The present invention relates to communications methods, apparatus and systems for efficiently managing NAPT bindings and mappings. An exemplary embodiment of operating a communication system includes the steps of (i) receiving, at a real-time communications entity, a media session offer from a device, (ii) transmitting, from the communications entity to a Network Address and Port Translation entity (NAPT), a request signal to allocate a public Internet Protocol (IP) address and port number pair corresponding to an interface on the NAPT for the session; (iii) determining, at the communications entity, a remote IP address and port number pair corresponding to an interface on the device to be used for communicating media of the media session; (iv) transmitting, from the communications entity to the NAPT, a signal identifying the determined remote IP address and port number pair; and (v) releasing, at the NAPT, the allocated public IP address and port number pair.

In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving traffic to send from a router to a host in the fabric edge network, wherein the fabric edge network comprises a plurality of switches and an inter-switch link (ISL); and sending the traffic from the router to the host via at least one of the switches based on the downlink connectivity of the host. Sending the traffic from the router to the host is performed without sending the traffic through the ISL. Sending the traffic from the router to the host comprises sending the traffic through the ISL when there is a link failure on a path between the router and the host.

Methods, system, and computer program product for implementing an address translation service that uses nondenominational address handles instead of IP addresses between private cloud domain and public cloud domains. The address translation service can be implemented to enable a data-center running in a private cloud domain to communicate with the public cloud domain data-center over load balancers. In addition, the address translation service ensures that all services that need to communicate across data-centers can be reached over load balancers. As such, to avoid conflicting subnets used by a data center from the private cloud domain and the public cloud domain, services in the public cloud domain use a private cloud load balancer to connect with the services in a private cloud domain. Similarly, a public cloud load balancer is used to connect with services in the private cloud domain.

A computer program product, system, and computer implemented method for application-level redirect trapping and creation of NAT mapping to work with routing infrastructure for private connectivity in cloud and customer networks. The approach disclosed herein generally comprises a method of leveraging a reverse connection endpoint and IP address mapping controller to capture redirection messages from a private cloud or network (e.g., a service consumer network or a service consumer hybrid cloud). This allows at least the IP address mapping controller to manage a cloud networking infrastructure to provide for a service provider network (e.g., a public cloud) to support applications that overcome the isolation requirements of a private cloud or network to perform useful work. For example, without saddling the private cloud or network user with a heavy pre-configuration burden, the approach disclosed herein supports redirection to dynamically determined IP addresses at the private cloud or network.

A computer program product, system, and computer implemented method for application-level redirect trapping and creation of NAT mapping to work with routing infrastructure for private connectivity in cloud and customer networks. The approach disclosed herein generally comprises a method of leveraging a reverse connection endpoint and IP address mapping controller to capture redirection messages from a private cloud or network (e.g., a service consumer network or a service consumer hybrid cloud). This allows at least the IP address mapping controller to manage a cloud networking infrastructure to provide for a service provider network (e.g., a public cloud) to support applications that overcome the isolation requirements of a private cloud or network to perform useful work. For example, without saddling the private cloud or network user with a heavy pre-configuration burden, the approach disclosed herein supports redirection to dynamically determined IP addresses at the private cloud or network.

An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: send (800) a registration request comprising a range of addresses and/or ports managed by a network address and/or port translation service and an identifier of the network address and/or port translation service; and receive (804) an address and/or port translation information request comprising an address and/or port used by an application to communicate with a terminal, wherein the address and/or port used by the application to communicate with a terminal is within the range of addresses and/or ports managed by the network address and/ or port translation service.

An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: send (800) a registration request comprising a range of addresses and/or ports managed by a network address and/or port translation service and an identifier of the network address and/or port translation service; and receive (804) an address and/or port translation information request comprising an address and/or port used by an application to communicate with a terminal, wherein the address and/or port used by the application to communicate with a terminal is within the range of addresses and/or ports managed by the network address and/ or port translation service.

Techniques for providing, to a resource on a private network of a service provider, access to a resource on a private network of a customer. Service to customer (S2C) resources deployed on a cloud infrastructure to facilitate the access. Whereas IP address ranges may overlap between private networks and/or private IP addresses may be used in one or more of the private networks, the S2C resources enable the data exchange between the private networks. For example, the S2C resources translate between IP addresses such that data within each private network uses IP addresses that can be properly processed by the private network.

Techniques for providing, to a resource on a private network of a service provider, access to a resource on a private network of a customer. Service to customer (S2C) resources deployed on a cloud infrastructure to facilitate the access. Whereas IP address ranges may overlap between private networks and/or private IP addresses may be used in one or more of the private networks, the S2C resources enable the data exchange between the private networks. For example, the S2C resources translate between IP addresses such that data within each private network uses IP addresses that can be properly processed by the private network.

A scalable EBOF storage system identifies its storage devices and external physical interfaces, and respective public IP addresses assigned to each external physical interface. The scalable EBOF storage system assigns a respective private IP address to each storage device, private port identifier(s) to the storage devices, and respective public port identifier(s) to each storage device. The scalable EBOF storage system then generates an EBOF NAT table by mapping, for each storage device: each respective public IP address assigned to the external physical interfaces to the public port identifier assigned to that storage device to provide a public connection information combination for that storage device, the private IP address assigned to that storage device to the private port identifier assigned to that storage device to provide a private information connection combination for that storage device, and the public information connection combination to the private information connection combination for that storage device.