NAT Traversal Module

Dan Pascu

   <dan@ag-projects.com>

Edited by

Dan Pascu

   <dan@ag-projects.com>

   Copyright © 2008 Dan Pascu
     __________________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents

   1. Admin Guide

        1. Overview
        2. Keepalive functionality

              2.1. Overview
              2.2. Background
              2.3. Implementation

        3. Dependencies

              3.1. Kamailio Modules
              3.2. External Libraries or Applications

        4. Exported parameters

              4.1. keepalive_interval (integer)
              4.2. keepalive_method (string)
              4.3. keepalive_from (string)
              4.4. keepalive_extra_headers (string)
              4.5. keepalive_state_file (string)
              4.6. contact_match (integer)

        5. Exported functions

              5.1. client_nat_test(type)
              5.2. fix_contact()
              5.3. nat_keepalive()

        6. Statistics

              6.1. keepalive_endpoints
              6.2. registered_endpoints
              6.3. subscribed_endpoints
              6.4. dialog_endpoints

        7. Pseudo Variables

              7.1. $keepalive.socket(nat_endpoint)
              7.2. $source_uri

        8. Keepalive use cases

              8.1. Single proxy environments
              8.2. Registration in multi-proxy environments
              8.3. Subscription in multi-proxy environments
              8.4. Outgoing INVITEs in multi-proxy environments

   List of Examples

   1.1. Setting the keepalive_interval parameter
   1.2. Setting the keepalive_method parameter
   1.3. Setting the keepalive_from parameter
   1.4. Setting the keepalive_extra_headers parameter
   1.5. Setting the keepalive_state_file parameter
   1.6. Setting the contact_match parameter
   1.7. Using the client_nat_test function
   1.8. Using the fix_contact function
   1.9. Using the nat_keepalive function
   1.10. Using $keepalive.socket in multi-proxy environments
   1.11. Using $source_uri to set the received AVP on registrars
   1.12. Using $source_uri in multi-proxy environments

Chapter 1. Admin Guide

   Table of Contents

   1. Overview
   2. Keepalive functionality

        2.1. Overview
        2.2. Background
        2.3. Implementation

   3. Dependencies

        3.1. Kamailio Modules
        3.2. External Libraries or Applications

   4. Exported parameters

        4.1. keepalive_interval (integer)
        4.2. keepalive_method (string)
        4.3. keepalive_from (string)
        4.4. keepalive_extra_headers (string)
        4.5. keepalive_state_file (string)
        4.6. contact_match (integer)

   5. Exported functions

        5.1. client_nat_test(type)
        5.2. fix_contact()
        5.3. nat_keepalive()

   6. Statistics

        6.1. keepalive_endpoints
        6.2. registered_endpoints
        6.3. subscribed_endpoints
        6.4. dialog_endpoints

   7. Pseudo Variables

        7.1. $keepalive.socket(nat_endpoint)
        7.2. $source_uri

   8. Keepalive use cases

        8.1. Single proxy environments
        8.2. Registration in multi-proxy environments
        8.3. Subscription in multi-proxy environments
        8.4. Outgoing INVITEs in multi-proxy environments

1. Overview

   The nat_traversal module provides support for handling far-end NAT
   traversal for SIP signaling. The module includes functionality to
   detect user agents behind NAT, to modify SIP headers to allow user
   agents to work transparently behind NAT and to send keepalive messages
   to user agents behind NAT in order to preserve their visibility in the
   network. The module can handle user agents behind multiple cascaded NAT
   boxes as easily as user agents behind a single level of NAT.

   The module is designed to work in complex environments where multiple
   SIP proxies may be involved in handling registration and routing and
   where the incoming and outgoing paths may not necessarily be the same,
   or where the routing path may even change between consecutive dialogs.
   The nat_traversal functionality is built primarily for IPv4 NAT
   handling and hasn't been adapted to support IPv6 session keepalives.

