METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGEMENT OF NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120284385A1
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Semtech Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sierra Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: Vos, Gustav Gerald, KAVANAUGH, Richard Thomas, Daskalopoulos, Vasilios V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2553 Binding renewal aspects, e.g. using keep-alive messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections

Abstract

A method and apparatus for maintaining a communication link through a NAT or other boundary device. Keep-alive messages (keep-alives) are transmitted and received by the boundary device to maintain the link therethrough. Address information of a keep-alive purports that keep-alive has traversed or is to traverse a predetermined portion of the communication link, such as a wireless “over the air” portion. However, the keep-alive is inhibited from traversing the predetermined portion. This may be accomplished by one or more of: spoofing the origin of the keep-alive such that it only appears to have traversed the predetermined portion; and causing the keep-alive to be discarded before traversal of the predetermined portion. Discard may be facilitated by configuration of the TTL field of the keep-alive or by use of a filtering device.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining a communication link between a first communication device and a second communication device, the communication link established through a boundary device, the method comprising:

a. maintaining the communication link through the boundary device by transmitting a keep-alive message toward the boundary device, the keep-alive message received by the boundary device and comprising address information indicative that the first communication device is its source or destination, the address information thereby purporting that the keep-alive message has traversed or is to traverse at least a predetermined portion of the communication link coupled to the first communication device and excluding the boundary device; and

b. inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the predetermined portion.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the predetermined portion comprises causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the predetermined portion comprises generating the keep-alive message at a keep-alive server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link that excludes the predetermined portion, the keep-alive server configured to spoof the keep-alive message as originating from the first communication device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the address information is further indicative that the second communication device is its source or destination, the address information thereby purporting that the keep-alive message has traversed or is to traverse at least a second predetermined portion of the communication link coupled to the second communication device and excluding the boundary device;

the method further comprising;

inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the second predetermined portion.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating the keep-alive message at a server operatively coupled to the boundary device, the server and the first device located on opposite sides of the boundary device.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the server is a keep-alive server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link, the keep-alive server configured to spoof the keep-alive message as originating from the second communication device.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the server is a keep-alive proxy server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link, the keep-alive proxy server configured as a proxy server for communication with the second communication device.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion comprises configuring a time to live of the keep-alive message, such that the time to live expires after the keep-alive message traverses the boundary device and before the keep-alive message traverses the predetermined portion.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion comprises:

marking the keep-alive message with an identifiable marker; and

providing a filtering network device along the communication link excluding the predetermined portion, the filtering network device configured to discard messages marked with the identifiable marker and forward messages unmarked by the identifiable marker.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined portion of the communication link is an over-the-air link of a wireless network operated by a mobile network operator.

11. An apparatus for maintaining a communication link between a first communication device and a second communication device, the communication link established through a boundary device, the apparatus comprising one or more computing devices and a network interface module and configured to generate and transmit a keep-alive message toward the boundary device, the keep-alive message comprising address information indicative that the first communication device is its source or destination, the address information thereby purporting that the keep-alive message has traversed or is to traverse at least a predetermined portion of the communication link coupled to the first communication device and excluding the boundary device, the keep-alive message thereby maintaining the communication link through the boundary device upon reception by the boundary device, the keep-alive message further configured and transmitted so as to be inhibited from traversing the predetermined portion.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the predetermined portion comprises causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the apparatus is a keep-alive server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link that excludes the predetermined portion, and wherein the keep-alive server is configured to spoof the keep-alive message as originating from the first communication device.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the address information is further indicative that the second communication device is its source or destination, the address information thereby purporting that the keep-alive message has traversed or is to traverse at least a second predetermined portion of the communication link coupled to the second communication device and excluding the boundary device;

the apparatus further configured to inhibit the keep-alive message from traversing the second predetermined portion.

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the apparatus is a server operatively coupled to the boundary device, the server and the first device located on opposite sides of the boundary device.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the server is a keep-alive server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link, the keep-alive server configured to spoof the keep-alive message as originating from the second communication device.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the server is a keep-alive proxy server operatively coupled to the boundary device via an auxiliary communication link, the keep-alive proxy server configured as a proxy server for communication with the second communication device.

18. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion comprises configuring a time to live of the keep-alive message, such that the time to live expires after the keep-alive message traverses the boundary device and before the keep-alive message traverses the predetermined portion.

19. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein causing the keep-alive message to be discarded before it traverses the predetermined portion comprises:

marking the keep-alive message with an identifiable marker; and

providing a filtering network device along the communication link excluding the predetermined portion, the filtering network device configured to discard messages marked with the identifiable marker and forward messages unmarked by the identifiable marker.

20. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the predetermined portion of the communication link is an over-the-air link of a wireless network operated by a mobile network operator.

21. A computer program product comprising a memory having computer readable code embodied therein, for execution by a CPU, for performing a method of maintaining a communication link between a first communication device and a second communication device, the communication link established through a boundary device, the method comprising:

a. maintaining the communication link through the boundary device by transmitting a keep-alive message toward the boundary device, the keep-alive message received by the boundary device and comprising address information indicative that the first communication device is its source or destination, the address information thereby purporting that the keep-alive message has traversed or is to traverse at least a predetermined portion of the communication link coupled to the first communication device and excluding the boundary device; and

b. inhibiting the keep-alive message from traversing the predetermined portion.