Patent ID: 7483437

Claim:
A method, performed by a network element, for communicating packet multimedia data between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, the method comprising: receiving an outbound multimedia signaling packet; determining if the outbound multimedia signaling packet originated from a first endpoint that is logically behind a security device; determining and storing information identifying a logical pinhole in the security device, wherein the logical pinhole is associated with expected inbound multimedia data packets directed to the first endpoint; performing an action that keeps the logical pinhole open for future communication with the first endpoint by (i) determining that the first endpoint has a keep-alive timeout value that is configurable and (ii) configuring the pinhole keep-alive value of the first endpoint to modify a frequency at which the first endpoint generates periodic messages towards a signaling controller in order to keep the logical pinhole open, wherein configuring the pinhole keep-alive value comprises sending, at a particular time before a keep-alive timeout value of the first endpoint has been reached, an inquiry message to the first endpoint, determining whether the inquiry message was received; sending a command to the first endpoint that increases the keep-alive timeout value of the first endpoint based on a determination that the inquiry message was received, and sending, in response to determining that the inquiry message was not received, a second command to the first endpoint that sets the keep-alive timeout value of the first endpoint to a smaller value; and forwarding inbound multimedia signaling messages directed towards the first endpoint via the logical pinhole.