On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:17 PM, Lorell Hathcock <lorell@hathcock.org> wrote:
All:
My customer wants to try to improve performance to his ATAs by creating a VPN from his network to the VOIP provider's network through the internet.
I have to admit, the idea caught me flat footed. At the outset, it seems like we would want to do it just to improve security for end users. However, my customer wants it because he thinks it will improve performance (i.e. voice quality). We are suffering from poor VOIP quality due to the Sprint / Cogent depeering and subsequent squirming by our vendors.
The only reason I can think that VOIP thru a VPN would help is that *perhaps* routers in the middle on ASNs I have no control over *may* prioritize VPN traffic higher than regular traffic. They opposite could also be true.
Specifically the ASNs in the middle are Level 3, Sprint and Time Warner.
Thoughts? Should I try to dissuade him from this if performance is his main motivator?
Your customer may have seen this article (or a similar one): http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2006/03/strangely_ssl_vpns_can_help_vo.h... After reading it a year ago, I've found their discoveries to hold true on my own (small) projects with voip. In a nutshell: "In every case, adding an SSL VPN to a VoIP call over a good broadband network improved call quality. So in effect, wrapping a VoIP call in SSL gives it more structure, kind of like the rind of good Brie. What we had not counted on was the huge difference between what VoIP requires (64Kbps) and a typical broadband connection of 500Kbps or more. Because the broadband connection was so fast, TCP was able to repair the impairments without reducing voice quality. " May or may not apply to your situation, but if bandwidth isn't scarce then I wouldn't be surprised if your customer is correct, at very least they are not crazy :) Good luck -Aaron
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Lorell Hathcock
OfficeConnect.net | 832-665-3400 (o) | 713-992-2343 (f) | lorell@OfficeConnect.net
ocbannerjoomla