DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)-based dual-stack address allocation and management system and method

Abstract

The invention discloses a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)-based dual-stack address allocation and management system and method, and aims to solve the problem that a flexible and efficient network management scheme is lacked in the transition period from IPv4 to IPv6 in the prior art. The DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system comprises a DHCP64 module, an NAT64 control module and a terminal scanning marking module which are built in a DHCP server; the DHCP64 module is used for converting an IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) address into an IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) address according to a predefined rule; the NAT64 control module is used for remotely logging in a switch or router device to execute a command and configuring an NAT64 strategy; and the terminal scanning and marking module is used for scanning, identifying and recording information related to the terminal. Through the system and the method provided by the invention, network management can be flexibly and efficiently carried out, and smooth transition and conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 are facilitated.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of Internet technology, and in particular to a dual-stack address allocation management system and method. Background Art

[0002] DHCP is one of the basic services of the Internet, mainly used to dynamically allocate IP addresses to network devices so that network devices can interconnect with each other. IP addresses distinguish between IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses. In the early days, many devices or programs only supported IPv4 but not IPv6 addresses. With the exhaustion of IPv4 resources, many companies are actively carrying out IPv6 transformation. Among them, companies that have undergone thorough transformation have replaced all software and hardware in the network to make them naturally support IPv4 / IPv6 dual stacks. However, there are also many companies that cannot completely transform at once. There are both devices that only support IPv4 and devices or software that support both IPv4 / IPv6 dual stacks in the network.

[0003] The current traditional technical solution is to configure DHCP address pools for IPv4 and IPv6 to allocate addresses. If the device only supports IPv4 addresses, you need to manually do NAT64 mapping on the switch or router so that the IPv4 address can use IPv6 to communicate externally. If the subsequent device needs to be replaced with a dual-stack address, you need to delete the NAT64 policy of the switch or router, and assign a new IPv6 address to the device. Because the IPv6 address changes, other IPv6 devices that communicate with this device also need to be synchronously modified to the new IPv6 address. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present application provides a dual-stack address allocation and management system and method based on DHCP, aiming to solve the problem of the prior art lacking a flexible and efficient network management solution during the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

[0005] In a first aspect, a dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP is provided, the system is based on a switch or router configured with NET64, a DNS server configured with DNS64, a DHCP server and a terminal, the system comprising: a DHCP64 module built into the DHCP server, a NAT64 control module and a terminal scanning mark module;

[0006] The DHCP64 module is used to convert the IPv4 address into an IPv6 address according to predefined rules;

[0007] The NAT64 control module is used to remotely log in to the switch or router device to execute commands and configure NAT64 policies;

[0008] The terminal scanning and marking module is used to scan, mark and record information related to the terminal.

[0009] In the above solution, optionally, the scanning action of the terminal scanning mark module includes:

[0010] The terminal scanning mark module actively initiates detection of the terminal; and / or

[0011] The terminal type is identified and its expected address allocation behavior is determined based on the fingerprint and specific parameter information when the terminal applies for an address.

[0012] In the above solution, optionally, the terminal scanning mark module identifies and records the information related to the terminal including:

[0013] The scanned terminals' support for IPv4 / IPv6, the current DHCP server's allocation of terminal IP addresses, the switch or router's NAT64 policy configuration, and information about MAC address changes caused by terminal device replacement but the expected continued allocation of IP addresses.

[0014] In the above solution, optionally, the terminal scanning mark module supports manual configuration and adjustment operations.

[0015] In a second aspect, a dual-stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP is provided. The method is based on the dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP as described above, and the method comprises:

[0016] In response to the address application sent by the terminal, the DHCP server uses the IPv4 address pool to allocate the IPv4 address; if the same terminal applies for an IPv6 address, the DHCP64 module converts the IPv4 address into an IPv6 address according to predefined rules to ensure that the IPv4 address and IPv6 address allocated to the same terminal have a mapping relationship;

[0017] If only IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses are allocated, the corresponding unallocated IPv6 addresses or IPv4 addresses with mapping relationships are reserved and not allocated.