2. Keepalive functionality

   2.1. Overview
   2.2. Background
   2.3. Implementation

2.1. Overview

   The nat_traversal module implements a very sophisticated keepalive
   mechanism, that is able to handle the most complex environments and use
   cases, including distributed environments with multiple proxies. Unlike
   existing keepalive solutions that only send keepalive messages to user
   agents that have registered (during their registration), the
   nat_traversal module can keepalive a user agent based on multiple
   conditions, making it not only more flexible and more efficient, but
   also able to work in environments and with use cases where a simple
   keepalive implementation based on keeping alive registrations alone
   cannot work.

   The keepalive mechanism works by sending a SIP request to a user agent
   behind NAT to make that user agent send back a reply. The purpose is to
   have packets sent from inside the NAT to the proxy often enough to
   prevent the NAT box from timing out the connection. Many NAT boxes do
   not consider packets that travel from the outside to the inside of the
   NAT to reset the connection expiration timer, thus to keepalive a user
   agent we need to trigger an answer from it.

2.2. Background

   One of the major limitations of an implementation that only sends
   keepalive messages to registered user agents, is that it creates an
   artificial association between the concept of network visibility with
   the concept of user registration. The registration process only creates
   network visibility for incoming INVITE requests, in other words for
   incoming calls. However, there are other cases where a user agent needs
   to preserve its network visibility when behind NAT, that have nothing
   to do with receiving incoming calls. One of them is the ability of the
   user agent to keep receiving NOTIFY requests for a presence
   subscription it has made. Another situation is where the user agent
   should be able to receive all messages within a dialog it has
   initiated, even if it is not registered. In the first case, a presence
   agent is required to register to be able to receive notifications for
   its subscriptions and it has to keep the registration active the whole
   time. In the second case a user agent that wants to make an outgoing
   call has to register and keep the registration active during the call,
   otherwise it may not be able to receive future in-dialog messages,
   including the BYE that closes the dialog.

   Not only we have this forced association shown above, that requires a
   user agent to register to be able to do anything, but a simple
   keepalive implementation based on sending keepalive messages only to
   registered user agents, will also fail to work in common cases, exactly
   because of this artificial association. For example lets assume that we
   have a user agent that is registered. If during an outgoing call
   initiated by this user agent, the agent stops registering, then it will
   not be able to receive further in-dialog messages after the NAT binding
   expires. The same is true for a presence agent, receiving notifications
   for its subscriptions.

   In environments with multiple proxies handling the same domains, the
   problem gets even more acute. In this case the incoming and outgoing
   paths for a call may be completely different: the user agent may
   register using one proxy as an entry point to the network, but may make
   an outgoing call using a different proxy as the network entry point.
   Even more a registration may use a different proxy as the entry point
   to the network with each renewal of the registration, making it
   volatile and unreliable for anything else except incoming calls. A
   keepalive implementation that only sends keepalive messages to
   registered user agents will not be able to guarantee the delivery of
   in-dialog messages for outgoing calls even if it requires the user
   agent to register before making a call. In this case, even if we assume
   that the user agent would pick the same proxy for an outgoing call as
   the one it has used for the last registration, at the next registration
   it may pick another one (as returned by DNS), and will dissociate the
   incoming and outgoing paths rendering the outgoing path unusable
   (assuming the outgoing call takes longer than the registration period).

   All this leads to the conclusion that a keepalive implementation based
   solely on sending keepalive messages to registered user agents can only
   work in single proxy environments and then only work reliably if it
   requires the user agent to register before doing anything else, even
   though some actions would not require a user agent to register.

2.3. Implementation

   To avoid the above mentioned issues, this implementation introduces the
   concept of network visibility for a given condition. This way we can
   keepalive a user agent for multiple independent conditions, thus
   avoiding all the problems presented above.

