NetNumber
Delivering Signaling Services on a Robust Single Platform

What started out as a goal fifteen years ago for NetNumber—to simplify signaling services, has been achieved today through the company’s solutions that transform how operators deliver new services to their customers while significantly simplifying the network core and reducing operating costs.

“Trepidation still exists about the SDN market space, and a common confusion with users is that they need a separate control and data plane for the routers and switches. In response, we built a solution which supports a wide variety of signaling control applications and protocols from a single platform,” remarks Brad Boston, President and CEO, NetNumber. As a provider of Centralized Signaling and Routing Controller (CSRC) solutions to wireless and wireline telecommunications operators, NetNumber's flagship product, TITAN delivers a common, virtualized infrastructure for all signaling control, routing policy enforcement, and subscriber database services in the network.

TITAN represents a paradigm shift for building a radically simplified core network where all signaling control services like ENUM, SIP, and DIAMETER are provided on a common platform. With a surge in new services enabled by DIAMETER, customers today are looking at maintaining a forward momentum, while interworking with legacy protocols such as SS7. With TITAN, clients can customize service logic execution and license it on top of the DIAMETER application, DIAMETER signaling control, or DIAMETER routing agent. “We work with a range of different applications like SS7 and SIP, allowing carriers to update their routing instructions into TITAN instead of having to replicate routing databases in the network,” explains Boston. With TITAN, carriers also have the flexibility to manage network routes, which is difficult to achieve with traditional platforms.The TITAN architecture comprises of the master server with a large database, which is in turn connected to one or more end servers deployed in a carrier’s network.The master server then replicates the data to all the end servers which issues server requests. “We have the ability to very quickly synchronize data across a large population of end servers. Moreover, we allow carriers to go and employ customized service projects on top of a specific application,” remarks Boston. This allows for a highly scalable TITAN Master/Edge architecture which delivers faster-performance and configuration flexibility.

TITAN represents a paradigm shift for building a simplified core network where all signaling control services are provided on a common platform

To augment the usability of TITAN, NetNumber works closely with carriers and offers a set of professional services that enhance the solutions designed for them. Equipped with the ability to provide customized service logic, NetNumber’s clients don’t have to wait for lengthy process times to incorporate an additional feature. NetNumber Delivering Signaling Services on a Robust Single Platform TITAN represents a paradigm shift for building a simplified core network where all signaling control services are provided on a common platform Brad Boston “Owing to this flexibility, a customer can cost-effectively transform their data with TITAN and optimize it with their signal infrastructure, without modifying the Business Support System (BSS),” states Boston. One of NetNumber’s customers—British Telecom has been using TITAN as a centralized routing engine for several years and they conduct their own customized service logic; reaching out to experts at NetNumber only in rare troubleshoot scenarios. The company’s expertise in the signaling space, the integrated database, and the willingness to reengineer products are some of the factors that set NetNumber ahead of the competition.

With a number of applications in line, NetNumber’s future vision will continue to motivate the company to scale greater heights. “We have software defined versions of applications with unique architecture for the signaling infrastructure and we are also looking at extending into other networks,” says Boston. NetNumber is keeping an eye out for opportunities in the voice access network, and building on their integrated signaling offering. Finally, NetNumber is planning to hone their collaboration with some of their big partners to support emerging enterprise applications.