Extended Neighbor Solicitation for IP Range Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for assigning IP addresses to virtual machines in computer networks are inefficient, as they require individual Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) messages for each address, leading to high bandwidth consumption and processing overhead, especially when assigning multiple addresses quickly.
Innovation Solution
A network device sends a single extended neighbor solicitation message specifying a range of requested IP addresses, allowing for simultaneous detection of available addresses, reducing the need for multiple messages and improving efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individual neighbor solicitation messages are sent for each IP address, then duplicate address detection accuracy is maintained, but bandwidth consumption and processing overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual neighbor solicitation messages into a single extended neighbor solicitation message that carries multiple IP addresses. This merging approach maintains duplicate address detection accuracy for each IP address while significantly reducing bandwidth consumption and processing overhead by transmitting all address detection requests in one message rather than multiple separate messages.
2Reliability
If individual neighbor solicitation messages are sent for each IP address, then accurate duplicate detection is achieved, but the number of messages and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple duplicate address detection operations into a single extended neighbor solicitation message. The message includes multiple IP addresses and their corresponding solicited-node multicast addresses, allowing network devices to process all address detections simultaneously. This reduces the number of message handling operations and decreases processing overhead while maintaining detection accuracy.
3Reliability
If multiple individual neighbor solicitation messages are sent, then each IP address can be detected independently, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary grouping of IP addresses into ranges before sending the extended neighbor solicitation message. By organizing IP addresses into contiguous ranges and calculating corresponding solicited-node multicast addresses in advance, the system enables parallel processing of multiple address detections in a single message transmission, significantly reducing the time required compared to sequential individual message sending.
Data Source
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AI summary
An example network device executes a plurality of virtual machines (VMs). The network device is configured to determine to assign a number of Internet protocol (IP) addresses to the plurality of VMs, the number of IP addresses being greater than two, determine a first IP address, determine a range value that is equal to or greater than the number of IP addresses, generate a message according to Duplicate Address Protocol (DAD) including data indicating that the message includes a range of addresses, the data further indicating the first IP address and the range value; and send the message according to DAD via the network interface to one or more network devices to determine whether any IP address in a range starting with the first IP address and through the range value is in use by the one or more network devices.