   The conditions for which the module will send keepalive messages are:
     * Registration - for user agents that have registered to preserve
       their visibility for incoming calls. This is the result of
       triggering keepalive for a REGISTER request.
     * Subscription - for presence agents that have subscribed to some
       events to preserve their visibility for receiving back
       notifications. This is the result of triggering keepalive for a
       SUBSCRIBE request.
     * Dialogs - for user agents that have initiated an outgoing call to
       preserve their visibility for receiving further in-dialog messages.
       This is the result of triggering keepalive for an outgoing INVITE
       request.

   A user agent's NAT entry point may be kept alive for one or multiple of
   the conditions listed above. Even when a NAT endpoint is kept alive for
   more than one condition, only one keepalive message is sent to that NAT
   endpoint. The presence of multiple conditions for a NAT endpoint, only
   guarantees that the network visibility for a user agent based on a
   certain condition will be available while that condition is true,
   independently of the other conditions. When all the conditions to
   keepalive a NAT endpoint will disappear, that endpoint will be removed
   from the list with the NAT endpoints that need to be kept alive.

   The user interface for the keepalive functionality is very simple. It
   consists of a single function called nat_keepalive() that needs to be
   called only once for the requests that trigger the need for network
   visibility. These requests are: REGISTER, SUBSCRIBE and outgoing
   INVITEs. After such a request arrives it makes the user agent visible
   for the purpose of receiving back other messages. Thus, after a
   REGISTER the user agent may receive back incoming calls, after a
   SUBSCRIBE it may receive back notifications and after an outgoing
   INVITE it may receive back further in-dialog messages including the BYE
   that ends the dialog. The nat_keepalive() function needs to be called
   on the proxy that directly receives the request from the user agent, if
   it determines that the user agent making the request is behind NAT. The
   function needs to be called before the request gets either a stateless
   reply or it is relayed with t_relay(). Calling the nat_keepalive()
   function has no effect if the request gets no stateless reply or it is
   not relayed.

   For environments with multiple proxies, where the proxy that acts as an
   entry point to the network for a given request is not the one that
   actually handles the request, then the nat_keepalive() function needs
   to be called on the proxy that is the entry point and after that the
   request must be sent to the proxy that actually handles the request
   using t_relay(). This is needed because the keepalive functionality
   detects from the stateless replies or the TM relayed replies if the NAT
   endpoint needs to be kept alive for the condition triggered by the
   request for which the nat_keepalive() function was called. For example
   assume a network where a proxy P1 receives a REGISTER from a user agent
   behind NAT. P1 will determine that the user agent is behind NAT so it
   needs keepalive functionality, but another proxy called P2 is actually
   handling the subscriber registrations. In this case P1 has to call
   nat_keepalive() even though it doesn't yet know the answer P2 will give
   to the REGISTER request (which may even be a negative reply) or if P2
   will restrict the proposed expiration time in any way. Thus P1 calls
   nat_keepalive() after which it calls t_relay(). When the reply from P2
   arrives, a callback is triggered which will determine if the request
   did get a positive reply, and if so it will extract the registration
   expiration time and enable the keepalive functionality for that
   endpoint for the registration condition for the time given by the
   registration expiration. For single proxy environments, or if P1 is the
   same as P2, then t_relay() is not called, instead save_location() is
   called if the registration is accepted. Then the same process described
   above happens only this time triggered by a stateless reply callback.
   In both cases, calling nat_keepalive() when the REGISTER is received
   has no other effect that to trigger some callbacks that will determine
   from the reply if the caller endpoint should be kept alive or not.

