REMOTE MANAGEMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD OF SETTING IP ADDRESS THEREOF

• US 20080043738A1
• Filed: 03/14/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hanwha Vision Company Limited (Hanwha Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: JANG, Chuel-jin
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses

Abstract

A remote management apparatus and a method of setting an IP address thereof. The remote management apparatus includes a determination unit to determine whether an IP address of a server connected through a network coincides with an IP address intended to be used for communications with the server, and a control unit to perform an IP address mapping for the server and automatically allocating the mapped IP address to the server if the IP address of the server and the IP address intended to be used for the communications with the server do not coincide with each other. When an IP-based device is added to a network in which the remote management apparatus takes part, the IP address of the added device is automatically set for the convenience of the user.

Claims

1. A remote management apparatus comprising:

a determination unit to determine whether an original IP address of a server connected through a network coincides with an IP address intended to be used for communications with the server; and

a control unit to perform an IP address mapping for the server and to automatically allocate the mapped IP address to the server if the original IP address of the server and the intended IP address do not coincide with each other.

2. The remote management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit performs mapping of last figures of IP addresses, except IP addresses already allocated by the control unit, in either an ascending order or a descending order.

3. The remote management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit allocates the mapped IP addresses to servers in the order of reception of hello packets received from respective servers.

4. The remote management apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transmission/reception unit to receive the hello packet from the server, to transmit data that includes the intended IP address and other IP address information allocated by the control unit to the server, and to receive an IPACK that is a response to the transmitted data from the server;

wherein if the determination unit determines that the IP ACK has not been received, the control unit controls the transmission/reception unit to re-transmit the data that includes the allocated IP address and IP address information to the server.

5. The remote management apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the hello packet comprises at least one of a server name, an IP address of a server, and state information of a server;

the determination unit determines whether the IP address of the server has already been set to the intended IP address on the basis of state information of the server; and

if it is determined that the IP address of the server has already been set to the intended IP address, the control unit communicates with the server by using the set IP address of the server, without performing the IP mapping.

6. The remote management apparatus of claim 5, wherein the state information is “

1”

in the case where the IP address of the server has been set, and the state information is “

0”

in the case where the IP address of the server has not been set.

7. A method of setting an IP address, comprising:

determining whether an IP address of a server connected through a network coincides with an IP address intended to be used for communications with the server; and

performing an IP address mapping to the server and automatically allocating the intended IP address to the server if the original IP address of the server and the intended IP address do not coincide with each other.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the allocating comprises mapping of IP addresses, except already used IP addresses, among pre-allocated IP addresses in either an ascending order or a descending order.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the allocating comprises allocating the mapped IP addresses to servers in the order of reception of hello packets arriving from respective servers.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving the hello packet from the server, transmitting data that includes the intended IP address and other IP address information allocated by the control unit to the server, and receiving from the server an IP ACK that is a response to the transmitted data;

wherein if the determination unit determines that the IP ACK has not been received, the allocating comprises re-transmitting the data that includes the allocated IP address and other IP address information to the server.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the hello packet includes at least one of a server name, an original IP address of a server, and state information of a server;

wherein the determining comprises determining whether the original IP address of the server has already been allocated as an intended IP address on the basis of the state information of the server; and

wherein if it is determined that the IP address of the server has already been allocated, communicating with the server by using the original IP address of the server, without performing the IP mapping.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the state information is “

1”

in the case where the IP address of the server has already been allocated, and the state information is “

0”

in the case where the IP address of the server has not been allocated.

13. A method of a network host to assign IP addresses to respective servers, comprising:

providing a network;

providing a plurality of addressable or re-addressable servers, each server being connected to the network;

waiting to receive a hello packet at the network host over the network from one of the servers;

determining if the received hello packet includes an original IP address of the one server, and

(a) if the hello packet does not include an original IP address, then addressing the one server by allocating and transmitting an intended IP address to the one server, or

(b) if the hello packet includes an original IP address, then determining if any IP address has already been allocated to the one server by the network host and, if no IP address has already been so allocated, then re-addressing the one server by allocating and transmitting an intended IP address to the one server to replace the original IP address at the server; and

waiting for a new hello packet from another one of the servers.

14. The method according to claim 13, comprising:

generating the intended IP address by arithmetically incrementing or decrementing a numerical field of an IP address previously allocated by the host or the corresponding numerical field of a starting IP address predetermined by the host.

15. A network host for connection to servers via a network, comprising:

a comparator to determine if an original IP address included in a hello packet received from a server is the same as any intended IP address of the server that is stored in a memory; and

a controller to allocate a new intended IP address to the server if the original IP address is not the same as any intended IP address of the memory.

16. The network host of claim 15, wherein the new intended IP address is arithmetically equal to an increment or a decrement of an IP address previously allocated by the host and is not equal to any IP address stored in the memory.

17. The network host of claim 16, wherein the new intended IP address is not stored in the memory.