Patent ID: 7760744

Claim:
A method of determining whether a multimedia network endpoint is behind a firewall or network address translation (FW/NAT) device, comprising: receiving, at a network address and/or port value of a signaling controller, a signaling packet from a first endpoint located in a voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) network, wherein the signaling packet contains a Session Description Protocol (SDP) message and is directed towards a second endpoint, and wherein the network address and/or port value of the signaling controller are designated for use by endpoints that are behind any FW/NAT device; determining, based on the signaling packet, first information specifying whether the first endpoint is logically located behind the FW/NAT device; determining, based on a payload of the signaling packet and the first information, second information specifying the type of the FW/NAT device; and re-configuring, based on the first information and the second information, any one of the first endpoint, the second endpoint, one or more signaling controllers and media controllers, and one or more firewall or network address translation (FW/NAT) devices to permit communicating media packets between the first endpoint and the second endpoint using a direct route, wherein the direct route bypasses the one or more signaling and media controllers, while continuing to communicate signaling packets to the one or more signaling controllers, wherein the re-configuration comprises determining based on automatic detection or manual provisioning that the first and second endpoints are in a same address space and can communicate directly, and modifying the SDP message to prevent hair-pinning.