   Below is described how nat_keepalive() should be called and what it
   does for each of the requests that need keepalive functionality (the
   function should only be called if it is determined that the user agent
   that generated the request is behind NAT):
     * REGISTER - called before save_location() or t_relay() (depending on
       whether the proxy that received the REGISTER is also handling
       registration for that subscriber or not). It will determine from
       either the stateless reply generated by save_location() or the TM
       relayed reply if the registration was successful and what is its
       expiration time. If the registration was successful it will mark
       the given NAT endpoint for keepalive for the registration condition
       using the detected expiration time. If the REGISTER request is
       discarded after nat_keepalive() was called or if it intercepts a
       negative reply it will have no effect and the registration
       condition will not be activated for that endpoint.
     * SUBSCRIBE - called before handle_subscribe() or t_relay()
       (depending on whether the proxy that received the SUBSCRIBE is also
       handling subscriptions for that subscriber or not). It will
       determine from either the stateless reply generated by
       handle_subscribe() or the TM relayed reply if the subscription was
       successful and what is its expiration time. If the subscription was
       successful it will mark the given NAT endpoint for keepalive for
       the subscription condition using the detected expiration time. If
       the SUBSCRIBE request is discarded after nat_keepalive() was called
       or if it intercepts a negative reply it will have no effect and the
       subscription condition will not be activated for that endpoint. It
       should be called for every SUBSCRIBE received, not only the ones
       that start a subscription (do not have a to tag), because it needs
       to update (extend) the expiration time for the subscription.
     * INVITE - called before t_relay() for the first INVITE in a dialog.
       It will automatically trigger dialog tracing for that dialog and
       will use the dialog callbacks to detect changes in the dialog
       state. It will add a keepalive entry with the dialog condition for
       the caller NAT endpoint as soon as the dialog is created (this
       happens when t_relay() is called). It will then keep that condition
       for the given endpoint until the dialog is destroyed (either
       terminated, failed or expired). If the INVITE request cannot be
       relayed after nat_keepalive() was called it will have no effect and
       the dialog condition will not be activated for that endpoint.
       In addition an INVITE that starts a dialog will automatically
       trigger keepalive functionality for the destination endpoints if
       they are behind NAT. This is done by detecting if any of the
       destination endpoints already has a keepalive entry for the
       register condition. If so, a dialog condition will be added to that
       entry thus preserving that endpoint visibility even if the
       registration expires during the dialog or is moved to another
       proxy. During the call setup stage, multiple entries for the callee
       may be added with the dialog condition if parallel forking is used,
       however only the destination endpoints behind NAT will have the
       extra dialog condition set. Later when the dialog is confirmed,
       only the endpoint that answered the call will keep the dialog
       condition activated (if present), while all the endpoints from the
       unanswered branches will have it removed. This is done
       automatically without any need to call any function.

   Considering the elements presented in this section, we can say that the
   nat_traversal module provides a flexible and efficient keepalive
   functionality that is very easy to use. Because only the border proxies
   send keepalive messages, the network traffic is minimized. For the same
   reason, message processing in the proxies is also minimized, as border
   proxies generate keepalive messages themselves and send them
   statelessly, instead of having to relay messages generated by the
   registrars. Network traffic is also minimized by only sending a single
   keepalive message for an endpoint no matter for how many reasons the
   endpoint is kept alive. Keepalive messages are also distributed over
   the keepalive interval to avoid overloading the proxy by generating too
   many messages at a time. The nat_traversal module keeps its internal
   state about endpoints that need keepalive, state that is built while
   messages are processed by the proxy and thus it doesn't need to
   transfer any information from the usrloc module, which should also
   improve its efficiency.

3. Dependencies

   3.1. Kamailio Modules
   3.2. External Libraries or Applications

3.1. Kamailio Modules

   The following modules must be loaded before this module:
     * sl module - if keepalive is enabled.
     * tm module - if keepalive is enabled.
     * dialog module - if keepalive is enabled and keeping alive INVITE
       dialogs is needed.

3.2. External Libraries or Applications

   The following libraries or applications must be installed before
   running Kamailio with this module loaded:
     * None.

4. Exported parameters

   4.1. keepalive_interval (integer)
   4.2. keepalive_method (string)
   4.3. keepalive_from (string)
   4.4. keepalive_extra_headers (string)
   4.5. keepalive_state_file (string)
   4.6. contact_match (integer)

4.1. keepalive_interval (integer)

   The time interval (in seconds) required to send a keepalive message to
   all the endpoints that need being kept alive. During this interval,
   each endpoint will receive exactly one keepalive message. A negative
   value or zero will disable the keepalive functionality.

   Default value is “60”.

