Establishing a call in a packet-based communications network
OwnerJulian Mitchell, Michael Roshko +1inventors
InventorsJulian Mitchell, Michael Roshko, Cedric Aoun
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Abstract
In order for a voice call or other communication session to be provided between entities in two different address domains, at least one of which is private, then a media proxy has previously been used to forward media packets. The present invention provides a way in which such a media proxy can be eliminated from a call flow after the initial stages of the call. This is achieved in the case that a network address translator involved in the call has a particular characteristic, such as being a cone network address translator.
Claims20
A method of operating a media proxy in a public address realm of a communications network in order to establish a packet-based call between two entities, at least one of which is in a private address realm connected to the public address realm by an address translation node said method comprising the steps of:
- (i) accessing information about a characteristic of the address translation node at a location in the communications network;
- (ii) receiving packets at the media proxy from the entity in the private address realm via a public communications point at the address translation node;
- (iii) if the accessed information about a characteristic of the address translation node indicates that, for a plurality of communications each from a particular private communications point to a different location in the public network, those communications are always associated with the same translated public communications point at the address translation node, then forwarding information about the public communications point to at least one of the entities such that those entities are able to forward packets to one another without passing those packets via the media proxy.
A media proxy node for use in a public address realm of a communications network in order to establish a packet-based call between two entities, at least one of which is in a private address realm connected to the public address realm by an address translation node said media proxy node comprising:
- (i) an input arranged to receive packets at the media proxy from the entity in the private address realm via a public communications point at the address translation node;
- (ii) a processor arranged such that if a characteristic of the address translation node indicates that, for a plurality of communications each from a particular private communications point to a different location in the public network, those communications are always associated with the same translated public communications point at the address translation node, then information about the public communications point is forwarded to at least one of the entities such that those entities are able to forward packets to one another without passing those packets via the media proxy.
A control node for use in a packet-based communications network and arranged to control calls to or from a plurality of entities in its domain, at least some of said entities being associated with one or more address translation nodes and a media proxy, said control node having access to information about a characteristic of each of the address translation nodes, said characteristic being whether for a plurality of communications each from a particular private communications point to a different location in the public network, those communications are always associated with the same translated public communications point at the address translation node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.