Preparing VoIP and Unified Communications Systems for IPv6 Technical Summary September 2014

Transcription

1 Preparing VoIP and Unified Communications Systems for IPv6 Technical Summary September 2014 [Type text]

2 As the limited number of remaining IPv4 addresses are allocated to ISPs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain IPv4 addresses for new connections. Soon the only option will be to switch to IPv6. The protocols used for VoIP and UC systems complicate the switch to IPv6 and many deployed systems simply do not support IPv6. The UM Labs SIP Security Platform provides a simple solution to this challenge. Background It is common knowledge that IP addresses, which identify each system connected to the Internet, are in short supply. The addressing scheme currently handling 96% of Internet traffic is known as IPv4. This addressing scheme, adopted over 40 years ago allows for approximately 4 billion addresses globally. Back in the early 1970s this seemed like a very large number. Now that every mobile phone, every tablet and every laptop can connect to the Internet, addresses are running out. The replacement addressing scheme, IPv6 expands the number of addresses to 3.2 x 10 38, a number that should satisfy every conceivable need. Switching from IPv4 to IPv6 is not a trivial exercise. For this reason every effort has been made to conserve IPv4 address including the universal adoption of Network Address Translation (NAT) gateways, rationing of IPv4 addresses and programs to reclaim unused IP addresses. Even with these efforts time is running out. In February 2011 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last remaining block of IPv4 addresses to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). This means that once the allocated addresses are used by the respective RIRs, there will be no further IPv4 addresses to hand out to members. Current statistics (2014) show that RIPE (responsible for European IP allocation) has a remaining pool of around 15 million IPv4 addresses. Other RIRs have a similar address shortage.

3 Figure 1 Growth of IPv4 address pool handed out from the RIRs to entities in specific countries. Countries are coloured by growth, going from bright green (0% or less) to bright red (20% or more) With the growth of IPv4 address allocation running at 20% or more in many countries, the remaining IPv4 addresses will soon be exhausted. Switching to IPv6 There are a number of tools and techniques designed to aid the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. These include dual stack implementations where a single system supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and methods of tunnelling IPv6 in an IPv4 network connecting and vice versa. These techniques allow an organisation to provide an IPv6 service even if their ISP does not yet offer IPv6. IPv6 and the Session Initiation Protocol Most VoIP and UC systems are based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP complicates the adoption of IPv6 because SIP protocol requests contain embedded IP addresses. These addresses define the end-points for voice and video calls or for Instant Messages. Many deployed VoIP and UC systems do not support IPv6 and will not process IPv6 addresses embedded in SIP protocol. This prevents those systems from accepting connections from SIP trunk services, from remote users or federating to other systems that are running IPv6. The UM Labs SIP Security Platform solves this problem and simplifies the deployment of IPv6 based VoIP and UC services by providing a full set of IPv6 to IPv4 mapping functions

4 at both the network level and application level. These functions enable VoIP and UC systems supporting only IPv4 to interconnect over an IPv6 network and allow full interoperability between systems supporting IPv4 or IPv6 at the SIP application level. The support offered by the SIP Security Platform and the IPv4 and IPv6 to IPv4 translation functions used to ensure connectivity are summarised in the following table. In all cases the SSP provides a full set of security and interoperability functions. System A System B SIP Security Platform Network Application Network Application IPv4 IPv4 IPv4 IPv4 No translation needed IPv4 IPv6 IPv4 IPv4 Receive IPv6 SIP requests via v6 tunnelling and map v6 SIP headers to/from v4 IPv6 IPv6 IPv4 IPv4 Receive native IPv6 SIP from one network forward via v4 on a second network and map SIP v6 headers to/from v4 IPv6 IPv6 IPv4 IPv6 Receive native IPv6 SIP from one network forward via v6 tunnelling on a second network IPv6 IPv6 IPv6 IPv4 Receive native IPv6 SIP from one network, map headers to v4 and forward via v4 tunnelling on a second network IPv6 IPv6 IPv6 IPv6 No translation needed About UM-Labs UM Labs is a pioneer and leader of Security Software Services for Cloud Computing in the 21st Century. We deliver advanced innovative technology which deals with

5 major issues of criminal activity and protect businesses large or small from Fraud, Disruption attacks and hacking attacks, but maintain service between users. The unique aspects of UM-Labs Platform as a Service are that it defends Unified Communications when using voice over IP/SIP, Video/BYOD and Persona Management for all mobile/tablet devices, while making existing legacy UC Systems work together, thus protecting your existing investment. The company markets a Security Service Platform for public Cloud (SSaaS/PaaS) and a private Cloud Platform, which makes connecting VoIP/Video/BYOD/UC systems to the public internet easy and secure, in this the company provides the enterprise with a data firewall as a bonus of the architecture and therefore reduces the need for both, this is considered to be an All-in-One cloud security solution. UM-Labs as a research centre has proven the technology and developed it based on the 21st century needs for cyber security, including Cloud deployment and mobile usage. The team is made up of industry experts who have been major contributors to the current security and communications industry. Adopting UM-Labs Innovation in Security will allow for true integration across the business with single authentication in protection of Persona Management from a mobile device and protection of call fraud through encryption of all UC/SIP/VOIP/IM services and this will reduce risk, while enhancing the ROI for the business. More information at: -