METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING AN IP ADDRESS SPACE OF AN ADDRESS SERVER IN A MOBILITY NETWORK

• US 20090135793A1
• Filed: 11/28/2007
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Woo, Thomas Y., Nandagopal, Thyagarajan
• Granted Patent: US 8,488,571 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5084 Providing for device mobility network addressing or numbering for mobility support in wireless networks H04W8/26; mobile IP H04W80/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

The invention manages an IP address space in a mobility network, including partitioning of the IP address space, assignment of IP addresses from the IP address space, and/or use of hysteresis to control reassignment of IP addresses from the IP address space. The IP address assignment is performed using one or more residual time statistics from a residual time profile maintained for the mobile node requesting assignment of an IP address. A residual time profile of a mobile node includes one or more residual time statistics associated with the mobile node. The residual time statistics for a mobile node are determined using a residual time associated with each IP address assigned to the mobile node. The IP address space partitioning is performed using residual time statistics maintained for mobile nodes of the network. The reassignment of IP addresses from the IP address space is controlled using hysteresis.

Claims

1. A method for assigning an IP address to a mobile node (MN) from an IP address space of a mobility network, comprising:

receiving a request for an IP address for the MN;

selecting one of a plurality of IP address sub-spaces of the IP address space using a residual time profile of the MN, wherein the residual time profile comprises at least one residual time statistic associated with the MN; and

assigning, to the MN, an available IP address from the selected IP address sub-space.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of IP address sub-spaces is selected using the residual time profile maintained for the MN and information associated with the request for the IP address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one residual time statistic comprises at least one of an average residual time statistic, a minimum residual time statistic, a maximum residual time statistic, and a residual time variance statistic.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one residual time statistic is categorized in at least one category.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one category comprises at least one of a point of connection to the network category, an application category, a time of day category, a day of week category, and a day of month category.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the residual time profile for the mobile node is maintained by monitoring assignment of IP addresses to the mobile node and monitoring release of IP addresses from the mobile node.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

computing a residual time value for each IP address assigned to the mobile node, wherein each residual time value is a length of time for which the IP address was assigned to the mobile node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of IP address sub-spaces are partitioned from the IP address space using a plurality of residual time profiles of a respective plurality of mobile nodes associated with the mobility network.

9. A method for partitioning an IP address space of a mobility network, comprising:

monitoring management of IP addresses for a plurality of mobile nodes to determine therefrom at least one residual time statistic for each of the mobile nodes;

maintaining the residual time statistics determined for the mobile nodes; and

partitioning the IP address space into a plurality of IP address sub-spaces using at least a portion of the maintained residual time statistics.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein monitoring management of IP addresses for each of the plurality of mobile nodes comprises:

monitoring assignment of IP addresses for each of the mobile nodes; and

monitoring release of IP addresses for each of the mobile nodes.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

computing, for each mobile node, a residual time value for each IP address assigned to the mobile node, wherein each residual time value is a length of time for which that IP address was assigned to that mobile node.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein, for each of the mobile nodes, the at least one residual time statistic comprises at least one of an average residual time statistic, a minimum residual time statistic, a maximum residual time statistic, and a residual time variance statistic.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein each residual time statistic is categorized in at least one category.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one category comprises at least one of a point of connection to the network category, an application category, a time of day category, a day of week category, and a day of month category.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein maintaining the residual time statistics for the mobile nodes comprises:

maintaining, for each of the mobile nodes, a residual time profile comprising the at least one residual time statistic determined for the mobile node.

16. A method for controlling assignment of IP addresses from an IP address space, comprising:

detecting release of an IP address assigned to a mobile node;

locking the released IP address for a length of time, wherein the released IP address is locked in a manner for preventing reassignment of the IP address to another mobile node; and

after the length of time, unlocking the released IP address such that the released IP address is available for assignment to another mobile node.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the released IP address is locked and unlocked using a first trie-based representation of the IP address space and a second trie-based representation of the IP address space.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the length of time comprises one of a predetermined length of time and a dynamic length of time determined using information associated with the mobile node from which the IP address is released.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the information associated with the mobile node from which the IP address is released comprises at least one of a manner in which the IP address is released and a type of an application being used by the mobile node from which the IP address is released.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

assigning the IP address to another mobile node.