Case study

Outbox

Outbox, a leading German VoIP provider headquartered in Köln, was tasked with securely routing VoIP traffic from a customer’s network – which was hosted as part of a tier 1 operator’s network (hereafter referred to as FromCom) – to their VPC in the AWS Frankfurt region. For this customer specifically, it required Outbox to route traffic from multiple different IP addresses in the tier 1 operator’s network.

Outbox

Providing highly reliable and scalable connectivity

  • Challenges

  • Solution

  • Benefits

By default, the kind of routing Outbox needed to perform was not standard for FromCom’s customers and required third party management – which is where BICS’ expertise came in. The underlying traffic was also VoIP based, which required best in class quality and low jitter to guarantee the quality of the end-to-end voice call termination. This presented a number of challenges:
  • telco_IP-transit

    FromCom and AWS use different IP configurations

    FromCom can only announce static IP configurations, while AWS supports only dynamic BGP due to the different platform stacks used in each business’ network.
  • capacity-transport

    Outbox needed greater bandwidth

    BICS and Outbox’s collaboration was a continuation of their partnership, which started in 2018 with 1GB traffic. However, with the 1GB payload limit already nearing complete use, BICS and Outbox needed to recreate it in a 10GB environment.
  • flexibility

    Their solution needed a backup

    Given Outbox’s multi-provider policy, they needed a similar solution from another party to use as a backup. This means that while BICS was their main solution, they needed another one to use as a backup in the event of failure on the AWS side.
By partnering with BICS, Outbox leverages BICS’ direct connections with AWS. They also benefit from their expertise in VoIP Quality of Service to ensure their connection with FromCom securely routes their customer’s traffic at the highest possible quality. As an AWS partner, BICS’ Cloud Connect solution provides highly reliable and scalable connectivity between the customer’s virtual gateway in the VPC in AWS and BICS’ IP network. To ensure appropriate quality and security, transport via the BICS network is based on their carrier ethernet and DWDN/ OTN technologies. This allows BICS to ensure that Outbox’s VoIP traffic is transported via high quality routes with the lowest possible jitter.
  • globe_connect
    Using BICS’ direct relationship with FromCom, Outbox establishes an isolated 10GB cross connect.
  • partner-program
    Outbox works with a single partner – BICS – rather than relying on multiple third-party vendors.
  • Voice-over-IP_VoIP
    To maintain the quality of their customer’s VoIP traffic, Outbox has been able to ensure high quality routes with minimal jitter.
  • hardware_server

    Direct connectivity between corporate data centers

    Leveraging BICS’ extensive relationships with operators, Outbox has established static routing for their customer’s multiple IP addresses (hosted on FromCom’s network) and routes towards BICS’ private VPRN.
  • channel

    High-level architecture with 1x10Gb direct connect

    To enable their multi-vendor solution and cover all the different interconnection points distributed across FromCom’s resources, partnering with BICS has allowed Outbox to avoid any outages on the AWS acting as a single point of failure.
  • alerts_conversation-warning

    Improved failover and avoidance of black-holing

    BICS implemented a BFD on the VPRN’s spike side and for their hub site BGP neighbor. This means that any failures on the FromCom or AWS networks can be quickly detected and remediated.
We had a number of specific requirements that we expected would require the involvement of several third-party providers. However, BICS has acted as a single partner for all our needs, and the quality, reliability and security of their solutions has also ensured the best possible results for our customers.

Outbox

Thomas Grotz, Chief Operating Officer

modern-building-businesspeople

About Outbox

Outbox is a leading German VoIP provider headquartered in Köln, Germany. Since 2004, Outbox has been a leading voice-over-IP provider for telecommunications, VoIP solutions, and national and international numbers. Outbox operates their platform with AWS distributing the workload across different availability zones for security and load balancing. Their extensive experience makes them one of Germany’s leading voice network operators and has allowed them to build a comprehensive range of white-labelled software solutions and wholesale products. These solutions and products serve the telecommunications industry from small resellers to subscriber network operators.

As an independent operator of a highly available carrier-grade telephony network, Outbox also serves the international segment. With the new product Voice-as-a-Service for Microsoft Teams, the company expanded into UCaaS providing a highly automated Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution. With an API-based platform Outbox services the CPaaS market for intelligent voice routing and completes its offering for Automated Call Distribution solutions.

About Outbox
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