JP2006041650A - Edge router for managing/informing of ipv6 terminal address - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an edge router for managing/informing of an IPv6 terminal address, whereby the user terminals can be monitored easily through a network. <P>SOLUTION: The network is configured, such that at least one of the user terminal 1 and the edge router 3 are interconnected and the network forms an IPv6 network, a neighbor cache 3a is provided to the edge router 3, and an IPv6 address of the user terminal 1 is extracted, on the basis of new registration/delete information in the neighbor cache 3a and retained as data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an edge router that manages and notifies IPv6 terminal addresses. More specifically, information is collected and stored mainly from terminals that have set IPv6 addresses by the stateless address automatic setting method, and this information is reported to the network management device, so that the network management device can establish IPv6 within the IPv6 network. The present invention relates to an edge router that manages and notifies IPv6 terminal addresses used when monitoring terminals.

  In recent years, portable personal computers, mobile phones, and the like have become widespread, and many users carry small communication terminal devices having these communication functions and information processing functions, and connect to the network outdoors or at a destination. Communication. In the Internet, IP (Internet Protocol) is used as a communication protocol. Currently widely used IP is IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), and a 32-bit address (IP address) is used as a source / destination.

  In Internet communication, a 32-bit IP address is uniquely assigned to each source / destination, and each source / destination is determined according to the IP address. However, with the spread of the Internet, the limited space of IPv4, that is, the exhaustion of global addresses has become a problem. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has proposed IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) in which the address space is expanded from 32 bits to 128 bits as a next-generation IP address.

  IPv6 is the successor protocol of the current IPv4 and has an address format as shown in FIG. IPv4 is composed of an interface ID, and IPv6 is composed of a network prefix (Prefix) and an interface ID. IPv6 has a 128-bit configuration as described above, the lower bit is an interface ID as a node identifier for uniquely identifying a node on the Internet or a subnet, and the upper bit is a sub-node to which the node is connected. It is a network prefix as a location identifier indicating a network. Accordingly, terminals belonging to the same subnetwork basically have the same network prefix indicated by the upper bits of the IPv6 address.

  In IPv6, since packet delivery is performed based only on a prefix and a subnet number, an address lower than that, that is, an interface ID can be assigned by a device manufacturer. To be exact, a part of the interface ID number is a manufacturer identifier, and the remaining part is left to the manufacturer's discretion. Therefore, unlike IPv4, in IPv6, the manufacturer can freely determine a part of the interface ID, that is, the IPv6 address. By associating it with, for example, a user ID, it becomes possible to link the device and customer information via the interface ID.

  In general, for an IPv4 address, it is possible to grasp an address provided by a communication carrier (or ISP (Internet Service Provider)) by authentication or the like. However, in IPv6, generally, only the prefix part corresponding to the IPv4 network address is notified, and the router advertisement (Router Advertisement: RA) set by the user for the lower bits of the IPv6 address is provided. An address assignment (stateless) method using applied prefix distribution is used. When the user terminal performs address registration by the stateless method, since the user generates the lower bits, it is very difficult for the telecommunications carrier operating the network to recognize the IPv6 address set by the user. is expected.

As a conventional technique of this type, a technique is known in which an interface ID can be inherited between devices without breaking the correspondence between the interface ID and the user (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In addition, an Internet protocol-based communication system, a host address setting method thereof, and a technique for selecting a source address are known (for example, see Patent Document 2). Further, a technique is known in which a non-IP device in a home can always be accessed from a mobile phone or personal computer connected to the Internet using the same IPv6 address (see, for example, Patent Document 3).
JP 2003-51838 A (page 7, FIG. 2) JP 2003-324461 A (5th page, FIG. 6) JP 2003-60664 A (4th page, 5th page, FIG. 1)

  In general, when IPv6 terminals communicate with each other, the user himself / herself registers an address in the SIP server via an action from the user, for example, SIP (Section Initiation Protocol (communication control protocol used in IP telephone etc.)), Since other users obtain the address information registered in the SIP server and communicate with the other party, the address information of the user is registered in this server.

  However, depending on the application such as www, it is not necessary to register the address in the server, and the server that manages this address is different from the telecommunications carrier that manages the network, and is managed by the ISP. It is also possible that the operator is different from the operator. Accordingly, it is difficult to recognize the address of the user IPv6 terminal even in address recognition at the stage of assigning an IPv6 address to the user and information collection from user registration information by user action, etc., and network management of the user terminal is performed. It was very difficult.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an edge router that manages and notifies an IPv6 terminal address that allows easy network monitoring of user terminals.

