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 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.

By Brian Ellis BSc

E-mail

For more information on Eyeball Networks visit

www.nattraversal.com

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