Open-Source VPN Software
Choon Hoe Chua, Sok Choo Ng · 2022
The use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) as a mean to secure communication has become increasingly important with the growth in remote working. While vendor supplied VPN solutions are widely available, there is a growing trend to evaluate and implement solutions based on open-source software. In this study, we investigate three popular open-source VPN software (OpenVPN, OpenConnect and Wireguard) and compare their relative merits in terms of performance. Several studies have shown Wireguard's superiority in performance over OpenVPN and other VPN software but neither it nor OpenVPN has been benchmarked against OpenConnect. This study presents the performance differences between the three products across a range of client devices in selected typical deployment scenarios. We also evaluate the performance differences of the software on desktop servers functioning as VPN gateways behind a router and Network Address Translator. Our study shows that VPN performance, besides the server side, is highly dependent on implementation of the client application. Even though Wireguard is ahead in performance in some operating environments, there are still cases where OpenVPN and OpenConnect come out on par.