Securing VoIP Enterprise Networks

VoIP-over-VPN technology protects the privacy of corporate voice communications in industrial networks, while delivering the cost-saving and technology benefits of Voice-over-IP.

By reducing or eliminating phone charges, consolidating infrastructure, and streamlining network operations and maintenance, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offers tremendous cost-savings for oil and gas companies and other industrial sectors. As with any new technology, however, there can be a down-side.

Most VoIP gateways compromise communication security by transporting VoIP and data traffic without encryption, making the information susceptible to interception by snoopers, hackers, and so forth. Because of such security concerns, many enterprises that handle highly-sensitive information have been reluctant to cash in on the benefits of deploying VoIP technology in their networks.

Standards for voice encryption, such as SRTP and SIP TLS, are emerging. These techniques encrypt the voice as the analog signal is converted to digital form in the coder-decoder (CODEC). But the standards are still under development and are not yet ready for the commercial market. VoIP-over-VPN, in contrast, offers a secure solution for converged digital voice and data communications today.

VoIP gateways with VoIP-over-VPN offer companies that handle sensitive information a way to move forward and implement secure, converged VoIP and Data networks.

VoIP-over-VPN Technology for Secure Encrypted Voice

A VoIP VPN combines Voice-over-IP and Virtual-Private-Network technologies to offer a method for delivering secure voice. Because VoIP transmits digitized voice as a stream of data packets, the VoIP VPN solution accomplishes voice encryption simply and elegantly. The technique applies existing standard data-encryption mechanisms inherently available in the collection of protocols used to implement a VPN.

The VoIP gateway-router first converts the analog voice signal to digital form, encapsulates the digitized voice within IP packets, then encrypts the digitized voice using IPSec, and finally routes the encrypted voice packets securely through a VPN tunnel. At the remote site, another VoIP router decodes the voice and converts the digital voice to an analog signal for delivery to the phone.

Other advantages

Security is not the only reason to pass Voice-over- IP through a Virtual Private Network, however. Session Initiation Protocol, the preferred VoIP protocol is notoriously difficult to pass through a firewall because it uses random port numbers to establish connections. A VPN solution avoids this firewall issue when configuring remote VoIP clients. The VPN virtually moves users inside the same local network as the VoIP server.

Author: Antoine Abi Antoun
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Brian

Managing Partner at meshIP, LLC

Brian Byrne is the founder and Managing Partner of Dallas based meshIP, a technology services firm offering cloud computing strategies and services. He is an accomplished executive with senior management experience in all facets of the technology, telecom, cloud computing, and SaaS industries. He has proven success in developing, financing and executing strategic plans as well as launching new ventures. His background includes a record of significant achievement in international business development and his credentials include a MBA in Marketing and Management Strategy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS from the School of Computer Science at DePaul University, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

He is also the inventor of the patented meshDETECT, Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions.

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