beautypg.com

2architecture, 1 the nat filter and sip – Snom 4S User Manual

Page 9

background image

snom technology AG • 9

2

Architecture

2.1 The NAT Filter and SIP

In the SIP architecture, the SBC acts as the first proxy that is

contacted by user agents. There are two ways to make sure that the rel-

evant traffic gets routed trough the filter:

User agents can be set up to use the filter as outbound proxy. When

using this method, all SIP traffic will flow through the SBC, whether

it is destined to the operator or not. That means that service for calls

outside of the operator’s domain may also be serviced by the SBC.

However, by redirecting all outgoing traffic of the SBC to a proxy

the operator can make sure that the authentication, authorization

and accounting (AAA) requirements for requiring the service are

fulfilled. Alternatively, you can use the application server interface

to do the job on the SBC itself.

User agents resolve the SBC though the RFC3263 DNS resolving

process. That means that only the traffic that is destined to the

operator’s domain will use the service of the NAT Filter. However,

users might be annoyed if they place a call to a domain that does

not properly support NAT services. In this case, the SBC can also

redirect the traffic to another proxy.

We recommend using the first alternative and to only choose the

second alternative if it is too difficult to provision user agents with the

outbound proxy or when there are concerns about providing service for

foreign operators.

Usually, the SBC acts as stateless proxy. This means, that it just

forwards the packets by default and that it does not change the content

of the attachments or the headers themselves. The SBC will not interfere

with applications (instant messaging, presence, weather report, etc).

There are three exceptions to this rule:

The first exception is a REGISTER request. When a user agent tries

2.