Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) is a standardized set of methods, including a network protocol, for traversal of network address translator (NAT) gateways in applications of real-time voice, video, messaging, and other interactive communications.
STUN is a tool used by other protocols, such as Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE), the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and WebRTC. It provides a tool for hosts to discover the presence of a network address translator, and to discover the mapped, usually public, Internet Protocol (IP) address and port number that the NAT has allocated for the application's User Datagram Protocol (UDP) flows to remote hosts. The protocol requires assistance from a third-party network server (STUN server) located on the opposing (public) side of the NAT, usually the public Internet.