VoIP and Firewalls

From: The VoIP Essentials Series

By: Ken Camp

Firewalls are a critical element in protecting business networks. They provide protection against malicious traffic and are crucial monitoring points in the daily operation of many networks. Firewalls also present a potential performance bottleneck. Given the sensitivity of VoIP services to performance impairments, especially delay and jitter, it’s important to incorporate thoughtful design methodology into VoIP services. How firewalls are used in the network will absolutely have an impact on voice services. Good design minimizes this impact, providing added security while allowing acceptable call quality.

Although firewalls have been around for many years, the creator of the firewall remains a topic of open debate. Marcus Ranum has been widely recognized for his work on the TIS Firewall Toolkit and Trusted Information Systems’ Gauntlet product. Shlomo Kramer and other Checkpoint colleagues also made significant contributions to firewall technology. Regardless of who was there first, firewalls have become a crucial component in networking technology.