HOST IDENTITY PROTOCOL SERVER ADDRESS CONFIGURATION

Abstract

A method of facilitating access to a Host Identity Protocol security procedure by a host connected to a moving network, where the moving network comprises a Host Identity Protocol server responsible for allocating local IP addresses to attached hosts. The method comprises registering at a rendezvous server an IP address prefix for use by said Host Identity Protocol server in allocating said local addresses, together with an externally reachable IP address of the Host Identity Protocol server. The registered IP address prefix is used at the rendezvous server to forward received I1 messages to the Host Identity Protocol server. The rendezvous server controls the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers in order to prevent collision of local IP addresses.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the provisioning of mobility services to hosts and in particular to the provisioning of such services using the Host Identity Protocol. More particularly, it relates to Host Identity Protocol server address configuration.

BACKGROUND

An IP address describes a topological location of a node in a network. The IP address is used to route IP packets from a source node to a destination node. At the same time the IP address is also used to identify a node, thus providing two different functions in one entity. This is akin to a person's name and address being synonymous. When mobility is also considered, the situation becomes even more complicated: since IP addresses act as host identifiers, they should not be changed; however, since IP addresses also describe topological locations, they must necessarily change when a host changes its location in the network. Clearly, it is impossible to achieve both stability and dynamic changes at the same time.

In the case of so-called Mobile IP, the solution is to use a fixed home location providing a “home IP address” for a node. The home IP address both identifies a node and provides a stable location for it when it is at home. The current location information is available in the form of a “care-of address”, which is used for routing purposes when the node is away from home. A node's home network is updated whenever the node is allocated a (new) care-of-address and takes care of forwarding packets addressed to the packet's home address, to the registered care-of-address.

Another solution to the problem of mobility handling is provided by the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) proposal (R. Moskowitz, P. Nikander, P. Jokela, “Host Identity Protocol”, Internet Draft, work in progress, draft-ietf-hip-base-09.txt, IETF, 2007). HIP separates the location and identity roles of IP addresses by introducing a new name-space, the Host Identity (HI). In HIP, the Host Identity is a public cryptographic key of a public-private key-pair. The public key identifies the party that holds the only copy of the private key. A host possessing the private key of the key-pair can directly prove that it “owns” the public key that is used to identify it in the network.

The HIP Host Identity (HI), being a public key, can be quite long. It is therefore often represented with a 128-bit long Host Identity Tag (HIT) that is generated from the HI by hashing it. Thus, the HIT identifies a HI. Since the HIT is 128 bits long, it can be used for IPv6 applications directly as it is exactly the same length as an IPv6 address.

Applications are typically not interested in a (peer) node's location, but do need to know the identity of the peer. The identity is represented by the HIT. This means that the IP address only has importance on lower layers where routing is concerned. The HITs, which the applications use must of course be mapped to the corresponding IP addresses before any packets leave a node. This is achieved in a new Host Identity Layer as will now be described.

FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrates the various layers in a HIP-based protocol architecture, comprising the standard transport layer 4, network layer 8 and link layer 10, with a process 2 communicating with the transport layer 4 below it. The new Host Identity Layer 6 is disposed between the transport layer 4 and the network layer 8. A primary role of the Host Identity Layer is to perform the mapping between HITs and IP addresses. Each packet arriving from the upper layer contains the HIT of a peer node as the destination address. The Host Identity Layer replaces the destination HIT with the appropriate destination IP address, and the source HIT is converted to the appropriate source IP address.

HIP defines a base message exchange containing four messages, i.e. a four-way handshake, and this is used to create a security association (SA) between HIP-enabled nodes. During the message exchange, the Diffie-Hellman procedure is used to create a session key and to establish a pair of IPSec Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) Security Associations (SAs) between the nodes. FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings illustrates the four-way handshake. The negotiating parties are referred to as the “Initiator”, starting the connection, and the “Responder”. The Initiator begins the negotiation by sending an I1 packet that contains the HITs of the nodes participating in the negotiation. When the Responder receives the I1 packet, it sends back an R1 packet that contains a puzzle to be solved by the Initiator. The protocol is designed so that the Initiator must do most of the calculation during the puzzle solving. This gives some protection against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. The R1 initiates also the Diffie-Hellman procedure, containing the public key of the Responder together with the Diffie-Hellman parameters.

