VoIP

VoIP-Enabled StoneGate

Voice over IP (VoIP) technology translates analog voice signals into a stream of digitalized packets and sends them to recipients over data (or IP) networks. In other words, VoIP enables for instance, making telephone calls over the Internet.

VoIP is growing in popularity, which has also raised some concerns about security. Since VoIP uses the same paths as the network and Internet traffic, it faces the same challenges and threats that are more commonly linked with Internet. Viruses, worms, trojan horses, Denial-of-Service attacks and hijacking are all possible threats on the VoIP network. Voice traffic can now be attacked, hacked, intercepted, re-routed, and degraded just as any data packet on the data network.

The convergence of voice, data, and video traffic to a single network also means that the amount of traffic in the IP networks, criticality of traffic, and complexity of the network are all increasing.

In order to take full advantage of these new technologies, the security and network infrastructure has to support them and tackle the challenges emerging from the use of these technologies. With StoneGate you not only address security by preventing eavesdropping, hijacking, and alteration of data but you also ensure quality and priority for your communications. This leads to higher user satisfaction and simplified administration.

Challenges

Security

Unencrypted VoIP connections are prone to eavesdropping and other common threats in IP networks

StoneGate Solution: VoIP connections can be encrypted with StoneGate Firewall & VPN, which secures your communications so they are not vulnerable to e.g., eavesdropping and alteration of data.

Reliability

Users expect the same reliability from IP networks as they have had in traditional networks and this is often not the case. Connections are not reliable, and network devices become single points of failure.

StoneGate Solution: With StoneGate’s patented Multi-Link Technology you can ensure that the VoIP connections are resilient and have the best possible performance. Also StoneGate Firewall & VPN is fully clusterable, eliminating single points of failure in the communication path.

Bandwidth

VoIP applications may require a lot of bandwidth and disrupt the use of other protocols.

StoneGate Solution: with Bandwidth Management and Quality of Service StoneGate provides you with the capability to prioritize important traffic or set limits on traffic that has lower importance.

Secure Configuration

There may be difficulties trying to keep the amount of open ports to a minimum and perform NAT to private addresses to increase security.

StoneGate Solution: through supporting SIP as the signalling protocol for VoIP StoneGate ensures that only the ports necessary for communication are open and no extra ones are needed. Also NAT is handled gracefully and transparently by StoneGate.

Maintenance

People expect VoIP services to be available when needed, therefore maintenance windows become disturbing critical service breaks.

StoneGate Solution: since StoneGate is a high-availability solution it means that maintenance can be done during business hours without any need to disrupt the traffic and without the users even noticing this.

Management

As networks become larger, more complex, and the traffic more critical managing these systems is complicated at best.

StoneGate Solution: StoneGate’s centralized and easy-to-use management simplifies administration tasks. This means that administrators can manage more devices with less resources.

Misuse

Connectivity may be used for non-business related and malicious purposes.

StoneGate Solution: through protocol validation and misuse detection StoneGate protects your communications from malicious traffic. Bandwidth management guarantees that important traffic always has priority over non-business related, if so desired.