---
name: "Net::SIP::NATHelper::Base"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libnet-sip-perl"
version: "0.838-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Net::SIP::NATHelper::Base"
---

# Net::SIP::NATHelper::Base(3pm)

rewrite SDP and transport RTP for NAT

## NAME

Net::SIP::NATHelper::Base - rewrite SDP and transport RTP for NAT

## DESCRIPTION

This module helps with doing NAT. It is implicitly used in **do\_nat** from Net::SIP::StatelessProxy.

It cares about the rewriting the SDP bodies, forwarding RTP data for active sessions and expiring sessions.

## CONSTRUCTOR

- new ( %ARGS )

  Creates a new object. `%ARGS` can be of:

  - max\_sockets N

    Restricts the maximum number of sockets allocated inside the object to N.

  - max\_sockets\_in\_group N

    Restricts the maximum number of sockets allocated for a single socket group (e.g. a single call to **get\_rtp\_sockets**) to N.

## METHODS

- allocate\_sockets ( NAT\_BASIC,SIDE,ADDR,MEDIA )

  This is called to allocate new local sockets for MEDIA. MEDIA is a \\@list of specifications like you get from **get\_media** in Net::SIP::SDP. ADDR is the local address, where the sockets should be allocated.

  NAT\_BASIC  consists of `"<[ CALLID, CSEQ, IDFROM, IDTO, URI_FROM, URI_TO ]"`\>.

  IDFROM and IDTO represent the sides of the session, while SIDE helps to pick the right side for allocation, e.g. if SIDE is 0 the sockets will be allocated on the IDFROM side, if it is 1 it will be on the IDTO side. Thus for Requests SIDE will be 0, while for responses it will be 1.

  CALLID and CSEQ are used to identify the SIP transaction, for which the NAT will be done, while IDSIDE is either IDFROM or IDTO (see below) depending on the side, where the packet came in.

  URI\_FROM and URI\_TO are primarily for information.

  The methode will return  the \\@list of new media in the format needed by **replace\_media\_listen** in Net::SIP::SDP, e.g tuples of `"[ip,base_port]"`.

  If the allocation of sockets failed (because of resource constraints) it will return undef. This will usually cause the caller do simply not forward the packet and wait for the reetransmit (at least for UDP).

- activate\_session ( NAT\_BASIC ,\[\\%PARAM\] )

  NAT\_BASIC is as described in `"allocate_sockets"` Activates a session in the transaction defined by CALLID,CSEQ. This will cause all sessions for older transactions in the same call (identified by CALLID) to shut down.

  IDFROM and IDTO represent the sides of the session, e.g. for the activation to succeed there had to be an **allocate\_sockets** call for each of these sides.

  PARAM is an optional hash reference. If given it will be added as user information to the new session and given back in the information hash returned by close\_session etc. URI\_FROM and URI\_TO will be added to PARAM as `"uri_from"` and `"uri_to"`.

  The method returns two items: The first is information about the session like returned in close\_session, the second is a flag, which is true, if the activation was for an already astablished session.

  The method is usually called whenever a SDP body is given and on ACK requests.

- close\_session ( NAT\_BASIC )

  NAT\_BASIC is as described before.

  This will cause the close of the session described by the arguments (which have the same meaning like in **activate\_session**). Usually called for BYE or CANCEL requests. For CANCEL it will be called with CSEQ (because it should cancel a specific transaction) while for BYE it will called with CSEQ undef, because it should end all sessions in this call.

  It will return a list with infos about all closed sessions. Each of these infos is a reference to a hash with the following items:

  - callid

    - cseq

    - idfrom

    - idto

    - bytes\_from - number of bytes received on the 'from' side

    - bytes\_to - number of bytes received on the 'to' side

    - from - space delimited list of "ip:port/range" for the media on the 'from' side

    - to - same for the 'to' side

    - created - "time\_t" when the session was created

    Stateless proxies should forward the packet even if the session did not exist, because the packet might be a retransmit referring to an already closed session.

- expire ( \[ %ARGS \] )

  This causes the sessions and sockets to expire. It will return a list with a hash for each expired session. See close\_session for details on the returned information.

  With `%ARGS` the behavior can be customized:

  - time

    Current time, can be given to save system call for getting current time.

  - unused

    Expire time for unused sockets. Default ist 180, e.g. 3 minutes.

  - active

    Expire time for active sessions. Default to 30 seconds. If no data gets transferred through the session for `"active"` seconds the session will be closed.

  - closed

    Expire time for closed sessions, i.e. the time after which the sockets from a closed (replaced) session will be closed too. They are usually kept open a short time in case packets are still in transit. Default to 1 second.

- callbacks

  This will return a list (not a reference) of `"[cbid,fd,callback]"` pairs, where fd is the file descriptor of the socket and callback is a callback for **invoke\_callback** in Net::SIP::Util. cbid is a uniq id for each callback so that one get compare the result from different calls to callbacks and see, what changed.

  Each of these callbacks should be invoked once the file descriptor gets readable and the callback will then forward the received packet to the other side of the session.

- sessions ( \[ CALLBACK \] )

  This will call CALLBACK on all sessions and return an array containing the results of the callbacks together. If no CALLBACK is given it will return all session objects.

  To use this function you might need to know the interna of the session objects (see source code), but in most cases it is enough to know, that session objects have a method info\_as\_hash which will return infos about the session as hash like described in close\_session.

- get\_rtp\_sockets ( NEW\_ADDR, @MEDIA )

  Allocates sockets for on address NEW\_ADDR for `@MEDIA`. `@MEDIA` is in the format given by **get\_media** in Net::SIP::SDP.

  Returns reference to array of allocated media, each item in the array is `"[ ADDR,BASE_PORT,\@SOCKS,\@TARGETS ]"`, where ADDR is NEW\_ADDR, BASE\_PORT the base port for the allocated sockets, `@SOCKS` the allocated sockets and `@TARGETS` the `"sockaddr"` of the original targets, e.g. where it needs to forward the data received on the sockets.

  If not all necssary sockets could be allocated it will allocate none and return `"()"`.

  This method might be redefined to better control resource allocation or to cache temporally unused resources together with unget\_rtp\_sockets.

- unget\_rtp\_sockets ( NEW\_MEDIA )

  Will take resources back. NEW\_MEDIA is the result from **get\_rtp\_sockets**. Returns nothing.

  Together with get\_rtp\_sockets it could be redefined to not destroy resources but to cache them for future use.

- dump

  This method is used for debugging only. It will return a string with information about all calls within this nathelper and all sessions and allocated sockets within the calls.

- number\_of\_calls

  Returns the number of calls within the nathelper. This vaalue has not much association with the result of **callbacks** because there might be inactive sockets (not yet or no longer in active session) which don't affect the result of **callbacks**.

  This value can be used to determine if **expire** needs to be called at all.
