T echnical Field

The present invention is basically related to a system which is For managing IPv4 based network through IPv6 based TR-069 communication and which provides a solution allowing new subscriber registrations to the networks that has reached maximum number of IP (Internet Protocol) usage.

Background of the Invention

In the state of the art, the whole range of IPv4 addresses are in use worldwide, so existing IPv4 resources are insufficient to cover the network needs. Therefore, the companies who has the role of a service provider are not able to acquire new IP addresses to be used for their services. The fact that the private IP blocks that are being used in CGN (Carrier-grade NAT) structure is common among the all ISPs (Internet Service Provider) causes the size of the problem in the prior art get bigger and it also prevents the ISPs from conducting collaborative work for infrastructure sharing.

To overcome these problems, within a solution in the state of the art, MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) network has been divided into different VRFs (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) and in order to use same IP addresses in each VRF, a new ACS (Auto Configuration Server) management platform has been deployed to each V RF. By this solution, as long as the V RF number increases, the cost also increases. In addition to the increase in the cost, conducting operational actions becomes more difficult and the whole management of the network becomes more complex. A nother solution to the network management problem in the prior art is a proxy- based solution. In this solution, different proxy server that identifies each V RF are deployed before the ACS. As one skilled in the art can understand, this solution requires more proxy servers to be deployed as the number of V RFs increases. In addition to this deployment requirement problem, there is also a restriction problem in this solution about the number of maximum sessions and devices that a proxy server can support. When considered with the backup scenarios, it becomes more obvious that the whole management system in this solution becomes one which is difficult and complex to manage.

T he U nited States patent document no. US20050025157A 1 , an application in the state of the art, discloses certain exemplary embodiments which provide a method for converting data packets based upon IPv4 protocol into data packets based upon IPv6 protocol, said method comprising converting any data packet based upon the IPv4 protocol into a data packet based upon the IPv6 protocol before transmitting it to an IP switched network using information provided by an external server, and converting any data packet based upon the IPv6 protocol provided by said IP switched network into a data packet based upon the IPv4 protocol before transmitting it to a first or second workstation.

T he U nited States patent document no. US20040088385A 1 , an application in the state of the art, discloses a tunnel setup protocol which enables tunnel clients to set up IPv4-in-IPv6 tunnels to permit IPv4 nodes to communicate across the IPv6 network using IPv4 native packets. The tunnel setup protocol is a control channel for negotiating tunnel configuration parameters and exchanging tunnel configuration data between a tunnel client and a tunnel broker server. The tunnel setup is automatic, support of IPv4 nodes and networks in IPv6 networks is enabled, and support of IPv4 devices after migration to IPv6 is facilitated. Summary of the Invention

A n objective of the present invention is to manage IPv6 based network architecture and provi de a sol uti on al I owi ng new subscri ber regi strati ons and growth i n the IPv4 network by re-use of IPv4 addresses to the networks that has reached maximum number of IP (Internet Protocol) usage.

A nother objective of the present invention is to provide a flexible, scalable and secure solution which will allow the Internet Service Providers to conduct service activation, management and monitoring over A uto Configuration Server management platform and without deali ng with IP address conflicts. Such solution is especially useful for ISPs when remote service activation, management and monitoring of the technical K PIs (K ey Performance Indicator) of C PE (C ustomer Premi ses E qui pment) devi ces whi ch are abl e to provi de fixed and mobi I e broadband network service, ST B (Set-Top- Box) devices and LT E (L ong Term Evolution) router devices is conducted with T R-069 protocol and its variants.

Description of the Invention

Ά System for Managing IPv6 Based Network realized to fulfill the objectives of the present invention is shown in the figures attached, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of the inventive system.

