Embodiments provided herein generally relate to providing a ReNAT communications environment, and particularly to Systems and methods for providing ReNAT functionality across a network.
The Internet supports worldwide communication between computers using a group of standard protocols. One of these protocols, the Internet Protocol (IP), assigns a unique address to each computer known as an IP address. IP is currently available in two versions: IPv4 with 32 bit addresses, and IPv6 with 128 bit addresses.
Growth of the Internet has caused utilization of all available 32 bit addresses in IPv4. One result of the limited number of addresses is that most organizations now use one of the three private address spaces defined by IPv4. These private IP addresses cannot be used on the public Internet. Gateway routers manage the interface between a private intranet and the public Internet. Gateway routers provide various functions to hide or mask the private internal IP when communication outside the private network is required.
One common method used by gateway routers in commercial environments is the creation of a virtual private network (VPN) to connect external users to the internal private network. The VPN provides an envelope or wrapper protocol to hide the internal IP addresses and data while the packet is routed across the public Internet to the user.
ReNAT architecture provides a mechanism for multiple organizations using a VPN with private address realms to share a public software resource on the Internet. Each organization uses a VPN to communicate with remote users over the pubic Internet. In this way, the VPN creates a virtual tunnel between the organization's private IP network and servers and the remote user. Each VPN provides two functions to enable secure communication. The first function is that information in the virtual tunnel may be encrypted to protect it from unauthorized access. The second function is that organization's private IP network is extended to the user workstation.
While the use of private IP addresses and VPN allows users to securely access private networks, these two facts mean that organizations using VPNs cannot make use of software functions on the public Internet. Other issues are additionally present and will be discussed in more detail, below.
The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative and exemplary in nature and not intended to limit the subject matter defined by the claims. The following detailed description of the illustrative embodiments can be understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numerals and in which:
Embodiments described herein include ReNAT systems and methods for facilitating communication between a user computing device in a private realm and a remote computing device over a wide area network (or other network). Specifically, the user computing device may communicate with the remote computing device via a satellite network or other network that may have slower than desired connection speeds. While the user may utilize a virtual private network, the communication may be routed from a user workstation, which includes a ReNAT twin NAT (network address translation) client and a commercial off the shelf (COTS) VPN client to a network operations center (NOC). The NOC includes a COTS VPN, COTS clear text software, a ReNAT Twin NAT, and a ReNAT VPN.
Accordingly, embodiments described herein provide a process to allow a group of organizations with network access using VPN communication with private address realms to share software functions, such as acceleration technology. COTS acceleration technology is currently available and may operate on clear text inside an organization's private IP network. In operation, embodiments described herein create a private IP realm or address space that is isolated from both the public Internet IP addresses and the organization's private IP addresses. Accordingly, embodiments described herein assign a unique private IP address (UPIP) for each organization system that communicates through the COTS process, so that all organization systems have unique IP addresses within the ReNAT private IP realm. The ReNAT twin NAT clients translate between a customer-assigned private IP address and assigned UPIP so that the COTS clear text component, which may be configured as clear text process software, has unique IP addresses for all user organization systems even when multiple organizations have the same private IP addresses.
Outside the ReNAT environment, a user application (on the user workstation) and the corporate office remote computing device see only the customer's internal private IP addresses. The ReNAT twin NAT client and the ReNAT twin NAT are coordinated to translate between customer-assigned private IP addresses and ReNAT assigned UPIP so that the user application and corporate office server see only the organization's internal private IP addresses.