Once the R1 packet is received, the Initiator solves the puzzle and sends a response cookie in an I2 packet together with an IPSec SPI value and its encrypted public key to the Responder. The Responder verifies that the puzzle has been correctly solved, authenticates the Initiator and creates the IPSec ESP SAs. The final R2 message contains the SPI value of the Responder.

The SAs between peer nodes are bound to the Host Identities, represented by the HITs. However, the packets travelling in the network do not contain the actual HI (HIT) information, but rather the arriving packet is identified and mapped to the correct SA using the Security Parameter Index (SPI) value in the ESP header. FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings shows the logical and actual packet structures of a packet travelling in the network.

When an outgoing packet arrives at the HI layer from a higher layer, the destination HIT is verified from the IPSec SADB. If an SA matching the destination HIT is found, the packet payload is encrypted using the session key associated with the SA, and the source and destination IP addresses are substituted into the packet IP header for the source and destination HITs. At the receiving host, the SPI value is used to find the correct SA from the IPSec SADB. If an entry is found, the source and destination IP addresses can be changed to the corresponding HITs and the packet can be decrypted using the session key.

In order to allow legacy nodes which do not implement HIP to take advantage to some extent of the additional security benefits of HIP, proposals have been made to introduce a HIP proxy. The use of a HIP proxy is considered for example in WO05081466 and WO05101753, and is illustrated in FIG. 4 where a legacy host 12 is shown communicating with a HIP-enabled node 14 via a HIP proxy 16. The legacy host 12 accesses the HIP proxy 16 over an access network 18 while the HIP proxy 16 accesses the HIP node 14 over the Internet 20. To partially secure the connection between the legacy host 12 and the HIP node 14, all communications between the HIP proxy 16 and the HIP node 14 use a Security Association 22 set up between the HIP proxy 16 and the HIP node 14 in a similar way to that described above. A particular use case involving a HIP proxy might be a legacy 2G or 3G wireless mobile terminal making use of a GPRS access network 18. The HIP proxy is advantageously co-located with a GGSN of the GPRS network. Other components illustrated in FIG. 4 are DNS servers 24-1 and 24-2, and a Forwarding Agent 26.

A node wishing to communicate with a peer node, and knowing only the HIT of that peer node, must of course obtain an IP address for the peer. The Host Identity Layer can obtain the mapping between a HIT and an IP address in several ways, for example using a DNS server. The location information for a given node held at the DNS server can be updated at any time by the node.

Problems with the DNS-based look-up procedure include latency of the DNS system when updating new data across the Internet. DNS uses caching mechanism that may cache the data for several hours or even days, and the DNS is therefore unable to efficiently handle updates that happen very frequently. The addresses stored in to the DNS are expected to be long lived and thus the DNS system is not suitable for handling mobility.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has specified a new network entity known as a “rendezvous server” (RVS). The RVS provides an initial contact point for its clients. The clients of an RVS are HIP nodes that use the HIP Registration Protocol to register their HIT to IP address mappings with the RVS. Following registration, other HIP nodes can initiate a base exchange (I1 message) using the IP address of the RVS instead of the current IP address of the node they are attempting to contact. Included within the I1 message is the HIT of the destination node. The RVS determines the IP address of the destination HIP node, and forwards the I1 message to that address. In this way, clients of an RVS become reachable via the IP address of the RVS.

The RVS facilitates the introduction of moving network topologies in which HIP nodes are connected to a moving network which has one or more points of attachment to an (IP) access network. By introducing a HIP Mobile Router into the moving network, the RVS can be continuously updated with the current location of the HIP nodes whilst at the same time location update related signalling is minimised. The use of RVS and a HIP Mobile Router does not by itself allow legacy hosts within a moving network to take advantage of HIP-based security as, according to conventional approaches, a node must have a HIT in order register with the RVS.

SUMMARY

It is desirable to provide a means whereby legacy hosts connected to a moving network can take advantage of HIP-based mobility and security. This can be achieved by making use of a HIP proxy within the moving network and an RVS system, whereby the proxy registers the IP address prefixes or the temporary HITs for which it is responsible, and I1 packets relating to a legacy host are sent to the RVS system which redirects them to the responsible HIP proxy.