[0018] The above solution may optionally further include: if the terminal only applies for an IPv6 address, using an IPv6 address pool to allocate an IPv6 address to the terminal.

[0019] In the above solution, optionally, the predefined rules include:

[0020] New IPv6 address = IPv6 prefix + full IPv4 address + IPv6 suffix;

[0021] The length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​within the range of 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, or 96 bits. When the length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​96 bits, the IPv6 suffix is ​​not entered.

[0022] In the above scheme, optionally, if the terminal scanning mark module scans that a certain terminal does not support the use of IPv6 addresses, but still expects to access the IPv6 network, the NAT64 control module is driven to configure a NAT64 policy that is the same as the predefined rule of the DHCP64 module on the switch or router;

[0023] When the terminal is replaced with a terminal supporting dual stack, the DHCP server determines whether to allocate the same IPv4 or IPv6 address as the original terminal according to the configuration of the terminal scanning tag module, and whether to delete or modify the configured NAT64 policy.

[0024] In the above solution, optionally, if the DNS server is only configured with the correspondence between the domain name and IPv4, the DNS64 policy that is the same as that of the DHCP64 module is configured for the DNS server.

[0025] In a third aspect, a DHCP server is provided, wherein the DHCP server is configured with the DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system as described above.

[0026] Compared with the prior art, this application has at least the following beneficial effects:

[0027] This application is based on further analysis and research of existing technical problems, and recognizes that there is no correlation between IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses assigned by DHCP. The transformation of the existing IPv4 network to an IPv4 / IPv6 dual stack requires the separate planning of the IPv6 network. The DNS server after the domain name transformation also needs to reconfigure the IPv6 addresses corresponding to all domain names, and the DNS64 function of the current DNS server cannot be simply reused directly. To connect IPv4 and IPv6 networks, it is necessary to manually configure the NAT64 policy on the switch or router, and the configuration of the NAT64 policy cannot be automatically completed or retracted based on whether the terminal supports or needs to support IPv6. When the IP address of a new access device or an old device is changed, a complex manual configuration process is required.

[0028] This application can establish a certain association between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned by DHCP by introducing the DHCP64 module, facilitating the smooth transition and conversion from IPv4 to IPv6. At the same time, it can cooperate with the DNS64 strategy to complete the linkage of domain name resolution and IP address. By introducing the NAT64 control module, the network mapping of terminals that do not support IPv6 addresses can be automatically completed, making it have the same effect as supporting IPv6 in terms of performance, and also facilitating the subsequent terminal upgrade and transformation.

[0029] This application is based on the existing network planning for IPv4. It only needs to configure the mapping strategy of the DHCP64 module to complete the network planning of IPv6 for these terminal devices. Regardless of whether the terminal supports IPv6 or not, the address can be planned and the network can be configured according to the support of IPv6 to make them interconnected. Subsequent terminals can also be smoothly upgraded or replaced. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] Figure 1 A flowchart of dual-stack address allocation and management based on DHCP is provided for one embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present application more clearly understood, the present application is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application and are not used to limit the present application.

[0032] In the description of the present application: unless otherwise specified, expressions such as “include”, “comprising”, “having”, etc. also mean “not limited to” (certain units, components, materials, steps, etc.).

[0033] With the exhaustion of IPv4 resources, many enterprises are now actively carrying out IPv6 transformation. Among them, the enterprises that have undergone thorough transformation have replaced all software and hardware in the network to make them naturally support v4 / v6 dual stack. However, there are also many enterprises that cannot make a complete transformation at once, and there are both devices that only support IPv4 and devices or software that support both v4 / v6 dual stack in the network.

[0034] In the current technical solution, since there is no correlation between the IPv4 address and the IPv6 address assigned by DHCP, the transformation of the existing IPv4 network to an IPv4 / IPv6 dual stack requires the separate planning of the IPv6 network. The DNS server after the domain name transformation also needs to reconfigure the IPv6 addresses corresponding to all domain names. The DNS64 function of the current DNS server cannot be simply reused directly.

