CN106331192B

CN106331192B - Network protocol IP address allocation method and device

Info

Publication number: CN106331192B
Application number: CN201510348662.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱金华; 丁馥昊
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2015-06-23
Filing date: 2015-06-23
Publication date: 2020-12-04
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-23
Also published as: CN106331192A

Abstract

The invention discloses an IP address allocation method and device. The method comprises the following steps: dividing an original address pool of a Network Access Server (NAS) into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance, and storing the information of the divided address segments into an address segment state server; when an IP address is applied, if the applied address field does not exist locally or the applied address field exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address field, applying a new address field to the address field state server, and allocating the IP address for the NAS from the new address field. By means of the technical scheme of the invention, the performance reduction and interruption influence during the centralized IP allocation are avoided while the original network is compatible, and the utilization rate of the IP address resources is improved.

Description

Network protocol IP address allocation method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of computer networks, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for allocating an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Background

In the user access process of fixed network and mobile network, the problem of user IP address allocation is involved. At present, IP address allocation is realized by configuring an address pool on a Network Access Server (NAS for short). Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario in which multiple NAS allocate addresses in the prior art, as shown in fig. 1, one network includes multiple NAS, and address pools configured by each NAS are independent from each other and cannot overlap. The four NAS's in fig. 1, the top two have their address segments exhausted and the bottom two are much free. The other time period may again be the opposite result, i.e. the top two idle and the bottom two exhausted. Therefore, such a deployment is likely to cause resource imbalance, for example, when the address pool of each NAS partition is too small, the peak time is not enough, and when the address pool is too large, the resource imbalance is wasted. Each NAS thus reserves a significant portion of the address capacity. In addition, in the prior art, the resources of one NAS address pool are in shortage, and the other NAS address pool is idle. Therefore, there is a need to solve the problem of IP address pool allocation.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the problems of uneven resource distribution and waste caused by pre-allocating independent address pools in the prior art, the present invention is proposed to provide a method and an apparatus for allocating IP addresses to overcome the above problems.

The invention provides a network protocol IP address allocation method, which comprises the following steps: dividing an original address pool of a Network Access Server (NAS) into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance, and storing the information of the divided address segments into an address segment state server; when an IP address is applied, if the applied address field does not exist locally or the applied address field exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address field, the NAS applies a new address field to the address field state server and carries out IP address allocation for the NAS from the new address field.

The invention also provides a device for allocating the IP address of the network protocol, which specifically comprises the following steps: the dividing module is used for dividing the original address pool into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance and storing the divided address segment information to the address segment state server; and the allocation module is used for applying for a new address field from the address field state server and allocating the IP address for the NAS from the new address field if the applied address field does not exist locally or the applied address field exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address field when the IP address is applied.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

the original address pool is divided into a plurality of address segments with small granularity, the use state of the address segments is controlled by the address segment state server, and when the IP address is distributed, a request message is sent to the address segment state server to apply for the address segments, so that the problems of uneven resource distribution and waste caused by pre-distributing an independent address pool in the prior art are solved, the IP can be still dynamically distributed by the NAS, and the whole IP address pool can be shared by a plurality of NAS. The method and the device are compatible with the original network, avoid performance reduction and interruption influence during centralized IP allocation, and improve the utilization rate of IP address resources.

The foregoing description is only an overview of the technical solutions of the present invention, and the embodiments of the present invention are described below in order to make the technical means of the present invention more clearly understood and to make the above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more clearly understandable.

Drawings

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario in which multiple NAS allocation addresses are used in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method of IP address assignment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of IP address segment deployment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a signaling flow diagram of an IP address segment request and response of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating message types defined by RFC2882 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a Framed-Route attribute definition according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a signaling flowchart of an address field application performed by Resource-Query-Request/reply messages according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an IP address assignment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

In order to solve the problems of uneven resource distribution and waste caused by pre-allocation of an independent address pool in the prior art, the invention provides an IP address allocation method and device, mainly relating to a Network element comprising a Network Access Server (NAS) and an address segment state Server. Specifically, all addresses in charge of management are divided into a plurality of small segments, and the distribution state of the small segments is maintained by an address segment state server; when the NAS server needs to distribute the address, whether the address field applied locally contains an idle IP or not is checked, and if the address field exists, the address field is directly distributed; if the address field does not exist, applying for a new address field by sending a request message to the server; both the NAS and the address segment state server can release the IP address segment by sending a release message. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention has good effect on solving the problems of uneven IP distribution and resource waste caused by the pre-distribution mode of the fixed address pools of the multiple NAS respectively. The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and do not limit the invention.

