SPAN-A - Candidate A for the Pre-Midcom SPAN Protocol
Ridgeway Systems & Software Ltd
SPAN-A (pronounced 'spanner') is a candidate for the pre-midcom SPAN protocol. The scope of SPAN (Simple Protocol for Augmenting NATs) is to enable protocols involving multiple associated sessions to operate across NATs. Such protocols typically use transport addresses to identify associated sessions. This works well for environments where end-to-end addressing is in force, but is broken by the introduction of NATs. SPAN is intended to operate with symmetric NATs by using a relay outside the NAT. It complements STUN [STUN] which operates with various kinds of cone NAT.