[0035] To connect IPv4 and IPv6 networks, you need to manually configure NAT64 policies on switches or routers. You cannot automatically complete or withdraw NAT64 policy configuration based on whether the terminal supports or needs to support IPv6. When a new device is connected or the IP address of an old device is changed, a complex manual configuration process is required.

[0036] The purpose of this application is to provide a method and system for facilitating the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, so that the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned by the DHCP server to the same terminal are associated with each other, and the planning and transition of IPv6 addresses can be completed by simply configuring a mapping rule on the DHCP server and simply enabling the DNS64 function on the DNS server. For terminals that only support IPv4, the NAT64 policy is automatically configured on the switch or router, so that the IPv4 device automatically accesses the IPv6 network and interacts with other IPv6 devices.

[0037] like Figure 1 As shown, in one embodiment, the present application provides a dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP, the system is based on a switch or router configured with NET64, a DNS server configured with DNS64, a DHCP server and a terminal, the system includes: a DHCP64 module built into the DHCP server, a NAT64 control module and a terminal scanning mark module;

[0038] The DHCP64 module is used to convert IPv4 addresses into IPv6 addresses according to predefined rules;

[0039] The NAT64 control module is used to remotely log in to the switch or router device to execute commands and configure NAT64 policies;

[0040] The terminal scanning and marking module is used to scan, identify and record information related to the terminal.

[0041] In this embodiment, the DHCP64 module is a component built into the DHCP server, and its main function is to convert the IPV4 address into the IPV6 address according to the rules. The conversion method is: new IPv6 address = IPv6 prefix + complete IPv4 address + IPv6 suffix, the prefix is ​​in the range of 32 / 40 / 48 / 56 / 64 / 96, and if the prefix is ​​96, the suffix can be omitted. When DHCP assigns addresses, the DHCP64 module will ensure that the IPv4 and IPv6 assigned to the same MAC address are mapped. If only IPv4 or IPv6 is assigned, the unassigned address will also be reserved and will not be assigned to devices with other MAC addresses. The NAT64 control module is a component built into the DHCP server, and its main function is to remotely log in to the switch or router device to execute commands and configure NAT64 policies.

[0042] In this embodiment, by introducing the DHCP64 module, a certain association can be established between the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned by DHCP, which facilitates the smooth transition and conversion from IPv4 to IPv6. At the same time, the DNS64 strategy can be used to complete the linkage of domain name resolution and IP address. The introduction of the NAT64 control module can automatically complete the network mapping of terminals that do not support IPv6 addresses, making it have the same effect as supporting IPv6 in terms of expression, and also facilitate the subsequent upgrade and transformation of terminals.

[0043] In one embodiment, the scanning action of the terminal scanning mark module includes: the terminal scanning mark module actively initiates detection of the terminal; and / or identifies the terminal type and determines its expected address allocation behavior according to the fingerprint and specific parameter information when the terminal applies for an address.

[0044] In one embodiment, the terminal scanning marking module identifies and records information related to the terminal including: the scanned terminal's support for IPv4 / IPv6, the current DHCP server's allocation of the terminal's IP address, the switch or router's NAT64 policy configuration, and information about the MAC address change caused by the terminal device replacement but the IP address is expected to continue to be allocated.

[0045] In one embodiment, it includes: the terminal scanning mark module supports manual configuration and adjustment operations.

[0046] In this embodiment, the terminal scanning and marking module is a component built into the DHCP server, and its main function is to scan, identify and record terminal-related information. Scanning can be the module actively initiating detection of the terminal, or it can identify the terminal type and determine its expected address allocation behavior based on the fingerprint and specific parameter information when the terminal applies for an address. The recorded information includes the scanned terminal's support for IPv4 / IPv6, the current DHCP server's allocation of terminal IP addresses, the NAT64 policy configuration of the switch or router, and the MAC address change caused by the terminal device replacement but the IP address is expected to continue to be allocated. This module also supports manual configuration and adjustment.

