Neighbor discovery in cable networks

• US 20050265261A1
• Filed: 12/30/2004
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sudan, Madhu, Droms, Ralph Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,646,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks

Abstract

A network device has a communications link to allow the device to communicate with customer devices and a processor. The processor is to receive neighbor discovery messages from requesting customer devices, examine the neighbor discovery messages to determine if the neighbor discovery message should be forwarded to other of the customer devices, and respond to the requesting customer devices.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a communications link to allow the device to communicate with customer devices; and

a processor to;

receive neighbor discovery messages from requesting customer devices;

examine the neighbor discovery messages to determine if the neighbor discovery message should be forwarded to other of the customer devices; and

respond to the requesting customer devices.

2. The network device of claim 1, the network device further comprising a cable modem termination system.

3. The network device of claim 1, the communications link further comprising a cable link.

4. The network device of claim 1, the device further comprising a storage to store a table of network addresses associated with media access control addresses.

5. The network device of claim 1, the processor to receiving neighbor discovery messages further comprising a general purpose processor.

6. The network device of claim 1, the processor to examine the neighbor discovery messages further to examine message headers using a parser.

7. A method of processing neighbor discovery messages, comprising:

receiving a neighbor discovery message from a requesting customer device;

examining the neighbor discovery message to determine if the neighbor discovery needs to be forwarded to any other customer devices; and

responding to the requesting customer device.

8. The method of claim 7, receiving a neighbor discovery message further comprising receiving a neighbor discovery message in accordance with Internet Protocol version 6.

9. The method of claim 7, receiving a neighbor discovery message further comprising receiving a duplicate address detection message.

10. The method of claim 7, receiving a neighbor discovery message further comprising receiving a media access control address request message.

11. The method of claim 9, examining the message further comprising recording the network address and media access control address for the requesting device.

12. The method of claim 10, examining the message further comprising:

accessing a storage of network addresses and associated media access control addresses; and

identifying the media access control address associated with a network address provided in the request message.

13. The method of claim 7, responding to the requesting device further comprising returning a message to only the responding requesting device.

14. The method of claim 7, responding to the requesting device further comprising returning a message to the responding device and selected other devices connected to the network device.

15. A network device, comprising:

a means for allowing the device to communicate with customer devices; and

a means for;

receiving neighbor discovery messages from requesting customer devices;

examining the neighbor discovery messages to determine if the neighbor discovery message should be forwarded to other of the customer devices; and

responding to the requesting customer devices.

16. The network device of claim 15, the device further comprising means for storing a table of network addresses associated with media access control addresses.

17. The network device of claim 15, the means for receiving, examining and responding further comprising a general purpose processor.

18. The network device of claim 15, the means for receiving, examining and responding further comprising a digital signal processor.

19. An article of machine-readable code containing instructions that, when executed, cause the machine to:

receive a neighbor discovery message from a requesting customer device;

examine the neighbor discovery message to determine if the neighbor discovery needs to be forwarded to any other customer devices; and

respond to the requesting customer device.

20. The article of claim 19, the instructions that, when executed, cause the machine to respond to the requesting customer device further cause the machine to return a message to only the responding requesting device.

21. The article of claim 19, the instructions that, when executed, cause the machine to respond to the requesting customer device further cause the machine to return a message to the responding device and selected other devices connected to the network device.