Comments

This paper was presented at the Fifth Collaborative Research Symposium on Security, E-Learning, Internet and Networking (SEIN 2009), 26-27 November 2009, which was held in Darmstadt, Germany. It was published by the University of Plymouth and the symposium proceedings are available at http://www.cisnr.org

Abstract

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a communications technology that transmits voice over packet switched networks such as the Internet. VoIP has been widely adopted by home and business customers. When adding security to a VoIP system, the quality of service and performance of the system are at risk. This study has two main objectives, firstly it illustrates suitable methods to secure the signalling and voice traffic within a VoIP system, secondly it evaluates the performance of a VoIP system after implementing different security methods. This study is carried out on a pilot system using an asterisk based SIP (Session initiation Protocol) server (Asterisk, 2009).

Since VoIP is intended for use over the Internet, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) have been used in a tunnel configuration to provide the service. Additionally the performance of networks level IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) and application level ZRTP (Zimmerman Real Time Transport Protocol) security have been compared with no security. Registration, call setup and voice transmission packets have been captured and analysed. The results have then been extrapolated to the Internet.

Disciplines

Computer Engineering | Digital Communications and Networking

Recommended Citation

Ashraf , M.T., Davies, J.N. & Grout, V., (2009) ‘An Investigation into the Effect of Security on Performance in a VoIP Network’. (Proceedings of the Fifth Collaborative Research Symposium on Security, E-Learning, Internet and Networking SEIN 2009, 26-27 November 2009, pp15-28) held in Darmstadt, Germany: Plymouth University