Alternative Options to Overcome and Resolve VPN Problems

This report discusses the challenges and drawbacks of traditional VPN and suggests alternative solutions like Microsoft DirectAccess, SSL VPN, and site bridges to mitigate them. It also covers the progress of VPN technology and its impact on businesses. Subject: Networking, Course Code: NA, Course Name: NA, College/University: NA

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Abstract— Virtual Private Networks are networks that work
on the public network that includes the internet and it is a
technology that is used for secured connection of network. In this
report, details of Virtual Private Networks will be studied that
will help to know the VPN network more accurately. The VPN
network has several drawbacks and challenges are faced by
businesses that use the Traditional VPN technology in their
businesses. New methods and alternatives of VPN are studied in
this report that helps to make the technology more smooth and
cost much less compared to tradition Virtual Private Networks.
The virtual private network allows the user and the branch
offices to access the application of the corporate world and all
other resources involve with the system. The VPN technologies
uses networked and tunnels that are secured with passwords,
unique method of identification and tokens, which makes others
difficult to access the VPN network.
Index Terms—Virtual Private Network, Microsoft
DirectAccess, site bridges, SSL VPN, IPSec VPN, SSL VPN
I. INTRODUCTION
Virtual Private Network, commonly known as VPN
network is basically a technology with an encrypted and
secured connection that is used over less secured network like
Internet [3]. VPN is a technology that was developed in such a
way that allows its users and the branch offices to access the
corporate applications as well as other resources securely. In a
VPN network, the data travels via secured tunnels that include
passwords, tokens, as well as unique identification method for
gaining access to VPN.
There are many advantages and disadvantages in VPN
network. The advantages that VPN network provides are that
the network saves the cost of installing the network. The VPN
network costs less and helps to save money. The VPN
networks that are internet based avoids scalability to the
network. The disadvantages that the VPN network is that the
VPN network needs very high understanding of the network
and the users of VPN has to be very careful about the
installation process and the configuration of the network so
that enough protection is given when the VPN network is
connected to the public network [7]. Many service providers
of VPN provides products and solutions of VPN that are
always not compatible with some standards of VPN
technologies. The technical problems that arise in VPN are
very difficult to fix, as the network is very complex.
Alternative methods to mitigate the issues or problems of
VPN are site bridges, SSL VPN, Microsoft DirectAccess. The
alternatives of the VPN technology allow the connectivity to
remote users of network organizations without VPN
connection. Traditional VPN provides a point to point
topology that do not support the broadcast domains.
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This report illustrates the details of virtual private network
in a system. The virtual private network has many issues that
includes the packet loss, congestion, encrypted traffic, lacks
repeating patterns, high availability and lacks fragmentation.
All the drawbacks that are involved in VPN are to be
minimized by implementing some other technologies known
as Microsoft DirectAccess, SoftEther VPN, site bridges, or
SSL VPN. All such technologies are described in details in
this report. The possible solutions that can be proposed to
mitigate such drawbacks of VPN technologies are described in
this report [4]. The progress of developments of the VPN
technologies that includes requirements, benchmarking,
stakeholders, responsibilities, owners, purposes as well as
objectives of VPN are described in this report. This report also
illustrates about how the organizations are taking approaches,
develops ownerships and procedures, and initiates about using
new technologies of VPN and their businesses are affected by
using alternative of VPN network. A conclusion is provided
about which VPN technology is safe for an organization to use
to get the best result.
II.LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Moreno-Vozmediano et al., VPN is a network
of secured connection or a tunnel in between the private
network and the computer over public connection like Internet
[2]. The virtual private network can also be referred as a point
to point connection with two hosts that directly connects each
other . The point to point connection stimulates remote system
to be physically on the private network and also establish
connection to anywhere in world.
Villa et al., stated that there are basically two types of Virtual
Private Network that implements VPN solutions for the
purpose of encryption [6]. The two technologies that are
implemented in VPN network are IPSec (Internet Protocol
Security) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). The details of
IPSec and SSL VPN are shown in the table below:
The drawback of the results that is achieved from the
literature review is that it is very difficult to find out which
technology is better when the technologies are compared to
each other. It can be mitigated with the user needs. If there is
remote user, then the remote user requires the access to few
alternative numbers of four application and applications that
are web based. The SSL VPN is a lower cost and solution to
low maintenance. If there are any applications of the clients,
then the applications and the resources of network of full
access are required, then IPSec VPN is the most advantageous
solution. According to Liang, Chengchao and Richard, many
organizations opt to implement both technologies that
provides access through SSL VPN and also IPSec VPN used
for special users and are used for site to site links [11].
In the future of VPN technologies, the prices for the VPN
solutions will decrease as the demand of the VPN technologies
Alternative options to overcome and resolve the
problems of Virtual Private Network
Author’s Name

