Voice over IP, security and quality of service can they co-exist?

Abstract

Voice over IP and Multi-Service over IP continue to gain popularity as applications and services are being developed to make them more robust. Due to the real time nature of these applications, appropriate quality of service (QOS) is required. It is also important to protect information from un-authorized users. Depending upon the nature of the information being exchanged, different levels of security may be needed. Security algorithms tend to be computationally intensive. Often time, QOS and security may place conflicting demands. One requiring quick access (real-time), while the other requiring more computation. In this paper we present results from experimental evaluation of such conflicting requirements. The network scenarios include cases such as VOIP with and without NAT, VOIP with and without IPSEC along with appropriate QOS. The quality of voice traffic is evaluated in the presence of these parameters.