What's the Difference Between VoIP gateway and SBC?

Update Time：2019-11-20 17:11:10　Browse Times：4512　Amount Downloads：1

What is a VoIP Gateway?

A VoIP gateway is a gateway device that uses Internet Protocols to transmit and receive voice communications. A VoIP Gateway is used to converts voice and fax calls, between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and an IP network, in real time. 

VoIP Gateway Functions

A VoIP gateway provides these primary functions: voice and fax compression/decompression, packetization, call routing, and control signaling, and these additional features: interfaces to external controllers, such as softswitches, billing systems, and network management systems.

New Rock MX series gateways can process up to 96 simultaneous VoIP calls, and support G.711, G.729A, G.722, G.723, G.168 echo cancellation, RFC2833 and SIP INFO for DTMF transmission, T.38 fax relay, and more.
HX4G analog gateway: 2-4 FXS/FXO
MX8G analog gateway: 8 FXS/FXO
MX60E analog gateway: 8-48 FXS/FXO
MX120G analog gateway: 48-96 FXS/FXO

MX100G-S SIP-ISDN trunking gateway: 1-4 T1/E1

New Rock MX series gateways support the following features:
-  Connect analog telephone, PBX, facsimile machine and POS machine to the IP core network, or PSTN
-  Work with a service platform to provide various telephone supplementary services
-  Support protocols: SIP, MGCP
-  Support STUN. Detecting changes of the reflexive address of the device via STUN, and then triggering re-registration to the SIP registrar server.
-  Flexible configuration of subscriber/trunk interfaces
-  Support G.711, G.729
-  Support echo cancellation
-  Up to 500 routing rules can be stored in gateways
-  Intercom
-  Support concurrent calls under full load
-  Support call progress tones for various countries and regions
-  Support Line second stage dialing or voice prompt
-  Support PSTN failover on power or network failure 
-  Security strategy: IP filter, encryption
-  Support PSTN failover through FXO ports
-  Support G.711 fax pass-through and T.38 fax relay
-  Support polarity inverse detection and busy tone detection
-  3-way calling
-  Compatible with unified communication solutions, such as Call Manager, Lync, Asterisk and Free SWITCH
-  Support SNMPv2 and TR069/TR104/TR106
-  Support Web GUI-based management , SSH, automatic software upgrades, and configuration downloading
-  Support high availability, implementing a cloud of SIP servers working in primary-standby or load balancing mode
-  Support auto provisioning
-  Support security settings such as accessing whitelists
-  Message waiting indications (MWI) with high voltage, FSK, or reversed polarity
-  Support accessing the Web GUI by using HTTPS
-  Support Ping blocking
-  Support optional voice interface cards (only supported by the MX8A/MX120G)
-  Support the VPN client (only available with the HX4E/MX8A/HX4G/MX8G)
-  Support VLAN
-  Support New Rock Cloud, allowing New Rock devices located behind NAT or firewall to be easily accessed.

Pros and Cons of a VoIP Gateway 

A VoIP gateway provides internet telephony features to businesses that have landlines and cannot convert fully to a VoIP-based network. While this is extraordinarily helpful, VoIP gateway devices aren’t all that useful for new businesses, solo workers, or freelancers with no existing landline infrastructure.

Pros of a VoIP Gateway

Advantages of a VoIP gateway include
-  Versatility: a VoIP gateway includes the proven reliability and call quality of a landline, and it also connect those lines to the internet and enjoy VoIP features.
-  Cost savings on calls: When your landline is connected to the internet, you can enjoy unlimited long distance calling. If you take calls from all over the country, then you might see a huge cost savings over just using a landline.
-  Mobility: Most of the leading VoIP services offer mobile apps for making and receiving calls. This means that you can take your business phone number with you wherever you go on your Android and iOS device.

Cons of a VoIP Gateway
-  Setup headaches: If you don’t know a lot about computer networking, then you will likely find setting up a VoIP gateway to be a bit difficult.
-  New businesses: If you are a newer organization and do not have a landline phone, it is much more affordable and intuitive to set up an all-VoIP network that runs entirely over the internet.
-  Service outages: If you lose internet service, you will have to disconnect your landline from the gateway device if the VoIP gateway does not have “fallback” mode to switch to the PSTN. Many.

What is a SBC?

A session border controller (SBC) is a device regularly deployed in VoIP networks to exert control over the signaling and usually also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing down telephone calls or other interactive media communications.

SBC Functions

In many cases, in order to hide the network topology and protect the service provider or enterprise packet network, the SBC will terminate a received call and initiate a second call leg to the destination party.

In other cases, the SBC simply modifies the stream of call control (signaling) data involved in each call, perhaps limiting the kinds of calls that can be conducted, changing the codec choices, and so on. Ultimately, SBCs allow the network operators to manage the calls that are made on their networks, fix or change protocols and protocol syntax to achieve interoperability, and also overcome some of the problems that firewalls and network address translators (NATs) present for VoIP calls. 

The main functions of New Rock SBC SX3000 are:
-  Providing multiple network ports to interconnect voice systems in different IP domains.
-  Encryption and decryption of signaling and voice media streams, including TLS/SRTP
-  Filtering out and intercepting service-unrelated IP packets to enhance security of the IP voice network.
-  Terminal device registration and media service proxy.

The diagram below shows a typical deployment scenario of SX3000.

Figure1-1 Typical Application of the SX3000

Pros and Cons of a SBC

The SBC’s main role is protecting and securing the network. The SBC is used to eliminate spoofing attacks, denial of service attacks, and toll fraud. 

Pros of a SBC
-  Increase VoIP Security features 
-  SBC resides on the border between Trusted and Untrusted Networks 
-  No Untrusted Traffic allowed on Trusted Zones

Cons of a SBC
-  Requires More VoIP Networking and Security complexity 
-  Requires more understanding of VoIP and Data traffic requirements 
-  Cost disadvantage in very small VoIP solutions – buying an extra device