System and method for ip network semantic label storage and management
AssigneeBluecat Networks
InventorsGuillaume Yves Bernard BAZIN, Richard Nigel Hyatt, Steven Philip Meyer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments described herein provide devices, methods, and systems for managing IPv6 and IPv4 addresses within an IP address management (IPAM) system, wherein various subnets are associated with administrator-defined names, which are semantic labels. Such semantic labels may be combined to yield the IP addresses in a user-friendly manner.
Claims20
An IP address management (IPAM) system for managing IPv6 and IPv4 addresses by associating each of one or more subnets with a network alias, the system comprising:
- IPAM server configured to:
- define a root block;
- define one or more subnet blocks;
- generate a network hierarchy model by layering the one or more subnet blocks to a plurality of levels;
- determine one or more subnet groups for allocating one or more individual addresses;
- allocate the one or more addresses to the determined one or subnet groups to form a subnet suffix;
- and
- determine a subnet prefix and combining the subnet suffix and subnet prefix, wherein the subnet prefix precedes the subnet suffix and thereby generating the network alias, said subnet prefix being distinguishable from numbers of the one or more individual addresses;
- Domain Name Server configured to record an association between the network aliases and the subnet addresses;
- DHCP Server to provision IP addresses to network clients;
- Network clients, wherein the network clients, once provisioned, are configured to send network messages to Host clients, wherein the network clients are associated with the subnet groups;
- and
- Host clients configured to perform DNS lookups on the IP addresses of the network clients to obtain network aliases for the subnet groups of the network clients.
A method for managing IPv6 and IPv4 addresses within an IP address management (IPAM) system by associating each of one or more subnets with a semantic label, said method comprising the following steps:
- defining a root block;
- defining one or more subnet blocks;
- generating, using a processor, a network hierarchy model by layering the one or more subnet blocks to a plurality of levels;
- storing the root block, the one or more subnet blocks, and network hierarchy model at a persistent data store;
- determining, using the processor, one or more subnet groups for allocating one or more individual addresses;
- allocating the one or more addresses to the determined one or subnet groups to form a subnet suffix;
- determining, using the processor, a subnet semantic prefix and combining the subnet suffix and subnet semantic prefix, so that the subnet semantic prefix precedes the subnet suffix and thereby composing the semantic label, the subnet semantic prefix being distinguishable from numbers of the one or more individual addresses;
- and
- receiving, using receiver, network messages from network clients for host clients, wherein the network messages and the semantic labels may be used to perform Domain Name Server (DNS) lookups for identification of network hardware resources.
A method to restructure existing IPv4 networks and migrating to IPv6 networks within an IP address management (IPAM) system said method comprising the following steps:
- generating, using a processor, a semantic hierarchy independent of network addresses into branch and leaf nodes;
- assigning a semantic label to each node in the hierarchy;
- storing the semantic labels and the hierarchy in a persistent store;
- matching each node with an existing IPv4 subnet and creating a new subnet when one does not already exist;
- matching existing known host devices with leaf nodes of the hierarchy;
- reassigning, using the processor, host devices to leaf nodes according to rules based on the new semantic hierarchy;
- determining, using the processor, the network address of the IPv6 root block and associating it with the root node;
- generating, using the processor, IPv6 subnets and host address definitions corresponding to the node hierarchy;
- storing the IPv6 subnets at the persistent data store;
- and
- deploying host address definitions to DHCP and DHCPv6 servers.
A method to represent network addresses in human readable format as semantic labels, the method comprising;
- automatically identifying, using a processor, an IP address segment;
- querying a persistent data store for the IP address;
- receiving, using a receiver, a semantic label representation of the IP address segment from the persistent data store;
- and
- automatically replacing, using the processor, the IP address segment in context with the semantic label representation.
A method to identify the group to which a network client belongs, the method comprising;
- receiving, at a receiver, the IP address of the client;
- querying a persistent data store for the IP address;
- receiving, at the receiver, the semantic label representation of the IP address from the persistent data store;
- and
- determining, using the processor, the group from the semantic label.
A method to implement network administration rules for firewall routing, the method comprising:
- defining, using a processor, a network routing rule using one or more semantic label expressions to represent source and destination network addresses and subnets;
- querying a data store for semantic labels;
- receiving, using a receiver, network addresses and subnet representations of the semantic labels from the data store;
- substituting, using the processor, the network addresses and the subnet representations for the semantic labels in the rule;
- and
- implementing the rule in a firewall device.
A method of using a DHCP server to provision a client network IP address to map to a semantic label, the method comprising:
- identifying at least one distinct attribute of a client network device used for address provisioning;
- associating the at least one distinct attribute with a subnet address;
- specifying a set of at least one semantic label for the subnet address;
- recording the association between the semantic labels and the subnet in a persistent data store;
- receiving at a DHCP server a request for an IP address from a requesting client network device;
- identifying at least one distinct attribute of the requesting client network device;
- determining the at least one semantic label from the at least one attribute;
- querying the persistent data store for the semantic labels;
- receiving the subnet addresses of the semantic labels from the persistent data store;
- determining an address pool with the subnet addresses;
- and
- provisioning an address from the address pool to the requesting client network device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.