   Example 1.1. Setting the keepalive_interval parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "keepalive_interval", 90)
...

4.2. keepalive_method (string)

   What SIP method to use to send keepalive messages. Typical methods used
   for this purpose are NOTIFY and OPTIONS. NOTIFY generates smaller
   replies from user agents, but they are almost entirely negative
   replies. Apparently almost none of the user agents understand that the
   purpose of the NOTIFY with a “keep-alive” event is to keep NAT open,
   even though many user agents send such NOTIFY requests themselves.
   However this does not affect the result at all, since the purpose is to
   trigger a response from the user agent behind NAT, positive or negative
   replies having little relevance as they are discarded anyway. The
   OPTIONS method on the other hand has a much higher rate of positive
   replies, but at the same time those positive replies are much bigger,
   mostly because the OPTIONS method is used to inform about the user
   agent capabilities and thus it includes a lot of extra headers to
   indicate those capabilities. Many user agents also include a SDP body
   with a bogus media session, probably to indicate media capabilities.
   All of this makes that positive replies to OPTIONS requests are 2 to 3
   times bigger than negative replies or replies to NOTIFY requests. For
   this reason the default value for the used method is NOTIFY.

   Default value is “NOTIFY”.

   Example 1.2. Setting the keepalive_method parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "keepalive_method", "OPTIONS")
...

4.3. keepalive_from (string)

   Indicates what SIP URI to use in the From header of the keepalive
   requests. If not specified it will use sip:keepalive@proxy_ip, where
   proxy_ip is the IP address of the outgoing interface used to send the
   keepalive message, which is the same interface on which the request
   that triggered keepalive functionality arrived.

   Default value is “sip:keepalive@proxy_ip” with proxy_ip being the
   actual IP of the outgoing interface.

   Example 1.3. Setting the keepalive_from parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "keepalive_from", "sip:keepalive@my-domain.com")
...

4.4. keepalive_extra_headers (string)

   Specifies extra headers that should be added to the keepalive messages
   that are sent by the proxy. The header specification must also include
   the CRLF (\r\n) line separator. Multiple headers can be specified by
   concatenating them and each of them must include the \r\n separator.

   Default value is undefined (send no extra headers).

   Example 1.4. Setting the keepalive_extra_headers parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "keepalive_extra_headers", "User-Agent: Kamailio\r\nX-
MyHeader: some_value\r\n")
...

4.5. keepalive_state_file (string)

   Specifies a filename where information about the NAT endpoints and the
   conditions for which they are being kept alive is saved when Kamailio
   exits. The information in this file is then used when Kamailio starts
   to restore its internal state and continue to send keepalive messages
   to the NAT endpoints that have not expired in the meantime. This is
   useful when restarting Kamailio to avoid losing keepalive state
   information about the NAT endpoints. The internal keepalive state is
   guaranteed to be saved in this file on exit, even when Kamailio
   crashes.

   The value of this parameter can be either a relative path, in which
   case it will store it in the Kamailio working directory, or an absolute
   path.

   Default value is undefined “keepalive_state”.

   Example 1.5. Setting the keepalive_state_file parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "keepalive_state_file", "/run/kamailio/keepalive_state
")
...

4.6. contact_match (integer)

   Control how to match the contact URIs between requests and replies.

   If set to 0, do string comparison. Use this mode when the contact URI
   is not changed by registrar or proxy servers.

   If set to 1, do light URI comparison (match URI type, user, host, port
   and proto). Use this mode when the contact URI can be changed by
   registrar or proxy servers (e.g., new parameters added, or the order of
   parameters changed).

   Default value is “0”.

   Example 1.6. Setting the contact_match parameter
...
modparam("nat_traversal", "contact_match", 1)
...