Method embodiment

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an IP address allocation method is provided, fig. 2 is a flowchart of the IP address allocation method according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 2, the IP address allocation method according to the embodiment of the present invention includes the following processing:

step 201, dividing an original address pool of the NAS into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance, and storing information of the divided address segments into an address segment state server; it should be noted that the NAS includes, but is not limited to, PDSN/GGSN/PDN-GW. That is, in step 201, as shown in fig. 3, it is necessary to divide the large address pool of each NAS into a plurality of address segments with small granularity, and move the allocation of the usage right to the address segment state server. For example, the NAS1 in fig. 3 includes three address segments, and the status of each address segment is that one of the address segments is not free, and the other two address segments are free.

Step 202, when the network access server applies for an IP address, if there is no address segment that has been applied locally, or there is an address segment that has been applied locally but there is no idle IP address in the address segment, then apply for a new address segment to the address segment state server, and perform IP address allocation for NAS from the new address segment.

The above step 201 and step 202 may be performed by the NAS.

In the embodiment of the invention, if the applied address field exists locally and the address field contains an idle IP address, the NAS directly carries out IP address allocation for the NAS from the address field.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the NAS has a requirement for allocating the address pool, it is first checked whether there is an address field that has been applied locally and contains an idle IP, and if so, an address is allocated from the address field according to the original flow of dynamically allocating the IP. If not, as shown in fig. 4, a message (IP address field request) for applying for an address field is sent to the address field state server, and a new address is allocated from the new address field after the new address field is acquired through the IP address field response message.

In addition, after the user releases the IP address, if all the IP addresses in the whole address field are idle, the NAS releases the address field and informs the address field state server. And after receiving the address segment release request sent by the address segment state server, the NAS releases the corresponding user session and the IP address. That is, after the NAS releases the address offline, if the whole small address segment is idle, the NAS may send the release procedure of the address segment. The address state server can also actively send a request for releasing the specified address field due to management requirements, and the NAS needs to release the corresponding user session and IP after receiving the request.

The NAS periodically sends address segment use condition heartbeat messages to an address segment state server; and if the address field state server does not receive the address field use condition heartbeat message within a preset time period, setting the corresponding address field to be in an idle distributable state. That is, the NAS needs to periodically send heartbeat messages of the usage condition of the address segment to ensure the timeliness of the address segment. The address field state server updates the time of the address field after receiving the heartbeat message; if the heartbeat message is not received for a long time, the address segment is released and is set to be in an idle distributable state.

It should be noted that both the IP address application message definition and the address segment status server can be flexibly implemented according to the network environment and the deployment situation. Not limited to TCP/UDP, nor to standard protocols or custom message formats.

The above technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

When the embodiment of the invention is implemented, the message type defined by the RFC2882 is a least-costly implementation scheme based on the Radius protocol commonly used in the existing network. Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of message types defined in RFC2882 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and furthermore, in the embodiment of the present invention, AAA is used as an address segment status server at the same time, so that changes to the existing network can be reduced.

Step 1, the Resource-Query-Request message contains the NASID/Service-Type and the optional APN attribute, where the Service-Type is 0x02(Framed) to indicate that it is an address segment Request.

And 2, carrying NAS ID (optional), APN (optional) and Service-Type AVP (optional), frame-Route (optional, carrying specific IP section information) authorization to the NAS in the Resource-Query-Response message, and recording the distribution state of the IP section and the NAS ID or APN (if carried in the request message) corresponding to the IP section. Wherein, the frame-Route attribute is defined as shown in fig. 6.

And step 3, the Resource-Free-Request message is used for releasing the NASID and the optional APN and the Framed-Route attribute. And if the Framed-Route is not carried, the radius server releases all address segments found by the NASI or NASI + APN. The sending of Resource-Free-Response messages by Radius is optional.

Step 4, for management reasons, the radius server can actively initiate the request for releasing the address field. The Radius server accomplishes this by sending Resource-Free-Request messages. The message carries NASID, APN (if carried at the time of application), and Framed-Route (if carried, it means releasing the address field specified, if not specified, it means that it needs to release all address fields). The NAS will send the response immediately. But the radius server needs to wait for receiving the Resource-Free-Request sent by the NAS to actually set the address field to be Free.

Step 5, in order to ensure timeliness of the address segment allocation state, the radius server needs the NAS to periodically send heartbeat messages to indicate which address segments are being used. This is achieved in the present invention by Resource-Query-Request (Service-Type ═ 0x12 (FramedManagement)). And the Radius server updates the last report time of the address field after receiving the message, and if the report cannot be received for a long time, the resource of the address field is released and the state is distributable.

Fig. 7 is a signaling flowchart for applying for an address field through a Resource-Query-Request/reply message according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is illustrated in fig. 7 by using an application of the Resource-Query-Request/reply message between a ggsn (nas) and an AAA, and specifically includes the following processing:

step 1, GGSN has address allocation requirement, and there is no idle address field.

GGSN sends Resource-Query-Request, carrying:

NASID＝”nasid01”,

APN＝”apn01”,

Service-Type＝2(Framed),

step 2, AAA (materialization of radius server described above) selects the idle address segment, marks it as allocated, and records the corresponding NASID and APN.

