Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an alternative to landline-based telephone systems. VoIP uses the Internet to carry phone calls instead of the public switched telephone network.
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Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a method for making telephone calls over the Internet. Unlike the old landline telephone system, the Internet was not designed to carry audio signals in real time between connected persons. Specialized technologies and protocols had to be constructed to make this possible — the technologies and protocols that comprise VoIP. Today, VoIP is a highly efficient method for both audio and video real-time* communications.
VoIP has been widely adopted. In many industries it is the dominant form of telephone system, replacing landlines (whose technical name is "public switched telephone network").
VoIP offers several advantages over landlines. It is more flexible, it is easier to add lines, it is often cheaper than traditional telephone service, it supports video as well as audio, and it can be accessed from anywhere.
However, VoIP is vulnerable to service disruptions and cyber attacks that landline phones are mostly immune to (such as DDoS attacks). VoIP is also dependent on a reliable Internet connection and power source.
*Real time means messages from all connected users are delivered as soon as they are created, rather than being stored for later transmission.
Suppose Alice calls Bob using a VoIP telephone line. Alice picks up a VoIP-enabled handset, dials Bob's number, and says, "Hello, Bob." What has to happen for Alice's words to reach Bob?
Despite the number of steps involved, the entire process should take milliseconds. Ideally, there is no human-discernable delay, and Bob hears Alice say "Hello, Bob" almost as soon as she says it on her end. The amount of delay depends on the efficiency and bandwidth of their local networks, and the distance between Alice and Bob (delays caused by distance are known as latency).
Once a connection is established, the rest of the process can happen simultaneously on both ends. A VoIP-enabled phone can both send and receive audio data at the same time, so if Alice and Bob accidentally ask each other "How are you doing?" at the same time, they will hear each other as they speak.
Data that transfers over the Internet, whether it is text and code (as in this webpage), images, or audio content (as in VoIP), is divided into small sections called "packets." These packets travel over the wires and equipment that make up the Internet and are then interpreted into usable content by the device that receives them.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the standardized method of formatting data packets that makes networking possible. IP describes how to address these packets and how to provide information about their contents, among other requirements. Any Internet-capable device can automatically create and interpret IP packets. Essentially all Internet services are built on IP, including VoIP — hence the name "voice over IP."
Several protocols run on top of IP to make different types of Internet services possible. First are transport protocols, which help ensure packets arrive in the right place and are received correctly. IP can be used with the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
Most VoIP services use UDP as their transport protocol instead of TCP, because UDP is faster — this contrasts with one-to-many streaming services, which use the more reliable TCP to ensure every second of audio and video gets delivered.
Application layer protocols are used on top of the transport protocols. These protocols put data into a form that user-facing applications can interpret. Much of the Internet uses the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) as the application layer protocol. However, VoIP uses other protocols that are better suited to transferring audio and video data in real time than HTTP is.
VoIP application layer protocols vary depending on the VoIP service. Some providers use open protocols like the following:
These protocols are publicly documented and anyone can use them. However, some VoIP providers use proprietary protocols. Unlike the open protocols that make the Internet possible and carry most Internet traffic, these proprietary protocols are closed and reverse-engineering them may be forbidden by the providers' terms of service. They still operate on top of open protocols like TCP, UDP, and IP.
Examples of proprietary protocols for VoIP include:
Poor Internet connection: A low-bandwidth Internet connection makes it difficult for packets to get through, impacting the quality of audio. No Internet connection means VoIP cannot work at all.
Network congestion: If too much data is being exchanged over a network at once, VoIP calls may not transfer data packets efficiently — just as a large amount of traffic on a highway slows down travel times.
UDP timeouts: As described above, VoIP usually runs on the UDP transport protocol. Firewalls may terminate UDP connections past a certain time for security reasons.
Cyber attacks: Like any Internet-based service, VoIP is vulnerable to attack. In particular, VoIP services are often targeted for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks can take VoIP services offline for minutes, hours, or days at a time.
Almost any networking protocol can be used to initiate a DDoS attack. Attackers are often motivated to target VoIP because such attacks have the immediate effect of hampering business productivity — a business that cannot make phone calls will not get much done.
Broadly speaking, VoIP DDoS attacks fall into two different categories:
1. Attacks directed at VoIP service providers. Such DDoS attacks can potentially knock out service for all the VoIP providers' customers, and they can take many forms, including:
Some attacks directed at VoIP providers exploit the way VoIP works — for instance, via SIP floods that overwhelm servers that support SIP. Others may use more generic DDoS attack methods that are effective against most unprotected websites and servers, such as HTTP floods and SYN floods.
In addition, ransom DDoS attacks have been carried out against VoIP providers. In a ransom DDoS attack, the attack continues until the victim pays the attacker a ransom.
2. Attacks directed at organizations that use VoIP. These attacks focus on one organization at a time instead of disrupting service for multiple VoIP provider customers. Organizations that host their own VoIP network and servers may be particularly vulnerable. Unlike a large VoIP provider, they likely do not have a large number of backup servers to switch to if their primary VoIP servers are targeted for a SIP flood or another attack.
One of the most-targeted aspects of VoIP in DDoS attacks is SIP. SIP-based DDoS attacks are difficult to stop because, like HTTP, SIP is a text-based protocol and illegitimate SIP requests are tough to distinguish from legitimate SIP requests.
SIP INVITE floods overwhelm an SIP server with fake "INVITE" requests to start a call. The server has to process each of these requests, slowing or denying service for legitimate calls. SIP REGISTER floods are similar, using "REGISTER" messages instead of "INVITE."
Attackers can also send specially constructed SIP messages that disrupt a server by causing it to restart or partially fail. Sending such messages over and over can deny service for legitimate users for a long period of time.
Cloudflare DDoS mitigation helps protect against VoIP DDoS attacks. Cloudflare has network capacity many times larger than the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded. Learn about Cloudflare DDoS Protection for web applications or Magic Transit for protecting on-premise networks.
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