Providing telephony services to terminals behind a firewall and/or a network address translator
US8244876B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 17, 2006 |
| Grant date | Aug 14, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 23, 2028 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04M7/0078
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided to allow telephony or other types of media communications and services to be provided for a device (24) having a private network address that resides behind a firewall and network address and port translation (NAPT) module (which is not aware of the underlying protocol for the communications and services). Examples of the underlying protocol includes the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Real-Time Protocol (RTP). A path through the firewall and NAPT module is defined by use of keep-alive messages communicated through the firewall and NAPT module. Addresses that are allocated by the firewall and NAPT module are associated with the device (24) for both signaling and media communications. A feature of the firewall that enables the provision of telephony and media communications through the firewall that is protocol-unaware is that the firewall allows responses to messages initiated by the device back through the firewall.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.