleshooting, and issue invoices. There is a real-time data link between BSS and the softswitch, so any changes are instantly effective and no additional configuration is required.

The core of the system

Is a real-time routing engine, which allows you to customize routing per customer group and maximize profits. Routes are ordered based on cost (LCR), priority. All this allows you to use a variety of revenue generation methods, such as “all inclusive” or “à la carte” selling of features (e.g. call recording); selling bundles of minutes for monthly subscriptions; and charging based on metered parameters (number of extensions or concurrent calls).

How does it work?

1. Your customers will be telco operators (e.g. a mobile operator seeking a route for a specific country), VoIP service providers, or other VoIP/SMS exchanges. They are interested in low cost, good quality, and additional features (e.g. T.38 faxing support).
2. Upload a carrier’s rates into PortaBilling. An intuitive rate upload wizard allows you to upload a rate deck from virtually any CSV/XLS layout. Moreover, the format and any adjustments you make are memorized for future uploads. So next time you receive a rate update from this carrier, it can be uploaded with just a few mouse clicks, or even in fully automated mode by forwarding an email to a specific address.
3. Define the carrier gateways (IP address, port, authorization parameters, etc.), thus enabling connections to the carrier network.
4. Create your selling rates using the automated “blending” tools provided by PortaBilling. These analyze available carriers for each destination and calculate the sale price based on average cost + desired markup.
5. Create routing plans to further customize routing, e.g. to implement profit-guarantee routing with the desired profitability, override default LCR routing and send destinations to specific vendors, or implement route filtering (e.g. only routes that support T.38 faxing).
6. In addition to per-minute or per-message pricing, you can also define volume discounts (e.g. automatic 10% rate reduction when a 1,000,000 minutes/month threshold is reached) and service commitments (e.g. if a customer sends calls for less than $25,000 per month, he is charged the remaining amount).
7. Provision your customers and define their endpoints (which will send calls to your network). Authorization can be done based on username/password, IP address, or other parameters. In order to completely separate customers from vendors, you can proxy through PortaSwitch not only call signaling, but also all voice streams (RTP).
8. In order to further protect your network from unauthorized traffic bursts from a customer, you can assign a limit for call attempts per second. When a outgoing call (via SIP) or message (via SIP or SMPP) from a customer’s network is delivered to PortaSwitch, it is authorized in real time based on the available funds and then routed according to current vendor prices, routing plan settings, time of day, and so on.
9. An adaptive routing module constantly monitors the vendor’s quality parameters and automatically adjusts the routing, temporarily penalizing carriers who do not meet the desired quality threshold.
10. The customer has a clear overview of all configuration settings, CDRs and invoices.
11. The administrator has access to various reports, such as cost/revenue, ASR, and the like.
12. At the end of the month, a CSV file with CDR summary and an invoice PDF are generated and emailed to customers.

PortaSwitch Procinctus offers exceptional SIP server performance. Under high loads, its clustered and distributed architecture keeps everything moving—unlike some products where it’s common for things to come to a standstill. What we like most about PortaSwitch Procinctus is the functionality of the product. The ability to customize PortaSwitch to meet those needs in a timely manner helps our business tremendously.”

Abdulrahman Ali, Managing Director at Safarifone