Cisco Unified Communications is a comprehensive IP communications system of voice, video, data, and mobility products and applications. It enables more effective, secure, and personalized communications that directly affect both sales and profitability. It brings people together by enabling a new way of communicating: in which your business moves with you, security is everywhere, and information is always available whenever and wherever it is needed. Cisco Unified Communications is part of an integrated solution that includes network infrastructure, security, mobility, network management products, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and outsourced management options, and third-party communications applications.The Cisco Unified Border Element is an intelligent unified communications network border element. Formerly known as the Cisco Multiservice IP-to-IP Gateway, the Cisco Unified Border Element, in addition to other Cisco IOS Software features, includes session border controller (SBC) functions that help enable end-to-end IP-based transport of voice, video, and data between independent unified communications networks. SBCs are critical components for scaling unified communications networks, enabling them to grow from IP islands within a single customer network to an end-to-end IP community. One of the most significant uses of the Cisco Unified Border Element is to allow call control elements such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager to connect to service provider Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks for public switched telephone network (PSTN) access offerings, generally known as SIP trunks.The Cisco Unified Border Element is a simple and cost-effective solution that provides a network-to-network demarcation interface for signaling interworking, media interworking, address and port translations, billing, security, quality of service (QoS), and bandwidth management. The Cisco Unified Border Element enhances the PSTN-to-IP functions of a traditional Cisco gateway by adding the capability to join two voice-over-IP (VoIP) or video communications networks without the need for the PSTN.