With these new technologies enabled, we believe the SBC can be part of the service chain and play a big part in automating the service activation process where not only applications but relevant network resources are provisioned coherently with reduced man power effort. SBCs can also improve the moment once the service has been provisioned and is no longer needed through its ability to interact between applications and SDN controllers and its ability to drive underlying network resources. This guarantees that relevant network resources are being put in place as needed and is essential in providing an end-to-end service delivery and quality of service enforcement.  Put more simply, the SBC is evolving its scope in a broader way in order to accommodate different behaviours and act as an end-to-end enabler for interoperability and quality of service.

Changing the game

With the anticipated rise of VoIP, networks will inevitably have to change in order to cope with both the different behaviours of end users and the increasing volume of traffic. New technologies, like SDN and NFV, will undoubtedly have an incredibly important part to play in this evolution – lifting dumb components to be part of an increasingly intelligent network. Far from it being game over for SBCs, then, the more intelligent box can actually be a game changer for operators, with key features including maximum flexibility, dynamic configuration and scalability to respond to customers’ needs, making it capable of differentiating service solutions and strongly reducing OPEX.