Evaluation of privacy, security and quality of Internet-based communication solutions

Abstract

The privacy and security of communication in the Internet are gaining increased public interest. Highly popular Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology allows the use of easy, versatile and low-cost Internet communication solutions. There are, however, privacy and security concerns and threats related to VoIP-based communication, just like with any traffic transmitted over the public Internet. Possibility to integrate a VoIP solution as part of self-made applications is also important for many organizations. The problem is to find a low cost solution which provides possibility for integration, good level of security and privacy, and also acceptable service quality in varying wireless network conditions.

This thesis examined the fundamentals of VoIP technology, reasons and background of security threats, and presented the ways to mitigate the risks. Based on this information, publicly available communication solutions were searched and evaluated using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) derived method. The products were compared from the perspective of privacy and security they provide, taking into account in particular the purchase and operating costs, and connectivity into self-made applications. The best solution from the comparison was also taken to further tests for service availability and video quality Mean Opinion Score (MOS) in the real-world mobile network. The measurements aimed to reveal how the solution performs in different radio network conditions, and what kind of video quality it can offer.

The research results show that there were a few good solutions available based on search criteria. The best solution, Linphone, was taken to the further quality tests in the live 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. Measurements revealed that Linphone can provide satisfactory quality and reliability even on poor network conditions, and also secure the traffic seemingly well. Only some minor problems with video stream starting were found during the tests. For the future work I would suggest more measurements using different wireless network technologies including Wi-Fi. The real protocol level security analysis of Linphone would also reveal if there are any security pitfalls in the current implementation.