Systems and methods of discovering and controlling devices without explicit addressing

• US 10,594,567 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2018
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accedian Networks Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Accedian Networks Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robitaille, Claude, Bouffard, Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilles, Jude Jean
• Application Number:
  US15/868,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20180139105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 796 Days
• Field of Search: 709224, 709220, 709230, 709222
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

A method of discovering a device in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes includes continuously monitoring, by a device to be discovered, any IP packets sent by a discoverer. The method further includes transmitting, by the discoverer, an IP packet destined for a downstream device and receiving, by the device to be discovered, the IP packet. The method further includes determining, by the device to be discovered, whether the IP packet is intended for the device to be discovered. If the IP packet is not intended for the device to be discovered, retransmitting, by the device to be discovered, the IP packet to the downstream device via an egress port of the device to be discovered.

Claims

1. A method of discovering a device in a communication network having a plurality of interconnected devices, the method comprising:

transmitting via the network, by the discoverer, an IP packet to a downstream device;

receiving, by said device to be discovered located in a network path between the discoverer and the downstream device, the IP packet;

detecting and processing, by the device to be discovered, the IP packet that is a discovery type packet destined for the device to be discovered.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the discoverer is a testing unit, a router, a remote node that is local or remote to a subnet where the device to be discovered is located.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the device to be discovered does not require a unique IP or MAC address for the discoverer to send messages to the device to be discovered.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP packet from the discoverer includes a destination IP address of the downstream device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP packet includes an identifier within its header portion to denote that the IP packet originates from the discoverer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP packet includes a management domain identifier within its header to denote that the IP packet originates from the discoverer from the same management domain defined in the device to be discovered.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP packet further includes an identifier within its payload portion to denote that the IP packet is destined for the device to be discovered.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device to be discovered replies to the IP packet with unique information about the device to be discovered using a borrowed IP and MAC address from the downstream device as its source IP address and source MAC address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a payload of the IP packet is encrypted.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a payload of the IP packet is not encrypted.

11. A system of discovering a device in a communication network having multiple interconnected devices, the system comprising:

a discoverer;

a downstream device;

said device to be discovered located in a network path between the discoverer and the downstream device,

wherein the device to be discovered is configured to detect and process one or more IP packets sent by the discoverer to the downstream device, that is a discovery type packet.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the discoverer is a testing unit, a router, a remote node that is local or remote to a subnet where the device to be discovered is located.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the device to be discovered does not require a unique IP or MAC address for the discoverer to send messages to the device to be discovered.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the IP packet from the discoverer includes a destination IP address of the downstream device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the IP packet includes an identifier within its header portion to denote that the IP packet originates from the discoverer.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the IP packet includes a management domain identifier within its header to denote that the IP packet originates from the discoverer from the same management domain defined in the device to be discovered.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the IP packet further includes an identifier within its payload portion to denote that the IP packet is destined for the device to be discovered.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the device to be discovered replies to the IP packet with unique information about the device to be discovered using a borrowed IP and MAC address from the downstream device as its source IP address and source MAC address.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein a payload of the IP packet is encrypted.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein a payload of the IP packet is not encrypted.