US 6,888,837 B1Granted

Network address translation in a network having multiple overlapping address domains

AssigneeNortel Networks Limited

InventorsTimothy Cunningham, Thomas Meehan, Manish Patel

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Abstract

A technique for translating addresses in a communication network having multiple overlapping address domains involves mapping an overlapping local address from a first address domain to a unique global address that is specific to a second address domain. The unique global address is used by any device in the second address domain to reference the device in the first address domain having the overlapping local address. Furthermore, a packet sent from a source host in the first address domain to a destination host in the second address domain requires at least a source address translation in order to translate the source host local address used within the first address domain into a source host global address that is used within the second address domain, and may also require a destination address translation in order to translate the destination host global address used within the first address domain into a destination host local address used within the second address domain.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method of translating addresses in a communication network having multiple overlapping address domains, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an overlapping local address from an inbound address domain, wherein the overlapping local address is a destination host local address from a destination address domain;
receiving a translation request message as part of a domain name resolution procedure, wherein the translation request message includes the overlapping local address and further specifies an outbond address domain;
and
translating an overlapping local address from the inbound address domain into a unique global address that is specific to a specified outbound address domain, wherein the step of translating the overlapping local address from the inbound address domain into the unique global address that is specific to the specified outbound address domain comprises the steps of:
selecting the unique global address from among a number of available global network addresses;
and
mapping the unique global address to the overlapping local address from the inbound address domain exclusively for the specified outbound address domain.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.