There are some ios sip applications who are able to communicate with a UDP only SIP Server.
As I know iOS allows only TCP connection to remain open in the background but most of the SIP providers are supporting only UDP.
I have noticed that iOS application 3CXPhone has a "NAT helper mode" and it is able to keep the communication in background with a 3CX Phone system who is UDP only. Dose anyone know what trick do they use? I am developing an SIP app and I have to make it work for the UDP only SIP providers.
I know there are multiple questions regarding UDP socket in background on SO but none of them has a useful answer or the solution proposed there dose not work anymore (starting from iOS 6).
Until now I am aware of 2 possible solutions: 1. Use some GPS events and during that events maintain the socket communication too. After that try to trick apple and get your app in the store. 2. Use a SIP proxy in the middle (B2BUA). But in the 3CXPhone "NAT helper mode" I am not seeing any sip proxy configuration.
71 Answer
If you really need a UDP socket you will need a few things:
UIRequiresPersistentWiFi: to ensure that iOS connects to Wi-Fi and doesn't turn it off after some time (I'm assuming you want Wi-Fi as well, if not just ignore this one)- Play an empty audio in the background in a loop to keep your application active.
- Have a timer that pops every ten seconds or so and sends a small (e.g. crlf) message to the server.
The last step is needed to keep the UDP connection open in the network. If you don't send anything often, someone in the network (e.g. a router) will close it.
The empty audio file is the only way to ensure you can do something in the background in short intervals (the ten second timer).
After writing all that: this will consume a lot of battery. Users will not leave your app running for long.
Most modern SIP servers support TCP. You should really spend your time on a TCP solution. The UDP one won't be accepted by your users.
4