T he components ill ustrated in the figures are individually numbered, where the numbers refer to the f ol I owi ng:

1. System

2. C PE -A

3. C PE -B 4. MPLS Router

5. CGN

6. Firewall

7. Load Balancer

8. ACS Load Balancer

9. ACS

A system (1) which enables managing IPv6 based network:

at least one CPE-A (2) which is the primary customer device being activated, maintained, monitored for accessing services which are offered by the service provider via sending and receiving data packets, at least one CPE-B (3) which is the secondary customer device being activated, maintained, monitored for accessing services which are offered by the service provider via sending and receiving data packets, at I east one MPLS router (4) whi ch di rects data from one network node to the next based on short path labels,

at least one CGN (5) which manipulates the data packets which are originated by and destined to CPE-A (2) and CPE-B (3),

at I east one f i rewal I ( 6) whi ch communi cates with C G N ( 5) and operates in IPv6 mode,

at least one load balancer (7) which receives data packets from the firewall (6),

at least one ACS load balancer (8) which receives the data packets from the load balancer (7),

at least oneACS (9), which is enabled to receive the data packets which are originated by CPE-A (2) and CPE-B (3) and send data packets to CPE-A (2) and CPE-B (3); and which records IPv4 addresses that are used by CPE-A (2) and CPE-B (3) while sending the data packets, IPv6 addresses which is obtained by the transformation of said IPv4 address and device serial numbers of CPE-A (2) andCPE-B (3) so that it will be able to access C PE -A (2) or C PE -B (3) at any specific time and for any specific objective (Figure 1 ).

C PE -A (2) is the primary customer device being activated, maintained, monitored for accessing services which are offered by the service provider via sending and receiving data packets

C PE -B (3) is the secondary customer device being activated, maintained, monitored for accessing services which are offered by the service provider via sending and receiving data packets.

In different embodiments of the invention, C PE-A (2) and C PE -B (3) are the devices which are able to provide fixed and mobile broadband network service or ST B (Set-Top-Box) devices or LT E (L ong Term Evolution) router devices.

M PL S router (4) is the component which directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels.

CG N (5) is the component which manipulates the data packets which are originated by C PE -A (2) and C PE -B (3).

Firewall (6) is the component which communicates with CG N (5) and operates in IPv6 mode.

L oad balancer (7) is the component which receives data packets from the firewall

(6).

ACS load balancer (8) is the component which receives the data packets from the load balancer (7) and transmits them to ACS (9) based on the load and the redundancy of servers. ACS (9) is the component which receives the data packets which are originated by C PE -A (2) and C PE -B (3) and which records IPv4 addresses that are used by C PE - A (2) and C PE-B (3) while sending the data packets, IPv6 address which is obtained by the transformation of said IPv4 address and device serial numbers of C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3) so that it will be able to access C PE-A (2) or C PE-B (3) at any specific time and for any specific objective.

Within the operation of the system (1 ) which is disclosed in the present invention, firstly, C PE -A (2) and C PE -B (3) originates HTT P/HTT Ps data packets with the same source IPv4 addresses via M PL S routers (4) and the different V RFs. The destination address for the related data packets is the virtual IP address of the load balancer (7). Related data packets are manipulated by CG N (5) so that the both source and the desti nati on address of the data packets are changed to IPv4 and IPv6 accordingly. A nd this is being done on CG N (5) statelessly meaning no session information is kept on CG N device. According to the IP address blocks used return packets can also be identified Same source IPv4 addresses for data packets originated by C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3) are translated by CG N (5) to different IPv6 addresses respectively and the destination address for the related data packets are translated by CG N (5) to the IPv6 address of the load balancer (7). : In this structure

IPv4 subscri bers access a source of IPv6 (ACS etc) and access type is bi di recti onal .

