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Virtual Private Networks

A virtual private network (VPN) is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network. A virtual private network can be contrasted with an expensive system of owned or leased lines that can only be used by one organization. The goal of a VPN is to provide the organization with the same capabilities, but at a much lower cost.

Mobile VPNs are used in a setting where an endpoint of the VPN is not fixed to a single IP address, but instead roams across various networks such as data networks from cellular carriers or between multiple Wi-Fi access points. Mobile VPNs have been widely used in public safety, where they give law enforcement officers access to mission-critical applications, such as computer-assisted dispatch and criminal databases, while they travel between different subnets of a mobile network. They are also used in field service management and by healthcare organizations, among other industries.

They are used for roaming seamlessly across networks and in and out of wireless-coverage areas without losing application sessions or dropping the secure VPN session. A conventional VPN cannot survive such events because the network tunnel is disrupted, causing applications to disconnect, time out, or fail, or even cause the computing device itself to crash.

Instead of logically tying the endpoint of the network tunnel to the physical IP address, each tunnel is bound to a permanently associated IP address at the device. The mobile VPN software handles the necessary network authentication and maintains the network sessions in a manner transparent to the application and the user. The Host Identity Protocol (HIP), under study by the Internet Engineering Task Force, is designed to support mobility of hosts by separating the role of IP addresses for host identification from their locator functionality in an IP network. With HIP a mobile host maintains its logical connections established via the host identity identifier while associating with different IP addresses when roaming between access networks.

A well-designed VPN provides a business with the following benefits:

  1. Extended connections across multiple geographic locations without using a leased line. Improved security for exchanging data.
  2. Flexibility for remote offices and employees to use the business intranet over an existing Internet connection as if they're directly connected to the network.
  3. Savings in time and expense for employees to commute if they work from virtual workplaces.
  4. Improved productivity for remote employees.

A business might not require all these benefits from its VPN, but it should demand the following essential VPN features:

  1. Security: The VPN should protect data while they’re travelling on the public network. If intruders attempt to capture the data, they should be unable to read or use them.
  2. Reliability: Employees and remote offices should be able to connect to the VPN with no trouble at any time (unless hours are restricted), and the VPN should provide the same quality of connection for each user even when it is handling its maximum number of simultaneous connections.
  3. Scalability: As a business grows, it should be able to extend its VPN services to handle that growth without replacing the VPN technology altogether.

Source: Sykes, Alex. Virtual private networks Retrieved 2013-08-10.

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[This page last updated 2020-12-23 at 13h10 Toronto local time.]

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