METHOD FOR NETWORK DEVICE CONFIGURATION

• US 20120173683A1
• Filed: 03/15/2012
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MAKO Networks
• Original Assignee: Yellowtuna Holdings Limited
• Inventors: MASSAM, Christopher James, MONKS, Dennis Warren
• Granted Patent: US 8,443,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0218 Distributed architectures, e.g. distributed firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A network device initially has no configuration data and is permitted only to query a known network address. From this address a server verifies the connection and authorizes another server to download to the network device the necessary configuration to carry out its purpose. This configuration may not be amended and is not retained on power loss. Any updates are carried out by a complete reload of configuration data.

Claims

1. A method of configuring and storing traffic information from a customer internet connection modem the configuration information of which cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, the method comprising:

providing a remote authority, contactable through the internet by a customer internet connection modem,

providing a configuration service, contactable through the internet by a customer internet connection modem,

the configuration service maintaining the configuration information for a customer internet connection modem and the remote authority storing traffic information on an operation of the customer internet connection modem,

providing a customer internet connection modem within a customer network, the customer internet connection modem being capable only of contacting the remote authority via an internet connection with an identifier of the customer internet connection modem,

detecting at the remote authority a data stream from a customer internet connection modem so as to look up the identity of a customer internet connection modem from this;

initiating the customer internet connection modem to download the configuration for the customer internet connection modem,

providing the customer internet connection modem with the downloaded configuration information and connecting the customer internet connection modem to the internet using the downloaded internet connection modem configuration,

providing from the customer internet connection modem to the remote authority traffic information at the customer internet connection modem,

wherein the customer internet connection modem loses all customer configuration information on loss of power,

wherein traffic information is available to the customer from the remote authority,

wherein changes in the customer configuration information at the configuration service may be downloaded by the customer internet connection modem.

2. The method of configuring and storing traffic information from a customer internet connection modem the configuration information of which cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 1, wherein traffic information from the customer internet connection modem is sent to the remote authority on schedule.

3. The method of configuring and storing traffic information from a customer internet connection modem the configuration information of which cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 1, wherein traffic information from the customer internet connection modem is sent to the remote authority when prompted by the remote authority.

4. The method of managing a plurality of customer internet connection modems, where the configuration information of each modem cannot be changed by a routine, or sub-routine held in the modem, the method comprising:

providing a remote authority, contactable through the internet by a customer internet connection modem,

providing a configuration service, contactable through the internet by each a customer internet connection modem, the configuration service maintaining the configuration information for each customer internet connection modem and the remote authority storing traffic information on the operation of each customer internet connection modem,

allowing each of these modems to connect to the customer internet connection, each customer internet connection modem having only sufficient configuration information to contact the remote authority via a first internet connection path with an identifier of that customer internet connection modem,

detecting at the remote authority from a data stream from a customer internet connection modem the identity of a customer internet connection modem;

initiating the identified customer internet connection modem to download the configuration for the customer internet connection modem,

providing the customer internet connection modem with the downloaded configuration information and connecting the customer internet connection modem to the internet using the downloaded internet connection modem configuration,

providing from each customer internet connection modem to the remote authority traffic information at the customer internet connection modem,

wherein each customer internet connection modem loses all customer configuration information on loss of power,

wherein customer internet connection modem traffic information is available to each customer from the configuration service,

wherein changes in the customer configuration information at the configuration service may be downloaded by each customer internet connection modem.

5. The method of configuring and storing information from each customer internet connection modem where the configuration information of each modem cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 4, wherein the traffic information from each customer internet connection modem is sent to the configuration service on schedule.

6. The method of configuring and storing information from each customer internet connection modem where the configuration information of each modem cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 4, wherein the traffic information from each customer internet connection modem is sent to the configuration service when prompted by the configuration service.

7. The method of configuring and storing information from each customer internet connection modem where the configuration information cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 4, wherein the configuration data is also lost from the customer internet connection device on any intrusion attempt.

8. The method of configuring and storing information from each customer internet connection modem where the configuration information cannot be changed by a routine or sub-routine held in the modem, as claimed in claim 4, and providing communication between at least two of those customer internet connection modems of unknown network address wherein each modem is required to download its configuration parameters from a server at a known network address each time the device is initialised, the modems'"'"' allocated network addresses are stored at server, the server being queriable for the allocated network addresses of the at least two modems, and wherein communications can be initiated between the at least two network addresses from this data.

9. A method of providing a VPN connection between two or more network devices which do not know the IP address of each other device to be joined to the VPN, the method comprising:

providing a verification authority connected to the internet remote from the two or more network devices and remote from an internet service provider providing an internet connection to each of the two network devices, the or more verification authority verifying the identity of the two or more internet network devices;

providing a configuration server connected to the internet remote from the two or more network devices and remote from the internet service provider providing an internet connection to each of the two network devices, the or more configuration server supplying to each verified internet device the entire configuration data for that verified Internet device;

providing each of the two or more network devices free of provision to permanently store the user configuration data, each of the devices containing configuration information only sufficient to connect the devices to the internet service provider to request a first IP address, and using that first IP address to connect to the remote verification authority at a designated internet address, providing within each of the two or more network devices, a routine which securely contacts the remote verification authority, providing the identity of the network device, and using the designated internet address of that remote verification authority, and subsequently downloading from a remote configuration authority authorized by the remote verification authority the entire configuration data each time the device is initialized, for one of the two or more internet network devices, each time that device is initialized, reloading that device with the downloaded configuration data, each of the two or more network devices creating a private network in a downlink separate from end user devices in the created private network; and

storing the allocated internet network address of the network device at the verification authority, repeating the process for each of the other network devices so that each of the other network devices downloads from the remote configuration server authorized by the remote verification authority the entire configuration data for that particular internet network device each time that particular device is initialized and reloading that particular device with the downloaded configuration data and storing the allocated interact network address for that particular device at the verification authority and initiating a VPN communication between two or more of the network devices, by sending an instruction from the verification authority to one of the network devices by supplying to that network device the allocated internet address of at least one of the other network devices so that the recipient internet device can communicate with the other network device.