Voice Over Internet Protocol, Research Paper Example

Introduction

VoIP which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology through which voice calls can be made using a broadband internet connection. Some VoIP services only allow calls to be made to users of the same service while other VoIP services allow calls to all kind of phone numbers. In addition, some VoIP service only allow calls to be made through the computer or a special VoIP phone while other services allow a traditional phone connected to a VoIP adapter. The common feature of all VoIP services is that to be able to make a call, one need to have an access to a broadband connection(Federal Communications Commission (FCC)).

In its early days, VoIP was hailed as one anothermarvelous technology with the potential to revolutionize personal communication and that would not have been possible without the potential of the internet. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the shortcomings of VoIP technology were underestimated but nonetheless, VoIP offers certain benefits even though they are outnumbered by its shortcomings.

Benefits of VoIP

The most obvious benefit of VoIP is the cost savings that result from either avoiding a separate telephone line or paying less for a VoIP service than what it would cost to have a telephone service with similar features. Another benefit is greater options to the customers in terms of telecommunication. It’s now possible to make telephone calls even when there is no access to telephone line or cellular service such as at the airports or in foreign countries for as long as one can access the internet. In addition, some VoIP services offer some features and services that may not be possible with traditional phone or would cost extra (Federal Communications Commission (FCC)). The most popular VoIP service is probably Skype which is absolutely free for as long as both parties use the Skype software on the computer to communicate with each other. This free service includes both domestic and international calls. Skype software also allows video conferencing, a feature absent from traditional landline phones and has only recently made its way into smart phones such as Apple’s iPhone.

Issues

Accessibility

Most users are behind a NAT and/or a Firewall. This presents ‘accessibility’ challenges. For example, some enterprise networks offer private IP addresses to computers. Such IP addresses are only understood within the domain they are allotted and are not globally reachable. Similarly, Firewalls create several security layers thus, one of the most critical requirements for VoIP phones is their ability to ‘auto-configure’ and ‘auto-discover’ (Hughes Systique Corporation, 2006).

Reliability

One of the issues that has prevented widespread embrace of VoIP is reliability. Landline phone is not dependent on the availability of electricity thus, even if the power goes out, the phone will still work. The same can’t be said about VoIP, thus, the absence of a reliable power source has adversely affected the commercial potential of VoIP(Valdes & Roos). Power supply is reliable in the U.S. and other developed countries but most of the countries in the world suffer from electricity shortage.

Corporations in today’s competitive environment often employ fast broadband services because a significant portion of their daily operations take advantage of the internet technologies. During peak times, there may be very little bandwidth available for VoIP telecommunications. Traditional landline telephone services have already proven themselves to be reliable, thus, unless VoIP overcome its reliability issues, it will have a hard time replacing landline telephone technology in corporate environments.

VoIP technology also presents issues with emergency 911 calls. VoIP uses IP-addressed phone numbers and IP addresses do not tell the 911 operator anything about geographic locations. This reduces the appeal of VoIP phones as compared to traditional landline phones.

Quality of Service

The quality of VoIP service depends on various factors one of whom is the quality of broadband service.  When there are problems with data transmission, it also affects the quality of VoIP service. This explains why some VoIP subscribers often complain about distorted voice and lost signals (Valdes & Roos). Other factors that affect the quality of VoIP service are hardware and destination of the call. A slow computer processor or the execution of other programs on the computer which will be consuming computing power will negatively affect the quality of VoIP service. Similarly, the quality of VoIP call will also be determined by the broadband service of the call receiver and other related factors.

Some VoIP manufacturers have introduced compression algorithms to reduce bandwidth requirements. But compression and decompression use extra processing power and compressing the data tends to further degrade the sound quality. Some compression algorithms attempt to filter out echo but doing so puts further strain on the processing power (Posey, 2006).

Security

Security issues affecting VoIP include toll fraud, packet/call eavesdropping, viruses, worms, Denial-of-Services, TCP vulnerabilities, Layer 3 exploits, rogue device in the network, man-in-the-middle issues, DHCP spoofing, DHCP starvation, and DNS spoofing. Because VoIP uses broadband networks to transmit calls, it is possible to eavesdrop on the conversations, hijack calls, and even reroute them to a different number. This threat doesn’t exist on the regular phone system also known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)(Zetter, 2005).Anyone with physical access to the office LAN could connect network monitoring tools and tap telephone conversations. What further complicates the issue is the fact that it’s very hard to know if the conversation may being monitored because there are many points to connect with a LAN without arousing suspicion (Kuhn, Walsh, & Fries).Another serious VoIP security threat facing organizations is telephony denial of service (TDoS). TDoS may block legitimate VoIP sessions or disrupt business by flooding or hijacking IP telephony infrastructure with bogus calls (Scarpati, 2011).

