TCP Tunneling Over Public Internet Using UDP Gateways
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing TCP tunneling technologies are complex and inefficient, particularly when securing transmissions over untrusted networks like the public Internet, as they require intricate configuration and may not effectively handle symmetric NATs, leading to unreliable endpoint discovery and communication.
Innovation Solution
The use of the datagram-oriented UDP protocol for communication between tunnel gateways, along with a single UDP port for all communication, facilitates reliable endpoint discovery and secure TCP communication by enabling direct server communication even behind symmetric NATs, and allows for static tunnel configuration, supporting high-availability applications without the need for VPNs or reconfiguring the host networking stack.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If TCP protocol is used for communication between tunnel gateways, then reliable data transmission is achieved, but endpoint discovery on NAT routers becomes unreliable and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces UDP as an intermediary protocol between tunnel gateways, which simplifies the communication channel while maintaining reliability through application-level protocols. UDP's connectionless nature avoids TCP's complex state management, yet the system achieves reliable transmission through explicit acknowledgment mechanisms at the application layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the transport protocol parameter from TCP to UDP, fundamentally altering the communication paradigm. This parameter change reduces complexity by eliminating TCP's connection establishment, maintenance, and termination overhead, while reliability is maintained through UDP-based acknowledgment and retransmission mechanisms implemented at the application layer.
2Stability of the object's composition
If TCP protocol is used for communication between tunnel gateways, then structured data transmission is ensured, but endpoint discovery on NAT routers becomes unreliable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs endpoint discovery actions beforehand using UDP before establishing structured data transmission. By using UDP for initial endpoint discovery and negotiation, the system can reliably establish connection parameters and NAT traversal state before transitioning to structured TCP-like data transmission, ensuring both discovery reliability and data structure integrity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple ports are used for different communication styles between servers, then communication versatility is achieved, but endpoint discovery reliability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the UDP port universal by using the same port number for all communication styles and purposes between tunnel gateways. This single port handles endpoint discovery, authentication, data transmission, and control functions, eliminating the confusion and reliability issues associated with multiple ports while maintaining full communication versatility through protocol-level multiplexing.
Data Source
AI summary
A datagram-oriented UDP protocol is used for communication between tunnel gateways in a wide area network. Lightweight remote client accesses network services using TCP tunneling. Each remote client maintains one or more UDP/IP+DTLS communication channels to a single member of the gateway group. Gateway servers belonging to the gateway group form some interconnection topology linking each gateway server to each other gateway server, whereby each gateway server maintains a communication channel with every other gateway server in the gateway group.