Is Nat Traversal Holding Back VoIP and Ip Communications Adoption?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications is quickly becoming an integral part of the consumer and business markets. High quality multimedia communications along with rich presence, universal mobility and availability, and lower cost are some of the benefits VoIP brings to end-users. For operators, it promises new revenues from new and converged services, service bundling, increased customer loyalty, and lower capital and operation expenses by building and running a single IP-based network for all communications services.

The increased penetration of broadband Internet, the main driving force behind VoIP adoption, also poses one of the biggest challenges – VoIP calls do not work well in many broadband situations for NATs and Firewalls break VoIP.
To address my concerns about NAT Traversal and the future of VoIP I had the CTO of Eyeball Networks, a leading software provider for VoIP, video telephony and instant messaging, answer a few questions.
What is NAT, and why should I be concerned about NAT traversal?

More than 90 percent of PCs or end-devices access the broadband Internet using private IP addresses. These private IP addresses get mapped into real Internet addresses using a mechanism called Network Address Translation (NAT), which is implemented in all broadband access devices (also called broadband routers such as from LinkSys, NetGear or SMC) and sometimes also in the service provider network.

NAT traversal refers to the problem, and solution thereof, where two computers behind NATs sometimes fail to communicate with each other for features such as IM, VoIP, file-sharing and online-games. If you are building devices, applications or services involving Internet communications, then NAT traversal should be a concern.

What are some applications NAT traversal technology is used for?

A list of applications requiring NAT traversal technologies follow:
•VoIP and video telephony
•File-sharing such as picture and video sharing
•Online games
•Collaboration tools such as presentation and white-boarding
•Any other applications using client-to-client data transfer
How has the availability of effective NAT traversal solutions changed the way VoIP and other IP-based services are delivered and used?

Traditionally NAT traversal has been one of the critical barriers for widespread VoIP adoption. Development of IETF standards such as STUN, TURN and ICE provide a rich set of mechanisms for an interoperable standards-based and scalable solution to this problem. Availability of an effective NAT traversal solution such as Eyeball AnyFirewall Engine has removed this barrier providing guaranteed traversal of VoIP calls through NATs, firewalls and web-proxies. It is effectively bringing VoIP and other IP-based services to plug and play level between devices, applications and service providers.

What are some of the challenges traditionally faced by developers of client-to-client networking applications, especially in peer-to-peer and VoIP settings?

Traditionally developers did not have proper technologies and tools to solve the NAT traversal problem for client-to-client networking applications. For example, for VoIP applications the developers/operators faced the following issues.

Some products implemented only partial NAT traversal solution. For example, many VoIP phones only support STUN, and therefore cannot be used for client-to-client data transfer by most broadband Internet users.

In most cases, operators settled for using a relay server (such as Session Border Controller) for all calls. Since all calls are relayed, the relay server becomes a bottleneck (and expensive) for service scalability, and deteriorates call quality by injecting additional delay, jitter and packet-loss. Also since SBCs implement proprietary protocols products from one vendor do not work with those from another vendor.

In some cases, developers have developed proprietary NAT traversal solutions (such as Skype) that do not interoperate with others.

What types of features and capabilities is the VoIP industry looking for in a NAT traversal solution?
Here is a list if features and capabilities the VoIP industry is looking for:
•100 percent traversal of VoIP calls through NATs, firewalls and web-proxies.
•Standard-based solution to ensure 3rd party interoperability (IETF drafts STUN, TURN and ICE).
•Works without changing NATs, firewalls or other infrastructures.
•Most calls should be peer-to-peer for best media quality and scalability.
•Comprehensive solution with handset/client and server components.
•Small footprint for the end-point solution with support for multiple PC and embedded platforms.
•Mature and field-proven technology.
•The bottom-line is that when a user purchases a VoIP phone or service, it should just work in all cases without any service scalability bottlenecks.
What is AnyFirewall Technology and how is it being used by companies in the VoIP industry?

The award winning AnyFirewall™ Engine is the industry’s leading NAT traversal Software Development Kit (SDK) for guaranteed VoIP and video call completion across NATs, firewalls, and Web proxies. AFE incorporates the most — comprehensive implementation of the IETF standards STUN, TURN and ICE. Eyeball’s patented AnyFirewall™ Technology offers – for the first time in the industry- a completely software-based solution that is standards-based (i.e. STUN, TURN, ICE) and primarily peer-to-peer resulting in 100% VoIP and video call completion. Our customers are integrating this technology into soft phones, video phones, set-top boxes, and PDA-based mobile phones.

Why use STUN, TURN and ICE for NAT traversal technologies?