On the IPv6 side, a certain / 96 prefix is selected and used for conversion. When an

IPv4 address reaches an IPv6 source (for example, A CS) on this address, its address is embedded in the IPv6 address. For example, if modem IP is 10.1.123.143, this

IPv4 address is buried in the last hex and translated to IPv6:

2096:db8:aa:1 ::0a1 :7b8f

10 Y 0a

1 Y 1

123 Y 7b

143 Y 8f Related data packets which have IPv6 source and destination addresses after NAT (Network A ddress T ranslation) process are sent from the related V RF partition of CG N (5) to the firewall (6) via different V LA Ns. For the firewall (6), V LA Ns, which are the same number as the number of partitions in CG N (5), are specified so that the every V R F partition of CG N (5) becomes discrete.

T he f i rewal I (6) whi ch operates i n IPv6 mode transmits the data packets to the I oad balancer (7) which is the destination point for the data packets. L oad balancer (7) writes the source IPv6 address of the data packet to the X F F value for each data packet so that A CS (9) will be enabled to read IPv6 address values for C PE-A (2) and C PE-B (3) in order to match the device and IP address while database related processes are conducted.

A fter writi ng the source I Pv6 address of the data packet to the X F F val ue, the I oad balancer (7) transmits the data packets to the ACS load balancer (8) which is the part of the ACS (9) and which can communicate on IP level. ACS load balancer (8) is responsible for transmitting data packets to any one of the A CS ^“ s (9) based on the load and redundancy of the servers. As the data packets reach ACS (9), they are extracted and being processed on application layer. Since the data packets originated by C PE-A (2) and C PE -B (3) have IPv4 addresses when they are first transmitted by C PE -A (2) and C PE -B (3), the IPv4 addresses are placed on network layer. However, ACS (9) is able to read IP address in X FF value which is on application layer (7).

Since ACS (9) can both read the original source IPv4 address from T R69 packet along with the IPv6 address which has been written on X F F value by the load balancer (7), it can record the following information in mapped format to its database: the device serial numbers of C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3), the original source IPv4 address of the data packets originated by C PE -A (2) and C PE -B (3) and the respective IPv6 addresses of data packets which has been written on X F F value by the load balancer (7). T his enables ACS (9) to read IPv6 address corresponding to any C PE , such as C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3), by using the related device serial number and forwarding the correct data packet to the correct C PE device.

While ACS (9) is reaching C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3) for service activation, management and monitoring purposes, data packets originated by ACS (9) are transmitted by ACS (9) directly to the firewall (6). Firewall (6) receives data packet and transmits it to the related partition of CG N (5) overV LA N. In order to conduct this transmission, firewall (6) modifies the source IPv6 address value of the data packet (Source NAT) and replaces the IPv6 address of the load balancer with this source IPv6 address so that C G N (5) will be able to conduct the reverse process of network address translation which has occurred during the data packet transmission from C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3) to A CS (9). By this implementation of the invention, firewall (6) is enabled to operate in full transparent mode and whole management architecture is enabled to have flexibility. For the Source NAT process, A RP inform packets are disabled in the firewall (6), in this implementation of the invention.

As soon as the data packet originated by A CS (9) is transmitted to CG N (5), CG N (5) extracts the data packet based on V LA N number over which the data packet has been transmitted and receives the data packet from the related partition. IPv6 address in the data packet has been translated to IPv4 address by CG N (5) for both source and destination addresses so that C PE -A (2) and C PE-B (3) can receive data packet in IPv4 format as they expected to receive.

W ith the architecture provi ded by the i mpl ementati on of the present i nventi on, A C S (9) is enabled to communicate with OSS/BSS layer over IPv4. T he first application on the said OSS/BSS layer is the C R M (C ustomer Relationship Management) system of the servi ce provi der company and C RM system i s enabl ed to access ACS (9) over a discreteV LA N and in IPv4 format. Si milar to C R M application, the ACS application which provides information and actions to call center screens is also enabled to access ACS (9) over a discrete V LA N and in IPv4 format.

It i s possi bl e to devel op vari ous embodi merits of the i nventi ve system ( 1 ), i t cannot be limited to examples disclosed herein and it is essentially according to claims.