Network address and/or port translation

• US 20030007486A1
• Filed: 06/14/2001
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genband US LLC (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: March, Sean W., McKnight, David W., Sollee, Patrick N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,068,655 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2517 using port numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2539 Hiding addresses; Keeping addresses anonymous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/255 Maintenance or indexing of mapping tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2564 for a higher-layer protocol, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method and apparatus for communicating data units (e.g., Internet Protocol or IP packets) between devices on one or more networks includes storing address and/or port translation information, and receiving a data unit having a source address and port and a destination address and port. Both the source and destination addresses and/or ports are translated, with the data unit containing the translated source and destination addresses and/or ports transmitted to a destination.

Claims

1. A system capable of communicating with plural devices on one or more networks, comprising:

a storage module to store address translation information; and

a controller adapted to receive a data unit from a first network, the data unit having a source address and a destination address,

the controller adapted to further translate both the source address and the destination address of the data unit based on the address translation information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network address translation information contains a first address associated with a first device and a second address associated with a second device, the address translation information to map the first address to a first alias address and to map the second address to a second alias address.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to further transmit the data unit containing the translated source address and destination address to the first network or another network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the address translation information comprises an address and port translation table, and wherein the controller is adapted to further translate a source port and a destination port in the data unit.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the data unit comprises an Internet Protocol header and a User Datagram Protocol header.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data unit contains Real-Time Protocol data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a media portal adapted to communicate data units containing media data between plural devices, the system further comprising an agent adapted to perform call control signaling to establish a call session in which the data units are communicated.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the agent is adapted to communicate requests to the controller to dynamically create and update the address translation information in a call session.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the data unit comprises a data unit to be communicated between at least two devices in a call session.

10. A method of communicating between two endpoints, comprising:

in a communications portal, providing a first interface to a first device and providing a second interface to a second device;

transporting data units, through the communications portal, between the first device and the second device; and

the communications portal hiding an address of the first device from the second device and hiding an address of the second device from the first device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing address translation information; and

translating both a source address and a destination address of each data unit.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

storing port translation information; and

translating both a source port and a destination port of each data unit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein translating the source and destination addresses and ports comprises translating Internet Protocol addresses and User Datagram Protocol ports.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein storing the address translation information comprises storing a first device address associated with the first device and a second device address associated with the second device, and storing a first alias address mapped to the first device address and a second alias address mapped to the second device address.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein providing the first interface comprises providing the second alias address to represent the second device to the first device, and providing the second interface comprises providing the first alias address to represent the first device to the second device.

17. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to further store the address translation information as an entry in an address translation table having plural entries.

18. The article of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to use different entries of the address translation table for different communications sessions.

19. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to transmit the data unit with the translated source and destination addresses.

20. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to communicate the data unit that is part of a call session between two endpoints.

21. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to further store port translation information, and to translate both the source and destination port of the data unit based on the port translation information.

22. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to receive the data unit comprising an Internet Protocol packet.

23. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to further:

allocate an address for a call session, the address being part of the address translation information; and

deallocate the address in response to termination of the call session.

24. The article of claim 23, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to further use the deallocated address for another call session as needed.

16. An article comprising at least one storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a system to:

store address translation information;

receive a data unit containing a source address and a destination address; and

translate both the source and destination addresses based on the address translation table.