Computer Science – Networking and Internet Architecture
Scientific paper
2006-03-18
USENIX Annual Technical Conference, April 2005 (USENIX '05), Anaheim, CA
Computer Science
Networking and Internet Architecture
8 figures, 1 table
Scientific paper
Network Address Translation (NAT) causes well-known difficulties for peer-to-peer (P2P) communication, since the peers involved may not be reachable at any globally valid IP address. Several NAT traversal techniques are known, but their documentation is slim, and data about their robustness or relative merits is slimmer. This paper documents and analyzes one of the simplest but most robust and practical NAT traversal techniques, commonly known as "hole punching." Hole punching is moderately well-understood for UDP communication, but we show how it can be reliably used to set up peer-to-peer TCP streams as well. After gathering data on the reliability of this technique on a wide variety of deployed NATs, we find that about 82% of the NATs tested support hole punching for UDP, and about 64% support hole punching for TCP streams. As NAT vendors become increasingly conscious of the needs of important P2P applications such as Voice over IP and online gaming protocols, support for hole punching is likely to increase in the future.
Ford Bryan
Kegel Dan
Srisuresh Pyda
No associations
LandOfFree
Peer-to-Peer Communication Across Network Address Translators does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Peer-to-Peer Communication Across Network Address Translators, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Peer-to-Peer Communication Across Network Address Translators will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-489732