Home Controller Message Handling for Roaming Devices
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Devices anchored to a home network domain struggle to discover services and other devices in a visited domain due to link local traffic being sent to the home domain controller, preventing effective communication and service interaction.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a message handling scheme where controllers in the home and visited domains manage link local addresses and messages through tunnels, allowing devices to maintain their link local addresses in both domains, except for specific networking services, enabling discovery and interaction in the visited domain while maintaining connectivity to home domain services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a device remains anchored to its home domain when roaming to a visited domain, then the device maintains stable connectivity to home domain services, but the device cannot discover services or other devices in the visited domain
Solution Approach 1:
The home domain controller acts as an intermediary by maintaining link local addresses in its address resolution table and generating proxy responses to address resolution requests. This allows the device to maintain stable connectivity to home domain services while enabling service discovery in the visited domain through the controller's mediation of address resolution requests and responses
2Reliability
If link local traffic is sent to the home domain controller, then the device maintains anchor status in the home domain, but the device cannot communicate with services in the visited domain
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different handling rules for different types of traffic: address resolution requests are processed locally by the visited domain controller which queries the home domain controller, while other traffic maintains the home domain anchoring. This local quality differentiation enables both domain anchoring and visited domain communication
3Adaptability or versatility
If the device uses link local addressing in the visited domain, then the device can communicate locally, but the link local address may conflict with home domain address allocation
Solution Approach 1:
The home domain controller maintains an address resolution table that tracks link local addresses assigned to devices in the home domain. When address resolution requests are received, the controller queries this table to verify address uniqueness before generating proxy responses, providing feedback that prevents address conflicts between home and visited domains
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes receiving, at a home controller of a home domain and from a first device in the home domain, a first message concerning a user device that is anchored to the home domain and that has roamed from the home domain to a visitor domain. The method also includes, in response to determining that the first device is a router, opening a tunnel between the home controller and a visitor controller of the visitor domain and communicating the first message to the user device through the tunnel. The method further includes receiving, at the home controller and from a second device in the home domain, a second message concerning the user device and in response to determining that the second device is not a router, communicating, to the second device, a proxy response to the second message.