As VoIP’s penetrates deeper into the consumer and business markets, security increasingly becomes a greater issue for customers and service providers alike. End users expect secure, consistent, reliable VoIP and other SIP-based services. For providers, this presents the dual challenge of not only maintaining predictable, reliable service levels for millions of end users, but doing so while preventing network compromising attacks designed to disrupt service or gain unauthorized access to information.

In order to provide customers with a “bulletproof” VoIP security solution, Covergence — which provides solutions to ensure scalability, security, and control of VoIP and other SIP-based services, has tested the ability to communicate between the CounterPath eyeBeam 1.5 Video SIP softphone and its own Eclipse SIP Session Manager using the IETF standards Transport Layer Security (TLS) for signaling information and its counterpart the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for voice and video traffic.

Typically, any advance in security functionality results in some erosion of network performance. Because Eclipse has been specifically engineered from the ground up — it is not a retrofitted version of a previous solution — for SIP communications, any downturn in network efficiency is minimized so as not to interfere with service delivery in any user-noticeable way.

“Today’s savvy consumers are seeking service providers who can assure their privacy, while avoiding service disruptions, toll fraud and user identity theft,” said Bob O’Neil, president and CEO, Covergence.  “By certifying CounterPath’s softphone with Eclipse, we're protecting both the subscriber connection and the service infrastructure, all the while helping VoIP and SIP-based services to reach their full market potential and become as reliable and safe as the PSTN.”

The end result of the testing is Covergence’s announcement that it has certified CounterPath Solutions’ eyeBeam 1.5 softphone application for use with Covergence’s Eclipse solution. The duo is now set to offer the growing VoIP market a customers VoIP security solution that prevents any unauthorized access to the user’s call while also protecting the provider. By using Eclipse, service providers give their customers the security and reliability they expect; when they combine that with the eyeBeam softphone, providers are providing their subscribers with the rich multi-modal communications experience required by today’s complex user base.

“By certifying our SIP softphones with Eclipse, we are adding additional security and management capabilities that will only serve to better the end user’s experience as companies like CounterPath and Eclipse work together to provide innovative SIP based applications to the market,” said Donovan Jones, President and COO of CounterPath Solutions.

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Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY. Most recently, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.