IPv4 Gateway
OwnerDeWitt Clinton Seward, Greg Hodgson +3inventors
InventorsDeWitt Clinton Seward, Greg Hodgson, Clay Daigle, Preston Fick, John Hemmick
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Abstract
A system and method for allowing legacy devices to operate on an IPv4 network is disclosed. The system includes a gateway device to interface between IPv4 devices and legacy devices. In some embodiments, the gateway device has a plurality of network interfaces to communicate with these legacy devices. The gateway device discovers the legacy devices that it can communicate with. The gateway device then enumerates these legacy devices in a manner that allows them to be accessible to the IPv4 device. In certain embodiments, the gateway enumerates each legacy device as a port on its IPv4 address.
Claims20
A gateway device, comprising:
- a IPv4 network interface;
- a secondary network interface;
- a processing unit and a memory device, where the memory device comprises instructions, which when executed by the processing unit, allow the gateway device to:
- receive a message from an IPv4 device using the IPv4 network interface;
- translate the message to a legacy format;
- and
- transmit the translated message using the secondary network interface to a legacy device, wherein the legacy device is determined based on a port number contained in the message received from the IPv4 device.
A method of configuring a legacy device to operate on an IPv4 network, comprising:
- using a gateway device to communicate to the legacy device using a secondary network interface;
- enumerating the legacy device as a port number on an IPv4 address of the gateway device;
- and
- establishing a connection with an IPv4 device where a source address comprises the IPv4 address of the gateway device and the port number.
A gateway device, comprising:
- a IPv4 network interface;
- a secondary network interface;
- a processing unit and a memory device, where the memory device comprises instructions, which when executed by the processing unit, allow the gateway device to:
- communicate with a legacy device using the secondary network interface;
- initiate a connection to a IPv4 device via the IPv4 network interface on behalf of the legacy device, wherein a source address used for the connection comprises a IPv4 address of the gateway device and a port number assigned to the legacy device by the gateway device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.