The obvious way of configuring addresses for the moving subnetworks of the HIP proxies is to use a private address space (e.g. 192.168.0.0/16) and divide the space between the HIP proxies. This requires manual configuration, with the HIP proxy administrators being informed of the prefixes that they are allowed to use. Of course, if this is not done properly or new proxies join the RVS, prefix collision might occur, e.g. two proxies can decide to provide 192.168.2.0/24 addresses in their subnetworks. This will create a problem in the RVS since there now can be multiple matches for addresses belonging to that prefix (e.g. 192.168.2.5).

The problem of IP address collision is not confined however to legacy hosts and HIP proxies: is may also arise where HIP hosts are located behind a HIP mobile router, and especially where they are located behind two or more nested HIP mobile routers. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of facilitating access to a Host Identity Protocol security procedure by a host connected to a moving network, where the moving network comprises a Host Identity Protocol server responsible for allocating local IP addresses to attached hosts. The method comprises registering at a rendezvous server an IP address prefix for use by said Host Identity Protocol server in allocating said local addresses, together with an externally reachable IP address of the Host Identity Protocol server. The registered IP address prefix is used at the rendezvous server to forward received I1 messages to the Host Identity Protocol server. The rendezvous server controls the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers in order to prevent collision of local IP addresses.

This approach is applicable where said Host Identity Protocol server is a Host Identity Protocol proxy, and said hosts are legacy hosts. In this case, the method may comprise registering a Host Identity or Host Identity Tag of said Host Identity Protocol server at the rendezvous server together with said IP address prefix and the public address(es) of the HIP proxy.

The approach is also applicable to the case where said Host Identity Protocol server is a Host Identity Protocol mobile router, and said hosts are HIP hosts.

The rendezvous server may control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers by selecting an unallocated IP address prefix from a pool of IP address prefixes, registering the selected prefix in respect of the registering Host Identity Protocol server, and notifying the registering Host Identity Protocol server of the selected and registered IP address prefix.

Alternatively, the rendezvous server may control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers by receiving a proposed IP address prefix from the registering Host Identity Protocol server and accepting or rejecting the proposal based upon already registered prefixes. Following rejection of a proposed IP address prefix by the rendezvous server, the method further comprises selecting an alternative prefix at the Host Identity Protocol server, and sending this to the rendezvous server.

The rendezvous server may be one of a set of cooperating rendezvous servers, the rendezvous servers exchanging data identifying allocated IP address prefixes to prevent IP address prefix collision between rendezvous servers.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus configured to operate as a rendezvous server for establishing sessions between hosts. The apparatus comprises a registration database and a receiver for receiving a registration request from a Host Identity Protocol server, the server being responsible for allocating local IP addresses to attached hosts. A registration unit is provided for responding to receipt of a registration request by registering in said registration database an IP address prefix for use by said Host Identity Protocol server in allocating said local addresses, together with an externally reachable IP address of the Host Identity Protocol server. The apparatus further comprises a message handling unit for using the registered IP address prefix to forward received I1 packets to the Host Identity Protocol server. The registration unit is configured so as to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers in order to prevent collision of local IP addresses.

The registration unit may be configured to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers by allocating to the Host Identity Protocol server an unallocated IP address prefix from within an IP address prefix pool, the apparatus further comprising a sending unit for sending the allocated IP address prefix to the Host Identity Protocol server.

The registration unit may be configured to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to Host Identity Protocol servers by identifying within said registration request an IP address prefix proposed by the Host Identity Protocol server and rejecting that prefix if the prefix is registered for another Host Identity Protocol server. More particularly, the registration unit may be further configured, upon rejection of a proposed IP address prefix, to either send an alternative, available prefix to the Host Identity protocol server, or to consider an alternative proposal from the server.

The registration unit may be configured to exchange, with other associated rendezvous servers, data identifying allocated IP address prefixes to prevent IP address prefix allocation collision between rendezvous servers.

