Patent ID: 7720976

Claim:
A method for processing signaling protocol (SP) messages, the method comprising: (1) receiving an SP invite message addressed to one of: (i) a first user hosted at a first host connected to a first network using a first network addressing protocol (FNAP), the SP invite message addressed from a second user hosted at a second host connected to a second network, different from the first network, using a second network addressing protocol (SNAP), different from the FNAP; and (ii) the second user, the SP invite message addressed from the first user, wherein: (a) the first host has an FNAP address; (b) the second host has an SNAP address; and (c) the SP invite message invites the addressed-to user to set up a communication session with the addressed-from user, the communication session comprising transmission of bearer traffic packets; (2) determining that a protocol interworking mechanism for the communication session needs to be invoked; (3) if a temporary SNAP address is not already associated with the first host's FNAP address, then: (i) obtaining a temporary SNAP address to associate with a cross-border transport module (CBTM), wherein the CBTM has an FNAP address and is adapted to convert bearer traffic packets of the communication session between FNAP-compatible format and SNAP-compatible format; and (ii) instructing the CBTM to associate the temporary SNAP address with the first host's FNAP address; and (4) forwarding to the addressed-to host a corresponding modified SP invite message that provides at least one of the FNAP address of the CBTM and the temporary SNAP address, wherein: the signaling protocol (SP) is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP); the FNAP is IPv6; the SNAP is IPv4; and the communication session is a peer-to-peer (P2P) communication session.