SIP Load Balancing is deployed to distribute load in SIP-related data traffic in the IP network. With SIP Load Balancing, the system is able to scale the performance of participating SIP servers in order to avoid overloading of the server and to achieve high availability of the SIP services.

Load Balancing distributes calls from a provider connection, an OpenScape UC or OpenScape Xpression to a number of gateways, for example if the connection has more than the maximum number of gateway channels. Only one target IP address can be configured in the case of a provider connection, which means that one provider connection would have to be available without Load Balancing for each gateway.

Calls can also be sent selectively by means of their phone number from one connection to a number of even geographically distributed gateway groups or OpenScape 4000 systems with the help of a routing number (e.g. local area code) which can be configured for each gateway. Within a group, the calls are sent to the gateway with the most free channels.

SIP Load Balancing can be activated for every SIP gateway (HG 3500 or vHG 3500 SIP) in the network. If the feature is activated correctly, the participating gateways register automatically at the SIP Load Balancing server.

SIP Load Balancing is also released for multiple OpenScape UC Media Server. These cannot register automatically to the SIP Load Balance server. Therefore, they must be configured manually in the OpenScape 4000 SoftGate WBM.