The Host Identity Protocol server may be any HIP enabled node that is responsible for providing IP addresses to clients, for example a Host Identity Protocol proxy or a Host Identity Protocol mobile router.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus configured to operate as a Host Identity Protocol server, serving Host Identity Protocol clients and/or legacy hosts within a subnetwork. The apparatus comprises a registration unit for registering at a rendezvous server an IP address prefix for use by said Host Identity Protocol server in allocating local IP addresses within the subnetwork, together with an externally reachable IP address of the Host Identity Protocol server, the registration unit being configured to receive from the rendezvous server the registered IP address prefix.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, discussed hereinbefore, illustrates the various layers in the Host Identity Protocol;

FIG. 2, also discussed hereinbefore, illustrates the operation of the four-way handshake in the HIP protocol;

FIG. 3, also discussed hereinbefore, shows the logical and actual packet structures in HIP;

FIG. 4, also discussed hereinbefore, is a schematic diagram illustrating the general network setup for communications between a legacy host and a HIP mode via a HIP proxy;

FIG. 5 illustrates schematically a scenario in which a legacy host is attached to a moving network comprising a HIP proxy;

FIG. 6 illustrates a registration signalling exchange between a HIP proxy and an RVS;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exchange of registration data between RVS following registration of a new HIP proxy;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a registration process for a HIP proxy;

FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a rendezvous server adapted to register a HIP proxy;

FIG. 10 illustrates schematically a HIP proxy; and

FIG. 11 illustrates a mobility related signalling flow associated within the scenario of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Work is ongoing to facilitate the provision of moving networks which are substantially continuously connected to an IP network. An example of a moving network might be a collection of interconnected devices present within the same moving vehicle, or even on a person's body. Such a moving network will connect to the IP network via a fixed access point, but the identity of that access point will typically change as the network moves. In order to allow devices within the network to remain reachable as the network moves, some mechanism for signalling changes to location addresses (i.e. IP addresses) must be implemented. One solution for supporting moving networks is the IETF NEMO proposal. NEMO introduces a Mobile Router to the moving network which effectively hides the network mobility from the network devices. The mobile router is responsible for sending location address updates to peer nodes.

As an alternative to NEMO, it is possible to implement HIP-based moving networks by introducing a HIP Mobile Router into the moving network (or “subnetwork”). The HIP Mobile Router is responsible for handling mobility related signalling on behalf of HIP nodes in the subnetwork. By delegating the mobility related signalling rights to the HIP Mobile Router the HIP nodes will not be affected by the moving of the subnetwork and will not themselves have to perform mobility related signalling. This approach however requires that, in order to take advantage of HIP, devices within the subnetwork be HIP nodes. Legacy nodes cannot make use of a HIP Mobile Router.

As has been discussed above, it is possible to use a HIP proxy in order to allow legacy hosts to take advantage, at least to a limited extent, of the additional security benefits of HIP. In order to provide a stable reachable address for nodes, HIP proxies can perform DNS queries in order to obtain current IP addresses for (peer) HIP nodes. The HIP proxy therefore provides an alternative mechanism for enabling moving networks and, moreover, provides HIP-based network mobility to legacy terminals. However, a still better approach is to combine the use of HIP proxies with the RVS mechanism proposed by the IETF. This will now be described.

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario in which a legacy node 100 is connected to a moving network 101. The moving network could be, for example, a WLAN network. The moving network additionally comprises a HIP proxy 102 which is co-located with a (WLAN) router 103. The router 103 connects the moving network 101 to an IP network access point 104. As the moving network moves, it will be handed-off from one access point to another. The access point 104 provides access to an IP network 105, which may be, or may include, the Internet. FIG. 5 illustrates a peer legacy node 106 which is similarly connected to a second moving network 107, via a HIP proxy 108, router 109, and access point 110.

A rendezvous server (RVS) 111 is located within the IP network, and implements the functionality of the IETF RVS specified for HIP. That is to say that the RVS 11 provides a meeting point for HIP nodes. The RVS is however provided with additional functionality as will now be described.

It is assumed that that the HIP proxies 102,108 are aware of the IP addresses provided to nodes within their respective mobile networks. These may be IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses. More particularly, a HIP proxy knows (or can determine) the IP address prefix(es) used within its network, as well as the specific addresses that are in use from the available address space. The RVS is used to allow legacy hosts within a moving network to be reachable from outside of the network using the (locally allocated) IP addresses which might not be public, routable, addresses (but which are nonetheless unique).

