Cisco Technology, Inc.

Gopal K Dommety

Kent Kinchu Leung

Alpesh S Patel

Milind Kulkarni

Qingming Ma

Cheng-Lee Nee

Hancang Wang

Thenmozhi Palaniappan

Ronald Maxam

Sudhakar R Padala

Perng-Hwa A Wu

Roy Laurens

Debojyoti Dutta

Louis F Menditto

Rajesh Bhalla

Joseph Salowey

Randall R Stewart

Anantha Ramaiah

Stefan Bernard Raab

Kenneth W Davidson

Navneet Agarwal

Waseem A Siddiqi

Amitava Das

Wayne Taylor

William C Gossman

Michael A Wright

Wei-Jen Hsu

Ashoka Kallappa

In one embodiment, an apparatus receives an advertisement from each of one or more Home Agents, the advertisement including a first set of information associated with a corresponding one of the Home Agents, each advertisement being in a first protocol. The apparatus obtains the first set of information associated with a corresponding one of the Home Agents from each advertisement. The apparatus composes a router advertisement including a second set of information associated with at least one of the Home Agents, the router advertisement being in a second protocol. The apparatus then sends the router advertisement.

Methods and apparatus for home agent discovery in mobile IP using link state advertisements

Methods and apparatus for supporting a session in Mobile IP are disclosed. A Mobile Node sends a first Mobile IP message identifying the Mobile Node to a Home Agent, wherein the first Mobile IP message indicates to the Home Agent that the Mobile Node is requesting dynamic configuration of a Mobile-Home authentication key to be shared between the Mobile Node and the Home Agent during the session. A Mobile-Home authentication key to be shared between the Home Agent and the Mobile Node is obtained or generated by the Mobile Node and the Home Agent, where the Mobile-Home authentication key is not valid after the session has ended or during another session. The Home Agent sends a second Mobile IP message to the Mobile Node, the second Mobile IP message including a lifetime associated with the session, wherein the lifetime indicates a lifetime of the key, thereby enabling the Mobile Node to register with the Home Agent using the Mobile-Home authentication key to be shared between the Home Agent and the Mobile Node during the session.

Infrastructure-less bootstrapping: trustless bootstrapping to enable mobility for mobile devices

Mining information from network data traffic to determine interests of online network users is provided herein. A data packet received at a network interface device can be accessed and inspected at line rate speeds. Source or addressing information in the data packet can be extracted to identify an initiating and/or receiving device. The packet can be inspected to identify occurrences of keywords or data features related with one or more subject matters. A vector can be defined for a network device that indicates a relative rank of interest in various subject matters. Furthermore, statistical analysis can be implemented on data stored in one or more interest vectors to determine information pertinent to network user interests. The information can facilitate providing value-added products or services to network users.

Network data mining to determine user interest

Techniques for restricting Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table updates to updates originating from authorized subsystems is disclosed. According to an embodiment, an instruction to update an ARP table is received. It is determined whether a command interface from which the instruction originated is authorized. If the command interface is authorized, then the ARP table is updated based on the instruction. According to an embodiment, a DHCP Server may be configured to send an instruction to update an ARP table upon receiving a DHCP message indicating a network layer address that is not bound with a data link layer address. The DHCP Server may send the instruction over an authorized command interface, or be in other ways authorized to update the ARP table.

Method and apparatus for restricting address resolution protocol table updates

Various security mechanisms may be used independently, or in combination with one another, to authenticate the identity of a node during the Mobile IP registration process. First, an Access Point receiving a packet from a node verifies that the source MAC address identified in the packet is in the Access Point's client association table. In addition, as a second mechanism, the Access Point ensures that a one-to-one mapping exists for the source MAC address and source IP address identified in the packet in a mapping table maintained by the Access Point. As a third mechanism, a binding is not modified in the mobility binding table maintained by the Home Agent unless there is a one-to-one mapping in the mobility binding table between the source MAC address and the source IP address. Similarly, the Foreign Agent may also maintain a mapping between the source IP address and the source MAC address in its visitor table to ensure a one-to-one mapping between a source IP address and the associated MAC address.

