Juniper Networks, Sonus enter new software defined networking pact

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) and Sonus (Nasdaq: SONS) have created a new alliance focused on developing software defined networking (SDN) capabilities for video and unified communications (UC) services.

Through this agreement Sonus' 5000 series session border controllers (SBCs) will be integrated into Juniper's MX series routers and the Session and Resource Control Policy Engine will pool intelligence from the application/session layers of the OSI stack with the network layer. Sonus said that this integration will allow service providers to better deal with the rise in video and UC traffic without the need to overprovision networks.

In addition, the two vendors are working on ways to integrate Sonus' SBCs and Juniper's JunosV App Engine, a move they say will enable service providers to scale their services up or down based on user demand and collaborate with the network layer using APIs to improve service delivery, enhance user experience and optimize network utilization.

"By working closely with Juniper, the integration of our products enables expansion of the types of unified communications and video services able to be offered to enterprises and dynamically optimizes use of network resources," said David Tipping, vice president and general manager, SBC Business, Sonus, in the release.

One service where this integration could come in handy will be telepresence. They could offer a series of SLAs (service level agreements) and service tiers that ensure each user gets a good quality experience, while scaling bandwidth and resources up or down based on the particular customer's needs. 

The timing of this integration could not be better. According Nemertes Research, 71 percent of businesses are using, evaluating or are planning to use extranet videoconferencing for B2B collaboration.

Having these two well-known vendors develop a turnkey platform will eliminate the guesswork for service providers that are building new UC and cloud-based services for their business clients.

For more:
- see the release

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