Apparatus and method for efficiently and securely exchanging connection data

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and machine-readable medium are described for securely and efficiently exchanging connection data for a peer-to-peer ('P2P') session on a network comprising. For example, in one embodiment, a connection data exchange ('CDX') service can perform the function of a central exchange point for connection data. In one embodiment, the CDX service can perform the operations of receiving a connection data structure, sometimes referred to herein as a “ticket,” created by a matchmaker or an invitation service in response to requests from a group of mobile computing devices attempting to establish peer-to-peer (“P2P”) connections. The ticket can identify each of the group of mobile computing devices and can include encrypted NAT hole punch data associated with each of the mobile computing devices. The CDX service can authenticate the ticket and decrypt the NAT hole punch data contained in the ticket using a CDX ticket key used by the matchmaker service or the invitation service to encrypt the ticket. Once the ticket is authenticated and the hole punch data retrieved, the CDX service can send connection data to each of the mobile computing devices residing behind NAT devices using the NAT hole punch data.