COMBINING MOBILE VPN AND INTERNET PROTOCOL

• US 20090016253A1
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Janneteau, Christophe, Lewis, Adam C., Petrescu, Alexandru, Popovich, George
• Granted Patent: US 8,379,623 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/045 involving different protocol versions, e.g. MIPv4 and MIPv6

Abstract

A method (200, 300, 400) of communicating an IPv6 packet (120) over an IPv4 based network (102). The method can include receiving the IPv6 packet to be communicated to a remote unit (104), encapsulating the IPv6 packet in an IPv4 transition packet (122), and communicating the IPv4 transition packet to an IPv4 MVPN (114) server configured to communicate the packet to the remote unit via infrastructure of an IPv4 radio access network. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of processing an IPv6 packet received over an IPv4 based network. The method can include receiving from an MVPN server an IPv4 formatted packet that is being communicated to a remote unit, and removing from the packet at least one IPv4 header to result in the packet being formatted in accordance with IPv6.

Claims

1. A method of communicating an IPv6 packet over an IPv4 based network, comprising:

receiving the IPv6 packet to be communicated to a remote unit;

encapsulating the IPv6 packet in an IPv4 transition packet; and

communicating the IPv4 transition packet to an IPv4 mobile VPN (MVPN) server configured to communicate the packet to the remote unit via infrastructure of an IPv4 radio access network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein encapsulating IPv6 packet comprises appending to the IPv6 packet an IPv6 to IPv4 transition header.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein appending the IPv6 to IPv4 transition header comprises identifying an IPv4 address of a transition gateway and identifying an IPv4 address of a mobile router or remote unit to which the packet will be communicated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the IPv6 packet comprises receiving an IPv6 multicast packet.

5. A method of processing an IPv6 packet received over an IPv4 based network, comprising:

receiving from an MVPN server an IPv4 formatted packet that is being communicated to a remote unit;

removing from the packet at least one IPv4 header to result in the packet being formatted in accordance with IPv6.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein removing at least one IPv4 header comprises removing from the packet an IPv4 mobile IP tunnel header.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein removing at least one IPv4 header comprises removing from the packet an IPv4 IP security (IPsec) tunnel header.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

removing from the packet an IPsec ESP.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein removing at least one IPv4 header comprises removing from the packet an IPv6 to IPv4 transition header.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

prior to receiving the IPv4 formatted packet, receiving an IPv6 multicast listener discovery (MLD) report generated by the remote unit; and

communicating the MLD report to the MVPN server.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

maintaining mapping data associating the remote unit with a multicast group identified in the MLD report.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the IPv4 formatted packet comprises receiving a packet multicasted as an IPv6 packet.

13. A method of communicating an IPv6 packet over an IPv4 based network, comprising:

receiving from a transition gateway an IPv6 packet to be communicated to a remote unit;

appending to the packet a mobile VPN (MVPN) tunnel header formatted in accordance with IPv4 ; and

communicating the IPv6 packet to the remote unit via infrastructure of an IPv4 radio access network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving from the transition gateway the IPv6 packet comprises receiving an IPv6 to IPv4 transition header that has been appended to the packet.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising removing the IPv6 to IPv4 transition header from the packet.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein removing the IPv6 to IPv4 transition header from the packet occurs prior to appending the MVPN tunnel header to the packet.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

prior to receiving the packet to be communicated to the remote unit, receiving an IPv6 multicast listener discovery (MLD) report generated by the remote unit; and

joining an IPv6 multicast group identified in the MLD report;

wherein receiving the packet comprises receiving a multicast packet communicated to the IPv6 multicast group.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising maintaining mapping data associating a mobile router or the remote unit with the IPv6 multicast group.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising maintaining mapping data associating an IPv4 multicast group with the IPv6 multicast group.

20. A method of communicating an IPv6 packet, comprising:

from a remote unit, receiving an IPv4 packet via infrastructure of an IPv4 radio access network, the IPv4 packet comprising an encapsulated IPv6 packet;

removing from the IPv4 packet a mobile VPN (MVPN) tunnel header formatted in accordance with IPv4 to un-encapsulate the IPv6 packet from the IPv4 packet; and

communicating to a transition gateway the IPv6 packet.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising adding an IPv6 to IPv4 transition header to the IPv6 the packet.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising maintaining mapping data associating a mobile router or the remote unit with an IPv6 multicast group.