METHOD OF OPERATING INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS AND SUBNET SYSTEM USING THE SAME

• US 20100158029A1
• Filed: 03/03/2010
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pantech Co. Ltd. (Pantech Incorporated)
• Inventors: CHOO, Ho Cheol, Jang, Seok Joon
• Granted Patent: US 8,054,846 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/659 Internet protocol version 6 [IPv6] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses

Abstract

A method of operating an Internet protocol (IP) address allocates, creates, and processes an interface identifier (ID) of an IP address area. In the allocation, the IP address area includes a subnet prefix area and an Interface ID area, and certain bits of the Interface ID area are used as an index area of a subnet gateway. The allocation is implemented in order from the higher layer to the lower layer so that the Interface ID area is sequentially allocated from the higher bits for the index areas of the respective layers. The combination of the certain bits of the allocated Interface ID and the subnet prefix area of the IP address area is used as the subnet ID of the subnet layers. The lowest subnet gateway allocates the Interface ID to terminating equipment to access the IP network based on a format of the IP address.

Claims

1. A method for operating an Internet protocol (IP) address, comprising:

(a) in an IP address comprising a subnet prefix area and an Interface ID area, allocating certain bits of the Interface ID area as an index area of a lowest subnet gateway, wherein the subnet prefix area comprises 64 bits;

(b) allocating a first portion and a second portion of the certain bits for choosing a lower subnet gateway and next lower subnet gateway hierarchically;

(c) recreating an Interface ID using the certain bits, and allocating the Interface ID to terminating equipment having access to an IP network based on a format of the IP address in the lowest subnet gateway;

(d) at a first subnet gateway, allocating the first portion of the certain bits as an index area of the lower subnet gateway; and

(e) at the lower subnet gateway, allocating the first portion and the second portion of the certain bits as an index area of the next lower subnet gateway.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step (c) comprises:

selecting, from a portion of the Interface ID area that is not included in the certain bits, a value that is not identical to a value allocated to other terminating equipment as a termination identifier;

extracting the certain bits from the subnet ID area; and

allocating a combination comprising the certain bits and the termination identifier as the Interface ID for the terminating equipment.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

at the subnet gateway, processing input packets using the IP address and transmitting them to a destination.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the next lower subnet gateway is the lowest subnet gateway.

5. A method of operating an Internet protocol (IP) address, the method comprising:

in an IP area comprising a subnet prefix area and an Interface ID area, allocating certain bits of the Interface ID area as an index area of a subnet gateway, wherein the subnet prefix area comprises 64 bits;

allocating a first portion and a second portion of the certain bits for choosing a lower subnet gateway and next lower subnet gateway hierarchically; and

allocating an Interface ID for terminating equipment having access to an IP network based on a format of the IP address in a lowest subnet gateway; and

at the subnet gateway, processing input packets using the IP address and transmitting them to a destination,

wherein the packet transmission step comprises;

at the subnet gateway, checking whether external input packets are to be transmitted to the subnet gateway'"'"'s subnet;

if the packets are to be transmitted to the subnet gateway'"'"'s subnet, masking first higher bits of the Interface ID and transmitting the masked packets to the corresponding lower subnet gateway matched thereto;

at the lower subnet gateway, checking whether the packets inputted from the higher subnet gateway are to be transmitted to the lower subnet gateway'"'"'s subnet; and

if the packets are to be transmitted to the lower subnet gateway'"'"'s subnet subnet, masking second higher bits following the first higher bits and forwarding the masked packets to the next lower subnet gateway matched thereto to transmit them to the corresponding destination.