realities of modern networks, such as firewalls and filtering/throttling. On the other side, network operators are typically concerned about overall network performance, interoperability and quality, and want to ensure it is secure. Lawful intercept and CALEA An SBC may provide session media (usually RTP) and signaling (often SIP) wiretap services, which can be used by providers to enforce requests for the lawful interception of network sessions. Standards for the interception of such services are provided by ATIS, TIA, CableLabs and ETSI, among others. History and market According to Jonathan Rosenberg, the author of RFC 3261 (SIP) and numerous other related RFCs, Dynamicsoft developed the first working SBC in conjunction with Aravox, but the product never truly gained marketshare. . Newport Networks was the first to have an IPO on the London Stock Exchange's AIM in May 2004 (NNG), while Cisco has been publicly traded since 1990. Acme Packet followed in October 2006 by floating on the NASDAQ. With the field narrowed by acquisition, NexTone merged with Reefpoint becoming Nextpoint, which was subsequently acquired in 2008 by Genband. At this same time, there emerged the “integrated” SBC where the border control function was integrated into another edge device. In 2009, Ingate Systems’ Firewall became the first SBC to earn certification from ICSA Labs, a milestone in certifying the VoIP security capabilities of an SBC. The continuing growth of VoIP networks pushes SBCs further to the edge, mandating adaptation in capacity and complexity. As the VoIP network grows and traffic volume increases, more and more sessions are passing through SBC. Vendors are addressing these new scale requirements in a variety of ways. Some have developed separate, load balancing systems to sit in front of SBC clusters. Others, have developed new architectures using the latest generation chipsets offering higher performance SBCs and scalability using service cards. See also 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) Firewall (computing) IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) SIP Trunking Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) References Voice over IP Computer network security