are going higher day by day. Increase in demand leads to
higher competition in market, resulting in decreasing price of
the VPN technology. The usage of SSL VPN is growing day
by day and the application support is growing too. With the
increasing demand of SSL VPN, the IPSec implementation is
disappearing fast.
III. CHALLENGES AND DRAWBACKS IN VPN
Along with all its advantages, the VPN network also faces
many drawbacks and disadvantages from the industries. The
following shows the disadvantages of that are faced by
industries after implementing the VPN technology.
TABLE 2
DRAWBACKS OF VPN
Functional Area Disadvantages
Design and Security of VPN The design as well as security
implementation of the VPN network
is very complex to understand. The
VPN system requires a high level of
professionalism with very high
understanding level. For configuring
best VPN network, high-level of
knowledge is required. The
configuration of VPN also faces
some security issues that are difficult
Scalability of VPN
Mobile workers of VPN
VPN Cost
to mitigate without experts.
If an existing infrastructure needs
additional infrastructure, the solution
of VPN technology may become
incompatible. This may cause many
technical issues if some other service
provider is used instead of current
vendor. Cost of implementing
additional infrastructure is increases
with the change in vendor [5].
The using of mobile phones for
establishing a connectivity to the
VPN network may cause security
issue in the network. The security
issues are mainly caused when there
is a wireless connection. The
security is to be tightened up when
the system logs in to the VPN
network connecting with a cell
phone.
If a service provider provides good
service, then reliability automatically
comes in the way of customer and
the service provider. With much
reliable service provider, the cost of
VPN goes high. The service provider
charges more for secured VPN
network.
IV. CHALLENGES OF VPN AND WAYS TO MITIGATE THEM
A. VPN Technology and Security:
Format The Virtual Private Networks are very flexible to
use. The companies that use VPN network can be connected to
many locations both overseas and locally using the VPN
technology [1]. There are security risks that with the VPN
technology. Many procedures are involved with the
technology of VPN [4]. Of the procedures are not followed
properly, the technology may lead to security issue. To
maintain the security is a main concern of a business and if
security is not maintained, the VPN technology adds risks to
the business.
B.Exposure Risks:
Using the public internet network, and turning it to a private
tunnel leads to security data breach in the company. The
performance of the VPN technology decreases as a result and
may even lead to data breach and network failure [8]. There
are mitigation processes that can overcome the exposure of
security. MPLS networks, which are private, are used against
the online as well as external threats that are independent of
internet. The utilities of network of the service provider use
their own networks that are segregated on the business process
for using exclusively.
C. Availability and Reliability with VPN Network:
A large organization that possesses VPN network mostly
faces the reliability issue with the technology. VPN
technologies uses internet, which provides insecurity to the
system of the business. SPN (Secure Private Network)
provides availability and performance for operations that are
held in businesses [12]. The SPN provides a centralized
TABLE I
FEATURES OF VPN
Feature
s IPSec VPN SSL VPN
Securit
y Level
The variable of the
network depends on
the cipher method that
is used.
Generally, this
network has 56 bit
DES with a default
value of 168 bit of
3DES algorithm. This
technology has full
access to LAN [9].
The variable of SSL VPN depends
on the cipher method that is used.
The combination of algorithm that is
used is the combination of RC2/RC4
and the RSA algorithm. This has
limited as well as controlled access
with LAN.
Applic
ation
Transp
arency
This technology is
implemented at the
operating system level
and there are no
changes as such
needed for all
applications. This
technology is fully
transparent and the
applications can
continue to work.
This technology is limited to a web
based application that can be
accessible through the browser.
There are additional applications that
requires the plug ins and provides
connectors for their support.
Total
Owners
hip
Cost
The cost of initialing
the technology is very
high, which makes the
technology price go
high. The cost of
support is potentially
high so that the remote
user of the computers
can be maintained.
The cost of fixing the SSL VPN is
relatively low compared to IPSec
VPN. There are free open sources as
alternatives that have high cost of
legacy application to support the cost
of connector or the web porting cost.