Additionally, some embodiments described herein are configured for facilitating translation of network addresses for communications between a client workstation and a wide area network. In some embodiments, the translation traverses a virtual private network (VPN), as discussed above. Accordingly, these embodiments may be configured as a two-way communication, where the Dual NAT software assigns a family of IP addresses (in IPv4, IPv6, or other similar protocol) to a private realm, such as a corporate network. Similarly, on the network operations center (NOC) side (which is between the private realm and the wide area network), a plurality of IP addresses are assigned, one for each private realm. As an example, a first private realm may be assigned IP addresses 10.0.0.x, where x=1, . . . , n. The NOC may associate those addresses with an IP address, such as 10.254.254.254 and other private realms may be associated with IP addresses, such as 10.254.254.253, etc., each having 10.0.0.x as an in-network address. Additionally, the NAT relationships may be stored in the two Dual NATs, which facilitate translation from a user computing device on a private network with a server at a corporate office, while the client workstation and the wide area network are unaware of any IP address conversion.
Additionally, some embodiments provide a source IP address on external packets to identify a source gateway or second VPN. Packets from a Dual NAT may include the destination public IP address to identify the destination gateway or second VPN.
Still some embodiments described herein provide a virtual private network within a network operations center (NOC) for facilitating communication of data between a wide area network and a client workstation in a private realm. As described above, the NOC may be configured to facilitate communication of data between the private realm and the wide area network, such as through a satellite communication, using acceleration techniques. Accordingly, the VPN created in the NOC may be utilized to provide a security barrier such that commercial off the shelf (COTS) operations are only performed within a device and never communicated between devices. Embodiments described herein may additionally facilitate assignment of IP addresses in IPv4 and/or IPv6, via utilization of the dual NATs.
Referring now to the drawings,
Included within the private IP realm 104 are a COTS VPN 114, a COTS clear text functions 116, a ReNAT twin NAT 118, and a ReNAT VPN 120. The ReNAT twin NAT client 110 and the ReNAT twin NAT 118 translate data between customer assigned private IP addresses and assigned UPIP so that the COTS clear text functions 116 has unique IP addresses for all user organization systems even when multiple organizations have the same private IP addresses.
Outside the private IP realm 104, the user application 108 and remote computing device 126 in the corporate office 106 see only the customer's internal private IP addresses. The ReNAT twin NAT client 110 and ReNAT twin NAT 118 are coordinated to translate between customer assigned private IP addresses and ReNAT-assigned UPIP so that the user applications 108 and remote computing device 126 see only the user workstation 102 internal private IP addresses. As such, the data sent from the user workstation 102 is received at the corporate office 106 at a gateway device 122 on a private network 124. The remote computing device 126 may then process the data accordingly.
Also depicted in
The NOC 204 receives the data at a COTS VPN 220 which removes the VPN encryption and provides the data for processing by the COTS clear text process manager 222. The COTS clear text process manager 222 processes the data according to clear text or other similar protocol. The data may then be processed by a ReNAT twin NAT 224. The ReNAT twin NAT 224 removes the UPIP and replaces the UPIP with a customer-defined private IP from the private network 233 and provides the public IP address of the customer gateway device 232. The ReNAT twin NAT 224 may be configured to translate both source and destination IP addresses in the clear text packets to/from assigned UPIP. For inbound packets, ReNAT twin NAT 224 uses the source IP provided by the ReNAT VPN 226 to identify the user. Outbound packets from the ReNAT twin NAT 224 to ReNAT VPN 226 include the destination public IP to identify the remote computing device 234. For outbound packets, the ReNAT Twin NAT 224 uses the source and destination UPIP address to identify the destination public IP address for the destination Gateway/VPN 232. Additionally, the VPN function is modified to provide the source IP on the external packets from the corporate office to identify the source gateway/VPN. Packets from ReNAT twin NAT 224 include the destination public IP to identify the destination Gateway/VPN.
