Method and device for improving subscribers privacy in ip communications networks

A network node in a service provider network for improving privacy of subscribers of the service provider IP network, where the service provider has a worldwide unique collection of global IP addresses to be used by its subscribers, being said worldwide unique collection of global IP addresses divided in K predefined sub-collections of global IP addresses, being K a design parameter and where the region served by the service provider is divided in different zones and where said network node, called IP address assigner node, is associated to one of these zones and it assigns unique global IP addresses to the subscribers located in said zone, where said network nodes comprises:

• a processor for, every certain time period, applying an algorithm to select the sub-collection of global IP addresses to use from the predefined K sub-collections of the service provider, said algorithm having at least one parameter, the value of which determines the result of the algorithm,
• where said algorithm is a pseudo-random algorithm and the at least one parameter is the seed of the pseudo random algorithm,
• where for the selection of the sub-collection, all the IP address assigner nodes of the service provider networks use the same algorithm but with different value of the at least one parameter and where the algorithm fulfills the following conditions:
• the sub-collections selected by the IP address assigner node changes every said certain time period and the sub-collections selected by different IP address assigner nodes are not overlapped, i.e. there is no global IP address in common between sub-collections selected by different IP address assigner nodes;
• a processor for calculating the value of said at least one parameter every said time period by each IP address assigner node;
• and
• a processor for assigning to the subscribers located in its associated zone, global IP addresses from the sub-collection of global IP addresses previously selected.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the processor perform operations comprising the steps of:

• a) Every certain time period, every IP address assigner node applies a certain algorithm to select, the sub-collection of global IP addresses to use from the predefined K sub-collections of the service provider, said algorithm having at least one parameter, the value of which determines the result of the algorithm, the value of said at least one parameter being calculated every said time period by each IP address assigner node,
• where said algorithm is a pseudo-random algorithm and the at least one parameter is the seed of the pseudo random algorithm,
• where for the selection of the sub-collection, all the IP address assigner nodes use the same algorithm but with different value of the at least one parameter and where the selection fulfills the following conditions:
• the sub-collections selected by an IP address assigner node changes every said certain time period and the sub-collections selected by different IP address assigner nodes are not overlapped, i.e. there is no global IP address in common between sub-collections selected by different IP address assigner nodes;
• and
• b) each IP address assigner node assigns, to the subscribers located in their correspondent zones, global IP addresses from the sub-collection of global IP addresses selected in the previous step.