control that is mainly based on the private internet protocol
network and therefore, reduces the complexity of the system.
D. VPN Performance:
The network connection of VPN that is established in
between two end points are very slow. If the internet
connection is slow, then also the VPN technology does not
work properly creating disruption as well as inconvenience.
Also, with the increasing real time use and interactive
applications, there are issues on network performance with the
VPN technology that are noticeable.
E. Complexity as well as incompatibility:
VPN network use equipments that are made by different
manufacturers. The equipments from different manufacturers
always are not compatible with each other and leads to poor
performance of the technology. Different manufacturer’s
equipment leads in making the system more complex [10].
Additional network engineers are to be employed to configure
the devices and administrate all the devices that make the
VPN solution costly to implement and to maintain.
F. Quality of Service (QoS):
Guarantees are not offered by the VPN technologies. There
is a chance of packet loss in the VPN networks. The rate of
packet loss in VPN network is very high [16]. To mitigate this
process, secured private networks that are based on MPLS
provide solutions that provide much more scalability and
redundancy.
V. CHALLENGES ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR DRAWBACKS
OF VPN
A. DirectAccess:
The DirectAccess are commonly known as Unified Remote
Access. This is similar to VPN network that mainly provides
intranet connectivity to their client’s system when the system
of the customer is connected with the internet. The traditional
VPN connection connects and ends connection by a user
manually. However, in DirectAccess, the connections are
designed in such a way that they connect automatically whne
the computer is connected with the internet.
The DirectAccess, mainly establishes IPSec tunnels in
between the client and the server of DirectAccess and then
uses IPv6 port to reach to the intranet resources or some other
clients of DirectAccess [14]. The DirectAccess technology
involves IPv6 traffic over the IPv4 traffic so that they can
reach intranet that is beyond the internet. The internet depends
on IPv4 packets. All the traffic that comes in intranet are
mostly encrypted using the IPSec and are also encapsulated by
IPv4 packets that may cause firewalls of no configuration or
no proxies are required [15]. This technology can use more
than one tunneling technologies that depend on the network
configuration to which the client is connected. The client has
the freedom to use Teredo Tunneling or the IP-HTTPS to
configure the system correctly.
Figure 1: DirectAccess
(Source: Liang et al., 2017)
B. SSL VPN:
SSL VPN, Secure Sockets Layer VPN , are form of VPN is
basically a type of VPN that uses a standard Web Browser in
its network process. The traditional IPSec VPN network
requires manual installation that is very difficult to manage.
However, the SSL VPN network does not need any
specialized installation of the client software on the computer
of end user. The SSL VPN gives all the remote users the
access of web applications, application of client/server, as well
as connections established from internal network.
A VPN network is a secured process of communication for
transmitting of data and other important information that are
transmitted in between two endpoints [13]. The SSL VPN
mainly is an accumulation of more than one VPN device that
is connected by users using the web browser. The traffic that
is connected in between the Web browser and SSL VPN are
basically encrypted with SSL protocol along with its
successor, which is the Transport Layer Security protocol. The
SSLVPN is a versatile technology that is very easy to use and
offers a granular control to many range of users on different
computers that can be accessed from different locations.
Figure 2: SSL VPN
(Source: Liyanage et al., 2015)

C.SoftEther VPN:
SoftEther VPN, known as Software Ethernet Virtual Private
Network is the most powerful as well as easy handling
protocol of VPN software. SoftEther VPN mainly runs on
Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows and Mac. The SoftEther
VPN is basically an open source protocol that can be used for
any personal as well as commercial use for free of charge. The
SoftEther VPN is an alternative to an OpenVPN or a
MicrosoftVPN server. A clone function is involved with the
SoftEther VPN of OpenVPN server. Integration can be done
very easily from an OpenVPn to a SoftEther VPN. SoftEther
VPN is faster comparatively to OpenVPN. The Microsoft
SSTP VPN supports the SoftEther VPN and there is no need
to pay extra for the Windows Server License.
VI. CONCLUSION
The virtual private network is a technology that provides a
secured, internal, and private network that are basically
transmitted over public networks that includes internet. There
are a number of VPN technologies that can be studied or can
be outlined from which IPSec and the SSL VPN are most
common technologies in VPN. There has to be a secured
communication channel that can be opened or can be tunneled
through a network that is insecure through VPN. The security
on the client side cannot be overlooked.
This report has shed light on the detailed process of VPN
that helps the business process to increase their network
condition. This report illustrates a detail of the Virtual Private
Network in the business structure. The types of VPN that are
used by businesses are described in this report showing their
advantages and disadvantages. The VPN technologies has
many advantages along with many disadvantages that are
described in detailed in this report. To mitigate all the
drawbacks and challenges those are faced by organization
while deploying a VPN network are discussed in this report
showing all the details of the alternatives. The alternatives that
are used instead of VPN are very easy to use and very less
costly compared to other technologies.
VII. FUTURE WORKS
The future work that the VPN will focus is on the Network
Access Control that are used for accessing all the connected
devices so that to determine whether it is the correct time to
connect. The future VPN will mainly focus on the
authentication of the user and the client. The VPN that will be
built in future mainly builds operating systems that are
invisible to end users. All the things on a VPN must be
automated on VPN client and on the management side. There
is no involvement of the network administrator.
The VPN will also become very common in the coming 10
to 15 years just like the firewalls are. All ca possess a VPN
network. The VPN network will become much stronger like
never before with involvement of all technologies that are
needed today. The security issues also can be minimized by
using the VPN technology in the future.
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