P2P Address Discovery via STUN and ICE Servers

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Solution Overview

Problem

Establishing communication dialogs between IP-capable end points using a peer-to-peer architecture is challenging due to difficulties in address discovery, especially in mobile environments with frequent address changes and network address translation (NAT) and firewall issues, leading to performance problems.

Innovation Solution

The method employs Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) protocol in conjunction with Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) and Traversal Using Relay NAT (TURN) servers to facilitate address discovery and dialog establishment over a P2P network, enabling early address discovery and reducing latency by using SIP MESSAGE and ICE checks.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a peer-to-peer architecture is used for address discovery, then scalability and direct communication are improved, but address discovery reliability deteriorates due to NAT and firewall issues

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovescalabilityVSAvoidaddress discovery reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) server as an intermediary to assist in address discovery. The STUN server helps endpoints determine their public IP addresses and port mappings through NAT devices, enabling reliable P2P connection establishment without requiring a full intermediary signaling server for address resolution.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If traditional SIP proxy/registrar servers are used for address discovery, then address discovery reliability is improved, but system complexity and scalability deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaddress discovery reliabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the address discovery function from the traditional SIP proxy/registrar server model and implements it through lightweight STUN servers. This separation allows the signaling protocol to remain simple while address discovery is handled by dedicated traversal utilities, reducing overall system complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Adaptability or versatility

If endpoints frequently change addresses in mobile environments, then mobility and adaptability are improved, but dialog establishment performance deteriorates due to address discovery difficulties

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovemobilityVSAvoiddialog establishment performance

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs address discovery and connection establishment attempts in advance before actual media transmission begins. By using STUN servers to pre-determine reachable addresses and connection parameters, the system prepares communication paths ahead of time, reducing latency when endpoints move or change addresses during mobile operation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2608488B1Dialog establishment over a peer-to-peer architecture

Publication Date: 2014.05.14 BLACKBERRY LTD

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AI summary

A device and method are described for establishing a dialog between Internet Protocol (IP) end points using a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture. The device, method and computer readable memory utilize servers to determine one or more possible addresses to attempt the dialog establish using. The device and methods described allow for an early discovery of an end point address which can be used for the dialog establishment.