Spam Over Internet Telephony (SPIT) is another security issue. With SPIT, gateways are hit directly, degrading voice quality which is noticeable to the end users. Spammers send audio-commercials to VoIP voicemail inboxes in the same way junk emails clog email accounts. Moreover, VoIP services are not regulated thus, VoIP customers do not have the same right as standard phone users. In spoofing, hackers find an IP address of a trusted host and modify the packet header so that packets seem to come from the host. This technique is known as Caller ID Spoofing in VoIP domain (Arora & Chakravarty, 2007).

Cost

VoIP may save money in the long run but initial installation can be expensive. No single standard exists for many aspects of VoIP so the organization may have to support multiple standards. Because the field of VoIP is still developing, the organization may need to make frequent changes from time to time. The organization may also have to arrange for backup systems to deal with potential power disruptions. For emergency/backup power that will be required for more than few hours, the organization may have to invest in electrical generators with costs of their own (Kuhn, Walsh, & Fries).

SIP Interoperability

Companies are moving from the traditional Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) voice networks to Session Initiation Protocol-based (SIP) voice networks. The transition has not been entirely smooth as SIP interoperability has emerged as one of the VoIP industry’s greatest issues. About six years ago, a team of iLab engineers found that while different VoIP vendors could ensure basic connectivity between their SIP-based phones and devices, there were also significant failure rates for enterprise VoIP features and standard security parameters. Features such as multiple line appearances, call bridging, and intercom still face significant SIP interoperability issues between vendors. There are also concerns about SIP networks to efficiently handle sudden spikes in traffic. In addition, many companies don’t have the required knowledge to effectively maintain the SIP-based systems(Reed, 2008).

Consumer Habits

For new technologies to replace older technologies, they have to provide compelling reason/reasons to the market to justify a switch. The two most commonly discussed characteristics of VoIP are sound quality and costs. Private households perceive VoIP to be cheaper than traditional landline phones but the perceived cost savings come at the expense of lower quality. Even cost advantages disappear in the case of some enterprise systems. Traditional landline phones have reputation for quality and reliability and their costs fall within the affordability level of most private households as well as organizations. Thus, many private households and organizations see little incentive to switch to an emerging technology that unlike traditional telephone networks, is still evolving and is confusing in nature due to the absence of common standards as well as legal regulations.

Conclusion

VoIP is the future of telecommunication but its time to fully replace traditional telephone systems has yet to come. The technology is still evolving and common standards need to be developed to improve interoperability as well as legal framework needs to be put in place to govern the VoIP industry. Internet services continue to improve in speed and reliability which will help address the quality issues related to VoIP technology. Performance issues are also the top reasons why many corporations have been hesitant to adopt VoIP technology. A survey by InformationWeek on 300 business-technology executives revealed that 72% cited performance and quality of service and 44% cited uptime as the reason they are hesitant to adopt VoIP. These two reasons were the top two among seven factors identified in the survey (Unuth).

References

Arora, M., & Chakravarty, S. (2007, January 29). VoIP security: Scenarios, challenges, and counter measures–Part I. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://www.eetimes.com/design/microwave-rf-design/4014711/VoIP-security-Scenarios-challenges-and-counter-measures-Part-I?pageNumber=0

Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (n.d.). Voice-Over-Internet Protocol . Retrieved May 18, 2011, from http://transition.fcc.gov/voip/

Hughes Systique Corporation. (2006). VoIP and it’s challenges.

Kuhn, D. R., Walsh, T. J., & Fries, S. Security Considerations for a Voice Over IP Systems. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Posey, B. M. (2006, October 23). The Pros and Cons of VOIP. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/pros-cons-voip.html

Reed, B. (2008, July 31). What are critical issues with VoIP service? Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/073108-burning-voip.html

Scarpati, J. (2011, February 10). VoIP security issues: How you might become a target for TDoS attacks. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/news/2240031995/VoIP-security-issues-How-you-might-become-a-target-for-TDoS-attacks

Unuth, N. (n.d.). What Make Companies Hesitate To Adopt VoIP. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://voip.about.com/od/markettrends/a/HurdlesToVoIP.htm

Valdes, R., & Roos, D. (n.d.). Disadvantages of Using VoIP. Retrieved May 20, 2011, from http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony5.htm

Zetter, K. (2005, July 26). Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP. Retrieved May 20, 2011, from http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/07/68306