Address prefix(es) used by a given mobile HIP proxy must be registered in the HIP RVS system, in particular within a database 112 of the RVS system. [The RVS system might for example be some hierarchical RVS structure, a DHT based RVS system, or just a regular RVS.] With reference to the signalling diagram of FIG. 6 (to be described further below), registration is performed at steps 1 and 2 in respect of a pair of HIP proxies (HIP proxy a and HIP proxy b). This represents an extension to the current RVS specification as, instead of registering only an identity [HIT(a)] and current locator [IP(a)] for a HIP proxy, the RVS must also registers the prefix(es) used in the proxy's subnetwork, and/or a list of addresses used in the subnetwork. When trying to locate a legacy host using the RVS, it is then necessary to match the IP address of the legacy host to a prefix in any entry in the RVS system. When a match is found, the corresponding RVS entry identifies the HIP proxy (IP address and HIT/HI) which can be used to contact the legacy host.

Considering further the HIP proxy registration procedure, it is important to avoid if possible address collisions between HIP proxies. This can be achieved by allowing the RVS to allocate IP address prefixes to HIP proxies, even though the subnetworks behind the HIP proxies make use of “private” address spaces.

Consider a HIP proxy registering to the RVS for the first time. In this case, there are not yet any pre-existing connections being handled by the proxy, so the RVS can merely inform the registering HIP proxy of the prefix that it should use in its subnetwork. This means that the prefix is allocated by the RVS and given to the HIP proxy instead of the HIP proxy selecting the prefix and informing the RVS of the choice. This allows the RVS to manage all HIP proxies registered to it and avoid prefix collisions. The HIP proxy receives the prefix to be used in the subnetwork and advertises it to its clients. Since this is only carried out the first time that the HIP proxy registers to the RVS and while there are not yet any active connections, the clients in the subnetwork are essentially unaffected.

FIG. 6 illustrates a registration signalling exchange between the HIP proxy and the RVS. This exchange may make use of the Registration Exchange defined in IETF RFC 5203.

If the RVS's are organised in a ring or a hierarchical structure, the IP address prefixes should to be assigned between the RVS's to avoid overlap. An RVS can then further divide the allocated prefix to the HIP proxies connected to it. An alternative approach is for each RVS to inform other connected RVSs when it allocates a prefix to a HIP-proxy. In this approach the RVSs allocate the prefixes from a common pool. This is illustrated in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram further illustrating the registration and message handling procedures. The process begins at step 100, with a HIP proxy sending a registration request to the RVS at step 101. The message is received by the RVS at step 102. At step 103, the RVS selects an unallocated IP address prefix for the HIP proxy, from an available pool of prefixes. At step 104, the RVS registers the allocated prefix in its database, together with the IP address (and HI/HIT) of the HIP proxy (and other data as described). The selected prefix is also sent to the HIP proxy at step 105. Thereafter, step 106, when the RVS receives an I1 message destined for an IP address containing that prefix, the RVS is able to identify the contact address (and HI/HIT) for the HIP proxy, and can forward the message to that address. The process ends at step 107.

An alternative solution to the problem of prefix collision is to allow an RVS to inform a HIP proxy whenever that HIP proxy attempts to register a prefix that has already been registered (in whole or in part) by another HIP proxy. If such an attempt is detected, the HIP proxy must select a new prefix and attempt to register the new prefix instead. [This may of course result in a denial of service (DoS) type attack whereby an attacker pretends to be a RVS node and informs the HIP-proxy that all the prefixes are reserved.] Rather than requiring the HIP proxy to propose an alternative prefix, in the event of a collision, the RVS may suggest a new (free) prefix to the HIP proxy based on the registration information of other HIP proxies held by the RVS.

FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a rendezvous server (RVS) 1 configured to handle the registration of HIP proxies as discussed above. The RVS 1 comprises a receiver 2 for receiving registration requests from HIP proxies. The requests are passed to, and processed by, a registration unit 3. In particular, in one embodiment, the registration unit 3 allocates IP address prefixes (from a pool of prefixes) to the registering HIP proxy, and registers this in a database 4 together with the externally accessible IP address and HI/HIT of the HIP proxy. The registration unit 3 uses a sending unit 5 to notify the HIP proxy of the selected IP address prefix. Subsequent I1 messages destined for a legacy terminal behind the HIP proxy are handled by a message handling unit 6. This unit looks up the IP address prefix of a destination terminal in the database 4, and forwards the message to the identified IP address of the HIP proxy. FIG. 10 shows a HIP proxy 10 having a registration unit 11 for registering with an RVS, its allocated IP address prefix and contact IP address (and HI/HIT).

Consider now the case where a legacy host (x) behind a HIP proxy (a) wants to connect to a peer legacy host (y) behind another HIP proxy (b). Host(x) first needs to know the locator of the peer host. How this information is obtained is not considered in detail here, but it would be possible to use the existing DNS system. Considering further the signalling shown in FIG. 9, the legacy host (x) initiates a session with the peer host (y) by sending a regular packet (e.g. TCP SYN) to the peer (IP(x)→IP(y)). The source and destination IP addresses contained within the packet can be private or public IP addresses. HIP proxy (a) intercepts the packet and checks if there is already a HIP association for that IP address pair. If so, the packet is sent out over that association. If there already exists a HIP association between the two proxies, but for different legacy hosts, that HIP association can still be used for the new connection since the complete IP packet is tunnelled between the proxies. Otherwise the proxy checks to see if it already knows which proxy has the prefix to which the destination address IP(y) belongs. If this information is found [IP(b), HIT(b)], then it can be used directly for establishing a HIP association between the two proxies as per the four-way handshake of FIG. 2. However, if no useable association already exists, and the HIP proxy (a) does not have any information on the peer proxy, then it utilises the RVS system to establish a new HIP association as will now be described.

The HIP proxy (a) sends out an I1 packet (step 4) in opportunistic mode to the RVS system, i.e. the destination HIT field (i.e. where HIT(b) would be if it were known) is left empty. The destination address within the IP packet header is that of the RVS, but the IP address of the destination legacy host IP(y) is included in the I1 packet payload so that this information can be used by the RVS to locate the correct peer HIP proxy entry in the RVS. Upon receipt of the I1 packet, the RVS identifies the entry with a prefix that matches the prefix of IP(y) and from that entry the HIT of HIP proxy (b) and its IP address IP(b). The RVS then inserts HIT(b) into the I1 packet and the destination of the packet is changed to IP(b), before the packet is forwarded (step 5).

When the peer HIP proxy receives the I1 packet it replies as normal with an R1 packet. However, it includes within the packet the IP address prefix that it is serving in the subnetwork. The R1 packet is sent directly (step 6) to the originating HIP proxy which now learns the HIT and IP address of the peer proxy and also the prefix that the peer proxy is serving. [That learned prefix can later be used when new connections between the two subnetworks need to be established, e.g. for a different pair of legacy hosts.] When the originating HIP proxy now replies with the I2 packet (step 7) it includes the prefix of the subnetwork that it is serving, so that both proxies will now possess complete information. The HIP base exchange continues as normal to establish a HIP association between the two proxies (step 8). At this point a HIP tunnel has been setup and data packets can flow between the legacy hosts through the HIP tunnel (steps 9 to 11). Complete IP packets are tunnelled in an IP-in-IP tunnel between the HIP proxies, and once received at the destination proxy the original IP packet is unpacked and sent into the destination subnetwork with the original IP addresses [IP(x)→IP(y)].

Considering now the case where a HIP host seeks to establish a HIP secured session with a legacy host that is within a moving network and behind a HIP proxy, the procedure is similar to that described above. The HIP host sends the I1 packet to the RVS in opportunistic mode. The HIP host must include in the I1 message the IP address of the legacy host (this requires a modified I1 packet). The RVS determines the responsible HIP proxy using the legacy host's IP address, and forwards the I1 to the HIP proxy. The initiating HIP host receives the R1 response from the HIP proxy from which it learns the IP address and HIT of the proxy, as well as the IP address prefix for which the proxy is responsible. Of course, the HIP host is not responsible for a prefix, and therefore includes only its own IP address in the I2. The exchange then completes as normal.

