Method and apparatus for connecting packet telephony calls between secure and non-secure networks

• US 7,668,306 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2002
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Finnie, Donald K., Phomsopha, Bounthavivone K., Mercer, Hugh P., Strathmeyer, Carl R., Illikkal, Rameshkumar G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz; Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan; Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US10/095,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20030169859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,909 Days
• Field of Search: 379/219, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/25 of the same type
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0209 Architectural arrangements, e.g. perimeter networks or demilitarized zones
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1106 Call signalling protocols; H.323 and related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/085 specially adapted for interworking of IP-based networks with other networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0078 Security; Fraud detection; Fraud prevention

Abstract

Described herein is a method and apparatus for connecting packet telephony calls between secure networks and non-secure networks.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a controller to transfer information content between a first packet telephony stream on a first protocol stack from a first network and a second packet telephony stream on a second protocol stack from a second network;

a stream transformer to send and receive the first packet telephony stream on one side of a boundary between the first and second networks and to send and receive the second packet telephony stream on the other side of the boundary wherein the stream transformer uses at least one of time division multiplexing (TDM) and exchange of data structures containing digitized segments of a telephony payload to transfer the information content and to maintain separation between the protocol stacks;

a protocol translator to translate a first protocol used on one side of the boundary into a second protocol used on the other side of the boundary;

an address translator (AT) to translate a first address used on one side of the boundary into a second address used on the other side of the boundary;

a first interface coupled to the controller for interfacing with the first network;

a second interface coupled to the controller for interfacing with the second network;

a packet inspection engine to inspect a data stream between the first network and the second network and to remove the telephony data packets from the data stream; and

a packet disassembler/reassembler (PDR) to receive the telephony data packets from the packet inspection engine and read a header of each telephony data packet to direct each telephony data packet to a protocol stack responsible for a telephony stream.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second networks are Internet protocol (IP) networks.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the stream transformer further comprising:

a first transceiver to communicate with the first network and a second transceiver to communicate with the second network;

a first terminator and a first initiator included in the first transceiver to terminate and initiate packet telephony streams for the first network;

a second terminator and a second initiator included in the second transceiver to terminate and initiate packet telephony streams with the second network;

an information content transferor coupled to the first transceiver and the second transceiver to transfer information content between a packet telephony stream of the first network and a packet telephony stream for the second network while insulating the first network from the second network; and

a connection permissioner coupled to the content transferor to enable a terminator in one transceiver to transfer contents of a packet telephony stream to an initiator in the other transceiver.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, the protocol translator further comprising:

a protocol sensor coupled to the first terminator and the second terminator to sense a first protocol used by the first network and a second protocol used by the second network; and

a dynamic protocol selector to implement use of the first protocol by the first initiator and to implement use of the second protocol by the second initiator.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, the AT further comprising:

a private address register coupled to at least one transceiver and to a call permissioner of a stream transformer;

a public address register coupled to at least one transceiver and to the call permissioner of the stream transformer; and

an address translator coupled to the private address register and to the public address register.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first network and the second network are any combination of secured and non-secured networks.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first network and the second network are any combination of private and public networks.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first network and the second network use different packet protocols.

9. A packet telephony transformer, comprising:

a controller to control the transfer of call content between a first network and a second network and to insulate a first packet telephony stream of the first network from a second packet telephony stream of the second network;

a first protocol engine communicatively coupled to the controller to process connection protocols and to transfer call content for the first packet telephony stream;

a second protocol engine communicatively coupled to the controller and to the first protocol engine to process connection protocols and to transfer call content for the second packet telephony stream;

a packet disassembler/reassembler (PDR) coupled to the controller and to the protocol engines to pass a telephony data packet to either the first protocol engine or the second protocol engine based on a header of the telephony data packet; and

a packet inspector coupled to the controller and to the PDR to inspect a data stream between the first network and the second network and to remove telephony data packets from the data stream for transfer to the PDR.

10. The packet telephony transformer of claim 9, wherein the first protocol engine and/or the second protocol engine include multiple protocol sub-engines for processing multiple protocols within one protocol engine.

11. The packet telephony transformer of claim 9, further comprising a first network interface coupled to the packet inspector and to the first network and a second network interface coupled to the packet inspector and to the second network.