Method and apparatus for facilitating peer-to-peer application communication

Abstract

A system for performing Network Address Translation, which allows applications to request information concerning address translations to be performed, so that those applications may send useful information to other applications for the purposes of allowing applications to communicate through the NAT device in the absence of statically defined rules for specific channels of communication.

Description

[0001]This application is a second, continuation reissue application of first, U.S. patent Reissue application Ser. No. 11 / 299,236, filed Dec. 9, 2005, of U.S. Pat. No. 6,661,799, to be re-issued as U.S. Pat. No. Re. 43,057, the content of all of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference. More than one reissue application has been filed based on U.S. Pat. No. 6,661,799. Reissue application Ser. No. 11 / 299,236, filed Dec. 9, 2005, of U.S. Pat. No. 6,661,799 is the parent of this continuation reissue application.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates to devices for handling communications between applications exchanging data over the Internet. More particularly, this invention relates to a Network Address Translation (NAT) device and a system and method using such NAT device for facilitating peer-to-peer communication of data over the Internet.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]As shown in FIG. 1, a Network Addres...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This solution enables efficient peer-to-peer communication by providing each application with necessary externally valid address information, allowing symmetric data exchange and supporting complex NAT rules, thereby overcoming the limitations of conventional NAT devices in handling multiple internal applications and newly allocated servers.

Problems solved by technology

The problem addressed by such a conventional device is that an organization may require a large internal network, with many devices on it, each device requiring a unique IP address.

In view of the currently available address space for unique IP addresses (232 available addresses) and present address allocation patterns, this organization may be unable to have allocated to it a sufficient number of official IP addresses, by the authorities that assign such addresses.

The difficulty arises when devices or applications (programs running on a particular device) in the large internal network need to communicate with the Global Internet (by which we mean any IP network, public or private, using officially assigned IP addresses).

Because the addresses assigned internally by the organization either overlap with officially assigned addresses belonging to some other organization, or are officially unassigned, the Global Internet cannot use these to send data correctly into the organization's internal network.

For an organization with thousands of applications on its internal network, a naïve NAT, able only to assign official IP addresses, may not be enough.

If only 31 of, say, 5000 applications (each of which might correspond to an individual employee) can be using the Global Internet at once, the problem may not be considered fully solved.

The difficulty is that the first mode only allows Internal Clients to send data to (and thereafter receive data from) External Servers, while the second only allows External Clients to send data to (and thereafter receive replies from) a small set of Internal Servers at fixed IP addresses and ports, pre-defined in the NAT associated with the Internal Servers.

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