At Supercomm last week in Chicago, session border controller provider Netrake introduced a new session manager that provides a centralized signaling control plane for high-volume networks as well as a security gateway that addresses the security requirements of GSM operators extending into unlicensed mobile access networks. Netrake also said Broadvox has deployed Netrake nCite session controller to expand its secure interconnections with carrier peers.

The company’s nCite SM Session Manager provides a single entry point into service provider networks to improve overall network management and deployment of VoIP resources.

Network operators with regionally deployed or distributed session border controllers can use the SM to act as a front end to their existing session controller infrastructure. This front-end manager will act as the focal point for initial inbound signaling traffic and will route traffic to the appropriate session controller for call processing and control.

“The Session Manager is designed to help network operators scale,” said Mark Neider, director of product marketing for Netrake.

The nCite SM features self-aware load balancing across multiple session controllers, hardware-based denial-of-service protection, priority-based routing, and carrier-level redundancy and fail over.

VoIP networks have reached a level of scale that makes a centralized manager necessary, Neider said. The nCite session manager supports up to 2000 call setups per second that will allow service providers to scale their network to more than 7.2 million busy-hour call attempts and rival the PSTN.

Adding to this new capability is the company’s nCite Security Gateway. The gateway, also launched at Supercomm, has the potential to enable 30-50 million subscribers through multimode handsets that combine GSM technology with VoIP endpoints. The endpoints require a security association to the core network in order to preserve privacy, integrity and assurance and the gateway provides this security association for both signaling and media using IPSec encryption.

“The gateway is part of our IMS strategy to help carrier migrate to IMS,” Neider said. “It is based on the wireless LAN market which is really picking up.” The nCite Security Gateway offers multi-layer security management for wireless carriers, such as Network Layer Security Association (IPSec), Application Layer Security Association (TLS) and Session Layer Security Association (SBC). Regarding customer news, Broadvox Limited LLC has selected the Netrake nCite session controller to expand its secure interconnections with more than 100 carrier peers. Netrake will help Broadvox allow only authorized traffic to pass between network peers while also maintaining the privacy of all parties involved in the interconnection.

Broadvox has a U.S.-based network with global partners that help it deliver a “globally ubiquitous hosted communications service.” This includes wholesale carrier services and custom branding of hosted telephony products and services.