VoIP

SonicWALL’s Voice and Video over IP (VoIP) solution delivers unparalleled levels of security for the VoIP infrastructure, as well as standards-based compatibility and interoperability with many of the world’s leading VoIP gateway and communications devices. Utilizing SonicWALL’s innovative Stateful Packet Transform technology, organizations can inexpensively transport audio and video media such as telephone calls and streaming video over IP-based networks.

All SonicWALL TZ 170 and PRO Series integrated security gateways provide built-in VoIP capabilities through SonicWALL’s SonicOS firmware. Comprehensive VoIP security protects against threats ranging from simple denial of service (DoS) attacks to full-blown application-layer attacks targeting VoIP protocols.

SonicWALL’s VoIP implementation allows any blend of VoIP-ready devices (H.323 and SIP Endpoints, H.323 Gatekeepers, H.323 Multipoint Control Units, SIP Proxy and Redirect Servers) to be located anywhere in the network for added flexibility. SonicWALL also supports full VoIP over wireless LAN (VoIP over WLAN), making SonicWALL a perfect solution for both wireline and wireless VoIP applications.

SonicWALL VoIP Approach

SonicWALL provides a complete solution for VoIP that offers unparalleled levels of security for the VoIP infrastructure, standards-based VoIP compatibility, and interoperability with many of the world’s leading VoIP gateway and communications devices. All SonicWALL TZ 170 and PRO Series (Gen 4) security appliances feature the same comprehensive level of VoIP security as described in this paper. This is important because the overall integrity of the VoIP network is only as good as the weakest link, necessitating the highest levels of protection…even at the home office and on personal communications devices.

SonicWALL security appliances featuring either SonicOS Standard or Enhanced firmware have built-in VoIP capabilities. With SonicOS Enhanced, the user gets additional call monitoring and reporting functionality, as well as more comprehensive QoS support (e.g., inbound bandwidth management).

Key Features & Benefits

Support for H.323 and SIP VoIP protocol standards for sending voice (audio), video and other media using IP on the public Internet

Prevention of DoS and DDoS attacks such as SYN Flood, Ping of Death, and LAND (IP), which are designed to disable a network or service

SonicWALL’s optional Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) delivers full application-layer protection for VoIP protocols through a configurable, high performance scanning engine and dynamically updated database of over 1,800 attack and vulnerability signatures

Availability and call quality through bandwidth management ensures that bandwidth remains available for time-sensitive VoIP traffic and that VoIP devices have available bandwidth for calls (both ingress and egress)

VoIP over wireless LAN (VoIP over WLAN) security has been extended from the wired LAN to 802.11 a, b and g wireless networks, through SonicWALL’s Distributed Wireless Solution

Full syntax validation of all VoIP signaling and media packets ensures that malformed packets are not permitted to pass through the firewall and adversely affect their intended target

Support for dynamic set-up and tracking of media streams tracks each VoIP call from the first signaling packet requesting a call set-up to the call end. Dynamic assignment of successfully negotiated media ports thwarts attackers who may be targeting specific ports.

IP multicast support addresses the inefficiencies of broadcast traffic by enabling one-to-many traffic to be routed by multicast capable equipment, and by providing an “opt-in” model for hosts to receive the multicast traffic

Comprehensive monitoring and reporting tools in SonicWALL’s SonicOS Enhanced firmware offer extensive monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities including dynamic live reporting of active VoIP calls, audit logs of all VoIP calls, logging of abnormal packets and detailed syslog reports. SonicWALL ViewPoint provides custom reports for VoIP signaling and media streams

Plug-and-protect support automatically handles all VoIP device adds, changes, and removals, ensuring that no VoIP device is left unprotected

Interoperability with leading VoIP vendors enables organizations to choose between various vendor implementations of telephony and multimedia products across IP-based networks