Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Security

This paper will describe Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to a level that allows discussion of security issues and concerns. Business concerns of implementing VoIP, components of a VoIP system, and relevant security issues and concerns as they apply to the topics, are explored. The business concerns will be those that affect Quality of Service (QoS). VoIP components will include end-user equipment, network components, call processors, gateways and two of the more common architectures: H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Denial of service will be discussed, and, encryption and network address translation (NAT) will be discussed emphasizing how they impact the implementation of VoIP.