Managing the allocation of internet protocol addresses in a wireless network
AssigneeSprint Communications Company L.P.
InventorsJohn H. Bennett, III, Frederick C. Rogers, Serge M. Manning, C. Brent Hirschman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods are described for managing the allocation of IPv6 addresses to mobile devices. More specifically, the network portions of IPv6 addresses are dynamically allocated to mobile devices by a home agent. In one embodiment, a request is received to allocate a network portion of an IPv6 address. It is determined whether a network portion is stored in a database in association with the mobile device. If so, that network portion is allocated to the mobile device so that the mobile device can establish a communication session. If not, the home agent is asked to allocate a network portion that is currently available.
Claims18
Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, facilitate a method for managing an allocation of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) addresses to mobile devices, the method comprising:
- receiving at an allocation component a request to allocate a network portion of an IPv6 address to a mobile device;
- determining whether a customer-profile database has stored the network portion of the IPv6 address in association with the mobile device;
- if the customer-profile database has stored the network portion of the IPv6 address, communicating the network portion to the mobile device;
- if the customer-profile database does not have stored the network portion of the IPv6 address,
- (1) identifying an unused network portion to the mobile device,
- (2) allocating the unused network portion to the mobile device, and
- (3) communicating the unused network portion of the IPv6 address to the mobile device so that the mobile device can establish a communication session;
- instructing a home agent associated with the mobile device to disassociate the allocated unused network portion from the mobile device;
- and
- receiving an acknowledgement that the allocated unused network portion is currently available for use by another mobile device.
Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, facilitate a method for managing an allocation of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) addresses to mobile devices, the method comprising:
- receiving an indication that a mobile device is requesting a network portion of an IPv6 address that enables the mobile device to communicate by way of a wireless communications network;
- at an allocation component, receiving a request to allocate the network portion of the IPv6 address that is currently available to the mobile device;
- identifying an unused network portion to assign to the mobile device;
- allocating, by the allocation component, the unused network portion to the mobile device;
- storing the unused network portion in a database, wherein the unused network portion is stored in association with the mobile device;
- communicating to the mobile device the unused network portion, thereby enabling the mobile device to communicate by way of the wireless communications network;
- receiving an instruction from the authentication component to disassociate the allocated unused network portion from the mobile device;
- and
- communicating to the authentication component an acknowledgement that the allocated unused network portion is currently available for use by another mobile device.
Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, facilitate a method for managing an allocation of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) addresses to mobile devices, the method comprising:
- receiving a request to allocate a network portion of an IPv6 address from an authentication component to a mobile device that has requested an establishment of a communication session, wherein the request indicates that the network portion is not stored in a customer-profile database in association with the mobile device;
- identifying a currently-available network portion;
- at a home agent that is associated with the mobile device, allocating the currently-available network portion to the mobile device, wherein the currently-available network portion allocated to the mobile device is unique to the mobile device;
- communicating the currently-available network portion to the mobile device;
- communicating the currently-available network portion to the authentication component, wherein the authentication component caches the currently-available network portion until the communication session has been terminated;
- receiving an indication that the communication session has been terminated;
- and
- indicating that the network portion allocated to the mobile device is available for use by another mobile device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.