Methods and apparatus for securing proxy mobile IP

In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) receiving an outbound packet in a network device, where the outbound packet includes a packet header; (ii) modifying the outbound packet by adding a service identifier to a cleartext portion of the packet header; (iii) when the outbound packet represents an event boundary, adding an event delimiter to the packet header; and (iv) passing the outbound packet to an encryption process for packaging and transmitting across a tunnel.

Allowing differential processing of encrypted tunnels

Routing data packets includes receiving data packets from a network element at a routing gateway. The data packets are determined to be destined for a mobile node. A location of the mobile node is obtained. The data packets are forwarded to the mobile node according to the location on behalf of the network element.

Routing data packets in a communication network

Methods and apparatus for performing optimizations for a mobile network device such as a Mobile Node or Mobile Router supporting multiple links to a Home Agent (or Correspondent Node in a Mobile IPv6 environment) are disclosed. During the registration process, link characteristics are transmitted in the registration request. From the link characteristics, it is possible to determine whether the mobile network device has roamed from a high to a low bandwidth link, or vice versa. A first set of optimizations may be performed when the mobile network device has roamed from a high to a low bandwidth link, while a second set of optimizations may be performed when the mobile network device has roamed from a low to a high bandwidth link. Some optimizations may be performed during the establishment of a TCP session, while others may be performed during or upon completion of the Mobile IP registration process.

Mobile network device multi-link optimizations

Methods and apparatus for establishing an optimized route between a node and a Correspondent Node are disclosed. In a Mobile Router supporting Mobile IP, the Mobile Router having one or more networks associated therewith, a method of establishing a route between one or more nodes associated with one of the networks of the Mobile Router and a Correspondent Node includes composing a HOTI message on behalf of at least one of the nodes, which is sent from the Mobile Router to a Correspondent Node via a Home Agent supporting the Mobile Router. The Mobile Router sends a COTI message to the Correspondent Node on behalf of the node. The Mobile Router receives a HOT message from the Correspondent Node. It then receives a COT message from the Correspondent Node, thereby enabling a binding between the node(s) and the Correspondent Node to be generated such that data packets transmitted between the node(s) and the Correspondent Node can be routed between the node(s) and the Correspondent Node without being routed via the Home Agent.

Methods and apparatus for achieving route optimization between mobile networks and a correspondent node using a mobile router as a proxy node

Methods and apparatus for performing proxy registration on behalf of a node with a Home Agent supporting Mobile IP are disclosed. A first registration request is composed on behalf of the node and transmitted to the Home Agent via a first Local Mobility Anchor, wherein the first Local Mobility Anchor is a regional controller via which registration is performed when the node moves within a region associated with the first Local Mobility Anchor. When the node moves within a region or between regions, the node is re-registered. Specifically, a second registration request is composed and transmitted to the first Local Mobility Anchor when the node moves within the region associated with the first Local Mobility Anchor. When the node moves into a second region associated with a second Local Mobility Anchor and outside the first region associated with the first Local Mobility Anchor, a second registration request is composed and transmitted to the Home Agent via the second Local Mobility Anchor, wherein the second Local Mobility Anchor is a regional controller via which registration is performed when the node moves within a region associated with second first Local Mobility Anchor.

Methods and apparatus for achieving route optimization and location privacy in an IPv6 network

Methods and apparatus for achieving route optimization and location privacy in an IPV6 network

In an embodiment, an existing transport protocol connection though a mobile device is recognized as having entered a state of disconnect. A lowest received sequence number is determined from received messages to be transmitted over a disconnected transport protocol connection. A disconnect acknowledgement message with a receive window of zero and a sequence number of one less than the lowest received sequence number is transmitted. The disconnect acknowledge message with a receive window of zero and a sequence number of one less than the lowest received sequence number is continued to be transmitted until the transport protocol connection exits the disconnect state to a connect state.

Disconnected transport protocol connectivity

A system for user authentication includes a gateway operable to receive a user authentication request in an Internet Protocol format from a server. The gateway communicates the user authentication request in a Signaling System 7 protocol to a user registry. The gateway is also operable to receive a user authentication response in the Signaling System 7 protocol from the user registry. The gateway communicates the user authentication response in the Internet Protocol format to the server.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Gopal K Dommety