STUN, TURN and ICE are results of international standardization body IETF which is responsible for developing all Internet-related protocols. Together they provide an excellent methodology for NAT traversal which is being standardized in order to ensure interoperability between products and services from different vendors. Earlier efforts on NAT traversal solutions such as application level gateways (ALGs) and session border controllers (SBCs) either did not work well enough or had interoperability, performance and scalability problems. STUN, TURN and ICE have received widespread industry support from vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and Nokia; and has been adopted for CableLabs IMS specification for next-generation communications architecture. Eyeball AnyFirewall Engine provides the most comprehensive implementation of STUN, TURN and ICE along with features such as UPnP and http-tunneling.

In a nut shell I found that NAT devices and firewalls are major barriers to the widespread adoption of VoIP, and IETF work STUN, TURN, and ICE provide an excellent methodology to address this issue. However, implementation of these methodologies requires considerable insight and experience. Eyeball Networks has invested many years to develop its AnyFirewall technology, the most comprehensive implementation of STUN TURN and ICE, to enable service providers and device makers software to ensure 100% firewall and NAT traversal of IP communications. If VoIP providers and device makers take advantage of this AnyFirewall Technology Nat Traversal will no longer be a concern, and IP communications will one day overtake the usage of traditional phone lines.

For more information on Eyeball Networks visit NatTraversal.com

All names and trademarks are copyright of their respective holders.

About the Author

By Brian Ellis BSc
press@eyeball.com

SCS500.com Nortel/Avaya Software Communication System

PPROKTE – Visonic Powermax Pro Advanced Home Security System $503.69 PowerMaxPro is an all-in-one solution that brings an entirely new level of versatility, connectivity and style to the world of home security, safety and control. This premium wireless solution lets homeowners view and control their homes from anywhere via any Web browser or even a mobile phone. At the same time, it fully meets their demands for ease of use and reliability, in an elegant, contempor…

Startech Com 1 Port Expresscard Serial Adapter Card Wired RS-232 460 Kbps $55.09 The EC1S952 1 Port Native ExpressCard RS232 Serial Adapter Card with 16950 UART lets you add an RS232 serial port to your laptop or ExpressCard-equipped desktop computer. The serial ExpressCard is designed based on a single-chip architecture (as opposed to cards that use a “bridge chip”), providing native PCI Express communication for greater performance and reliability by reducing the CPU load by…

AMD FX-8150 FX 8-Core Black Edition Processor Socket AM3+ – FD8150FRGUBOX $197.00 Experience responsive game play and mega-tasking performance with the new AMD FX Processors. Get an AMD FD8150FRGUBOX FX-8150 Processor in your system. AMD FX Processors deliver an entirely new level of performance while minimizing power usage. The AMD FD8150FRGUBOX FX-8150 Processor features the world’s first 8-core desktop solution and a new architecture developed from the ground up. All AMD FX …

AMD FX-8120 8-Core Black Edition Processor Socket AM3+ – FD8120FRGUBOX $155.00 Octa-core (8 Core)…

AMD FX 6100 6-Core Processor, 3.3 6 Socket AM3+ – FD6100WMGUSBX $129.99 Experience responsive game play and mega-tasking performance with the new AMD FX Processors. Get an AMD FD6100WMGUSBX FX-6100 Processor in your system. AMD FX Processors deliver an entirely new level of performance while minimizing power usage. The AMD FD6100WMGUSBX FX-6100 Processor features a new architecture developed from the ground up. All AMD FX Processors are unlocked, overclockable and ult…

AMD FX 4100 4-Core Processor, 3.6 4 Socket AM3+ FD4100WMGUSBX $104.48 AMD FX-4100 X4 3100MHZ 8MB 95W AM3+…

Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration $25.99 Thorough coverage of the improvements and changes to SharePoint 2010SharePoint 2010 boasts a variety of incredible new features that will challenge even the most experienced administrator who is upgrading from SharePoint 2007. Written by a team of SharePoint experts, this book places a takes aim at showing you how to make these new features work right for you. Offering an in-depth look at SharePoi…

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture $39.99 Developers of enterprise applications (e.g reservation systems, supply chain programs, financial systems, etc.) face a unique set of challenges, different than those faced by their desktop system and embedded system peers. For this reason, enterprise developers must uncover their own solutions. In this new book, noted software engineering expert Martin Fowler turns his attention to enterprise appl…

Essential SharePoint 2010: Overview, Governance, and Planning (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) $24.55 “This book will become a mainstay in your SharePoint library. You will find yourself reaching for it whenever you run into a difficult situation or need extra guidance on how to use the new SharePoint product set.” – From the Foreword by Thomas Rizzo, Senior Director, SharePoint Product Management, Microsoft The Only Book That’s Completely Focused on Maximizing the Busi…