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There are essentially two types of servers that connect between clients on large networks:
Proxy servers and Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) servers. The more prevalent Proxy
servers feature predictable behavior — simply connecting between clients. Effectively,
B2BUA servers are much stronger and intelligent entities that perform actions which
Proxy servers cannot. Moreover, B2BUA servers provide a flexible solution for a wide
range of applications and services and are becoming the primary engine for more and
more SIP servers in NGN and IMS networks.
The difference between Proxy servers and B2BUA servers is sometimes not fully
understood. In this article, we will explore what makes B2BUA servers such an appealing
alternative to standard Proxy servers. Better understanding of B2BUA servers can help
managers understand the value, and the tradeoffs, of choosing a B2BUA server, as well as
the frameworks needed to develop a wide range of SIP applications and SIP services
using it.
IETF standard (RFC 3261) defines a back-to-back user agent as “a logical entity that
receives a request and processes it as a user agent server (UAS). In order to determine
how the request should be answered, it acts as a user agent client (UAC) and generates
requests. Unlike a Proxy server, it maintains a dialogue state and must participate in all
requests sent on the dialogues it has established.”
B2BUA servers have capabilities that far exceed those of other types of SIP servers, and
answer the need for developing sophisticated value added SIP applications that cannot be
implemented as Proxy applications.
Some of these capabilities, which are unique to B2BUA servers, are outlined below:
3PCC actions are important capabilities, exclusive to B2BUA servers since “passive” non
call-stateful elements, such as Proxy servers, cannot initiate these types of activities.
Some examples of 3PCC services are online billing, QoS, resource prioritization, call
transfer, click-to-dial, mid-call announcement and more.
B2BUA Inter-working Functions (IWF) defines a wide range of powerful SIP servers that
connect SIP clients that “speak” in different protocol dialects, or support different
capabilities. This Inter-working function is very important in enabling connectivity
between clients with different capabilities and/or protocol dialects. Or even between
clients and networks – where the B2BUA server actually acts as an access device.
Due to these unique capabilities, B2BUA servers are widely used in the communications
industry. A few examples are listed below:
• Online-billing/prepaid functions
• Servers supporting Resource Prioritization (RP) and/or Quality of Service (QoS)
features
• Multi Point Conferencing servers
• IVR servers
• PBX Applications and Softswitches
• Application Layer Gateways (ALG)
• FW/NAT Traversal applications
• Privacy servers
• 3rd-Party Call Control Applications (3PCC)
• Service Creation Environment (SCE) runtime engines
• Session Boarder Controller (SBC)
• IMS S-CSCF, P-CSCF, I-CSCF
• SIP Inter-work Function (IWF) Gateway
• Security Gateway (SEG)
• Voice Call Continuity (VCC) servers
In addition, B2BUA servers play an important role in emerging IMS networks. Recent
releases of 3GPP IMS specifications (3GPP TS 24.229 V8.0.0) indicate that an increasing
number of IMS network element servers, such as P-CSCF, IBCF,SBC etc., are B2BUA
servers. The reason for this is that value added services are usually session stateful, and
feature capabilities that go beyond basic call proxying. Applications written on top of
B2BUA Application servers fulfill several roles, such as SIP User Agents, SIP Proxy
servers and SIP Registrars.
B2BUA application developers face many challenges, such as achieving rapid time-to-
market, conformance and interoperability, offering customization for proprietary services
and support for High Availability (HA) and redundancy. A comprehensive B2BUA
framework can help developers overcome these challenges.
A solid B2BUA framework should have modular application building block architecture
for increased flexibility, abstraction and short delivery time. Traditional architecture,
which features a single configurable state machine, is not flexible enough. Also, a
B2BUA framework should facilitate developing B2BUA applications by flexibly linking
“pluggable” high-level Modular Application Building Blocks (MABB). Developers
should have the ability to combine these MABBs and they should be designed in a way
that allows developers to further customize their behavior if needed. This type of
architecture complies with contemporary Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts,
and is suitable for powering flexible business communication platforms. This modular
architecture can save months of work. With a set of MABBs in hand, developing the
application is a matter of combining existing MABBs to produce the required business
logic. In addition, this architecture enhances efficiency; development of new MABBs can
be done concurrently.
And finally, a B2BUA framework should provide the ability to configure, amend and
replace application building blocks to create proprietary features. With this ability,
developers can maximize existing code – significantly reducing development time,
shortening testing cycles, and reducing overall time-to-market.
Figure 4 - Traditional architecture of a B2BUA framework
RADVISION’s B2BUA Application Framework delivers these capabilities and more. The
B2BUA Application Framework module is a part of the RADVISION SIP server
Platform, a software framework that offers the essential building blocks for the
development of a wide variety of high performance SIP and IMS servers
[http://www.radvision.com/Products/Developer/SIPServer]. The rich set of components
and modules can be flexibly combined to match customers’ requirements for developing
SIP servers that offer both standard and advanced SIP services.
As one of the most popular IM applications, Yahoo! Messenger was the first large
consumer player that adopted B2B UA. Yahoo! Messenger combined its backend scalable
platform with RADVISION’s B2B UA to serve millions of monthly unique messaging
users around the world. Yahoo selected RADVISION’s B2BUA due to its robust
performance and scalability features.
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Danny Loeb is a seasoned Product Manager at RADVISION, leading RADVISION’s SIP
Server Platform and Server Solutions product family. With over ten years of experience
Danny has vast multidisciplinary knowledge in product management, system
architecture, integration and development of servers for data communication and voice
communication networks. Prior to joining RADVISION, he served as System Integration
Manager and System Architect at Charlotte’s Web Networks, a developer of core-IP
Terabit Routers, where he lead the foundation of the company’s Remote Presence
Solutions Division. Previously, Mr. Loeb served in several positions at Microsoft as part
of the Internet Security and Acceleration Development Team.