Appia Communications has released a server and client to address the growing demand for Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE). The new server and client meet all of the most recent Internet Engineering Task Force standards, including ice-19, rfc3489bis-15, and turn-07.

 

Both the ICE server and client are available for purchase on a stand-alone basis or as a service.

 

Victor von Schlegell, Appia’s president, said in a statement that the problem of Network Address Translator (NAT) traversal has become acute because the use of the Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert), or SIP, has spread. He pointed out that ICE solves this problem.

 

Using both Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) and Traversal Using Relays around NAT (TURN) servers, ICE finds a connection for multimedia sessions under the offer/answer model. According to Appia, ICE can be utilized by any protocol using this model, including SIP.

 

Schlegell further explained that last year, they developed an encrypted SIP phone application for one of Appia’s customers. They required a peer-to-peer connection to deploy it, because only the receiving phone can decrypt the voice packets. Although the phone worked flawlessly when both parties were using the public Internet, or when only one party was behind NAT, it did not work if both parties were behind NATs.

 

Because servers didn’t recognize the encrypted packets, the packets were dropped. Schlegell added that the ICE server and client were engineered to enable phones to work around NATs.

 

Appia Communications explains that a peer-to-peer connection is desirable for voice applications as it has less delay and fewer dropped packets than a connection through servers. ICE has the ability to find the best peer-to-peer connection in milliseconds, even before the phone rings on the other end.

 

Appia Communications is a provider of managed IT and telecommunications services, and aims to enable small and mid-sized companies and organizations to realize the benefits of Internet Protocol (IP) technology. Last week, Appia Communications announced a new connectivity option for customers who use softphones. Although traditionally, organizations had to set up virtual private networks (VPN) to use a softphone, Appia customers can now use softphones without doing so.

 

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering call centers, CRM and information technology. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

 

Don't forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.