[0047] In one embodiment, a dual-stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP is also provided. The method is based on a dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP as provided in one of the embodiments of the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

[0048] In response to the address application sent by the terminal, the DHCP server uses the IPv4 address pool to allocate the IPv4 address; if the same terminal applies for an IPv6 address, the DHCP64 module converts the IPv4 address into an IPv6 address according to predefined rules to ensure that the IPv4 address and IPv6 address allocated to the same terminal have a mapping relationship;

[0049] If only IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses are allocated, the corresponding unallocated IPv6 addresses or IPv4 addresses with mapping relationships are reserved and not allocated.

[0050] In an embodiment of the present application, when DHCP allocates addresses, the DHCP64 module will ensure that the IPv4 and IPv6 allocated to the same MAC address are mapped. If only IPv4 or IPv6 is allocated, the unallocated address will also be reserved and will not be allocated to devices with other MAC addresses.

[0051] If the DHCP server currently has an existing or newly planned IPv4 address pool, open the DHCP64 module and configure the conversion rules, then the IPv6 address pool will be automatically created and planned. If you do not want to use the DHCP64 module, you can also re-plan the IPv6 address, but the IPv6 address pool at this time cannot have an IP conflict with other IPv6 address pools that have already configured the DHCP64 module.

[0052] In one embodiment, the method further includes: if the terminal only applies for an IPv6 address, using an IPv6 address pool to allocate an IPv6 address to the terminal.

[0053] In this embodiment, when the terminal applies for an address from the DHCP server, the DHCP server uses the IPv4 address pool to allocate the IPv4 address when allocating the IPv4 address. When the same terminal applies for an IPv6 address, the DHCP64 module maps the previously allocated IPv4 address to the IPv6 address to complete the allocation. If the terminal only applies for or can only apply for an IPv4 address, the mapped IPv6 address will not be allocated to other terminals. If the terminal only applies for an IPv6 address, you can choose to allocate the address mapped in the IPv4 address pool (IPv4 also needs to be reserved at this time and cannot be allocated to other terminals), you can also choose to complete the allocation from a normal IPv6 address pool, you can also choose to complete the allocation from a normal IPv6 address pool.

[0054] In one embodiment, the predefined rules include:

[0055] New IPv6 address = IPv6 prefix + full IPv4 address + IPv6 suffix;

[0056] The length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​within the range of 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, or 96 bits. When the length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​96 bits, the IPv6 suffix is ​​not entered.

[0057] In this embodiment, the DHCP64 module converts the IPv4 address to the IPv6 address through the above predefined rules. The prefix of IPv6 is in the range of 32 / 40 / 48 / 56 / 64 / 96. If the prefix is ​​96, the suffix can be omitted. The embodiment of the present application establishes a certain association between the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned by DHCP through this predefined rule, facilitating the smooth transition and conversion from IPv4 to IPv6.

[0058] In one embodiment, if the terminal scanning marking module scans that a certain terminal does not support the use of IPv6 addresses, but still expects to access the IPv6 network, the NAT64 control module is driven to configure the NAT64 policy that is the same as the predefined rule of the DHCP64 module on the switch or router;

[0059] When the terminal is replaced with a terminal supporting dual stack, the DHCP server determines whether to allocate the same IPv4 or IPv6 address as the original terminal according to the configuration of the terminal scanning tag module, and whether to delete or modify the configured NAT64 policy.

[0060] In one embodiment, if the DNS server is only configured with the correspondence between the domain name and IPv4, the DNS64 policy that is the same as the DHCP64 module is configured for the DNS server.

[0061] In this embodiment, if the terminal scanning mark module configures a terminal that does not support the use of IPv6 addresses, but still expects to access the IPv6 network, the NAT64 control module is driven to configure the conversion relationship from IPv4 to IPv6 mapped by the DHCP64 module in the switch or router, and the IPv4 terminal is now connected to the IPv6 network. If the terminal is replaced with a terminal that supports dual stacks at a certain moment, the DHCP server can determine whether to allocate the same IPv4 or IPv6 address as the original terminal according to the configuration of the terminal scanning mark module at this time, and whether to delete or modify the previously configured NAT64 policy.