When subsequently sending data packets, the HIP host needs to encapsulate (and when receiving, decapsulate) the packet into an IP-in-IP tunnel. The HIP host creates a plain data packet with source and destination IP addresses corresponding to its own address and that of the legacy host. This packet is used as payload for the outgoing HIP packet that will first have HITs in the IP header which then will be translated into the IP addresses of the HIP host and the HIP proxy (just as in regular HIP).

When it is the legacy host that initiates the connection to the HIP host, the same procedure that was used for the legacy host to legacy host connection is used. That is the I1 packet sent from the proxy (containing the HIT of the proxy) goes via the RVS system and is forwarded to the HIP host. The HIP host includes as a “prefix” in the R1 packet, its own address. The procedure completes as described.

An alternative approach to the registration of subnetwork prefixes at the RVS is to allow the HIP proxy to create temporary identities for the legacy hosts in the subnetwork. The HIP proxy then adds these identities to its registration entry in the RVS so that the entry contains HIT(a), IP(a), and a set of IP address/(temporary)HIT pairs for the legacy hosts in the subnetwork.

The HIP base exchange for this alternative approach is similar to the previous scenario except that the source HIT in the I1 packet is the temporary HIT assigned to the legacy host (a), and in the RVS system the temporary HIT assigned to the peer legacy host (b) is inserted into the destination HIT field (assuming that both peers are legacy hosts behind HIP proxies). However, from the RVS system the I1 packet is still sent to the IP address of the peer HIP proxy. When the peer HIP proxy replies with the R1 packet it includes (instead of the prefix of the subnetwork as in the previous case) the IP address of the peer legacy host (IP(b)). The originating HIP proxy requires IP(b) as, without it, it cannot map the incoming R1 packet (and included HIT) to the I1 packet sent out (nb. the I1 was sent in opportunistic mode with an empty destination HIT field). The originating HIP proxy includes the IP address of the legacy host(a) within the I2 packet so that the destination proxy learns the IP address pair of the legacy hosts. The base exchange continues as normal to establish a HIP association between the temporary HITs of the legacy hosts.

According to this approach, the plain IP packets are not tunnelled between the HIP proxies. Rather, the proxy replaces the IP addresses of the IP header with the HITs assigned to the legacy hosts, after which the packet undergoes regular HIP processing resulting in an ESP protected packet with the source and destination addresses of the outer IP header being those of the two proxies. When the ESP protected packet is received at the receiver side HIP proxy, the IP addresses of the packet are first replaced with HITs (as in regular HIP). The proxy then uses a stored mapping between the actual IP addresses of the legacy hosts and the temporary HITs to translate the HITs in the IP header to the actual IP addresses of the legacy hosts.

A significant difference between this approach and the prefix-based approach described above is that, with the former, it is not possible for the sending side proxy to reuse an old HIP association where the two legacy hosts to which a new packet (e.g. TCP SYN) are not the same as those to which the old association relates. In this case, the HIP proxy must still send the I1 packet via RVS. Only if the old HIP association relates to the same legacy hosts can the old association be reused and the HIP base exchange skipped.

In the case that the HIP proxy creates temporary identities for the legacy hosts in its subnetwork, then a HIP host can connect to one of the legacy hosts just as if it was a regular HIP host. If the HIP host knows the temporary identity of the legacy host and the locator of the proxy then it can just send an I1 packet to the locator of the proxy with the destination identity set to the temporary HIT. The HIP host needs to include the IP address of the legacy host in the I1 packet and its own IP address in the I2 packet.

When it is the legacy host that initiates a connection to a HIP host, the procedure is also similar to a regular HIP base exchange except of course that the first “plain” data packet from the legacy host triggers the proxy to perform the HIP base exchange with the HIP host. The legacy host sends the data packet to the IP address of the HIP host and the proxy sends an opportunistic I1 to the RVS system with the IP address of the HIP host. The RVS system finds the RVS entry of the HIP host (which may or may not contain any prefix information) and forwards the I1 packet to the HIP host with the HIT of the HIP host in the packet. The HIP host replies with the R1 packet and includes its IP address in the packet. The base exchange continues as described. [NB. The IP address of the HIP host may be a private IP address behind a HIP server.]

