Method based on the combination of the UPnP and STUN for NAT traversal

• US 8,560,607 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2009
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhengzhou Seanet Technologies Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Institute Of Acoustics Chinese Academy Of Sciences
• Inventors: Wang, Jinlin, Ren, Hao, Lu, Yifeng, Su, Shaowei, Feng, Zhentan
• Primary Examiner(s): Riyami, Abdullah
• Assistant Examiner(s): COX, BRIAN P
• Application Number:
  US12/937,337
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,626 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/220
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• 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 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method based on the combination of UPnP and STUN for NAT traversal. The method of the present invention effectively takes the advantages of UPnP and STUN. In particularly, when UpnP fails to traverse NAT, STUN is applied to perform the NAT traversal for the second time, so that the efficiency of the successful traversal is effectively improved. For the symmetric NAT traversal, a Port-Adding Sample Estimation method based on NAT adding port mapping is provided for port estimation, to avoid the defects resulted from the third-party agent and the blindness of the speculation approach. And, where both of the communication peers in the P2P streaming media system are behind NAT, the method that the part of the ordinary outer peers with the sufficient bandwidth acts as the Auxiliary-Relay peers is provided to release the pressure of the relay server so that the bottle-neck of the communication is broken through.

Claims

1. A method based on the combination of UPnP and STUN technology for NAT traversal, including the steps of:

(1) a user peer joining into a peer-to-peer streaming media system broadcast-searching process a message of UPnP devices in an internal net by SSDP protocol;

(2) if the broadcast-searching process succeeds, sending a request for adding port-mapping to a control URL of a NAT gateway by SOAP protocol, and after the port-mapping is added, the user peer is connected with an outer peer for data communication, thereby realizing NAT traversal; and

(3) if the broadcast-searching process fails, the user peer initiating STUN function model to perform NAT traversal for the second time,

wherein said step (3) further including;

(1) if the NAT is a cone-shaped NAT, the user peer communicating with other peers through obtained outer address port to realize NAT traversal;

(2) if the NAT is a symmetric NAT, the user peer performing NAT traversal by using port-adding sample estimation method,

wherein the said port-adding sample estimation method including the following steps;

the user peer behind the symmetric NAT initiating three connections to a STUN server in outer web in order, and obtaining mapped ports P₁, P₂ and P₃ added by the three connections fed back by the STUN server, and then the user peer performing the following processing based on a feature of the three ports P₁, P₂ and P₃,

2a) if P₁, P₂ and P₃ are an arithmetical progression, then the symmetric NAT adds port-mapping by increasing the original port by the common difference d of the arithmetical progression in order, so that the user peer behind the symmetric NAT communicates with the other peers by adding the common difference d to its original outer port as its new outer port and by filling itself into a load of the data communication, and

2b) if P₁, P₂ and P₃ are not an arithmetical progression, the symmetric NAT adds port-mapping randomly, and the user peer estimates the overall rule for port-mapping according to the samples of port-adding,

the user peer behind the symmetric NAT initiates N−

3 connections again to the STUN server, so as to constitute sample observation values with a size of N together with the three previously obtained mapped ports, wherein assuming sample observation values are in the interval [a, b] and dividing the interval [a, b] into M sub-intervals (M<

N), and wherein a=n₀<

n₁<

. . . <

n_M-1<

n_M,

assuming each sub-interval (n_i, n_i+1) (i=0, 1, . . . , M−

1) includes t_i observation values, then based on Bernoulli law of large numbers and definition of probability density, the following formula is obtained;

φ

_N(x)=t_i/NΔ

n_i(Δ

n_i=n_i+1−

n_i),

wherein a graph of φ

_N(x) is a distribution histogram of the overall rule for port-mapping over the interval [a, b], and

a sub-interval over which the mapped ports of the NAT distribute can be determined by observing the interval Δ

n_i with the relative high value of φ

_N(x), and then the next port-mapping to be added during next communication by the symmetrical NAT is speculated in ergodic way in the sub-interval, so as to improve speculating efficiency.

2. The method based on the combination of UPnP and STUN for NAT traversal according to the claim 1, further including a peer auxiliary relay method,

wherein if both of the user peer and the outer peer in the peer-to-peer streaming media system are behind NAT, the user peer will take some ordinary peers in an outer web with sufficient bandwidth as its auxiliary relay peers.

3. The method based on the combination of UPnP and STUN for NAT traversal according to the claim 2, wherein the peer auxiliary relay method further including:

1) outer peers which have joined into the peer-to-peer streaming media system register with a relay server at first and the relay server keeps a list of the outer peers;

2) the relay server probes all of the registered outer peers with heartbeat mechanism and selects a number of M outer peers with the smallest RTT as candidates of the auxiliary relay peers;

3) the user peer registers with the relay server, and at the time of registering the user peer the relay server transmits the list of the outer peers to the user peer;

4) the user peer randomly chooses a number of N (N<

M) outer peers to establish connections, and selects one outer peer with the smallest RTT as its auxiliary relay peer while sending registering information to said auxiliary relay peer; and

5) at the same time of determining its own auxiliary relay peer, the user peer obtains information of the peers registered on a registering list of its auxiliary relay peer, so that when communicating with other peers behind NAT, the user peer queries the registering list of its auxiliary relay peer at first, and if the outer peer to communicate with is on the list, the said auxiliary relay peer is used as a relay peer, otherwise the relay server is used.