Mobile Router Information Management Server

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Solution Overview

Problem

In mobile IP networks, the concentration of communication load on a home agent leads to increased equipment and maintenance costs, and network failures can prevent communication among all mobile routers, with issues arising from dynamic changes in care-of addresses and the need for centralized management of identification information.

Innovation Solution

A mobile router information management server and mobile routers that register and manage identification information for themselves and attached communication terminals, allowing direct data transfer between mobile routers without a home agent, and enabling connection establishment even with changes in communication terminals.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If data transfer is carried out through a home agent in mobile IP networks, then centralized management and routing control are achieved, but communication load concentrates on the home agent leading to increased equipment and maintenance costs

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecentralized managementVSAvoidequipment cost
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the centralized home agent function into distributed location information management across multiple mobile routers. Each mobile router maintains its own location information table, eliminating the single point of concentration and distributing the management load across the network infrastructure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts the location information management function from the home agent and relocates it to the mobile routers themselves. This extraction removes the burden from the home agent while preserving the necessary routing control capabilities at the edge devices.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Ease of operation

If a home agent is used for data transfer among mobile routers, then routing control is centralized, but network failures at the home agent prevent communication among all mobile routers

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverouting controlVSAvoidcommunication continuity
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the routing control function from a single home agent and distributes it across multiple mobile routers. Each mobile router independently manages its own location information, creating multiple control points that can operate autonomously if one fails.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements redundancy by having each mobile router maintain its own location information table with alternative routing paths. This beforehand cushioning ensures that if one routing path or home agent fails, communication can continue through alternative routes without interruption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

3Adaptability or versatility

If care-of addresses are dynamically changed for mobile communication terminals, then mobility and flexibility are achieved, but connection establishment becomes difficult when addresses change

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveterminal mobilityVSAvoidconnection establishment
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a feedback mechanism where mobile routers periodically update their location information tables with current care-of addresses. This feedback loop ensures that routing information remains current even as terminals move and addresses change, maintaining connection capability without requiring manual intervention.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary registration of care-of addresses in location information tables before actual communication is needed. This preliminary action allows the network to proactively update routing information, so when a terminal moves and changes its address, the new address is already registered and ready for immediate connection establishment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

4Device complexity

If identification information of mobile communication terminals is centrally managed, then network control is simplified, but user settings become complex and network usability is limited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenetwork controlVSAvoiduser settings
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent enables mobile routers to autonomously manage their own location information and identification data without requiring centralized configuration or manual user settings. Each mobile router automatically maintains its location information table, eliminating complex user configuration tasks while preserving simplified network control.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP2635057B1Mobile router information management server, mobile router, mobile router network, and communication method for same
Publication Date: 2019.11.06 NEC CORP
  • EP2635057B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2635057B1 patent drawingFigure 2a~2b
  • EP2635057B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

With the object of enabling data transfer between mobile routers without going through a home agent and establishing a connection to a destination mobile router even when mobile communication terminals equipped in the destination mobile router are changed at the time of initiating connection to the destination mobile router, a mobile router information management server has a mobile router registration information table that registers, for each mobile router, mobile router information that is reported from the mobile routers and that includes identification information of the mobile routers and identification information of mobile communication terminals equipped in the mobile routers, in response to inquiry information from a mobile router that includes identification information of another mobile router that is to be a communication destination, searches the mobile router registration information table, based on the identification information of the other mobile router, for mobile router information that includes identification information of mobile communication terminals equipped in the other mobile router, and returns the searched mobile router information to the mobile router.