Returning to the subject of mobility, it will be appreciated that as the HIP proxy registers the prefix or addresses it is serving into the RVS system, the proxy, and thus also the legacy hosts in its subnetwork, can always be found via the RVS. When the whole subnetwork, including the proxy, moves, the proxy will update the RVS system with its current location. The proxy will also perform location updates with the peers (legacy and HIP hosts) on behalf of its legacy hosts. The HIP connections established by the HIP proxy will by default (since it is HIP) be changed to start from new locators without breaking the end-to-end connections between legacy hosts and HIP/legacy hosts.

It will be appreciated by the person of skill in the art that various modifications may be made to the above described embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, approach to registering a HIP proxy with the RVS (FIG. 6) may be applied to other HIP servers including, for example, HIP mobile routers. Such a HIP mobile router may be serving HIP hosts (rather than or as well as legacy hosts). In such a scenario, a similar problem to that identified above can arise, i.e. a conflict of local IP addresses between different subnetworks, especially in the case of nested mobile routers.

Claims

1. In a network comprising a server responsible for allocating local IP addresses to attached hosts, a method comprising: registering at a rendezvous server an IP address prefix for use by the server in allocating said local addresses, together with an externally reachable IP address of the server; andusing the registered IP address prefix at the rendezvous server to forward received I1 messages to the server, whereinsaid rendezvous server controls the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers in order to prevent collision of local IP addresses.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server is a Host Identity Protocol proxy, and said hosts are legacy hosts.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising registering a Host Identity or Host Identity Tag of the server at the rendezvous server together with said IF address prefix.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server is a Host Identity Protocol mobile router, and said hosts are HIP hosts.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said rendezvous server controls the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers by selecting an unallocated IP address prefix from a pool of IP address prefixes, registering the selected prefix in respect of the registering server, and notifying the registering server of the selected and registered IP address prefix.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said rendezvous server controls the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers by receiving a proposed IP address prefix from the registering server and accepting or rejecting the proposal based upon already registered prefixes.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising, following a rejection of a proposed IP address prefix by the rendezvous server, selecting an alternative prefix at the server, and sending this to the rendezvous server.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising, following a rejection of a proposed IP address prefix by the rendezvous server, selecting an alternative and unallocated prefix at rendezvous server and sending this to the server.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said rendezvous server is one of a set of cooperating rendezvous servers, the rendezvous servers exchanging data identifying allocated IP address prefixes to prevent IP address prefix collision between rendezvous servers.

10. An apparatus configured to operate as a rendezvous server for establishing sessions between hosts, the apparatus comprising: a registration database;a receiver for receiving a registration request from a server, the server being responsible for allocating local IP addresses to attached hosts;a registration unit for responding to receipt of a registration request by registering in said registration database an IP address prefix for use by the server in allocating said local addresses, together with an externally reachable IP address of the server; anda message handling unit for using the registered IP address prefix to forward received I1 messages to the server,wherein said registration unit is configured to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers in order to prevent collision of local IP addresses.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said registration unit is configured to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers by allocating to the server an unallocated IP address prefix from within an IP address prefix pool, the apparatus further comprising a sending unit for sending the allocated IP address prefix to the server.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said registration unit is configured to control the allocation and registration of address prefixes to servers by identifying within said registration request an IP address prefix proposed by the server and rejecting that prefix if the prefix is registered for another server.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, said registration unit being further configured, upon rejection of a proposed IP address prefix, to either send an alternative, available prefix to the server, or to consider an alternative proposal from the server.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, said registration unit being configured to exchange, with other associated rendezvous servers, data identifying allocated IP address prefixes to prevent IP address prefix allocation collision between rendezvous servers.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the server is one of a Host Identity Protocol proxy and a Host Identity Protocol mobile router.

16. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a registration unit for registering at a rendezvous server an IP address prefix for use by the apparatus in allocating local IP addresses within a subnetwork, together with an externally reachable IP address, and a Host Identity or a Host Identity Tag, of the apparatus,the registration unit being configured to receive from the rendezvous server the registered IP address prefix.