5. Exported functions

   5.1. client_nat_test(type)
   5.2. fix_contact()
   5.3. nat_keepalive()

5.1.  client_nat_test(type)

   Check if the client is behind NAT. What tests are performed is
   specified by the type parameter which is an integer given by the sum of
   the numbers corresponding to the tests that one wishes to perform. The
   numbers corresponding to individual tests are shown below:

     * 1 - tests if client has a private IP address (as defined by
       RFC1918) or one from shared address space (RFC6598) in the Contact
       field of the SIP message.
     * 2 - tests if client has contacted Kamailio from an address that is
       different from the one in the Via field. Both the IP and port are
       compared by this test.
     * 4 - tests if client has a private IP address (as defined by
       RFC1918) or one from shared address space (RFC6598) in the top Via
       field of the SIP message.

   For example calling client_nat_test("3") will perform test 1 and test 2
   and return true if at least one succeeds, otherwise false.

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, ONREPLY_ROUTE,
   FAILURE_ROUTE, BRANCH_ROUTE.

   Example 1.7. Using the client_nat_test function
...
if (client_nat_test("3")) {
    .....
}
...

5.2.  fix_contact()

   Will replace the IP and port in the Contact header with the IP and port
   the SIP message was received from. Usually called after a successful
   call to client_nat_test(type)

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, ONREPLY_ROUTE,
   BRANCH_ROUTE.

   Example 1.8. Using the fix_contact function
...
if (client_nat_test("3")) {
    fix_contact();
}
...

5.3.  nat_keepalive()

   Trigger keepalive functionality for the source address of the request.
   When called it only sets some internal flags, which will trigger later
   the addition of the endpoint to the keepalive list if a positive reply
   is generated/received (for REGISTER and SUBSCRIBE) or when the dialog
   is started/replied (for INVITEs). For this reason, it can be called
   early or late in the script. The only condition is to call it before
   replying to the request or before sending it to another proxy. If the
   request needs to be sent to another proxy, t_relay() must be used to be
   able to intercept replies via TM or dialog callbacks. If stateless
   forwarding is used, the keepalive functionality will not work. Also for
   outgoing INVITEs, record_route() should also be used to make sure the
   proxy that keeps the caller endpoint alive stays in the path. For
   multi-proxy setups, this function should always be called on the border
   proxies (the ones that received the request directly from the user
   agent). For more details about this function, see the Implementation
   subsection from the Keepalive functionality section.

Note

   The dlg_manage() function must be called in the configuration file to
   have the dialog tracked.

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE.

   Example 1.9. Using the nat_keepalive function
...
if ((method=="REGISTER" || method=="SUBSCRIBE" ||
    (method=="INVITE" && !has_totag())) && client_nat_test("3"))
{
  if (method=="INVITE"){
    dlg_manage();
  }
    nat_keepalive();
}
...

6. Statistics

   6.1. keepalive_endpoints
   6.2. registered_endpoints
   6.3. subscribed_endpoints
   6.4. dialog_endpoints

6.1. keepalive_endpoints

   Indicates the total number of NAT endpoints that are being kept alive.

6.2. registered_endpoints

   Indicates how many of the NAT endpoints are kept alive for
   registrations.

6.3. subscribed_endpoints

   Indicates how many of the NAT endpoints are kept alive for
   subscriptions.

6.4. dialog_endpoints

   Indicates how many of the NAT endpoints are kept alive for taking part
   in an INVITE dialog.

7. Pseudo Variables

   7.1. $keepalive.socket(nat_endpoint)
   7.2. $source_uri

7.1. $keepalive.socket(nat_endpoint)

   Returns the local socket used to send messages to the given NAT
   endpoint URI. The socket has the form proto:ip:port. The NAT endpoint
   URI is in the form: sip:ip:port[;transport=xxx] with transport missing
   if UDP. If the requested NAT endpoint URI is present in the internal
   keepalive table for any condition, it will return its associated local
   socket, else it will return null. The nat_endpoint can be a string or
   another pseudo-variable.

