Method of operating tunnel point supporting routing scalability and mobility

• US 8,699,480 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Hyoung-Jun, You, Tae-Wan, Park, Jung-Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Dung B
• Application Number:
  US12/568,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20100157894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,660 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2212/00 Encapsulation of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

Provided is a method of operating a tunnel point that provides a tunnel between a router group including at least one router and a mobile node. The method includes: providing a tunnel between the mobile node and the router group by authenticating the mobile node; receiving a packet including an identifier (ID) of a target node from the mobile node; converting the ID of the target node in the packet into a locator corresponding to the ID of the target node; transmitting a packet including the converted locator to the router group; and maintaining the ID of the mobile node by authenticating the mobile node through the router group when the mobile node is connected to another external terminal node.

Claims

1. A method of operating a tunnel point which provides a tunnel between a router group including at least one router and a mobile node, the method comprising:

providing a tunnel between the mobile node and the router group by authenticating the mobile node;

receiving a packet including an identifier (ID) of a target node from the mobile node;

converting the ID of the target node in the packet into a locator corresponding to the ID of the target node regardless of whether the mobile node is connected to a home agent or an external agent;

transmitting a packet including the converted locator to the router group; and

maintaining the ID of the mobile node by authenticating the mobile node through the router group when the mobile node is connected to another external terminal node,

wherein a first tunnel point requests the ID of the mobile node and locator mapping information from a second tunnel point to which the home agent of the mobile node is connected, converts the ID of the mobile node into a locator of the mobile node based on the information delivered from the second tunnel point, and transmits a packet including the locator of the mobile node directly to a third tunnel point to which the external agent of the mobile node is connected.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tunnel point comprises an authentication server in order for authenticating the mobile node;

and

the providing of the tunnel between the mobile node and the router group comprises authenticating the mobile node by using the authentication server and the ID of the mobile node and providing a tunnel between the mobile node and the router group based on an authentication result.

3. The method of claim 2, when the mobile node is authenticated in order to provide a tunnel between the mobile node and the router group, further comprising allocating ID to the mobile node through the authentication server if there is no ID of the mobile node.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the providing of the tunnel between the mobile node and the router group comprises, when the ID of the mobile node is not allocated by the tunnel point, requesting authentication of the mobile node to a tunnel point that allocates ID to the mobile node among external tunnel points.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the providing of the tunnel between the mobile node and the router group comprises:

converting the ID of the mobile node into a locator; and

transmitting the converted locator and an authentication request of the mobile node to the router group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the providing of the tunnel between the mobile node and the router group comprises, when an authentication message of the mobile node is delivered through the router group, providing a tunnel between the mobile node and the router group.

7. The method of claim 2, when a specific mobile node to which the tunnel point allocates ID is connected to another external tunnel point, further comprising storing specific mobile node information indicating that the mobile node to which the tunnel point allocates the ID is connected to another external tunnel point.

8. The method of claim 7, when a packet to be delivered from the router group to the specific mobile node is delivered, further comprising combining the packet to be delivered to the specific mobile node with a locator representing an external tunnel point to which the specific mobile node is connected, based on the specific mobile node information, in order to deliver a combined result to the router group.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the tunnel point comprises:

a global tunnel point; and

at least one local tunnel point connected to the global tunnel point,

wherein;

the mobile node is connected to one of the at least one local tunnel point; and

when the mobile node is connected to a first local tunnel point, the first local tunnel point delivers the ID of the mobile node to the global tunnel point, and the global tunnel point authenticates the mobile node using the ID of the mobile node and the authentication server.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein when the mobile node is separated from the first local tunnel point and is connected to a second local tunnel point, the ID of the mobile node is maintained.

11. The method of claim 8, when the packet including the locator corresponding to the tunnel point is delivered from the router group, further comprising:

converting the locator corresponding to the tunnel point into ID; and

delivering the packet to the mobile node when the converted ID corresponds to the mobile node.