(1) In the invention described in claim 1, in which at least one terminal and an edge router are connected as a network, and these networks form an IPv6 network, the edge router is provided with a neighbor cache, The IPv6 address of the user terminal is extracted from the new registration / deletion information in the neighbor cache, and stored as data.
(2) In the invention according to claim 2, an address management table for managing address registration information is provided in an edge router provided in the IPv6 network, and predetermined information is sent to the network management device based on flag information in the address management table. It is characterized by notifying.

(1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, the neighbor router is provided in the edge router, and the IPv6 address of the terminal is extracted from the new registration / deletion information in the neighbor cache. It becomes easy to monitor.
(2) According to the invention described in claim 2, it becomes easy to notify the network management apparatus of predetermined information based on the flag of the address management table and to monitor the user terminal over the network.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a user terminal (IPv6 terminal). Two or more user terminals 1 are usually provided, but one user terminal 1 may be provided. Reference numeral 2 denotes an L2 switch connected to the terminal 1, and 3 denotes an edge router connected to the L2 switch 2. Reference numeral 3 a denotes a neighbor cache provided in the edge router 3. Reference numeral 3b denotes an address management table provided in the edge router 3. Reference numeral 10 denotes an IPv6 network. Reference numeral 4 denotes a network management apparatus connected to the edge router 3.

  The user terminal 1 is connected to the edge router 3 via the L2 switch 2, and the network management device 4 exists in a different segment from the user terminal 1 in the IPv6 network 10. The operation of the system configured as described above will be described as follows.

  The user terminal 1 receives the router advertisement (Router Advertisement: RA) transmitted from the edge router 3 to acquire the prefix. Then, an IPv6 address is generated by combining an interface identifier uniquely set by the terminal 1 with the lower bits of IPv6.

  The edge router 3 holds and manages information in the neighbor cache 3a learned by NDP (Neighbor Discovery Protocol) that performs address resolution with the terminal 1, and notifies the network management device 4 of the information. As a result, the network management device 4 can manage and communicate with the IPv6 address even in the terminal that has set the IPv6 address by the stateless address automatic setting method by using this address information.

  In the present invention, the network router 4 collects the IPv6 address information of the terminal 1 so that the network management device 4 recognizes the IPv6 address and communicates with the user terminal 1 connected to the edge router 3 to manage the network. The management of the terminal 1 can be made possible simply by notifying the device 4 of the collected address information.

  In the present invention, the edge router 3 notifies the network management device 4 of information registered in the neighbor cache 3a of the router. When the user terminal 1 accommodated in the edge router 3 performs IPv6 communication in both directions beyond the edge router 3, the MAC address of the accommodated user is registered in the neighbor cache 3a by address conversion by NDP. Here, the MAC refers to Media Access Control, and refers to access control for smoothly sharing a local cable with a plurality of nodes.

  Therefore, by using the neighbor cache information, the edge router 3 can acquire the address information of the subordinate user terminal 1 without requiring the address information registered in the SIP server from the user as in the application using SIP. It is. The edge router 3 prepares an address management table for managing difference information in order to notify address information to the network management device 4 and to notify only minimum necessary information.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the neighbor cache and the address management table. The address management table 3b manages information (flag (Flag)) indicating an IP address, a MAC address, and a notification state to the network management device 4. The IP address and the MAC address are always stored in association with each other. The information held in the address management table 3b is not limited to the above three types, and the number is not limited in a range other than the above three types.

  The edge router 3 changes / updates the address management table 3b when the information in the neighbor cache 3a is changed / updated. Note that the flags exemplified here are “New” indicating new registration, “−” indicating continuous registration, and “Disc” indicating registration deletion, and are handled as an index indicating difference information. According to this embodiment, the neighbor router is provided in the edge router, and the IPv6 address of the terminal is extracted based on the new registration / deletion information in the neighbor cache. It becomes easy.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an address management table change / update operation in the edge router. When new registration / deletion of an entry occurs in the registration information of the neighbor cache 3a, the edge router 3 determines whether the update of the neighbor cache 3a is addition or deletion of the entry (S1). If the entry is to be deleted, the presence / absence of the entry is checked (S2). If there is no corresponding entry, an entry is added to the address management table 3b with a flag (Flag) = Disc (S3).

