Even workers in small remote or home offices where a leased line or VPN service cannot be justified, are now able to enjoy the benefits of IP telephony services using the 3Com® IP Telecommuting Module. Their remote IP phones can be connected to a VCX™ IP telephony system (via any available Internet connection offering sufficient bandwidth) to access corporate voice communications features. In addition, calls to the remote phones can be made using standard extension numbers or DID numbers like any other phone in the enterprise.

Because organizations often rely on conventional firewalls to provide security at the network edge, they may encounter issues in implementing advanced Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based services for their remote workforce. Firewalls are not generally designed to handle SIP communications because their UDP ports (dynamically assigned for SIP sessions) have been blocked by network administrators to safeguard network resources from unauthorized access from the public Internet. In addition, network administrators may configure private IP addresses for local SIP clients and servers behind the firewall.

The IP Telecommuting Module resolves these issues by presenting a public address to the Internet—and a trusted IP address internally. Remote SIP devices register with the module which then relays the communications of authenticated devices to the VCX IP telephony system and other SIP applications.

A single IP Telecommuting Module can typically support up to 6,000 remote workers with optional redundant configurations to provide the following benefits:

• Flexibility. Remote work can occur safely and economically via standard office extensions and Internet services
• Protection. Intruders and unauthorized users are blocked from the enterprise network while authorized SIP-based communications from the Internet are enabled
• Privacy. Internal addresses are hidden from the public Internet
• Convenience: NAT sessions are automatically maintained through broadband gateways to the private IP addresses typical in home and small office environments
• Security. SIP-based convergence applications can be used by remote workers without disrupting the existing firewall or NAT routing infrastructures
• Economy. Secure access from home and remote locations can be established without requiring additional hardware or software clients at the remote locations or installed on the users’ computing devices

For additional information, click here to access the IP Telecommuting Module online data sheet.