Security, Stability, and Interoperability Issues on VoIP
Implementation
Now we have accepted that VoIP is no longer just a phone
service, it has become feature rich as it merges with computer
configurations. The VoIP's existence has changed considerably
over the last few years, coupled with the availability of
broadband connection to the Internet, plus leaps in multimedia
technology in which virtual operations with remote sites becomes
more enhanced, makes VoIP service a viable alternative to
traditional communication offerings.
Cost savings is not the only driving force for VoIP
implementations, enterprises have to consider some business
aspects that VoIP can bring about. VoIP creates potentials for
applications that could not have been done before.
Collaboration, integration, and interactivity between employees
and applications are one of the several business benefits that
enterprises can derive from VoIP adoption. Nevertheless, amid
euphoria of VoIP technology, there are three important aspects
to look at before a company goes VoIP. In the following
paragraphs I will summarize the aspect of security, stability,
and interoperability that play a key role in the successful
implementation of VoIP.
1. Security
VoIP implementations may expose new security risks and
challenges that somehow become greater concern than quality and
cost-efficiency among vendors and users. VoIP networks are
vulnerable to all the same security risks as traditional IP data
networks, including:
- Denial of Service (DoS), viruses, worms
- Toll fraud and unauthorized access
- Spoofing, and port scanning.
It is recommended that organizations should adopt a layered,
defense-in-depth security strategy to address the issue with the
increasing proliferation of new Internet-borne attacks and
malicious activities in recent years. In this architecture, the
network is segmented into secure zones protected by layers of
firewall, intrusion prevention, and other security services.
This strategy allows the organizations to logically split and
secure voice and data networks in front of individual voice and
data components and between interactive points in the network.
2. Stability
One of the main issues of VoIP is the amount of bandwidth
required for each call. There must be adequate bandwidth
reserved and the quality of the link must be well maintained
throughout each call to ensure the users are not affected. As
the very nature of VoIP call is real-time, any disruption during
the call would be easily noticeable and unacceptable. The two
issues that enterprises usually have to deal with here are
bandwidth and quality of service (QoS).
VoIP calls need a data transmission speed of 64kb/s to produce
the quality of voice comparable to that of a normal telephone
call. That 64kb/s channel needs to remain open and unaffected
for the duration of the call. Theoretically, VoIP installations
would not allow such a huge bandwidth to be allocated for VoIP
alone. Therefore, there needs to be a compression taking place
to compact the voice data into a considerable size before it
gets transmitted over a packet switching network. G.723 codec
that is incorporated in VoIP standard protocol H.232 can take a
64kb/s stream of data and squash it down to a mere 5.5kb/s or
so. Generally, for VoIP to work reliably over WAN links, there
has to be low jitter, low packet loss, a considerably high-speed
connection between the endpoints, and less than 200ms delay.
3. Interoperability
Compatibility between VoIP equipment from different vendors is a
very important aspect to boost the use of VoIP products. Without
standardized quality of service mechanisms businesses would need
to buy all the equipment and the QoS server from the same
manufacturer. The VoIP world seems to be divided between many
vendors with reluctance to establish interoperability and some
who are trying to be end-to-end supplier but at the same time
worried about interoperability. The protocols used in VoIP
communication are still considered fairly complex in comparison
to most of the other protocols involved in Internet
applications. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol - a signaling
protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, events
notification, and instant messaging), that is regarded as simple
and elegant the other protocols, is still not efficient.
On the bright side, however, SIP is approaching status as an
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard, after several
years of work. With the recent version, it has achieved a
greater amount of stability and changes are becoming smaller and
smaller. Phone switch companies such as Nortel have recently
begun supporting SIP, and now the manufacturers of handsets and
related devices will soon ramp up their support. Motorola,
Avaya, and Proxim have made collaboration on the creation and
deployment of IP telephony solutions that will deliver new
extents of communication mobility and network connectivity.
With these three VoIP aspects covered, businesses will be able
to maximize their investment by applying it as the backbone of
internal communication such as phone conversation,
videoconferencing, instant messaging, faxing, etc. Another area
that will widely make use of VoIP is call centers, in which Web
contacts, virtual operations with outsourcers overseas, and
remote sites, such as home agents, all could improve the
customer experience. New VoIP applications that we have not
thought about may also come into existence as the services
generates more business and profits for companies.
About the author:
Al Falaq Arsendatama is web entrepreneur specializing in
technology and finance.
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