  Next, if an entry exists in step S2, it is checked whether flag =-or flag = New (S4). When flag =-or flag = New, the flag of the corresponding entry is changed to flag = Disc (S5). In step S1, if an entry is to be added, the presence / absence of an entry is determined (S6). If the corresponding entry does not exist, an entry is newly added with flag = New (S7).

  If there is an entry in step S6, it is checked whether or not flag =-(S8). If flag =-, the flag is changed to New (S9). If the flag is not-, it is checked whether the flag is Disc (S10). If so, the flag is changed to New (S11).

  The edge router 3 transmits necessary information from the information in the address management table 3b when receiving an information provision request from the network management device 4 or when a timer held by the edge router 3 has timed out.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of information transmission to the network management apparatus in the edge router. This process is executed in response to a timeout of the address notification timer or reception of a request from the network management device 4. When the information transmission request from the network management device 4 or its own timer times out (S1), the edge router 3 checks the flag from all the entries in the address management table 3b and checks whether or not flag = New (S2). . The entry of flag = New is notified to the network management apparatus 4 as a new registration entry (S3).

  In step S2, if flag = New is not satisfied, it is checked whether flag = Disc (S4). If the flag = Disc entry, the network management device 4 is notified as a deletion entry, and the entry is deleted from the address management table 3b (S5). Next, it is checked whether or not all entries have been searched (S6). If all entries have not been searched, the process returns to step S2 to continue the process, and all entries have been searched. If so, the process ends.

According to this embodiment, based on the flag of the address management table, it is easy to notify the network management device of information and monitor the user terminal over the network.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a carrier IPv6 network connection service. The same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. The figure is effective in monitoring an IPv6 user terminal from the network monitoring server 4 for the terminal. This figure shows a state in which the terminal 1 of the user network is connected to the IPv6 network of the carrier. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a user terminal that forms a user network. Reference numeral 2 denotes an L2 switch arranged between the user network and the carrier IPv6 network 10, and 3 denotes an edge router connected to the user terminal 1 via the L2 switch 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes a network monitoring server as a network management device. The operation of the system configured as described above will be described as follows.

  The user terminal 1 generates and sets an IPv6 address from prefix information included in the RA received from the edge router 3 of the carrier IPv6 network 10. The user terminal 1 performs address resolution by NDP in the subnet including the edge router 3 in order to use the set IPv6 address. Further, at the time of transfer from the edge router to the corresponding terminal, address resolution is performed from the edge router 3 (S1). The address information resolved here is registered in the neighbor cache 3a.

  The edge router 3 updates the address management table 3b based on the update information of the neighbor cache 3a, and transmits a notification message from the dedicated application or the like to the network monitoring server 4 by transmitting the address information to the network monitoring server 4. 4 registers the address and address information of the terminal (S2). As described above, it is possible to remotely monitor the user terminal 1 from the monitoring server 4 (S3).

  As described above in detail, when the stateless automatic setting method is mainly used in the IPv6 network, the edge router collects and holds the address information based on the neighbor cache information, so that the server from the user terminal 1 It is possible to collect IPv6 address information of users accommodated by the edge router without expecting passive information from the user such as registration.

  Further, the IPv6 address information of the user terminal collected by the edge router is held by the edge router, and the address information is notified to the network management device 4, whereby the IPv6 address of the terminal connected from the network management device 4 to the IPv6 network 10 is obtained. It can be recognized within the IPv6 network. As a result, it is possible to perform remote monitoring of the user terminal specifying the IPv6 address from the network monitoring device 4 or the like.

It is a block diagram which shows one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a neighbor cache and an address management table. It is a flowchart which shows the change / update operation | movement of the address management table in an edge router. It is a flowchart which shows the process at the time of the information transmission to the network management apparatus in an edge router. It is a figure which shows the example of a carrier IPv6 network connection service. It is explanatory drawing of the format of IPv4 and IPv6.

Explanation of symbols

1 User terminal 2 L2 switch 3 Edge router 3a Neighbor cache 3b Address management table 4 Network management device

Claims (2)

At least one user terminal and an edge router are connected as a network, and these networks form an IPv6 network.
An edge router for managing and notifying an IPv6 terminal address, characterized in that a neighbor cache is provided in the edge router, an IPv6 address of a user terminal is extracted from new registration / deletion information in the neighbor cache, and held as data.   2. An address management table for managing address registration information is provided in an edge router provided in an IPv6 network, and predetermined information is notified to a network management apparatus based on flag information in the address management table. Edge router that manages and notifies the IPv6 terminal address.

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