Systems and methods for virtualizing customer-premises equipment

• US 9,565,103 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Pascucci, Jason R., Sidebottom, Greg, Mallya, Raghavendra, Lima, Paulo, Ries, Steffen, Gao, Yue
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Hee Soo
• Application Number:
  US14/226,792
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/72 Routing based on the source address
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2525 Translation at a client

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for virtualizing customer-premises equipment may include (1) receiving, at a service provider'"'"'s network, at least one flow of network traffic from a remote device included in a user'"'"'s private network, (2) identifying, within the flow of network traffic, at least one potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the user'"'"'s private network, (3) determining at least one unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network based at least in part on a network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network and the potentially non-unique private address, and then (4) translating the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address to facilitate routing return network traffic to the remote device in connection with the flow of network traffic. Various other systems, methods, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for virtualizing customer-premises equipment, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving, at a service provider'"'"'s network, at least one flow of network traffic from a remote device included in a user'"'"'s private network;

identifying, within the flow of network traffic, at least one potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the user'"'"'s private network;

determining, based at least in part on a network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network and the potentially non-unique private address, at least one unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

in response to determining the unique routable address, translating the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address to facilitate routing return network traffic to the remote device in connection with the flow of network traffic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network comprises:

identifying, at the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network, an address-translation table that specifies the unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

determining, by looking up the potentially non-unique private address in the address-translation table, the unique routable address.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the address-translation table that specifies the unique routable address comprises maintaining the address-translation table in connection with the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon translating the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address, forwarding the flow of network traffic to at a service delivery gateway included in the service provider'"'"'s network to facilitate servicing the flow of network traffic.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

identifying, within the flow of network traffic at the service delivery gateway, at least one request for a device-specific service provided by the service provider'"'"'s network;

determining, based at least in part on the unique routable address, a media access control address of the remote device included in the user'"'"'s private network;

determining, based at least in part on the request and the media access control address of the remote device, the device-specific service that corresponds to the remote device included in the user'"'"'s private network;

in response to determining the device-specific service, providing the device-specific service to the remote device via the network interface.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining, at the service delivery gateway, that the flow of network traffic is destined for the Internet;

in response to determining that the flow of network traffic is destined for the Internet, translating the unique routable address to a globally routable address to enable the Internet to route return network traffic to the remote device in connection with the flow of network traffic;

upon translating the unique routable address to a globally routable address, forwarding the flow of network traffic to the Internet to facilitate servicing the flow of network traffic.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the service provider'"'"'s network, at least one additional flow of network traffic destined for a remote device included in the user'"'"'s private network;

identifying, within the additional flow of network traffic, the unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

determining, based at least in part on the unique routable address, that the network interface is assigned to the user'"'"'s private network;

determining, based at least in part on the network interface and the unique routable address, the potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the user'"'"'s private network;

in response to determining the potentially non-unique private address, translating the unique routable address to the potentially non-unique private address to facilitate routing the additional flow of network traffic from the network interface to the remote device included in the user'"'"'s private network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network comprises identifying a unique routable address that points to the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining that the network interface is assigned to the user'"'"'s private network comprises:

identifying, at a service delivery gateway included in the service provider'"'"'s network, a routing table that specifies a path that leads to the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network;

determining, by looking up the unique routable address in the routing table, the path that leads to the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network;

the method further comprises, upon determining the path that leads to the network interface, forwarding the additional flow of network traffic to the network interface via the path specified in the routing table.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising, upon translating the unique routable address to the potentially non-unique private address, forwarding the additional flow of network traffic to the remote device included in the user'"'"'s private network via the potentially non-unique private address.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the service provider'"'"'s network, at least one additional flow of network traffic from an additional remote device included in an additional user'"'"'s private network;

identifying, within the additional flow of network traffic, at least one additional potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the additional user'"'"'s private network;

determining, based at least in part on an additional network interface assigned to the additional user'"'"'s private network and the additional potentially non-unique private address, at least one additional unique routable address that represents the additional remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

in response to determining the additional unique routable address, translating the additional potentially non-unique private address to the additional unique routable address to facilitate routing return network traffic to the additional remote device in connection with the additional flow of network traffic.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address comprises statically mapping the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow of network traffic received from the remote device comprises at least one of:

at least one packet destined for the Internet;

at least one packet destined for a service delivery gateway included in the service provider'"'"'s network in connection with a service provided by the service provider'"'"'s network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the service provided by the service provider'"'"'s network comprises at least one of:

a device-specific parental-controls policy;

a device-specific media-delivery service.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the potentially non-unique private address comprises an address that is unique with respect to the user'"'"'s private network and non-unique with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network comprises a network interface that is uniquely specific to the user'"'"'s private network in a one-to-one relationship.

17. A system for virtualizing customer-premises equipment, the system comprising:

a reception module that receives, at a service provider'"'"'s network, at least one flow of network traffic from a remote device included in a user'"'"'s private network;

an identification module that identifies, within the flow of network traffic, at least one potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the user'"'"'s private network;

a determination module that determines, based at least in part on a network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network and the potentially non-unique private address, at least one unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

a translation module that translates the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address to facilitate routing return network traffic to the remote device in connection with the flow of network traffic;

at least one processor that executes the reception module, the identification module, the determination module, and the translation module.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the identification module identifies, at the network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network, an address-translation table that specifies the unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

the determination module determines, by looking up the potentially non-unique private address in the address-translation table, the unique routable address.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a forwarding module that forwards the flow of network traffic to at a service delivery gateway included in the service provider'"'"'s network to facilitate servicing the flow of network traffic.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive, at a service provider'"'"'s network, at least one flow of network traffic from a remote device included in a user'"'"'s private network;

identify, within the flow of network traffic, at least one potentially non-unique private address that represents the remote device with respect to the user'"'"'s private network;

determine, based at least in part on a network interface assigned to the user'"'"'s private network and the potentially non-unique private address, at least one unique routable address that represents the remote device with respect to the service provider'"'"'s network;

translate the potentially non-unique private address to the unique routable address to facilitate routing return network traffic to the remote device in connection with the flow of network traffic.