RADIUS And SIP Billing Server Software Potential

Since communication protocols are an integral part of any telecom business, it’s of vital importance for any billing software user to know what two major protocols—RADIUS and SIP—are and how they work. So what is the difference between SIP billing server software and RADIUS billing server software?

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a networking protocol that manages full AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) process for network access. Developed back in 1991 for dial-up remote access, today RADIUS protocol is widely supported by wireless access points, VPN servers and other network access types. RADIUS protocol is known for provisioning of better security, as well as ease of tracking networks and billing statistics due to the decentralized service nature.

This is only a short list of advantages that RADIUS billing server software may offer:

• RADIUS billing server software provides individualized authentication allowing each user to manage only his personal credentials
• RADIUS can support a wide range of user authentication protocols such as EAP-TTLS, PEAP and many more
• A lot of server operating systems, as well as network devices, have RADIUS built-in, therefore it requires no additional software or hardware tools
• One of its features is synchronization with LDAP/Active Directory

SIP billing server software protocol stands for Session Initiation Protocol. It is designed to handle and signal communication sessions in IP phone systems, messaging over IP networks, and in Internet telephony for video calls and voice. Originally designed in 1996, it was institutionalized in 1999 as a need for providing a better IP-based communication was surging. SIP is a text-based protocol that has assimilated various components of both SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Moreover, SIP supplements such protocols as RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) and RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocols).

• SIP is applied for both basic signaling functions and for more progressive processing in Signaling System 7 (SS7)
• SIP billing server provides a high level of interoperability between hardware and software system components.
• SIP is much easier to implement and needs less setup time in comparison to its predecessors.

And this is just a tip of the iceberg with the functional potential of the protocol. However, by no means do we want to state that both protocols are ideal and flawless. For instance, SIP billing server is vulnerable to eavesdropping, SPIT (spam over internet telephony), and audio injections, and, on the other hand, while using RADIUS server there is a serious probability of data loss when network on server hardware is unstable. As it’s widely debated in a world today, which protocol is better, productive and more efficient, the crucial point lies in understanding that SIP and RADIUS are complementary and provide the highest benefit only when combined together. And this is exactly what JeraSoft provides to its clients.

Not only does JeraSoft VCS offers its users such a possibility through an easy configuration of gateway settings, but it also tries to make the most of it by introducing a unique dynamic routing feature. Dynamic routing grants VCS users automated management of routes by customizing a routing policy for each destination or client. More information on dynamic routing can be found here.