BOSTON - The scope of the Voice on the Network conference, which was staged for the first time 10 years ago to fight regulations stifling development of VoIP, was broadened in Boston last week to include video over IP, and the early fight might be about regulation all over again.
VON founder Jeff Pulver said he expects the FCC to push regulations that might be well-intentioned but nevertheless have the effect of hindering the growth of Internet video just as it is taking hold.
He pointed to comments at VON by FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate that the FCC probably will consider regulations to ban child pornography on the Internet. Those regulations could restrict the development of legitimate content, he said. "I consider it a warning shot," Pulver said.
The experience VON founders gained by lobbying Congress and testifying before the FCC to protect VoIP from phone regulations will help with this new battle, he said. "The VON coalition will take people through the stages of what's going to happen," he said.
VON's success and the proliferation of VoIP have gone hand in hand. This year the show drew nearly 10,000 people to the Boston Convention Center, a far cry from the 240 people who attended the first VON 10 years ago at a hotel in the Soho section of New York City. While this year Pulver looked ahead to the coming of video over the 'Net, most of the products and services in show booths still focused on VoIP, with security a key theme.
During seminars on the topic, users were urged to build security into their VoIP plans rather than trying to tack it on later. For instance, speaker Vincent Kasabian, senior network engineer at Liberty Mutual, said VoIP security is a fundamental part of the network because the company's wireless LANs (WLAN) were installed to support mobile voice.
Just as corporate security experts have worried that wireless data networks are vulnerable to attackers and eavesdroppers, so they should worry about VoIP over Wi-Fi calls being picked up, he said. "There are certainly security concerns."
The company separates voice from data on its wired network via virtual LANs, he said. This helps protect VoIP from data infrastructure attacks that monopolize bandwidth, he said.
Liberty Mutual has two WLANs, one based on 802.11a and one on 802.11g. "The idea is that the 802.11a radios provide more data throughput, while the 802.11g radios are dedicated to voice only," Kasabian said. "I can have separate security policies on the 802.11g radios vs. the 802.11a radios."
The data wireless network already uses the 802.11i standard, which includes encryption and port authentication. "We'll soon be migrating to 802.11i for voice as well," he adds.
Vendors are starting to recognize the importance of encrypting VoIP traffic to protect confidentiality. For example, BorderWare announced at the show it is licensing phone-to-phone authentication encryption software from Zfone, a company founded by Phil Zimmerman, the inventor of Pretty Good Privacy data encryption software. The plan, BorderWare said, is to integrate the software with its SIPAssure firewall.
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