Step 3, AAA sends Resource-Query-Response, carrying:

NASID＝”nasid01”,

APN＝”apn01”,

Framed-Route＝”10.1.18.1-10.1.18.50”

in summary, with the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention, the original address pool is divided into a plurality of small-granularity address segments, and the address segment status server controls the use status of the address segment, and when an IP address is allocated, a request message is sent to the address segment status server to apply for the address segment, so as to solve the problems of uneven resource distribution and waste caused by allocating an independent address pool in advance in the prior art, and not only can the NAS dynamically allocate the IP, but also multiple NAS can share the whole IP address pool. The method and the device are compatible with the original network, avoid performance reduction and interruption influence during centralized IP allocation, and improve the utilization rate of IP address resources.

Device embodiment

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an IP address allocation apparatus installed in a network access server NAS, fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of the IP address allocation apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 8, the IP address allocation apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes: the dividing module 80 and the allocating module 82 are described in detail below for each module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A dividing module 80, configured to divide an original address pool into multiple address segments with small granularity in advance, and store the divided address segment information in an address segment state server;

the allocating module 82 is configured to, when an IP address is requested, request a new address segment from the address segment state server if the requested address segment does not exist locally, or the requested address segment exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address segment, and allocate an IP address to the NAS from the new address segment.

Preferably, the allocation module is further configured to: if the applied address field exists locally and the address field contains idle IP addresses, the IP addresses are allocated for the NAS directly from the address field.

Preferably, the above apparatus further comprises:

and the first release module is used for releasing the address field and informing the address field state server if all the IP addresses in the whole address field are idle after the user releases the IP addresses.

And the second release module is used for releasing the corresponding user session and the IP address after receiving the address field release request sent by the address field state server.

The sending module is used for periodically sending address field service condition heartbeat messages to the address field state server; and if the address field state server does not receive the address field use condition heartbeat message within a preset time period, setting the corresponding address field to be in an idle distributable state.

The processing of each module in the embodiment of the present invention can be understood according to the description in the foregoing method embodiment, and is not described herein again.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer, virtual machine, or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may also be used with the teachings herein. The required structure for constructing such a system will be apparent from the description above. Moreover, the present invention is not directed to any particular programming language. It is appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein, and any descriptions of specific languages are provided above to disclose the best mode of the invention.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. It is understood, however, that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the foregoing description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. However, the disclosed method should not be interpreted as reflecting an intention that: that the invention as claimed requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modules in the client in an embodiment may be adaptively changed and provided in one or more clients different from the embodiment. The modules of the embodiments may be combined into one module and furthermore they may be divided into a plurality of sub-modules or sub-units or sub-assemblies. All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and all of the processes or elements of any method or client so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or processes or elements are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, rather than other features, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention and form different embodiments. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

The various component embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functions of some or all of the components in a client loaded with a ranking website according to embodiments of the present invention. The present invention may also be embodied as apparatus or device programs (e.g., computer programs and computer program products) for performing a portion or all of the methods described herein. Such programs implementing the present invention may be stored on computer-readable media or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such a signal may be downloaded from an internet website or provided on a carrier signal or in any other form.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps not listed in a claim. The word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the unit claims enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The usage of the words first, second and third, etcetera do not indicate any ordering. These words may be interpreted as names.

Claims

1. A method for allocating IP addresses, comprising:

dividing an original address pool of a Network Access Server (NAS) into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance, and storing the information of the divided address segments into an address segment state server;

when an IP address application is carried out, if an applied address field does not exist locally or the applied address field exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address field, a new address field is applied to the address field state server, and IP address allocation is carried out on the NAS from the new address field.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: if the applied address field exists locally and the address field contains idle IP addresses, the NAS directly carries out IP address allocation for the NAS from the address field.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: after the user releases the IP address, if all the IP addresses in the whole address field are idle, the NAS releases the address field and informs the address field state server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: and after receiving the address segment release request sent by the address segment state server, the NAS releases the corresponding user session and the IP address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: the NAS periodically sends address segment use condition heartbeat messages to the address segment state server; and the address field state server sets the corresponding address field to be in an idle distributable state if the address field use condition heartbeat message is not received in a preset time period.

6. An IP address allocation apparatus, comprising:

the dividing module is used for dividing the original address pool into a plurality of address segments with small granularity in advance and storing the divided address segment information to the address segment state server;

and the allocation module is used for applying for a new address field from the address field state server and allocating the IP address for the network access server NAS from the new address field if the applied address field does not exist locally or the applied address field exists locally but no idle IP address exists in the address field when the IP address is applied.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the assignment module is further to: and if the applied address field exists locally and the address field contains an idle IP address, directly allocating the IP address for the NAS from the address field.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

the sending module is used for periodically sending address field use condition heartbeat messages to the address field state server; and the address field state server sets the corresponding address field to be in an idle distributable state if the address field use condition heartbeat message is not received in a preset time period.