Also included with the NOC 204 are a login manager 228 and a session manager 230, which manage login of the user workstation 202 and managing the session of the user workstation. On the link between ReNAT twin NAT 224 and ReNAT VPN 226, packets are wrapped in a private ReNAT-defined IP protocol that includes the public source and destination IP. Additionally, the ReNAT twin NAT 224 may assign a UPIP that overlaps with a customer assigned private IP address. However, this does not create routing issues since the assigned address is unique within the NOC and mapped to the public IP by session manager 230. As discussed above, the session manager 230 maintains session information for each user workstation 202 that is logged into the service. The session manager 230 provides UPIP coordination information to the ReNAT twin NAT 224 and updates client session manager 218 with assigned UPIP for this customer. The session manager 230 also maintains the relationship between UPIP and public IP of the customer's Gateway/VPN. The corporate office 206 includes a customer gateway device 232, a private network 233, and the remote computing device 234.
Accordingly, the client login manager 316 and the client session manager 318 may communicate with the login manager 324 and the session manager 326 to facilitate logging into and managing a session with the NOC 306. Once the session is established, the COTS CTP client 312 may process the data. Additionally, the COTS VPN client 314 may create a VPN tunnel between the user workstation 302 and the NOC 306 COTS VPN 320. The user workstation 302 may receive the data and send the data to the NOC 306. The NOC 306 can use the COTS VPN 320 to decrypt the data from the VPN and the COTS Clear Text Process 322 can further process the data for sending to the remote computing device 308.
As described with reference to
It should be understood that in
It should be understood that, depending on the particular embodiment, one or more datagrams may be communicated to the remote computing device before generating the new datagram for the user workstation. As an example, if the computing environment is utilizing acceleration as the COTS process, the communication of multiple datagrams with the remote computing device may be performed.
Additionally, the memory component 1040 may be configured to store operating logic 1042, the data communication logic 1044a, and the manager logic 1044b, each of which may be embodied as a computer program, firmware, and/or hardware, as an example. A local communications interface 1046 is also included in
The processor 1030 may include any processing component operable to receive and execute instructions (such as from the data storage component 1036 and/or memory component 1040). The input/output hardware 1032 may include and/or be configured to interface with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, camera, microphone, speaker, and/or other device for receiving, sending, and/or presenting data. The network interface hardware 1034 may include and/or be configured for communicating with any wired or wireless networking hardware, a satellite, an antenna, a modem, LAN port, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) card, WiMax card, mobile communications hardware, fiber, and/or other hardware for communicating with other networks and/or devices. From this connection, communication may be facilitated between the NOC 204 and other computing devices.
Similarly, it should be understood that the data storage component 1036 may reside local to and/or remote from the NOC 204 and may be configured to store one or more pieces of data for access by the NOC 204 and/or other components. In some embodiments, the data storage component 1036 may be located remotely from the NOC 204 and thus accessible via a network connection. In some embodiments however, the data storage component 1036 may merely be a peripheral device, but external to the NOC 204.
Included in the memory component 1040 are the operating logic 1042, the data communication logic 1044a, and the manager logic 1044b. The operating logic 1042 may include an operating system and/or other software for managing components of the NOC 204. Similarly, the data communication logic 1044a may include the COTS VPN 220, the COTS clear text process manager 222, the ReNAT twin NAT 224, the ReNAT VPN 226, and/or other pieces of logic for manipulating data and communicating the data between a user workstation 202 and the remote computing device 234. The manager logic 1044b may include the login manager 228, the session manager 230, and/or other components that cause the NOC 204 to establish sessions with the user workstation 202.
It should be understood that the components illustrated in
While particular embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be understood that various other changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, although various aspects of the claimed subject matter have been described herein, such aspects need not be utilized in combination. It is therefore intended that the appended claims cover all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of the claimed subject matter.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/194,734, filed Jun. 28, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/175,132, filed Feb. 7, 2014, which is a continuation of PCT Application Number PCT/US14/10023, filed Jan. 2, 2014, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/748,248 filed Jan. 2, 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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20170250949 A1 | Aug 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15194734 | Jun 2016 | US |
Child | 15593728 | US | |
Parent | 14175132 | Feb 2014 | US |
Child | 15194734 | US | |
Parent | PCT/US2014/010023 | Jan 2014 | US |
Child | 14175132 | US |