Patent ID: 8098671

Claim:
A network device operating in a network, the network device comprising: an input interface to accept an incoming datagram from a source device and intended for a destination device; an output interface to make a first outgoing datagram available to the network; a processor operatively associated with the input interface and the output interface, the processor to: intercept the incoming datagram via the input interface when the incoming datagram is addressed to the destination device, provide the first outgoing datagram to the output interface, the first outgoing datagram causing the source device to send one or more subsequent datagrams to the network device, where the network device comprises one of an application layer gateway (ALG), a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy, or a SIP back-to-back user agent (B2BUA), and forward information associated with the incoming datagram to the destination device via a second outgoing datagram, the second outgoing datagram instructing the destination device to communicate with the network device that acts on behalf of the source device.