Symmetric NAT Traversal Method for Session Initial Protocol (SIP)

Abstract

Although the integration of SIP-based systems with a network address translation (NAT) environment has been investigated extensively, SIP-based system operation in symmetric model NAT remains relatively unexplored. This paper studies the application of symmetric NAT traversal techniques to SIP-based systems. This study focuses on following the SIP process, a non-additive service server, and employs standard SIP commands such as “REGISTER,” “INVITE,” and “200 OK” to predict and deliver the IP addresses and port numbers of the local NAT. This study also implements RTP streaming in the client-to-client (C2C) mode. The symmetric NAT traversal method for the SIP increases the direct peer-to-peer connection rate. This approach also avoids the STUN and RTP-Relay server. Experimental results with 50 types of NAT indicate that symmetric NAT traversal performs better than the STUN solution. The RTP-Relay server bandwidth cost is likewise superior to the TURN solution. These finding have important implications for SIP-based system developers and carrier providers.