[0062] In this scenario, if the DNS server originally only configures the mapping between domain names and IPv4, there is no need to add IPv6 records one by one. You only need to configure the same DNS64 policy as the DHCP64 module.

[0063] The embodiment of the present application is based on the existing network planning for IPv4, and only needs to simply configure the mapping strategy of the DHCP64 module to complete the network planning for IPv6 of these terminal devices. Regardless of whether the terminal supports IPv6 or not, the address can be planned and the network can be configured according to the support of IPv6 to make them interconnected, and the subsequent terminals can also be smoothly upgraded or replaced.

[0064] In one embodiment of the present application, a DHCP server is further provided. The DHCP server is configured with a DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system as provided in one of the embodiments of the present application.

[0065] The technical features of the above embodiments may be combined arbitrarily. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

Claims

1. A dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP, the system is based on a switch or router configured with NET64, a DNS server configured with DNS64, a DHCP server and a terminal, characterized in that: The system includes: a DHCP64 module, a NAT64 control module and a terminal scanning mark module built into the DHCP server; The DHCP64 module is used to convert the IPv4 address into an IPv6 address according to predefined rules; The NAT64 control module is used to remotely log in to the switch or router device to execute commands and configure NAT64 policies; The terminal scanning and marking module is used to scan, mark and record information related to the terminal.

2. The DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The scanning actions of the terminal scanning tag module include: The terminal scanning mark module actively initiates detection of the terminal; and / or The terminal type is identified and its expected address allocation behavior is determined based on the fingerprint and specific parameter information when the terminal applies for an address.

3. The DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The terminal scanning tag module identifies and records terminal-related information including: The scanned terminals' support for IPv4 / IPv6, the current DHCP server's allocation of terminal IP addresses, the switch or router's NAT64 policy configuration, and information about MAC address changes caused by terminal device replacement but the expected continued allocation of IP addresses.

4. The DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system according to claim 1, characterized in that: include: The terminal scanning tag module supports manual configuration and adjustment operations.

5. A dual-stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP, the method is based on the dual-stack address allocation and management system based on DHCP as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: include: In response to the address application sent by the terminal, the DHCP server uses the IPv4 address pool to allocate the IPv4 address; if the same terminal applies for an IPv6 address, the DHCP64 module converts the IPv4 address into an IPv6 address according to predefined rules to ensure that the IPv4 address and IPv6 address allocated to the same terminal have a mapping relationship; If only IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses are allocated, the corresponding unallocated IPv6 addresses or IPv4 addresses with mapping relationships are reserved and not allocated.

6. The dual stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP according to claim 5, characterized in that: Also includes: If the terminal only applies for an IPv6 address, use the IPv6 address pool to allocate an IPv6 address to the terminal.

7. The dual stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP according to claim 5, characterized in that: The predefined rules include: New IPv6 address = IPv6 prefix + full IPv4 address + IPv6 suffix; The length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​within the range of 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, or 96 bits. When the length of the IPv6 prefix is ​​96 bits, the IPv6 suffix is ​​not entered.

8. The dual-stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP according to claim 5, characterized in that: include: If the terminal scanning and marking module scans that a terminal does not support the use of IPv6 addresses but still wants to access the IPv6 network, the NAT64 control module is driven to configure the NAT64 policy that is the same as the predefined rules of the DHCP64 module on the switch or router; When the terminal is replaced with a terminal supporting dual stack, the DHCP server determines whether to allocate the same IPv4 or IPv6 address as the original terminal according to the configuration of the terminal scanning tag module, and whether to delete or modify the configured NAT64 policy.

9. The dual stack address allocation and management method based on DHCP according to claim 5, characterized in that: include: If the DNS server is configured with only the mapping between domain names and IPv4, configure the same DNS64 policy as the DHCP64 module for the DNS server.

10. A DHCP server, characterized in that: The DHCP server configuration is a DHCP-based dual-stack address allocation and management system as described in claim 1.

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