   This can be useful to restore the sending socket when relaying messages
   to a given user agent in multi-proxy environments. Consider an example
   where 2 proxies are involved, P1 and P2. A user agent registers by
   sending a REGISTER request to P1. P1 will call nat_keepalive() but
   because it determines that P2 should actually handle the user
   registration will forward the request to P2. Now assume P2 receives an
   incoming INVITE for this user. It will determine that the registration
   came through P1 and will forward the request to P1. P2 should also
   include the NAT endpoint URI where this request is to be relayed. This
   information should have been provided by P1 when it relayed the
   REGISTER request to P2. The means to do this is out of the scope of
   this example, but one can either use the path extension or custom
   headers to do this. When P1 receives the INVITE it will use the NAT
   endpoint URI it has received along with the request to determine the
   socket to send out the request, which should be the same as the one
   where the registration request was originally received. In the example
   below lets assume that P2 provided the original NAT endpoint address in
   a custom header called X-NAT-URI and that it also provides a custom
   header called X-Scope to indicate that the message is sent to P1 for
   being relayed back to the user agent by P1 which has the NAT open with
   it.

   Example 1.10. Using $keepalive.socket in multi-proxy environments
...
# This code runs on P1 which has received an INVITE from P2 to forward
# it to the user agent behind NAT (because P1 has the NAT open with it).
if (method=="INVITE" && $hdr(X-Scope)=="nat-relay") {
    $du = $hdr(X-NAT-URI);
    $fs = $keepalive.socket($du);
    t_relay();
    exit;
}
...

7.2. $source_uri

   Returns the URI specification from where a request was received in the
   form sip:ip:port[;transport=xxx] with transport missing if UDP.

   This pseudo-variable can be used to set the received AVP for the
   registrar module to indicate that a user agent is behind NAT. This is
   meant as a more flexible replacement for the fix_nated_register()
   function, because it allows one to modify the source uri by appending
   some extra parameters before saving it to the received AVP.

   Another use for this pseudo-variable is in multi-proxy environments to
   indicate the NAT endpoint URI to the next proxy (if needed). Consider
   the previous example with two proxies P1 and P2. P1 receives the
   REGISTER request from a user agent and forwards it to P2 which does the
   actual registration. P1 needs to indicate the NAT endpoint URI to P2,
   so that P2 can include it later for incoming INVITE requests to this
   user agent.

   Example 1.11. Using $source_uri to set the received AVP on registrars
...
modparam("registrar", "received_avp", "$avp(s:received_uri)")
modparam("registrar", "tcp_persistent_flag", 10)
...
# This code runs on the registrar, assuming it has received the
# REGISTER request directly from the user agent.
if (method=="REGISTER") {
    if (client_nat_test("3")) {
        if (proto==UDP) {
            nat_keepalive();
        } else {
            # Keep TCP/TLS connections open until the registration
            # expires, by setting the tcp_persistent_flag
            setflag(10);
        }
        force_rport();
        $avp(s:received_uri) = $source_uri;
        # or we could add some extra parameters to it if needed
        # $avp(s:received_uri) = $source_uri + ";relayed=false"
    }
    if (!www_authorize("", "subscriber")) {
        www_challenge("", "0");
        return;
    } else if (!check_to()) {
        sl_send_reply("403", "Username!=To not allowed ($au!=$tU)");
        return;
    }

    if (!save("location")) {
        sl_reply_error();
    }
    exit;
}
...

   Example 1.12. Using $source_uri in multi-proxy environments
...
# This code runs on P1 which received the REGISTER request and has to
# forward it to the registrar P2.
if (method=="REGISTER") {
    if (client_nat_test("3")) {
        force_rport();
        nat_keepalive();
        append_hf("X-NAT-URI: $source_uri\r\n");
    }
    $du = "sip:P2_ip:P2_port";
    t_relay();
    exit;
}
...

8. Keepalive use cases

   8.1. Single proxy environments
   8.2. Registration in multi-proxy environments
   8.3. Subscription in multi-proxy environments
   8.4. Outgoing INVITEs in multi-proxy environments

8.1. Single proxy environments

   In this case the usage is straight forward. The nat_keepalive()
   function needs to be called before save_location() for REGISTER
   requests, before handle_subscribe() for SUBSCRIBE requests and before
   t_relay() for the first INVITE of a dialog.

8.2. Registration in multi-proxy environments

   If the proxy receiving the REGISTER request is the same as the proxy
   handling it, then the case is reduced to the single proxy case. For
   this example, lets assume they are different. We have a user agent UA1
   for which the registration is handled by the proxy P1. However UA1
   sends the REGISTER to P0 which in turn forwards it to P1 like this: UA1
   --> P0 --> P1. In this case P0 calls nat_keepalive(), adds the NAT
   endpoint URI to the request (for example using a custom header) and
   forwards the request to P1. P1 will save the user in the user location
   together with the NAT endpoint URI.

   When an incoming INVITE request arrives on P1 for UA1, P1, will lookup
   the location and determine that it has to relay it to P0 because P0 has
   the NAT open with UA1. P1 will include the original NAT endpoint URI in
   the request and an indication that the only role P0 has in this
   transaction is to relay it to UA1. P0 will receive this request and
   determine that is has to act as a relay for it. It will extract the NAT
   endpoint URI, then based on it the corresponding local socket using
   $keepalive.socket(endpoint_uri). It will then set both $du and $fs to
   the values it has found, call record_route() to stay in the path and
   call t_relay() to send it to UA1.

   Handling other type of requests (like for example SUBSCRIBE or MESSAGE)
   that arrive on P1 for UA1 is done the same way as with the first
   INVITE, on both P1 and P0.

8.3. Subscription in multi-proxy environments

   If the proxy receiving the SUBSCRIBE request is the same as the proxy
   handling it, then the case is reduced to the single proxy case. For
   this example, lets assume they are different. We have a user agent UA1
   for which subscriptions are handled by the proxy P1. However UA1 sends
   the SUBSCRIBE to P0 which in turn forwards it to P1 like this: UA1 -->
   P0 --> P1. In this case P0 calls nat_keepalive(), then calls
   record_route() to stay in the path and forwards the request to P1 using
   t_relay(). Further SUBSCRIBE and NOTIFY requests will follow the record
   route and use P0 as a NAT entry point to have access to UA1. Further
   in-dialog SUBSCRIBE requests should also call record_route().

8.4. Outgoing INVITEs in multi-proxy environments

   If the proxy receiving the INVITE request is the same as the proxy
   handling it, then the case is reduced to the single proxy case. For
   this example, lets assume they are different. We have a user agent UA1
   which is handled by the proxy P1 and UA2 which is handled by P2. UA2
   has registered with P2 going through P3, while UA1 calls UA2 by sending
   the first INVITE to P0. The call flow for the first INVITE looks like
   this: UA1 --> P0 --> P1 --> P2 --> P3 --> UA2. In this case P0 calls
   nat_keepalive(), then calls record_route() to stay in the path and
   forwards the request to P1. P1 authenticates UA1 then forwards the
   request to P2, which is the home proxy for UA2. P1 doesn't have to use
   record_route to stay in the path, but it can do that if needed for
   other purposes. P2 will lookup UA2 and find out that it is reachable
   through P3. It will take the original NAT endpoint URI that is has
   saved in the user location when UA2 has registered and include it in
   the message along with an indication that P3 only has to relay the
   message to UA2. If P2 does accounting or starts a media relay, it
   should also call record_route() to stay in the path. Then it forwards
   the request to P3 using t_relay(). P3 will detect that it only has to
   relay the request to UA2 because it has the NAT open with it. It will
   extract the NAT endpoint URI from the message and the local sending
   socket using $keepalive.socket(endpoint_uri) and will set both $du and
   $fs. After that it will call record_route() to stay in the path, and
   forward the request to UA2 using t_relay(). Further in-dialog requests
   will follow the recorded route and use P0 and P3 as access points to
   UA1 respectively UA2. All the proxies that have used record_route()
   during the first INVITE should also call record_route() during further
   in-dialog requests to keep staying in the path.
